How do you decide what bottle of perfume you’ll buy next? Given perfume’s cost, it’s probably not be a decision you take lightly. I know I don’t. At least, most of the time I don’t.
Over the past few years, my perfume expenditures have dwindled. Where I used to buy at least a bottle a month, now I might buy a bottle every six months. When I first fell down the perfume rabbit hole, every grand perfume with a history attracted me, plus I was a sucker for a good review. I bought with abandon, including a lot of bottles I hadn’t sniffed. I ended up with a perfume wardrobe of at least half “fine but not fabulous” bottles, most of which I’ve since swapped or given away.
Eventually I became more choosy and started keeping a “to buy” list. My theory was this: I’d sample a fragrance, and if I liked it I’d order a decant or cadge another few samples to give it a good long test run. When the samples or decant ran out, if I still loved the fragrance I’d record it on my “to buy” list. Then, when I had both cash and a hole in my perfume collection corresponding to the kind of perfume on the list, I’d buy it.
Reality has been a little more messy. I still have a “to buy” list, but the last three bottles I purchased — DelRae Mythique, Oscar de la Renta Esprit d’Oscar and Agent Provocateur — weren’t on it. I ordered Mythique although I still have part of a bottle left, because I have it on good authority the line may soon disappear. Besides, it was half price. I bought Esprit d’Oscar because I like it, and it was only $24. Add a “0” to that price, and you get the cost of most of the other bottles on my “to buy” list. Agent Provocateur I found at a thrift store for a ten spot. Add all these "bargain" purchases together and after a while I could afford a bottle I adore instead of a bunch of them I merely like a lot (not counting Mythique, since I really do love that one).
Then there’s the quality of my “to buy” list itself. It’s almost a stewing pot. When I write a perfume’s name on it, I fully intend to buy a bottle someday. But sooner or later, I end up crossing most of the names off. For instance, I wrote Ann Gérard Cuir de Nacre on my list a few weeks ago, but although I like it a lot, Mythique will fill in for it for the next few years. Scratch Cuir de Nacre for now. Similarly, Serge Lutens Borneo 1834 has been on and off the list for two years.
I also have the names of two unsniffed fragrances on my “to buy” list: Annick Goutal Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille and Etat Libre d’Orange The Afternoon of a Faun. I’ve sworn off buying unsniffed bottles. But, if they were a really good price…
Finally, there are those dangerous times I’m at a perfume counter and in the mood to buy. Then, the “to buy” list goes out the window, and my mood and susceptibility to advertising and a good sales associate takes over. A sales associate who had recently switched from cosmetics to perfume once told me how much easier it was to sell perfume than makeup. “People love the romance, the idea of perfume. I can sell $100 worth in ten minutes, and it might take me an hour to do that in cosmetics.” I’ve been that sucker more than once.
Right now, I think the next bottle I’ll buy is Cartier Baiser Volé extrait. The bottle I end up with? Time will tell.
Note: top image shows handmade shopping lists from Paper Ephemera ARMINHO at Etsy, $4 each.
I can only buy FBs when I travel, so I really lean on samples and decants. The first on my list today (that might change tomorrow) are SL Chergui, Nicolai’s Le Temps d’Une Fete, Chanel 22 and l’Heure Bleue. I own small decants of all of them and know they are true loves. Which one will I buy next time I go to Paris? That, only the Muses can answer… Probably none of the above.
Perfume-buying while travelling is a real danger, with its now-or-never sense of urgency….
Very good point.
It is true. Specially because I usually travel once an year. I’ll try to resist the temptation of going crazy sniffing new stuff and buying something I’ll not truly love. Bottom line is, trust your decants, woman!
I should tape that to the front of my perfume cabinet!
That now-or-never urgency makes buying ANYTHING a danger when you travel!
True!
What a great plan! That means all your bottles will have the memories of travel associated with them. It’s getting to be Le Temps d’une Fete season soon…
Here in the South it is going to be Fumérie Turque season! 🙂
…Yet another scent I’ve moved off and on the list.
Oh good heavens, you’re so organized! I wish I had a “To Buy” list for perfumes, I do for books so why not a much more expensive item. I NEVER buy unsniffed, I have that weird skin PH that can turn a lovely scent to cat pee in a moments notice and have been burned once too often for unsniffed. But a list? I have managed to get by with samples for quite a while, good grief I’ve caged By Killian off a saleswoman at the CosBar for years! I went crazy in Paris several years ago and came home with 4 very expensive bottles: Guerlain really socked my poor CC, so did Serge Luten. The last real purchase was amber oil from the middle east and a friend procuring it for me. She doesn’t even really like perfume but went to the shop and got them to spray samples on dozens of cards, then individually put them in ziplocks, sent them to me for sniffing, went back to buy and sent me the bottle! Good friend for sure. I really need to start a list 🙂
I should be as disciplined as you with a list for books, too! My perfume and book spending are probably neck and neck, even though I make constant use of the library.
That’s why your reviews are always such a treat!
Thank you!
You all know I’m a full time student and I commute 1,5 hour one way by train to my university so I don’t really stand a chance to start a part-time job. The only money I earn is my scholarship which is around 250€ (~320$) and that keeps me conscientious. And I don’t want my full bottles wardrobe to grow bigger than 20 flacons. I test a lot of things and when I like something I do it like Angela – I get more samples of a decant if possible, spend more time with it, then I decide if I want AND need a bottle or if I can pass.
I tend to buy things that I truly fall in love with, the perfume that I think will make a great addition to my collection. Among my bottles there are few that I know I’ll definitely buy again when I finish the flacons I have now.
Nowadays I also organize splits of newly bought perfume to make my own costs lower.
Splits are truly wonderful. All of you out there who host splits–thank you thank you thank you!
I keep on saying “Thank God for splits” they’re such an affordable way to get a decant or a bottle with the exact amount of juice you want to keep.
living on a scholarship… I did that for two decades! Paris on a budget is so romantic!
Two decades! Whoa! That’a a lot. Is Paris really so romantic for small money?
Well, it’s an extremely expensive city, so you gotta use your wits. But Paris is perfect for walking aimlessly, there are many cultural activities and you can picnic year round at the Seine riverbanks and parks (I’m a rose freak, so I’m partial to the Jardin des Plantes, where there are many kinds of them, and the Observatoire, which has a cozy little library surrounded by red rose bushes). I’m pretty sure Rome is even better, though!
Two trends converged at last: I own too many bottles to even imagine using up in a lifetime (dozens of things I love wholeheartedly and dozens more I like enough to wear from time to time), and I don’t enjoy most of what’s being released these days. So instead of buying full bottles (my last was on a trip six months ago), I spend my money on promising-sounding samples from online decanters. It’s possible that I’ll run across something I have to own a full bottle of, but it’s looking less likely all the time: I think my last have-to-own-or-else bottle was Jeux de Peau, and that was almost two years ago.
I should be in your situation, but somehow I keep adding to my perfume collection. I’ve been so much better, though, about buying new perfume.
I sometimes happen upon full bottles at yard sales or thrift stores (just got Anais Anais, which I wore in my 20s, for $1.99 at Goodwill), but the FB I’ve been thinking about since smelling at Harrod’s in December is Amouage Opus V. I’m wearing it now, to compare it (in terms of how much I love it, not because they’re similar) to a decant of Francis Kurkdjian’s Absolue Pour de Soir and Dior’s Ambre Nuit that I DID buy in Paris in December. (I had a male friend sniff my arm the other night when I was wearing the Absolue and he said, with a big grin, “THAT smells like sex.”)
Oh dear. Dior Ambre Noir goes on the “to smell” list….
Hahaha, that’s hilarious…and makes me want to circle back and give the MFKs another sniff!!
You’re a perfumista after my own heart. I own TWO bottles of Pour le Soir. And my To Buy list is just one: Opus VI. I’ve gone through several decants of it, and that’s my barometer. I might as well suck it up and get the FB, cause economically, after the third decant, it’s cheaper in the long run to FB it. One decant, meh; 2, hmmm, 3 or more, better BUY it…
Great gravatar!
So I’ve actually been disinclined to keep a written list because my test of whether I really need a bottle is whether it keeps popping up in my brain over weeks or months. Don’t want a list to remind me of things not memorable enough for me to remember on my own!
But I’ll admit, not having a hard-and-fast list does make me very vulnerable to things being on sale and such. Would be good if I had a checklist against which I had to verify even bargain purchases!
You have such a good point! Sometimes I’ve stumble over my list when I’m looking for something else, and it will reawaken a dormant longing that should have stayed dormant!
Yup, that was the problem I was encountering! There was a point at which I very nearly bought some Rose 31 just because the list kept reminding me that it is, of course, a truly wonderful scent. But in practice, I haven’t reached for it enough to finish even one of my several samples. Decided I better delete the list before it tricked me into buying a bottle I wouldn’t actually use! (Especially at Le Labo prices, that would be an expensive mistake!)
You’re reminding me I need to put my bottle of Le Labo Iris front and center so I don’t forget about it (the perils of too much perfume).
I’v just tried Iris 39, and oh no, I think its another for the list…
It’s a good one!
Yes I think maybe Angela’s solution sounds better than mine!!
C.H. I have had concrete experience leading to your point as well. So, I’v included a further caveat on it all. Even if its been on the list a long while, its time to buy it, I have the money, its on sale, etc. and I am not hung-dog-barking-mad for it then and there – then I don’t buy it.
It takes a lot to make me buy a full bottle nowadays – decants and samples keep me going and feed my desire for variety. I’ve learned to live with a scent for a while – learned the hard way, I might add. That said – the week before last, at the end of one stressful week and the beginning of one that promnised to be worse – I found myself with a small bottle of Elizabeth Arden’s Green Tea and Honeysuckle. It’s a pretty and undemanding scent, and I love it and will happily wear it all spring and summer. And it was less than $30, so not so much of a splurge.
In my mind, that’s a prudent splurge, especially if it will keep the the urge for more expensive perfume at bay. Plus, it sounds terrific for spring!
It is. I’m surprised at how much I like it, especially since the other scents in this line leave me cold. But the tea seems to balance the sweetness of the honeysuckle perfectly. It’s not very long-lasting, but it’s fun to re-spritz so that’s a non-issue.
It’s nice to have a scent or two around like that.
I never buy a perfume (fb) unsniffed or impulsively. I’ve figured out that it takes me some time to decide how I feel about a scent. I have to live with it in my everyday life and see how it fits. Everything seems to smell great in the store/boutique then I get home and it’s a different animal. I usually buy samples online of anything that piques my interest and I have to love it and can’t imagine my life without it before I purchase a fb. SLs A la Nuit will probably be my next purchase. I think a spring without it would be lacking.
You are my role model, Lila.
For the past few years I’ve focused on buying back up bottles of the scents I really love … and then sometimes even a second bottle if one of those 20% sales happen when I am feeling flush. Most of my To Try scents are determined by reviews on NST, and by the comments! Now I am off to Luckyscent to buy a backup bottle of Mythique, as I love it also …
I do keep a short list of scents I plan to purchase, but it’s always changing. I do usually end up buying some of the items on my list, but only when I can find them on sale!
Perfume sales are wonderful, but so rare, it seems for the bottles I really want. I was really happy to find out about the half off Mythique.
I used to keep a shopping list. I would end up making one or two purchases a year and all was fine. Some fragrances would stay on the to-buy list for years and, for lack of funds, would never become part of my collection. Then, one day, I visited the new Winners/Marshalls near me and discovered many fragrances that had, at some point been on list, or that I had enjoyed in the past. Those were at a fraction of their normal price…
I fell into the rabbit hole.
From there, I started buying unsniffed, full bottles based on reviews, reputation, and availability. While not all were a great hit, most became greatly educational as it allowed me to discover new fragrant horizons. Fragrances that I would not have been normally attracted to try, are now favorites and this, simply because they were offered at the right price. I was very lucky I guess. In a collection that is growing at a dramatic rate (gulp… 60 FB last year alone) I have only 3 or 4 bottles that were mistakes.
Those will be given away.
So my next purchase will depend on what I will discover on the shelf, and at what price it is offered.
Sounds casual, but for me, the beauty is in what I can discover. I spent a lot of time and effort in the past in trying to hunt down fragrances that were not readily available where I live, and ignoring those simple gems that were available at a good price.
My collection is already so large that I certainly don’t “need” to buy another bottle. When I buy, it is simply for the pleasure of the discovery.
I love your “pleasure of discovery” approach! Marshalls can yield some pretty spectacular finds, too.
“I ordered Mythique although I still have part of a bottle left, because I have it on good authority the line may soon disappear.”
Nothing triggers the buy impulse like the words: discontinued or reformulated. And unsurprisingly, a lot of my collection is vintage. They just don’t make perfume like they used to! 😉
My “to buy” list is a joke. I haven’t bought anything in forever, and when I look back over the list, I think, “Why did I put that on there?!?” I don’t even remember liking most of the things on my list! lol!
Ha yes same here, the threat of disappearance is a huge motivator for me! Meanwhile, indulge us–any particularly funny ones that snuck onto the to-buy list for no good reason? (Knowing your taste, I can’t imagine there are any actually bad perfumes, but maybe just ones that aren’t your thing?)
I’m a sucker for the “discontinued” bit, too. Although I do try to tell myself that wonderful new perfumes are coming out all the time.
lol! You’re right – not bad perfumes, but just ones that made the list after sampling and I deciding I loved them. But in the time lapse between putting it on the list and purchasing, I pretty much have forgotten it.
And what a nice compliment! Thank you. <3
I only speak the truth! I aspire to have such classy taste in perfume 🙂
Do you mean champagne tastes and a beer pocketbook? 😀
Alas this seems more likely than me ever acquiring champagne taste and a wallet to match!! 🙂
That happens to me, too. Sometimes the list is a good holding pen to give my yen the time to cool off!
Ha! I see you posted while I was typing my reply and you too get those “why did I add this?” moments. I try to remember them every time I’m tempted to impulse buy something that I only just discovered.
But isn’t it better to look at this list and wonder that rather than to look at the bottle on the shelf and wonder, “Why did I BUY this?!?” Much cheaper!
Exactly! I’ve had to purge my collection more than once in the past because I’d accumulated too many ‘just okay’ bottles. These days I’m a lot more cautious; it means fewer instant gratification thrills but more long-term joy.
Or the category that will probably be my next purge: perfectly beautiful scents that for one reason or another, I just don’t wear.
I’m at the stage where I WANT to purge my collection of the “just okay” bottles, but then I fear I will want them – and have to re-buy them – again. Nervousness!
I have two lists:
1- Absolutely Must Own a FB and
2-Wouldn’t mind owning a small bottle. Maybe. One day. Once I finished my sample. If the price is right.
I like to keep my FB collection relatively small (under 20 bottles right now) so I tend to be super, super picky about what joins list 1. I don’t buy decants so the perfume needs to be very special for me to consider a bottle. If I like a scent but don’t adore it then I usually keep a sample which I re-visit once in a while and re-asses my feelings when it runs out (if it ever does).
From this Must Have list, I don’t really prioritise what gets bought when. If I stumble of a good deal and can afford it then I go ahead and buy. Also, if I finished my sample of some particular fragrance then that usually pushes me to buy it next.
List 2 has maybe 25-30 things on it. Most of them will probably never get purchased, some of them I’ve already gotten over and should probably just delete (does it happen to anyone else?).
Oh and in all likelihood my next bottle will be L’Eau d’Hiver 😉
Now that’s a good idea: a two-part “to buy” list. If I divvied up my list that way, the only one really shouting my name is the Baiser Vole extrait. Now to somehow unearth 200 extra dollars not slated for replacing the garage roof or something like that….
Ooh sounds like this system is working well–L’Eau d’Hiver is a pretty unimpeachable choice for list 1!
My to-buy list is complicated by the fact that I’ve decided to never let my collection get over 30 bottles, and I’m already at 20. I have to think long and hard before I buy anything new. I tend to go through samples and a largish decant first. And sometimes things have been on my to-buy list for so long that I make myself get another sample just to double-check for reformulations. I also have the habit of just giving my list to husband on gift-buying occasions – can’t even remember the last time I bought a bottle just for myself.
Wow. I wonder if I could even make a top 30 list? It’s scary that I even doubt myself…
Delrae is my favourite line, I would be very sorry to see it disappear.
My story is similar to yours, Angela. I don’t buy nearly as much as I did when I first became passionate about perfume and I’ve no problem with giving away underappreciated bottles to friends. Right now my to buy list only consists of two bottles; Mohur by Neela Vermiere and Kiki by Vero Profumo. I thought about buying the discovery set from Neela Vermiere in order to get some more Mohur but I’m not crazy about Bombay Bling and even if I like Trayee very much Mohur is the one for me. So it’s a full bottle or nothing at all.
I had samples of all three of the Vermieres, and I started out loving Trayee and was sure that was the one for me. Then Mohur seemed to be calling with its milky goodness, but I never loved Bombay Bling. Until about a month ago, that is! Now I’ve emptied my sample of Bombay Bling and like it even more than Trayee!
The one thing that stuck in your lovely post is that Delrae may disappear. That is awful. I adore Amoureuse, Emotionelle, Début and Bois de Paradis and have yet to make up my mind about Mythique. How sure are you?
I try to be more sensible about buying. My weak spot are discounted bottles and eBay. I don’t buy so much these days. Partly because I have less to spend, mostly because I own so much already.
When this year’s first quarter poll comes up it will be the first time since I joined when I only have to admit to One Bottle. But what a bottle. I got myself some Amouage Gold this weekend, and so far have no regrets!
It should be “weak spot is”.. sorry!
I knew what you meant!
Congratulations on Amouage Gold! If you have to choose just one bottle, you got yourself a winner.
I haven’t confirmed the DelRae news, but I heard about it from a perfumer last spring. Then, DelRae started getting discounted here and there, adding a little more evidence. I haven’t emailed anyone at DelRae, though.
Well thanks for letting us know anyway. It is a pity though because it is such a good and distinctive line. I am glad I got a back up bottle of Amoureuse a while back.
Gold is a winner. I may wear it to work tomorrow!
One beauty of Amoureuse is that just a little goes a long way. That bottle should last a while!
I don’t buy FBs easily unless it’s something inexpensive. For instance, I probably won’t agonize over a $30 Tokyo Milk the way I would over a Serge Lutens (of which I still don’t own anything, though I love me some Chergui). I might talk about my to-buy or to-try lists, but I don’t actually have hard-and-fast, written-down lists. I kind of just keep everything in my head, and like C.H., if I find myself thinking about something a lot or am still thinking about it a long time after trying it, I will put it on the mental buy list. That doesn’t mean I’ll be buying it any time soon, though. Money is limited, and while it’s not as much so as it used to be, I talk myself out of spending the money.
All that said, however, my last FB purchase (one of very few, actually), was a little bit more impulsive than usual. I was just in a buying mood, and I was sniffing about at Neiman Marcus. I revisited Bottega Veneta, sprayed some on a ribbon and took it home. I found myself huffing that ribbon for a couple days afterwards, so I decided that I was going to buy it and went back the next weekend. Not much agonizing there. I think it helped that, since I was in such a buying mood, that it was something I loved and could get nearby without having to order it so I could have it in my hand right then. It might have played out differently if any place around here sold, say, Etat Libre d’Orange or Parfumerie Generale.
I know what you mean about not having niche lines handy, and how that affects buying. I’m much more likely to buy if I know I can walk out with it right away.
I love the sales associates quote, what a perceptive person. It is indeed all about the romance of the fragrance. Efficiency and romance are polar opposites apart and while much of life demands some efficiency it is the escapes to romance that many of us crave and that is indeed what fine perfume is, a desert island away from the practical.
I think I’m also blessed in living in a rather remote area where department stores or anything else that sells a fragrance is hours away and so I’m used to ordering most things online and having to be patient for their delivery – that time of expectation only adds to the romance 🙂
In answer to the question though, like you I went through a bottle new a month during the early rabbit hole days and now it is a couple a year that have been thoroughly tested UNLESS the French Shopper sends a note that she is off on a trip and on the list of fragrances she can buy is one that is impossible to sample and has consistently fabulous reviews by likenosed perfumistas. Then like you at the department store counter, caution goes out the window and I send the email saying ‘yes, please, get one for me’.
I guess every once in a while it’s a good idea to live dangerously! That’s how I ended up with my beloved bottle of Ormonde Woman, though.
I probably have enough juice for the rest of my life but I never have enough beautiful bottles. My HG is a juice that I love in a bottle that I love. There are very few juices that I buy again. I tend to get new fragrances each time I purchase. Rebuys are Aliage when I’m in the States, Jessica Mc Clintock, and I would get MK Island again. I replenished White Linen Breeze in the past but it’s discontinued now. I collect Lolita Lempicka apple bottles so a new LE is always tempting. Also I like to get the Escada summer LE’S. I try to use all my juices and then display the empty bottles. As for empties to purchase, I try to stick to the theme of my major collection which is Guerlain.
Those Lolita Lemplicka bottles are adorable!
Oooooh, Aliage . . . . I wore that for almost two years in university, the great big square shouldered splash bottle (yeah, I’m pretty old . . . ). It’s almost impossible to get now, unless you’re in the States. However I just got decants of Alpona and I swear I smell Aliage from days of old, I’m reveling in it, it’s a stunner. But I too am finally slowing down, I have to be mad for something now to buy it. I have a lot of really good stuff and it can be hard for me to find something I like as well. I’m a little relieved, but a little sad too. Those first few months, years, decades of full on perfume passion are so heady. . . .
Heady, but costly. Being selective is a great place to be, too! (Or so I tell myself.)
I think I am becoming pickier on what bottles to buy. Now, I have to *love* it or I find I just don’t wear them often. If I like them..meh, they don’t seem to get much wear. Sometimes, bottles I loved are now just bottles I like..then I am like..why did I get a full bottle? So, now, I am going to be picky-picky. I just picked up a bottle of Tuscany Per Donna by Estee L, which I know I will go through…as I have gone through like five bottles over the years, lol. It’s a fave. If I just a like, decants are fine. And I am totally done blind buying…as most don’t pan out. I thought I learned that when I first started getting into perfume..apparently not? I had to make a couple more dud buys before getting it, lol.
I am definitely hearing the voice of experience here. Listen up, all you new perfumistas!
I went through a phase in the Fall when I went to NYC for a perfumista get-together when I wanted a bunch of new things (Aedes de Venustas Signature, L’Eau a la Folie), in addition to things that had been sitting on my list of “To Buy” forever (Sacrebleu, Aria di Capri, etc.) and so I blew a bundle!
Now I’m on a strict luxury spending budget, but my birthday is not too far away and I can’t really think of any FB perfume I want to tell my hubby about that doesn’t cost a gajillion dollars (JAR Galconda, I’m looking at you). It’s a weird feeling! There are a few newer and older bottles on my “Interested” list, but so many of them have monster sillage and lasting power that I can’t imagine using more than a large decant. I love Mohur and Trayee for example, but can’t imagine using 100 ml of either, and I have those two from the travel set. Shipping from the US has recently become so brutal that I’m not as tempted by some of the real indie lines like Kerosene, unfortunately, just because it’s so terribly expensive to get it here. Of course, as soon as I ask for books or clothes for my birthday instead, some killer new release will come out. *sigh* The problems of the privileged… 😉
Really? You can’t think of one bottle you truly want? I’m envious!
I know! It’s bizarre. I keep trying to think of something. I guess there’s Ormonde Jayne Woman, but kind folks like you have kept me so well stocked with decants that I’m maybe spoiled for a FB.
So much the better, I guess. More money to buy books.
The “next” bottle is either to assuage depression or heighten joy through a synergism of light mood + fabulous scent. I recently determined that Seville a L’Aube and a hot pink jacket from Loft were going to cheer me up. Wore both today and was asked by my son if I was selling Mary Kay Cosmetics or advocating for Breast Cancer Awareness.
Uh oh–it sounds like you raised a real weisenheimer. I’m sure you looked and smelled divine!
You story made me laugh. My older son, when he was about 9, was watching me try on sunglasses. I flashed him a big smile while wearing some fancy designer shades. “Whaddya think?” I asked. Very very serious, he said, “Mom, the youngness of those kinda makes your oldness look older.” I laughed so hard I nearly wound up on the floor of the store. Needless to say, I handed the glasses back to the sales clerk.
That’s hysterical! He should be a judge on Project Runway.
I think I need to employ him as an image consultant! Being “of a certain age” can make clothes shopping soooo intimidating. I refuse to give in to elastic wastes but am horrified by what jeans with a 2 inch rise do to multiply my muffintop! Perfume is so much easier . . . . 🙂
I’ve given up on pants altogether! For the past five years or so it’s been only skirts and dresses. I love it.
I was wondering why Barneys had the line at 50% off. I finally bought Emotionelle, and I’m glad I did in the circumstances. Hope they don’t disappear.
My post is in the wrong place. I’m obviously writing about Parfums Delrae.
I figured it out, no problem.
I have a decant of Emotionelle, and I really like it. I know some people are scared off by the melon. I’m glad t see another fan!
I have about 200 on my to buy list and about 300 on my test list 🙂
My “to test” list is a stack of index cards and post-its and all kinds of scraps here and ther (sigh). I wouldn’t be surprised if it were close to 300, too.
I guess that I have learned a lot by making the Full Bottle mistake a few too many times. I will never, no matter how much I think I like a perfume, buy a full bottle until I have tried a decant of at least 3-5 ml in a Spray, over a week or two. I learned the hard way, that perfume on the wrist/arm drop by drop from a 1 ml sample is only leading me in a direction to be explored further. I have been amazed when that full bottle arrives (and I was so sure that 1 ml sample was perfect) and I recoil in horror as a full spray blasts my nose with something I did not detect before. Yep, a big ‘ol spray is a whole lot different than a few drops. Live and learn. That being said….I am considering a FB of Pour le Soir by Kurldjian, and Bell Antonio by Hilde Soliani, and Guerlain’s Tonka Imperiale. I did request Bruno Acampora Musc for my Birthday and I have been Very Happy with that new Full Bottle!
You bring up such a good point: those little sample dauber vials are only a preview of what a fragrance is like with a full spray.
I loved reading this. You understand. Of course you do or you wouldn’t have this site. 🙂
My to buy list keeps getting sabotaged by online sales. I recently discovered that a small very artisanal brand I love was going out of business and I HAD to stock up. I really couldn’t afford to get all I wanted or big enough bottles of what I wanted but they will never ever be made again! How could I not splurge.
I understand completely!
If it’s something you truly love you won’t regret it. I am still having pangs about Infini. While I hoarded 3 15 mls of the extrait, the EdT I have (white box, white label) is now in a colored box, colored label and has been horribly mutilated. I think it is the one time I will search out older stock, a slippery slope I usually avoid. Enjoy your stash and your foresight!
I’m sorry about Infini! It’s hard when you really fall in love with something and it essentially disappears through reformulation.
Yes, me too Angela, at least I have my extrait. I think I’m going to jump down the rabbit hole and look for older stock. If I don’t post for a while, please send a search party for my sanity and my pocketbook! 🙂
Will do! Good luck!
Angela, I really loved your post and the comments have been wonderful. I have two perfumes currently on my “must own a full bottle”: Borneo 1834 and Neela Vermeire’s Bombay Bling. I am on my second sample of Chanel 1932 and my third sample of Seville a L’Aube.
Having said that, other purchases still manage to get in the way of these 4. Currently I am loving the Maria Candida Gentile line and Mona di Orio has come back on my radar. I’m getting better, but where perfume is concerned, I have a hard time and am often “just a girl who can’t say no…. I’m in a terrible fix!” (thanks to Ado Annie).
I understand that fix! It sounds like we have some of the same favorites, too. I love my bottle of Seville a l’aube.
I’m soooooo looking forward to the swap here. I’ve never done it before but I have some great ones to swap.
Same here, very excited. Have to admit the prospective of swapping has already enabled a few bottle purchases that weren’t otherwise strictly necessary!!
I’m more of a hunter than a planner. There are still a lot of perfumes I would like to have, and every now and then I search for them on ebay. If I find a tempting deal on something contemporary (partials are ideal), or a vintage perfume I’ve wanted at a relatively good price (or the first time I’ve seen it at all in three years), I pounce!
Of course, there are a few perfumes that I simply have to have right away, like Seville a l’Aube. Occasionally, I will buy something unsniffed based on a particularly intriguing review. Oddly, there are some perfumes that I love but will probably never buy more than a decant of because I feel I have a lot in that category. And I’ll probably never get around to Amouage Homage Attar or a JAR because of the price. I have relatively few regrets for unloved bottles; the rare fishes that got away are more painful to recall, actually.
Nozknoz! I love that – “I’m more of a hunter than a planner”!
“Hunter” certainly suits your gravatar! Especially the bit in your comment about pouncing.
Wonderful post! I’m having a busy day, so have not had a chance to read everyone comments yet.
I have a carefully curated ‘to buy’ list but it is for decants, not FBs. I have to be so careful with money, and I don’t have m/any niche stores near me where I can test for free. So I’m not brooding over FBs, but 5 and 8 ml, or even 2 and 5 ml, purchases. With shipping costs, it’s amazing how fast you can spend a lot of money!
So true. While decants are less expensive than full bottles, they aren’t exactly chicken feed.
My approach to buying perfume is pretty much “instant gratification”, specially if I have a “deal” / coupon code, gift with purchase or if I try in store and love it – out comes the CC.
I do have a To Try list and I maintain it via the private wish list feature in the STC website.
As to FBs vs decants/splits, I have actually overcome my fear of buying decants or being part of a split and this had helped reduce the number of FBs I would otherwise had purchased!
Of all the splits I’ve bought, I’ve only had one disappointment. The vast majority of swaps have been wonderful, too. Splits have saved me so much money and let me try things I never would have otherwise.
It’s wonderful that you’ve had such good luck with splits. Have you tested/sampled them prior to getting in on the split? My experience with splits has been just the opposite – I’ve been pretty consistently disappointed and 5 or 10 mls. of niche scents really add up over several splits. I’ve pretty much quit on the splits unless it’s something I’ve tested and know that I love.
Oh–it’s not so much that I’m always in love with the fragrance I get in a split, but rather that I haven’t been cheated. The splits have arrived in good condition, on time, etc. I’ve definitely order a few splits I’m only so-so about.
I was an ANGEL-phobia and now an ANGEL-maniac …
I really want to get a bottle of Angel Liqueur de Parfum or Les Parfum de Cuir …. haha
Maybe a bottle of L’Artisan Parfumeur Seville a l’Aube not bad either…
Happy Hunting Everyone …
Seville a l’aube is fabulous, and I want some Parfum de Cuir, too!
While I’ve never purchased a full bottle unsniffed, I have been a wee trigger happy with a few of my FB purchases, when I should have lived with my sample a little longer. Or better yet, upgraded to a *spray* sample, because those tiny, meek little sample vials that you just dab on don’t tell the whole story, do they? At least, not always.
Fantastic topic and writing, as per usual, Angela! Now I need to try that Baiser Vole in extrait! How is it different from the EDP?
I think I’m going to do a review of the extrait and EdT because they have such different spirit than the EdP. The extrait is earthy–almost truffle-y.
I don’t really buy like I used to (the skyrocketing niche prices put a stop to that for the most part – after a certain amount it’s stupid money), but my only real hard and fast rule is if I haven’t worn something for x amount of months (usually 3), I sell it and put it towards funding whatever it is I want to buy.
Wise one! I am watching Hoarders and I am getting a little nervous. . .
ha ha!
It really is the fragrances that haunt you that you need to buy–eventually. You’re wise in being restrained!
This method is particularly useful for me: list every perfume you consider full bottle-worthy and keep on file, updating as you learn more or your tastes change. Occasionally when you know you have some money to spend, do this math:
How much are each of your contenders per ml?
Now leaven that quantitative approach by listing the distinction each of your contenders will offer your collection for you: “terrific leather, don’t have an herbal, pure olfactory art,” etc.
So now you have a list of each perfume contender with cost per ml and its particular distinction. Is the distinction worth the difference in price? I think you will surprise yourself! This technique recently led me to buy Yatagan: not only is it a distinctive masculine, it has much of the incense heart that I treasure in ELdO’s Eloge du Traitre, and at $0.24/ml, beats it cost-wise (is the fact that Eloge is newer and a slightly different take on the same theme worth paying 6.66 times as much on a per ml basis? NO!). I think you might get a lot more for your perfume dollar by applying this method.
I love your term “particular distinction” and it is the barometer that I apply to all purchases now (even samples, which can really add up).
Yes–I like that term, too.
You are a natural-born evaluator!
Impulse buys are like quickie marriages. Easy to fall for the top notes w/o waiting for the dry down . Marry in haste; repent at leisure.
I remember reading somewhere that the best thing you can do for your happiness is to marry the right person, and the worst thing you can do is marry the wrong person. How do you tell the difference before it’s too late?
I used to ask my friend when I was in my unhappy first marriage, how will I know when I should leave and she said “you will just KNOW”. She was right, when I left, there was no stayin’. In my second (very, very happy) marriage, I knew as soon as I saw him I’d marry him if he asked. I know it sounds corny, but it’s true. Look for kind. Look for generous. Look for hot, it really helps you overlook those irritating quirks that everyone has . . . . . except me 🙂 (I’m really not as shallow as this just sounded!)
I love this story! I am such a romantic. I wish you scores of deliriously happy years.
That said, I knew my ex hub for three years before we married and it was still a colossally bad idea.
You’re not the first one to have made that mistake!
I have a to-buy list, not really prioritized but since I’m an underemployed grad student (underemployed stops tomorrow!) things can hang out there for YEARS–it took me 4 or 5 years to buy Iris Ganache and Ta’if has been on there forabout the same amount of time. Since I have scent-glue skin and can’t wear the big, lush scents to work, my current collection (including samples) will last me for years, maybe even more than a decade. Since I go to school in NYC, I can now just wander around for my sampling fix (adds to The List but doesn’t cost more than train fare)
Congratulations on your new job (if I’m reading that right)! Wandering in NYC will keep you stocked up for a long time, I’m sure.
Angela, dear, it was a joy to read again. I can’t imagine a possible topic I wouldn’t enjoy from top to bottom if you wrote it:). I loved reading the comments too!
My hard core perfumista days are behind me, though there were years I scored 40-something a year. Unsniffed buttles galore, I have to admit, only a few of them were success (Rochas Femme was one of them, and that kind of made all the regret worth it, I still love it so much ). Nowadays I rarely buy one fb a year, because I am on a very tight budget, and only “trust my decants” , minis and samples. The only full bottle I got as a gift last year was a backup pf KenzoAmour, but I honestly couln’t live without that.
I do have a sniff-list, from which I regularly order samples, and if I can go to Budapest for a snifforama, I sample everything I can. That would be fine enough.
But I am greedy. I’m the greediest person in the world in terms of perfume. I rate many scents a five star one, and I MUST have some of them on hand immediately when I fall in love. And not only one, all the ones I love MUST be around me in some amount. At the same time. Last time I fell with a perfume so deep in love that all Christmas and NY (while I had to wait for my tiny decant) was a torture. I could only think of Pardon (writhing in agony), whilst my closet was full of the most beautiful perfumes in the universe. I am such a freak. Shame on me.
So my system is: the wounds that hurt the most gets treated first. Be it only a 3 ml sample from Patty, or anything I can get my hands on, I must get it as soon as I can. And I am SO relieved and happy if I find a new release hideous! (Ooopps… I have just confessed two Unforgivable Perfumista Sins, I might as well add the third about Fracas being my comfort scent, and the Frag Commando is gonna knock at my door in minutes.)
I know, I am terrible. Can I call it a system at all?:)
My next one will be either some Odin Century (ROARRR!) or some more of the vtg. Samsara and Diorella that I unfortunately have finished off last week.
I envy Your moderate manners, Guys. I wish I could be that disciplined…
Sorry for being so long!
You are a passionate perfume lover! So much the better.
I have a slightly different approach. I read reviews, updates about new releases and then if the perfume ‘speaks’ to me I go and sniff it. Luckily enough leaving in London means that I can walk around and sniff. Firstly I spay perfume on the paper, write a name and bring them back home. Then if I like it on the paper I go back to the shop and spray it on my wrists. If I still like it, I’ll go back to the shop and spray again, this time wrists and neck.. As sales assistants always insist they don’t have samples but invite me to come back and test as many times as I want, if I really like something I’m usually making one, two visits a week for few weeks – and these visits are also good opportunity to sniff something extra. If I come back to a fragrance more than four, five times that definitely means I want the it. That’s how I tested Amouage Dia, Beloved and Opus V. And that’s how I got to know whole Amouage line, and Diptyque line (Volutes just accidently jumped into my collection – price!) and Chanel Exclusifs (didn’t like any of them, thank God!) and Hermes Hermessence (I want Rose Ikebana and Osmantus Yunam, but they can wait). While sniffing Opus V for almost two months (I did have to save up for a full bottle!) I also discovered Ormonde Jayne Montabaco (several sniffs definitely FB, but the price!) and Atelier Cologne Rose Anonyme – love this one. Rose Anonyme made me realise I really like rose plus oud combo so now I’ll be re-sniffing Rose Anonyme and adding other R+O based scents: Maison Francis Kurkdjian Silk Rose, by Kilian Rose Oud and Cruel Intentions, Juliette has a Gun Midnight Oud. Then the one I’ll go back to most times will be the one I’ll buy. Now… until I’ve actually written all that I didn’t even realised I had a system in place! Thank you Angela!!!
You really do have a system, and it’s quite a disciplined one! I’m sure it keeps you from buying some real howlers, though, on impulse.
Thank you Angela. I wasn’t like that until I discovered Amouage. They are just too expensive to buy impulsively. I also noticed what you mentioned: instead of buying three, four cheaper or discounted bottles I can save up, add extra money and buy something I really love. And lastly, I completely forgot to mention that: I also realised that before I bought first Amouge the price just seemed unbelivable, but once you ‘cross that border’ buying perfumes in these price ranges seems to be ‘normal’. As a humankind we are so prone to push and cross boundaries! I would also like to ask a question: Would you be able to recommend more rose plus oud perfumes apart from those I mentioned? |f that’s not too much hassle… 🙂
It’s certainly not too much hassle, but I’m not sure I’m the best rose-oud person out there. Plus, oud has really burst out of the starting gates over the past year, and I haven’t kept up with the new ones! One of the first popular rose ouds was 10 Corso Como. I have a bottle and like that one. Nice sandalwood. Jessica is sort of our in-house rose fiend. Maybe you’ll have luck if you look through her reviews (go to the “author” tab at the right and select Jessica).
oh oh, this sounds just like me, to the letter. Recently, I started to feel kind of uncomfortable with the amount of bottles I own (and decants and samples, oh my) and I tried to think of a perfume of which I finished a whole bottle (or event a decant) and I couldn’t come up with one. There’s not a single bottle I used up over the last 4-5 years, because there is so much stuff to wear and I rarely wear anything two days in a row. After a longer ‘no-buy’ period which lasted a couple of months, I splurged on Annick Goutal’s Eau de Chevrefeuille and Jo Malone’s Blackberry & Bay. You know, spring’s coming, I just couldn’t resist these two 😉
I know just how you feel! Really, it’s shameful the amount of perfume I have. I really need to pare it down, and yet the odd bottle or two still calls.
There are far worse things to blow money on that go up your nose! Have no shame Angela. After all, how could you adequately represent all the great perfumes that are out there without proper research and investment!! And we all dearly love your articles . . . .
Oh you enabler! Still, thank you!