What was your best fragrance buy of 2012? Interpret that howsoever you like — it can be your biggest bargain, your general favorite, something you'd been after for years and finally found, whatever.
Note: image is christmas glow [cropped & rotated] by milena mihaylova at flickr; some rights reserved.
Oh dear! I’d have to say Cuir de Russie 75 ml EdT from Les Exclusifs.
I adore it. And I’m very glad I went with the classic rather than buying 2 or 3 new fragrances that would make me tire of them in a wink.
Great scent 🙂
For me it would be recently bought Histoires de Parfums 1725 Casanova – I paid a little bit more than half the price for a 120ml bottle. Also Parfum d’Empire Eau de Gloire that I wanted to own for a few months. After this particular one some more Parfum d’Empire will join my collection in future, I’m sure of it (hoping to get Cuir Ottoman for Christmas)
Have a lovely weekend all! My SotD is Sonoma Scent Studio Winter Woods, I love it!
Don’t forget to visit Chemist in the Bottle today. I’m holding a draw for day 15 of Tauer Advent Calendar.
Parfum d’Empire is a wonderful house, isn’t it? Hope you get your Cuir Ottoman!
It’s in my top 5 niche perfume houses. I could have almost all of Pd’E perfumes! They’re so great.
Wearing Winter Woods today too!
Nice, we smell great!
For me: Stockpiling 3 FBs of Deneuve w/ a .25 oz. parfum on its way.
Also, 2 bee bottles of Parure.
I get compliments on both. And who doesn’t love that? Tells you that you picked well.
Got my stitches out yesterday, so I am looking at you, Bois des Iles!
The new year had best hold a FB of Amouage Dia…or someone else might need stiches! Happy weekend to all! Cold and rainy here in Phoenix. We only get a couple a year and it is beautiful!
Oh, Juicejones, we love all the same things! Congratulations on your purchases, and I’m glad that you are on the mend 🙂
Parure?! Lucky.
ooooo all excellent! You totally deserve a bottle of Dia….and the body cream too.
Daisy, it’s nice to see you, O Empress of Enabling! Best wishes for a fragrant 2013!
Can I cheat and say my best purchase was my house? 😛
On topic, it has been a very good year for me and fragrance. This year I purchased my very own bottle of Memoir (definitely a desert island scent), as well as several scents I wear very often: Traversee du Bosphore, Nostalgie, and most recently, Une Rose Chypree. Gosh, writing it out that way, I feel really bounteous!
Congratulations on your house and bottle of Une Rose Chypree; I’m hoarding my sample!
My house is so much fun! Lots of work, of course, but it feels like a big art project, which is loads of fun for me.
The URC was an instant love when I sampled it last year. I was thrilled to learn I could buy it locally at Our Lady of the Scented Wrists this fall. When I feel like my budget can handle more fragrance shopping, I will certainly be returning to sniff more of Andy’s creations. Enjoy your sample–thank goodness it only takes a little to create such a wonderful cloud of scent, huh?!
I envy you living so close to the Cathedral! I hope to get there again. OLSW. The episcenter. Light a candle for me!
I guess I shouldn’t complain that my new home puts me 5 miles further away from Our Lady than I was in my apartment, huh? Doesn’t show a proper level of perspective. I will be sure to light a candle for you the next time I’m there. (Or would dabbing a sample on my wrist be a better prayer?)
I love your practicality, Marjorie Rose. And congrats on the nice perfume acquisitions!
I’m hopeful that buying a house is practical, but it’s also proving to be a lot of fun! Unless, of course, you are wisely suggesting that my purchase of Memoir was deeply practical! 😉
Why, yes … of course I was 🙂
This is a hard one! Today, I’d say it is Peche Cardinal. I may say Tabac Blond extrait or Une Voix Noire or even Boxeuses tomorrow
😉 I’m wearing Un Lys today and it’s also one of my best buys this year.
Nice to have a big group to pick from!
Oh, that’s a tough one simply because it’s been a year of great buys for me – I managed to both pick up a few bargains (in fact I don’t think I paid full price for a single thing) AND buy a bunch of things that I’ve been lemmin’ after for some time.
Tubéreuse Criminelle only cost me £3 in real money (I had a bunch of gift vouchers to cover almost the entire cost) and I can’t get enough of it so maybe that.
Holy cow. That is a great buy.
Bests: too many, so I’ll tell my best bargain: Lolita Lempicka Au Masculin.
I had a generous and true friend who gave the opportunity to discover many great perfumes. For sure he’s not reading this, but these lines are in his honour. 🙂
That’s a worthy pick.
It’s so good and versatile. People say it’s a winter scent but I used it during all year.
I’m going to say that it is the vintage LeLong music box perfume bottle that I got from eBay. They don’t show up very often, and I was thrilled to win this one for a less than stratospheric price.
Oh, that sounds so lovely! I never heard of such a thing – I will have to look for these.
I’d have to say that several eBay purchases this year were good bargains: a half filled 200ml bottle of 31 Rue Cambon with box, half bottle plus of Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile EDT, and an almost full original formula bottle of Chanel’s Cristalle EDT. I also paid full price at Lucky Scent for a 30 ml bottle of L’Eau a la Folie, a best buy because I just love it. Thank you Patricia de Nicolai for offering smaller-sized affordable fragrances!
Wow, you had a good 2012!
My eyes were bigger than my skin surface could cover. Every time I read about a new perfume or even a beloved older perfume with notes I like, my initial reaction is “I have to have it.”
Two bottles were so worth the wait — SL Iris Silver Mist and L’AP Seville a l’Aube.
Swapping and using decant services also sent perfumes my way that I otherwise would never have been able to obtain except for stalking eBay for unknown quality!
We saved a lot of money with swapping!
True dat!
I found some great bargains in unexpected places this year. One favorite: Dior Dune on a shelf in a remote Amish store that sells random household goods. It was $10 and I was able to swap it for a bottle of Black Orchid Voile d’Fleur, now discontinued and on my wish list for ages. I already have a bottle of Dune, just in case you think I made a bad bargain 🙂
I discovered Dune this year, and I really do enjoy it! It surprises me how hard it is to find, though. Congrats on your find!
Just saw a bottle of Dune at Highend Resale on Hornby in Vancouver. Can never tell whether it’s useful to mention Vancouver shopping news, as not sure how many Vancouver types are on NST…
Oh, we’re here…
Finally glommed onto the Lolita Lempicka I had been looking for: Eau de Minuit 2009 with the red metallic base and red tassel. AND I also got a 2001 Eau Legere Pailletee for just under $100 for the two. Another find this year was the long-awaited Ocean Wet Wood which my usually non-fragrance wearing hubby actually chooses to put on when we go out. I love it!
Sous le Vent via ebay, and probably 1/2 a bottle of Parure edt are my favorite items so far… but there are so many on my wish list and this year I’ve spent much less than during the last one.
Good for you!
Doubtless mentioned this before, but the best bargain this year were the bottles of Black Orchid Voile de Fleur and Chinatown bought with selling a couple of concert tickets I’d won. Real money = $0! Still pleased, as you can tell…
LOL…you think about money the same way I think about money 🙂
Perfume-wise, I’ll say my bottle of Huitieme Art Myrrhiad because I so rarely buy myself a full bottle. I paid full price and I still love it and enjoy it often.
Next I’ll say my weekend trip to Sonoma with DH for wine-tasting and relaxing with friends. It was a huge treat for us and I’m still grateful!
Nice choice in the Myrrhiad! I’ve gone through four little decants now, and still love it. It’s on my FB wish list. Nice to hear someone else enjoying it as well. You smell amazing 🙂
My fun thing today was introducing my mom to Myrrhe et Delires. She’d spent the night, and asked to try something different from my collection. She taught me well–she correctly guessed that it was a Guerlain fragrance. It made a nice cozy myrrh tinged scent for a dreary day. Be well.
After years of buying with reckless abandon (near-Donatella levels!), I bought almost nothing this year. But what I gave up in quantity, I gained in loving what I bought!
My best buy this year was a small bottle of Lush’s 25:43 which never fails to improve my mood.
I will buy a travel size of that eventually. They always seem to be out of them when I’m in the store.
Kenzo Amour. Really like it as my at-home comfort scent.
I like that one too.
My best buy in 2012 is Paper Passion: it was worth every drop!
And worth getting before it disappears.
a bottle of serge luten’s a la nuit for 50 euros – not super cheap, but a good deal cheaper than retail. i’m in love with the scent.
Always nice to find a bargain Serge!
The things I got that I’d been wanting and searching for the longest: partial bottles of two discontinued favorites, Theorema and Egoiste Cologne Concentree.
The thing I’ve worn the most, judging by the level in my almost empty purse spray: DSH Pretty & Pink.
The impulse buy I haven’t regretted for a second: By Kilian Sweet Redemption (just the economical refill vials, which are fine for me as I want the juice much more than the bottle).
Why, oh why did they discontinue Theorema? All have left are two minis. Sigh….
I have a sample of Theorema that I bought last year. It is a scent that I could easily wear as an “easy to wear” scent if it were easy to get a hold of! (Does that sentence make sense?) I enjoy its friendly warmth, but unless I’m lucky enough to come across some at Goodwill or similar, I have decided to let it go.
You never know — I got lucky and won some in a swap!
Am on my second set of P d’E samples and still trying to decide which I love most : Eau Suave? Ambre Russe? Equistrius? I used to be indecisive but now I just can’t make up my mind!
Eau Suve is lovely. I may wear it today.
I ordered that sample set last year, and for about half of them I liked them but didn’t LOVE them. Many of them, however, have a note on my list saying something along the lines of “try it again later just to be sure.” Something in them that I like but makes me pause. Glad you’re enjoying them!
I would have to say Chanel 31 Rue Cambon. It just works well for me in many situations. My daughter said that when she smells it, she identifies it with me. It’s as close to a signature scent as I’m going to get. Also after much anticipation, I purchased a bottle of SL Santal Majuscule. Mmmm. I’m at the point where I’m mostly satisfied. Curious about new scents, but not in such a rush to acquire them.
Do you get much longevity our of 31RC? I do, much more than the other Chanel Exclusifs that I have tried, which is most of them now I think.
Annemarie, I pretty much get all day out of Rue Cambon, which is one of the reasons I love it so much. I find the new body cream helps some of the other more fleeting exclusifs, like La Pause or Bel Respiro last longer on my skin. Although, no where near as long as Rue Cambon. Then again, without the body cream, I get about 30 minutes with those two. I also don’t like the body cream with all the Exclusifs. For me it doesn’t work as well with Bois des Iles.
Oh, when you said body cream, my mind jumped to BdI. I would love to find a way to make it last longer. My only strategy at this point is to spray it “sloppily,” being sure to have lots of it hit my hair and clothes! (Others have suggested layering it with Champagne des Bois, but I find the CdB overwhelms it.)
Oh good, yes, I find 31RC goes pretty much all day too. I’ve also noticed that it lingers even longer on clothes, in a nice way, not a stale way. Just lovely!
Best find: mini of vintage Cabochard parfum ($5 at an antique store).
2012 buy that I’ve worn the most: ELdO Like This. The bottle is maybe 3/4 full at this point, which freaks me out a little every time I notice it. My other perfumes don’t *do* that.
Best splurge: FB of Manoumalia. I realize it doesn’t even begin to approach Amouage or Xerjoff or even FM levels of splurginess, but it feels like one because it’s not something I’d wear to work or in many day-to-day situations. So I could have made do with a decant, but there was birthday money to spend.
Vintage Cabochard parfum for $5! Wow, you win!
Well, it was probably more like a micro-mini. But it’s in great shape, and a little goes a long way!
Emily, you and I are definitely scent twins. Manoumalia is definitely FBW!
Yes — and hello, scent twin! Another reason I went for the FB was that if Manoumalia were ever discontinued, it seems unlikely that anything even remotely similar would come along any time soon.
This was difficult, since I’ve bought quite a few bottles this year, but I think I have to say my Guerlains- Encense Mythique, Rose Nacree and Shalimar Ode a la Vanille, and also my blind-buy of Cuir de Lancome.
0.0
Great buys!
Thanks! 🙂
Best of the year- can’t pick just one! Chanel 31 Rue Cambon, Bois de Iles, Cuir Russie. Sonoma Scent Studio’s Jour Ensolielle (maybe my favorite of all time).
I also bought Jour Ensoleille this year. It’s so beautiful.
Oriental Lounge by the Different Company is one that for all its priciness continues to impress me.
I also love Acqua di Parma’s new Iris Nobile Sublime which a friend described as a fruity mess. Go figure. I can even wear it with a headache which means it is light and lovely. Could it be hormones, climate or craziness on one of our parts?
Oh, I’m sure she’s crazy 😉
Dior Hypnotic Poison. If I get some Xmas money, I will make another yummy purchase…
I will need some more of that eventually, but will probably settle for another decant.
Rochas Femme. No question. And I prefer the cumin-y, modern formulation. A sample was sent me by a perfume penpal and it was love at first sniff, as if we were made for each other.
That was early in the year. Femme sent me on a path exploring fragrances that are warm and sexy without being especially sweet or gourmand-y. So in the middle of the year I discovered (vintage) Dioressence and late in the year, 24 Faubourg.
Fruit darkened by patchouli or moss or spices seems to be my theme for 2012!
My best find of the year came via 50 Roses very generous offer of freebies, BPAL’s Sugar Skull. It’s all sweet sweet tobacco on me with an undertone of bourbon and leather, and I love it! Hopefully this year’s batch is just as good because I should be getting my Christmas bonus soon!
And thanks again, 50!
Hi, Everybody!
My most recent purchase was a bottle of Guerlain Angelique Noire. I think my perfume collection has reached maximum density and I’m more discriminating now than in years past when I wanted to buy ALL the perfumes.
I’ve been exploring aldehydic fragragrances which I used to find intolerable but now enjoy. I bought small extraits of No.5, Cuir de Russie, and Bois des Iles, No. 5 EdT, and Citizen Queen. I also bought the Neela Vermeire Creations Mohur, Trayee, and Bombay Bling and I’ve enjoyed a lovely correspondence with her this year.
Oh I also did not think I could wear aldehydes fragrances but for some reason this autumn I am bathing in Chanel n 5 edt and just loving it so so so much
I read that the EdP is kind of rough, but that the EdT smells most like the original. The extrait is sill fabulous. I have the 100 ml splash bottle of EdT which looks like a small Exclusifs bottle. I really like it!
On me EdP was definitely rough, not pleasant at all. I almost gave up on n5 thinking I never will be able to tame it! And then I tried this gel-like oil which they called Elixir Sensuelle (still number 5 though) and it was wonderful and then I tried EdT, now it seems I should try extrait as well. So exciting when (contrary to the common definition of madness) you try the same thing over and over again and do get a different result.
JULIA!!!!!!! So glad to see you back!!! Really really glad! 🙂
Thank you! Everybody is so nice here. 🙂
Did you need marrow transplantation?
There are some medications to minimize the side effects of chemotherapy. 😉 I was worried without news about you!
No, no plans for a bone marrow transplant. I asked about banking my own if I should need it in the future but health insurance generally won’t cover something I “might” need.
PSA- My oncologist told me bi-racial donors, especially Asian/Caucation, are needed most. A simple cheek swab is all that’s needed to register as a donor. Please visit marrow.org (US) for more information. Thank you. 🙂
Oh, I know how it works. I hope the development of stem cell research goes faster and helps it a lot! 🙂
Glad to see you back, Julia! How are you doing?
Thank you! I’m doing well and currently have “no evidence of disease” but I’m still taking maintence chemo.
So glad to hear that.
Julia! Where have you been hiding???
Mostly sleeping! I’m still having a lot of nausea and fatigue but I’m starting to have more good days and get out of the house more.
Well it’s good to see you back. I’m glad you’re having some good days too! We were worried about you.
How lovely to have you back again!
Thank you!
Aldehydics you used to find intolerable but now enjoy? Mayeb there’s hope for me yet! Congrats on the Angelique Noire.
(and mayeb I will learn how to spell maybe)
LOL! I think Citizen Queen is a good place to start exploring aldehydes. It doesn’t pack a massive dose of aldehydes in the top notes and it dries down to a beautiful, easy to wear rosy/musc skin scent. I haven’t ventured in to the big hitters like No.22 yet but I’m really happy that I can finally appreciate No.5. I haven’t learned to appreciate indolic jasmine yet so I’m still avoiding Joy.
LT/TS wrote that No.5 EdP is very different from the other concentrations and was composed in the 80’s as a contemporary version and sees no value in purchasing it if you want the real thing. The EdT got five stars, smells like 50’s work, and called it a precursor to 31 Rue Cambon. The extrait rcv’d five stars and two pages of text calling it an ideally proportioned wonder and a monument of perfect structure and texture. It’s around the same price per mL as a Guerlain extrait but it’s available in a 7.5ml bottle so it’s much easier to justify.
Good to see you, Julia!
Thanks for the useful info – and glad things are on the up!
Wow, thanks for all that info! I’ve been gun shy about the Juliet Has a Gun brand b/c of the ambroxan that finds its way into their frags – aldehydes might be an acquired taste I have not acquired, but ambrox is a non-starter! (hyperosmia!) – but maybe Citizen Queen isn’t ambrox heavy? I’ll get a sample on your recommendation. 🙂
I also need to try the Chanel exclusifs, seems like that’s a big absence in my perfume knowledge. LOL, new year’s resolution.
I sampled Not a Perfume and didn’t care for it. I scrubbed my way through two samples vials of Citizen Queen and started on a third when something changed and suddenly I couldn’t get enough of it. I wore it all Spring & Summer and spray it on my pillow because it dries down to a comfort scent for me. Go figure. I would like to try the oil version in the silver bullets.
I got Field Notes From Paris for 35 bucks including ship:).
Also, got Prada L’eau Ambree for 25 bucks.
Some favorites of mine that I need some FBs of:
Bottega Veneta
Ambra Di Luna by Ramon Monegal
I can’t believe how much Bottega Veneta still goes for on eBay! I want it too but not at list price.
My best buy in terms of how much I wear it- and wanted it-L’ Heure Convoitee and my best buy in terms of price was the vintage lot I got off ebay–Inoui. White Shoulders, Imprevu, Intimate, Xanadu, Straw Hat, Emeraude, Shalimar, Zen, etc–over 25 bottles for $48.
Oh! Inoui and Zen — great finds!
And Zanadu!!!
All I want for Christmas is the ability to spell. Xanadu!!!
LOL, that sounds like a modest request!
Best bargain was a blind buy of Delrae Debut at half off and at a real retailer. I had read it was a debutante but on me this LOTV is growling animalic honey.
Nice!
Best buy was new a 100ml bottle of Bal D’Afrique for the grand total of: $25.00!
I’m familiar with some of the Byredo line, and happened to see the bottle at a flea market. I couldn’t remember if I liked Bal D’Afrique, so I spritzed some on my wrist, walked around for twenty minutes with my nose to my wrist, figured I liked it enough, and now…love it!
I still can’t believe it cost me less than just the taxes would’ve, had I bought it new.
July, Bal d’Afrique is by far my favorite Byredo. Nice find.
Wow, what luck. I love Bd’A but would never pay full list price for it.
What a lovely photo!
Best bargain easily would be a 100 ml bottle of Van Cleef Arpel’s First Love that I have dug out from behind the shelf at a summer sale in a small local perfume store in our town. It was 9.90 Swiss francs (maybe 8 USD.) I could not try it but bought it anyway and fell in love with it instantly.
Best discovery would be Balmain’s Ambre Gris, which I bought as a present but now will get for myself. It is so warm and enveloping…
A bit random, but ever since smelling Bamboo Harmony by Kilian, I’ve been extra happy with my purchase of this year’s Burberry Brit summer flanker. I found them to be near smell-a-likes (citrus/tea/light woods, and I’m not sure one could readily say which bottle contained the more expensive ingredients), but I snagged the Burberry for literally a tenth of the Kilian price. Very satisfying!
(Of course, the juice is but one part of the Kilian experience. The trade-off works for me though!)
I have a full experience bottle of Back to Black, but the others I bought as refills or the travel spray size. If somebody wanted to give me a barrel of Incense Oud I wouldn’t turn it down but I’m really happy with the metal cans the refills come in. I haven’t smelled the new ones yet but now I’m really curious about Burberry Brit sheer!
Yeah, I think it’s worth a sniff, especially since it can be had relatively cheaply! The one I’m talking about is called “Burberry Brit Summer Edition for Women 2012”, not to be confused with Burberry Summer 2007, 2010 or 2011, or Burberry Brit Sheer, Burberry Body…etc.! (Sometimes the naming really verges on the absurd; it makes me think of Catch 22’s Major Major Major Major.)
If you wind up getting to both that and the Bamboo Harmony, I’d be so curious to know what you think; have been wondering if anyone else has been struck by a similarity!
IO is my particular heaven. lol.
Ha! I loved Burberry Brit Sheer 2 summers ago and had drained one FB and bought a back-up bottle before falling into the rabbit hole. I haven’t touched the back-up bottle but methinks I may bring it out next summer!
Yeah, it’s raised my estimation of the line! I wouldn’t say it’s the kind of fragrance that is gonna set anybody’s hair on fire–I mean, ultimately it’s a light summer scent–but it’s terribly pleasing and has more personality than I expected. Made me more interested to try some of the others from Burberry.
I was lucky enough to win a bottle of Neela Vermeire’s Trayee. So beautiful!
Oh wow, Janet! Congratulations!
Nice! The bottles are gorgeous.
My favorite buy was Seville a l’Aube. I paid full price and don’t regret it a bit. I did a lot of swapping in 2012, accumulating back-up decants of my favorites. And yesterday I got a FB of Prada Candy in a swap with a wonderful NSTer!
Seville a l’Aube is my favorite launch this year, and it’s a limited edition, too – great choice!
Seville D’Auge is great fragrance and can be worn on nearly all occasions and seasons.
You’re right, and it’s wonderful to find something that’s so versatile but at the same time deeply interesting. A lot of my most versatile perfumes are on the bland side, it seems.
I picked up several L’Artisans at 75% this summer during a store closing. I’m quite proud of those. However, I just returned from my first trip to Paris with bottles of Apres L’Ondee and Vol de Nuit. This perfume habit can be damaging, but they make for the best souvenirs. Hopefully they will bring back fantastic memories until I can save up for another trip. Paris is truly the most beautiful city I have ever seen and I can’t wait to go back.
Sorry, I meant 75% *off*
Those are truly great perfumes, and to remember Paris every time you wear them is so perfect!
I think my best buy this year was a discounted set of samples of the entire Frederick Malle line. It wasn’t a bargain, though, as some of those samples only bred new lemmings!
LOL, how right you are!
Oh, you got Malle samples! So nice.
Only 1 ml each, but enough to pose a real danger to my bank account. 😉
Yes, but if you have all the samples you can pick your fave with confidence and not find the one you really wanted after you already had sprung for a full bottle of the one you sort of wanted. Unless you love most of them; then you’re in trouble.
That’s true. The upside is the travel sprays, which are a great size and price (relatively), and the individual vials often show up on ebay. In fact, lightly used bottles often show up on ebay, too. FM is not the worst lemming!
I think you and Lys may be due for more jewels in your Enabler’s Crowns…
Best purchase of the year may turn out to be Miss Dior Le Parfum. Slightly difficult at the beginning, but dries to a beautiful amber pretty quickly and the DH actually commented that he liked it!
Kingdom. Hands down, McQueen’s Kingdom. It brings me much joy, and I have massive love for it. Don’t know where it’s been all my life!
That’s the best kind of discovery, isn’t it?
I’ve had a somewhat indulgent fragrance year this year so I’m pretty sure I can’t choose just one (hmm that may have been the first problem! 🙂 ), but my most adored additions this year have been Lyric and APOM- one of the very few I paid full price for. I had blind bought the incense paper and the beautiful smell followed me around my bedroom until I couldn’t live without a FB! My biggest surprise though this year was my sudden loathe-to-love conversion to tuberose. It must have been the Manoumalia (another Big Love and FB of 2012! If only my love life were so successful :-/) I instantly fell for the heady lushness and thought hmm, why do I like this and LOATHE Fracas et al?!? So I re-sniffed Fracas, along with Beyond Love and Carnal Flower, and they smelt totally different!! Headache inducing poison instantly transformed!! I’m still in shock. And Much broker now I have a little of them all :-/
Lyric and Manoumalia are such beautiful perfume experiences – love, love, love them!
Favorite new launch: Seville a l’Aube. No question. Fav vintage score – hmm, it wouldn’t do to offend any of these divas by omission, but since it’s the season, I’ll just say Guerlain Guet Apens. Also, special mention for wonderful exploration sets this year: Anne Gerard, Ys Uzac, and Neela Vermeire.
My best buys this year were Bulgari Omnia and Black. I got both of them at discount shops and paid less for the two of them together than Black cost at Sephora by itself.
Otherwise I haven’t bought many bottles. I’ve mostly been sampling like crazy, by buying, swapping, and winning. And thus have many lemmings been born. Cuir Venenum, Volutes, Rossy de Palma and Parfums de Nicolaï Musc Intense are at the top of the list.
Tonight I’m making candy to give to friends and family for Christmas. I’m making chocolates filled with different flavors of caramel. I think I got the tempering right on the chocolate this year.
Those are the two Bulgari scents that I own, too. I keep hoping to find a back-up bottle of Omnia, since I wear it more often, but no luck so far! I’m not willing to buy it online quite yet–seems like I should be able to find one at a Marshall’s one of these days!
I really want Volutes and Cuir Venenum, too!
I had to go through all the quarterly polls to check what I bought this year! My best buy was YSL M7 (which I listed as M5!) Every time I wear it I completely enjoy it. Because its discontinued though I try not to use it too much.
In terms of ‘deals’, my best was DKNY Gold for $31. The deals here are not as awesome as America, so for here that is a great price and I bought two bottles. The other was Lolita Lempicka EDT for $25. I don’t really like the EDP on myself but the EDT is a very pretty iris frag.
The best sample I got was Portrait of a Lady; perhaps I will get a set of the refills next year. And, the most dramatic infatuation was with Chergui. I’v been through about 4 samples and will get a bottle as soon as funds permit!
POAL is amazing, and so strong that one travel vial decanted into a dabber bottle for application would last a long time.
Its strange cos it seems to disappear and reappear on my skin. Once it gets on clothes though it does seem to hang around forever!
My best buy is the same as best new discoveries, Le Labo Bergamott 22 and Kate Walsh Boyfriend. Bergamott is expensive, but to me it’s the perfecy citrus – and my first love from that family. Boyfriend is fantastic, rich and packed with soft, dense spices. I think it smells both high in quality and really niche. It shares a lot of notes with Kenzo jungle (I think elephant) but less cumin. And more beauty 🙂
My best buy was a full bottle of Angel for 50 kr, about 7 dollars.
Dzongkha, hands down. It’s the one I want to wear the most, which was unexpected. It’s definitely a daytime fragrance to wear for work, home, or out for relaxed lunches and dinners. It’s like wearing a favourite, comfy jumper that I’ve had for years that flatters every contour! So in those terms, it would be my best buy. I’m now discovering that my more ‘dressy’ perfumes this winter seem to be Sel Marin and Cardinal, neither of which I have a full bottle of……..2013 best buys maybe……….
Dzongka is so different from anything else. I also think the Heeley line is one of the best.
My best buy this year are Guet-Apens, Amoureuse, and Musc Tonkin. I also got Sira des Indes in the extrait concentration which turned out to be a lively and funny surprise. Parfumnistas are always harping on fruity florals but done the right way they can be great.
I also discovered Guet-Apens this year – WOW! Musc Tonkin is near the top of my must-try list, too. How would you describe it?
I’ve only had Musc Tonkin for a week but I’m really looking forward to get to know it better. It starts out loud and animalic and stays like that for quite a while – it certainly wasn’t intended for people who shy away from body odours. The animalic quality never leaves it but it calms down and makes room for what I believe are some sort of ripe fruit and white flowers (jasmin?). Something about it actually reminds me of Rochas Femme. Hours later it’s more a feeling than a smell. My skin is strangely warm – or maybe it just smells like I’ve spent a long, active day in the sun.
Thanks, Chamade – this sounds great!
I’ve bought Guet-Apens this year as well! Just curious, have you compared it to Attrape-Coeur at all? Apparently they’re exactly the same, but I find Guet-Apens a touch less long-lasting. Maybe it’s just my bottle that’s been mistreated. How are you finding the tenacity of Guet-Apens?
I’ve never tried Attrape-Coeur so I cannot compare them. I find Guet-Apens quite tenacious but it’s a funny one. The first hour or so is bright and radiant and the sillage is perfect. But then it almost disappears. I have to bury the nose in my wrist in order to smell it. But suddenly it’s back for a long, lovely drydown. Have you tried Guerlain’s Terracotta Voile d’Ete? It’s also by Mathilde Laurent and it’s up to the same trick. I’m beginning to wonder if playing hide-and-seek is part of her style 🙂
Thanks for the recommendation – I haven’t tried Terracotta, but I will try to chase it down. I’m getting the same impression from Guet-Apens, it’s teasing – and I find it stay a long, long time on scarves and shirt collars, but only up close.
Tippie, I only have a small sample of Attrape Coeur, so it’s hard to compare, but 1999 was, sigh, a really long time ago. Ingredients have changed. It’s bound to be different to some extent.
I haven’t checked longevity. These classic perfumes do tend to cycle through the scent pyramid more rapidly than newer perfumes, I think.
I would like to now what happened to ” Creative Universe”… I’ve ordered a sample of “Mare” a couple years ago, and now I was to buy a full bottle but I can’t find it any more… So sad…
It does seem to be discontinued – might be worth asking for it the next time Perfume Posse or NST does a swap post, Happylily.
HappyLily, I came across two bottles of Mare today — at 50% off!!! The shop owner said he’d ship within the US. If you are interested, send me an email at fearsmice at gmail dot com and I’ll give you the details.
I’ m from Brazil… Maybe they can’t send me…
Pretty sure the line folded.
Too many buys. When I can’t take a weekend off and am working late, I sometimes splurge in lieu of the fun (or at least rest) I should be having. (I am at work as I write, putting off drafting yet another dreary letter).
My worst purchase was a “my first perfume” package of Lulu Guiness bought at a flash sale. I decided to donate it to Toys for Tots (perhaps for a young teenager-people always think of gifts for the real little ones). Unfortunately, by the time I located a collection area, the Marines had already picked up the donations.
Among the best purchases, Gold, a wonderful lily scent discounted near to nothing on line. Perhaps the silly and uncharacteristic bottle doomed this one commercially. THis is a really good, wear to work or big meeting scent.
Yesterday I found an Estee Lauder company outlet which had a bunch of the discontinued Tom Ford Private Collections. These are very good scents, beautifully packaged and overpriced at the “better” department stores where they are sold. The outlet however is pricing them as if they fashion from several seasons ago, i.e., at over 50% off and I was able to pick up the mossy green scent (which is a really beautiful deep green scent with a incense at the base note) at a decent price.
What great finds, Dilana!
Which Tom Ford did you get? (and – LOL – at which outlet mall?!)
I got Gold a while ago for a very good price and even tho it’s not really me, I think it’s an amazing scent and I’m glad I own it. Congrats on your finds 🙂
My best bargain find was a half full vintage bottle of L’Heure Bleue at an antique store for $10. Mmm. My favorite find in new houses this year (I mean, new to me) has been Ramon Monegal. I’ve sampled most of them and bought a FB of Mon Patchouly which I wear constantly, but I just discovered Kiss My Name at Neiman Marcus the other day. After testing it on skin and wearing it around for the afternoon I felt I just had to have it too and so I’ve got a bottle ordered for myself–Merry Christmas to me!
I suspect I would love L’Heure Bleu, and I am always jealous when I hear that folks find it in a shop somewhere! Gotta go troll the Goodwill shops again, soon!
I had to actually look up the damage polls to check what I bought this year.
Clear winner is ELd’O Rien.
Honourable mentions go to ( in no particular order): MPCPC Goutal, Infusion d’Iris Prada, La Myrrhe Lutens and Fils de Dieu du Riz et des Agrumes again by ELd’O.
La Myrrhe is one of the greats!
Annayake Miyako (a beautiful, subtle incense fragrance) for under $40.00 on ebay (in an amazing little sliding door box). I think it must have been discontinued and is being dumped because there are still more bottles to be had. And that was after several of my perfumista friends followed my lead and ordered bottles of their own as well.
Thanks for the heads up, SI!
I think, in general, that around Christmas is the best time to find perfume on ebay. Sellers must save up things to list then because more people are shopping and they hope to get better prices. As a result, all sorts of unusual and desirable things show up. December is the time to search for anything that one has been lemming.
Do folks know that the MinNew York website does a “deal of the day” nearly every day with about thirty bucks off some niche fragrance. (usually an Artisan or a Brit import line) ? Obviously, unless you really are Donatella, you can’t do this every day, but it is worth checking on a regular basis, to see if that one you have been longing for happens to be listed.
Good to know, thanks!
My best-buys: two Ormonde Jayne bottles at buy one get one price; two bottles of Parfums MDCI at cost of one bottle
🙂
Wow! Great shopping!
Top of my list for 2013 is discovering a new soul mate scent in Prada Infusion d’Iris Absolue.
And as an extra I’ll add the gift certificate from my bday that I might go spend tomorrow with my perfumista friend :).
I bought a lot this year.
I bought a whole lot this year, but my favorite, the one that I can wear anytime, any place is Eau de Courrèges. And it was a cheap buy!
One of my favorite buys was Youth Dew Amber Nude- it’s one of the few ambers I really enjoy and it pleasantly reminds me of original Opium.
Hi :D!
My best buy of 2012: Eau du Désir by Lolita Lempicka!
It was a year of finding and buying some stellar fumes but at the top of the list is Mona di Orio’s Tubereuse – a masterpiece!
My best buy was a bottle of Liz Taylor’s Black Pearls. I got it for 13.00 USD and its my fave purch of the year!
I’m hopeful that buying a house is practical, but it’s also proving to be a lot of fun! Unless, of course, you are wisely suggesting that my purchase of Memoir was deeply practical!
My best and only purchases this year (full bottles) were a Ode Eau de Cologne by Guerlain, a back-up bottle of Eau de Patou, and today I purchased a slighly used Shalimar EdC, the round bottle. I was just sad that I broke the neck of the Ode while trying to open it.
Great choices! I hope you managed to salvage the perfume from the broken bottle. It’s so nerve-wracking to open those treasures.
I did some work for someone and got paid in perfume:
Passage D’Enfer
Secret De Venus (vintage)
and another bottle which is wrapped up but is probably Montale Vanille Absolu!
I started 2012 with the resolution to use what I’ve got more and buy less. Failed spectacularly! Pruchaes: Vero Profumo Onda and Rubj (And looking at Mito for Christmas); some vintage finds on ebay, in particular Guerlain’s Guet-Apens; Lutens’ bell jars from my trip to paris – Rose de Nuit and Iris Silver Mist and Sarrasins. And to top it off, bath salts and bath oil from Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile. So indulgent, I’m not even sorry about the expense.
Great purchases! I don’t think you’ll be sorry you bought these. They’ll only become harder to find, more expensive or not as good as they are now.
Yes, with all the scares about future EU regulation… Maybe perfume will go the way of cigar clubs, all us perfume lovers are going to meet up secretly in someone’s basement and spray ourselves with the “allergens”. .. 🙂
My best buy of the year has to be Kenzo Madly (the EDP).
I have UFO and was looking for Madly to be the UFO-lite I need to make my precious 40mls of UFO last a lifetime.
Sprayed side by side, there is very little difference between the two, to my nose at least. Madly registers an octave hgher, with a little softness added in the additional floral notes.
The drydown is identical.
My 2012’s best buy was a valuable tip from Now Smell This, the Ben Sherman Fragrance, despite the terrible anti ergonomic bottle, the fragrance is wonderful at very low cost. Thank you all.
I finally bought 31 Rue Cambon and 28 La Pausa. I kept struggling with justifying them, especially the wonderful but fleeting La Pausa, but the smaller bottles finally sold me. I may as well have bought the large Rue Cambon though–it is definitely one of my favorite scents.
Love La Pausa!
I got Wood Violet, Tabac Aurea, Seville L’Aube, mon número 10, Le Labo’ s Labdanum, rochas femme, Andy Tauer’s Le Maroc pour Elle, ( fantastic ), Liz zorn’s leather Kreme and musk, some zonked creations for ANTHROPOLOGIE , some of Le zlabo’s creations for ANTHROPOLOGIE, Ormond Jayne Isfarkand, mauboussin, OUD Immortelle byredo, Juliette has a gun Lady Vengence, all the great Montales, vero’s Rubj( favorite), tea for two, feminine du Bois , Gris Claire, Claire de musk, Arabie, Timbuktu, atelier’s Grand Neroli ( use it for every day, it mixes with everything. There’s more but this much lets you know I’m not fooling around. Would like ( oh and Champaca, Tom Ford, Mona d’Orio’s Musc and M. Micalef’s Aoud Gormond), so… This lets you know I’m totally addicted and cannot control these fingers that type on this new Ipad. Yeah.
Also some great dresses, boots, and a new house. I’m blessed!
Higher up I said that I planned on buying Chergui as soon as I could, and though it wasn’t very responsible, I went ahead and bought it a couple of hours ago. Ultimately, this and M7 tie as my best perfume purchases this year (and with the Prada IdI bought last year, might be my top three fragrances ever.) Never say never, but I think I have enough frags to keep me happy for a long time.
You’ve got some great ones, Merlin – congratulations!
Thanks Nozknoz: I must say, the Chergui is particularly satisfying!
Well it began with JCE’s Vanilla Galante and ended with Les Exclusif’s Coromandel….opposite ends of the spectrum. I need something wonderful for the middle. Any suggestions?
Mine was vintage Chanel No. 5 extrait, a 30ml bottle about 3/4 full, for FOUR DOLLARS at a flea market! In good condition, too, with box.
I was so happy to buy Quartier Latin by Memo…it gave me a nice and sweet smelling throughout all the summer
My 2012 best buys were:
Vanille Absolument at 50% off
Sienne l’Hiver for a mere $30 during a local sidewalk sale
Bvlgari Black via swap (aka freeeee!)
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Of course, I did purchase a couple bottles at full list price, but we won’t talk about those……:-)