Another work week over! It's time for our Friday community project. Today we're doing "down the rabbit hole Friday": wear the perfume that turned you into a perfumista (whatever that means to you). What did you pick, and why?
I'm wearing Diptyque Philoskyos, which was in the very first sample set I ever ordered online — from Aedes, if I remember correctly. The first full bottle I bought was Parfums de Nicolaï Balle de Match, but Balle de Match was really just a nicer, more sophisticated version of the sort of fragrances I was already wearing. Philosykos, my second full bottle purchase, expanded my idea of what a personal fragrance ought to smell like.
Reminder: next Friday, 11/14, is L'Effet Angel Friday: wear Thierry Mugler Angel, an Angel flanker or spawn of Angel (i.e. something influenced by Angel), with partial credit for wearing another Mugler fragrance.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2014, where I'll try to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Today I’m in Bvlgari Black – I even showered in it (the pearlescent shower gel is gorgeous stuff). It was the first fragrance I truly lusted after when I first sprayed the tester all those years ago! I’ve never grown tired of it and along with L’Artisans Dzing! it remains top of my fragrance chart.
And speaking of L’Artisan, my new bottle of Tea for Two is going to be delivered today. I’m not sure I really needed another one yet – I’ve been hoarding my current bottle since it was discontinued – but it’s back, so obviously I had to do my bit to keep it in production this time…
Oh, have never tried the shower gel, I will look for it!
I think it usually only turns up in gift sets/holiday specials, so this is exactly the right time to look. One friend finds just using the lotion is enough to be gently scented for the day.
I am now lemming the Bvlgari Black shower gel!
I would be really interested to hear if you think the re-released Tea for Two is the same as in the bottle you have. Mine is still about 90% full so I don’t think I’ll need another one any time soon but I’m curious.
I like Bvlgari Black (and wore it just a couple of days ago) but it took me years to warm up to it after the initial shock.
It was your finally warming up to Bvlgari Black post that made me dig out my decant from a swap. And the price with the Mother’s Day coupon (although I think it was a few days past Mother’s Day) was a mere $26. – practically free 🙂
I’m wearing Chergui which was the start of a new love for perfume. I discovered this in 2012 in my local Sephora in France and was really taken by the simple design of the beautiful rectangular bottles lined up and I edged in for some testings. This was the first one I tested and it was love at first sniff. It took me about a month to buy it and I’ve never regretted it. It was the start … Then I discovered the world of blogs and ….. Serge Lutens has remained one of my favourite houses and in the world of niche his perfumes now seem like a bit of a bargain although that was not what I thought at first! I tend to like the older perfumes in the range but I’m still trying out Orpheline for size.
How fun that you could walk into a Sephora and the first perfume you pick up is Chergui! That would not happen in a Sephora here…
We must accept that the French are just better than us at some things…siiigh.
Lovely perfume, and story. I also love the simple SL bottles – I remember being fascinated by the fact they were all identical. It seemed to make the contents seem more “serious” somehow, after years of just seeing one-off fancy bottles and being disappointed at the contents. Even now, walking into a shop and seeing those rectangular bottles all in a row makes my heart beat faster… 🙂
Completely get what you mean, nisotu!
Mine too, and I completely agree about the bottle design. I do love a good special bottle, but the uniform, elegant design sends a clear message that it’s the contents of the bottle that really count.
I also love the no-fuzz Serge Lutens bottles, they are my favourites together with the Hermessences bottles. Both lines have exquisite proportions and great attention to detail in their simplicity. And they are very storing efficient :)!
Chergui is still one of my very favorite perfumes although I have more than I could ever live to use.
I’m not going to apply until this evening, when I’m going out, but it will be Lush Imogen Rose. I grew up on “clean” fragrances where the worst danger was smelling like an “old lady.” Finding I loved something with rose and powder notes that I thought should be old-fashioned, and that it smelled perfectly great to me, got me over that wall.
Nice!
Ooo, I just bought a solid of Imogen Rose and love it, very nice rose scent. I kind of went on a bender at Lush last week: LARGE Rose Jam gel, smaller Hot Toddy and So White gel, Yog Nog soap, several Snowcake soaps, and a small jar of Argon Ro shower moisterizer! Yikes, just writing that all out is daunting.
That Rose Jam is pretty great. Good thing I don’t have a Lush anywhere near me.
The Rose Jam shower gel is great. My boyfriend used mine, then layered LA Voleur de Roses over it – such a good combo!
Your boyfriend is every perfumista’s dream!
All these rose products and fragrances sound so amazing now that winter is here! I’ve never tried any of the Lush products and everyone always makes such good comments about them.
I had never thought of rose as a winter scent before, but you’re RIGHT – another piece of the perfume-weather puzzle clicks into place!
I didn’t really fall down the hardcore rabbit hole until I read Perfumes The Guide, but I can’t wear that, so I went with the first perfume that blew my mind, which was White Linen, when I was about 12. I still love it.
That works!
The Guide was really key for me, too. I’m trying to remember where I first heard of it – probably here, actually.
A good friend of mine was buds with TS in New York and he recommended it to me, thought I’d like it. HOW RIGHT HE WAS
Same for me. So I’m counting my first niche purchase. I bet that book is to blame for the obsessions of many…
The Guide was crucial in the development of my obsession as well! I ordered many full bottles of 5 star review fragrances without testing first and had surprisingly few disappointments…..
The first perfume that has made me interested in perfumes was SL Rahat Loukhoum, I didn’t buy it right away . I love it and I am wearing it today, I have only a small amount left , I will buy another bottle when I travel since it is not available here in Canada.
Gosh, I need more RL too. Great scent.
SOTD is Vent Vert. My grandmother used to travel to Europe to visit my uncle, who worked for the WHO. She would bring back fragrances regularly. When my grandmother died, my mother got many of the bottles, many of which she passed on to me. At that time I was a teenager, and loved playing with fragrances. I got Chanel 19, Chanel 22, Lancome Sikkim (which was my favorite), and Balmain Vent Vert. I loved Sikkim, Vent Vert, and No. 22, and after I got out of college and got a job I started looking for the scents that I remembered. I never found Sikkim, I couldn’t afford No. 22, but I did find Vent Vert. I didn’t know anything about reformulation then, and I bought my new bottles between the reformulation of 1991 and the reformulation of 1999. Those bottles are what I am still wearing today. I’m about out, and I’m worried about buying the most recent reformulation.
And I have not smelled a new bottle in ages. Good luck…
Bois d’Iris from the Different Company is what sent me down the rabbit hole. I wanted a signature scent but nothing at Filene’s in Boston was cutting it. I’d take the bus down to NY for little day trips and found this at Takashimaya. Clearly if I had to go to a completely different city to obtain it that would make it a good signature. Finishing the bottle was how I ended up discovering NST– I was trying to find out if there was anywhere in Boston to obtain it and got sidetracked. It doesn’t smell as good on me as it did before I became postmenopausal but I refuse to get rid of it. Looking for something new I did the Monday Mail which turned me into a sampling nut. Now, five dozen bottles later, I’m not sure I could ever have a signature scent again
Oh, I do miss Tak, what a great perfume floor they had! Actually I miss going up to NYC regularly to perfume shop. It used to be necessary but really isn’t anymore now that nearly anything can be found online, but it was so much fun.
I Just love perfume shopping in NY– there’s still a thrill to testing things in person and if you ever want to meet up just let me know (I’ve met a couple of visiting folk and some NY area folk for sniffing adventures)
I had always loved perfume, and had a few signature scents when I was younger, but Perfumes the Guide is what sealed my fate. Then, I moved to New York in the summer of 2008 and would go on various sniffing adventures, being too poor to be able to spend money on any of them.
Then in the summer of 2009, I had a job that paid more than nothing, and I went to Bergdorf’s on my lunch break. A salesman romanced me into buying the Feminite du Bois that I had read Luca Turin rave about, and I skipped out on to Fifth Avenue with my little purple bag, having never been so delighted by a purchase in my life.
The bottle has served me well in that time, and is still about half full. Uncle Serge still has my loyalty – I’ve purchased two other bottles (Chergui and Gris Clair) since.
I love this stuff.
Whoops! That was supposed to be below! Sorry.
Funny, you know, although I had a *favorite* of my multiple fragrances back in the day, I never had a “signature” and felt odd that I didn’t. I mean, I felt that I was doing it wrong then.
Now, of course, I am shameless. And as I look back, I knew that my mother and grandmother each had at least two fragrances to wear – usually one more casual and one more “dressy,” and I think that at least for us, having a choice was a great luxury.
My overall signatures for a long time in my early 20s were Tea Rose and Coco, but there were always others that snuck in. Now I can’t even imagine. It would be like wearing the same clothes every day.
I miss Filene’s, Jordan’s, and the Hub of the Universe on the sidewalk between them. I do not miss the wooden escalators at Washington. I can’t think how women got up them in the era when all female office shoes had spike heels.
I love wooden escalators and was sad to see them go. Sometimes I go into the Herald Sq Macy’s just to ride them
Those wooden escalators scare me. I wonder if they’re still there with all the renovations. Speaking of Macy’s…earlier this week I walked West on 34th and just happened to notice that the sidewalk was all kinds of sparkly. I never noticed it before – I wonder if Macy’s pays for a sidewalk makeover every holiday season just to add that extra magic (miracle) on 34th Street?
And now I feel I should direct you to Google, for the surprising pleasure that is watching the Insane Clown Posse music video for their song “miracles” (which may also be called “magic and miracles”)
It never fails to give me a belly laugh.
I remember those so happily from when I was a kid.
I completely forgot about the theme for today, but it wouldn’t have mattered because I no longer have any of the scent that put me on the wagon. I read a review of Sycomore by Chanel and decided I *had to have it* (or at least a sample) so I bought a sample set of all the exclusifs from the Chanel line. Sycomore, for as lovely as it is, was not what I thought it would be and I ended up liking so many other woody/ vetivet scents from other brands instead. ( I prefer Tam Dao now.)
Sotd: Christopher Street. The only thing I can think to say about this one is “weird” but I think I like it.
Sycomore was just your gateway drug then 🙂
(I like Tam Dao better too)
I have always loved perfume, even when I was a little girl. My mom is a lover as well and passed this trait onto me. So, I always had something on. Alas, the fragrance that sent me down the rabbit hole is Nectarine Blossom and Honey by Jo Malone. This has been my signature fragrance for years. Once I started wearing this, the obsession began. This is my SOTD also.
The last “real” Jo Malone, too…
That’s a great one, for sure!
The way I got into things is that, after many years of really liking perfume, I started reading perfume blogs, including Now Smell This, and at that time, there was a lot of talk about POTL, which is one of the first niche perfumes that I sampled, and I liked it because it seemed unusual to me and also smelled really nice on me, so I bought a bottle, and that was the start. I have it on today and still love it.
I still like POTL too…
Same here – wore PoTL Friday. Still love it!
I’m wearing Rien which wasn’t the “gateway” fragrance, but certainly a fragrance which I wouldn’t have known of, let alone appreciated before I became more seriously interested in perfume. It’s also one of my most comforting and confidence boosting scents which I needed as I had a difficult meeting which didn’t to that well.
Sorry about your meeting!
I like to read reviews of things -after- I decide whether I like it or not. Sometimes, for movies or books, it gives me perspective on things I wasn’t thinking about. So, when I bought Valentino Valentina, I searched for reviews; this is when I found NST and boisdejasmin. I thought Valentina was amazing, but most of the reviews I read said it was done well enough, but it was boring and nothing new. Well, then I had to figure out what was considered interesting and different! Infusion d’Iris was the first perfume that I tried based solely on descriptions from blogs, and I was so enamored with it, and still am!
I would say that Valentina is the perfume that made me look down the rabbit hole, but Infusion d’Iris is what made me jump down 😉 Today I am wearing Valentina, because I haven’t worn it in awhile. I still really like it, even if it isn’t as interesting or challenging as some of the stuff I like now.
That’s a really good point– that you found something amazing that the reviews found unoriginal because the reviewers are in a different place as far as having things to compare it to
And sometimes the ads are pretty out of sync with the actually perfume, which was probably the case for Valentino. I remember being distinctly disappointed with Lady Gaga’s first perfume, because it was supposed to smell like all sorts of wild things, but then it was just so … tame.
Will just add that all of us, I’m sure, still wear many fragrances that are neither interesting nor challenging!
I was proud of myself for at least picking something that was considered well done, rather than cheap and screechy 😉
Yes, nothing wrong with finding something that you think is pretty/charming/fun/easy and makes you smile – even if the blogosphere isn’t sold on it. I really like, ahem, Armani Code and that Vince Camuto scent with the ludicrous bottle top, and I always keep my eye out for them at TJ Maxx.
(I like Armani Code too)
Glad so many people here have refined tastes without being snobby about it 😀
Armani Code is sexy!
I had a few to choose from today because my fall down the rabbit hole was precipitous and I sampled and bought quite a few things at once. But I’m wearing Ormonde Jayne Frangipani, which was one of the first white floral scents I really enjoyed.
The OJs really opened up a different vista – it was exciting to try them in the initial days of internet sampling madness!
SOTD is Etat Libre Like This. It was in the first batch of samples I ordered from First in Fragrance, along with Safran Troublant, Habanita (which I hated) and something else I can’t remember. Like This and Safran were and still are winners, I ordered a bottle of Safran Troublant today :).
Your review of LT made me try it, but The Non Blonde’s almost made me buy a back-up this year.
I have a very small decant of Like This, and I like it very much! I really should try and get a larger decant or a bottle. It is one of the most unusual and interesting fragrances that I like.
It was actually Coco Mademoiselle, a fragrance I don’t even *like,* that sent me to NST and from here to trip down the rabbit hole. My sister had asked for a bottle for Christmas, and I managed to find her a sample and some of the body products on eBay, and I got curious enough to look for reviews of it.
I’d always loved perfume myself (my first “serious” perfume was the old Karl Lagerfeld floral bomb Chloe) and always had at least three in rotation until I became pregnant with my first child and left my full-time job, when finances got very tight. For about 10-12 years, I wore drugstore fragrances, one at a time, until finding Velvet Tuberose in a B&BW and then wondering if there might be a scent out there that I loved the way my sister loved Coco Mlle.
My first order from TPC was a Chanel sampler, in which I found my mother’s best friend from the time of my childhood. Georgina had long since gone back to her native England, but there she was in the drydown of Cristalle. Yet it was No. 19, in (vintage-ish) EdT, that captivated me, and I still love it. So No. 19 EdT, in all its steely-eyed glory, is the scent of the day – and I thank you for the reminder to appreciate all I’ve discovered since then.
Funny how sometimes the initial perfumes that get us going may not always be our favorites.
I started with a Chanel sampler from TPC too.
No 19 is one of the few select frags that I have back ups for. It is such an outstanding fragrance. It took me a long time to come around to big oakmoss and vetiver, and now I can’t imagine like without them! No 19 is one of my fav greens.
Me too! I have bottles of No 19 hidden like little easter eggs around the house.
Maybe you can send your Easter Bunny around here!
Love both Cristalle and No. 19.
If memory serves, my first niche-ish purchase was La Rose de Rosine. We have since parted ways, as she was fond of violet, and I was evidently not.
I believe my second purchase was Philosykos; I still have it, although I’m not wearing it today. At least, not yet. I don’t recall how long ago these purchase were made, but I do know that fig was enjoying a lot of popularity at the time.
Today I’m wearing AA Flora Nerolia, but only dabbed. The spray, for me, is too much. (I freely admit to being a sissy about these things.) I’m also wondering what in the world is on my sweater sleeve, as it smells rather nice!
I love reading everyone’s stories! Today I’m wearing Heure Exquise. I’d always loved perfume since I was a 6-year-old sneaking sniffs of my mum’s bottle of Diorissimo… but had stuck to one at a time, and always mainstream department-store fare.
Until one day I read somewhere – I actually forget where – that HE was like a ‘softer’ version of Chanel No 19, which was one of my staples, and rushed off to Liberty to sniff it. I just thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever smelled, and wanted to know everything about all the wonderful notes I was smelling and how they evolved and blended together. I also resolved to return and check out the rest of the AG range, along with Serge Lutens and all those other undiscovered lines.
So I guess Chanel 19 pointed me in the direction of the rabbit hole, and with one sniff of Heure Exquise on my skin, I tumbled right in…
How nice that it was Heure Exquise, which always brings the word “pillowy” to my mind.
HE was really important step for me the year I really hit perfumista research hard. I clearly remember the day that my nose and brain just burst open when I smelled it and it *made sense*, and was just so beautiful. It was my gateway iris and galbanum scent, from which my love for all others in that category sprang. HE always has a default HG status for me b/c of that.
It was your going on about it that persuaded me to buy it. The first perfume that made me swoon at first sniff!
😉 The dry body oil makes me swoon!
There is HE dry body oil??!
The dry oil is apparently discontinued, unfortunately. I never see it anymore, not even at the discounters. I have a small sample of it, and it’s primarily rose and sandalwood, really lovely and simple.
Me too and I’ve got a bottle!
Just saw this – hope I’m not too late to reply, but AnnS I think that description is perfect: “my nose and brain just burst open” 🙂 Honestly I think one of the hardest things about perfumista-hood is the ability to articulate scent and the effects it has on us!
Heure Exquise was one of my first Goutals as well. I blind bought it and have never regretted it since.
I was amazed by Heure Exquise when I first tried it and I still enjoy wearing it. And Chanel No 19.
Dior that I was sneaking of my mom’s bottle was Diorella.
Wearing L’eau d’Hiver – not the first niche scent I bought, but the one that started me paying attention. I’d read Chandler Burr’s New Yorker piece on Jean-Claude Ellena and was hooked. I read the Emperor of Scent and then got the Guide and merrily tumbled down…
This was my first niche purchase 😉
I wish I had kept better record of when I got into perfume but really it’s been with me since a very young age.
Niche and understanding notes and so much more that goes into fragrance really just picked up speed for me over the last three years.
I’m pretty sure it was on Into the Gloss that something peaked my interest and I started researching which led me to NST.
SOTD, and newly acquired sample: Terracotta Voile d’Ete
Gorgeous creamy vanilla carnation but comes & goes way too fast for my bunny nose.
Mmm, I like Voile d’Ete. It lasts all day on me. I hope that your sample is large enough for you to give it several chances.
I have never tried Voile d’Ete!
Wearing Annick Goutal’s Hadrien (edp) today. Discovered back in 1994 when the brand had a small shop in the back of Henri Bendel’s (NYC) cosmetics floor. While it has certainly changed in the intervening years, I always have a bottle – or two – on hand. Discovering the whole AG brand definitely made me fall down the perfume rabbit hole.
The first time I ever came face to face with AG was at the Washington Square Nordies outside Portland. I’d never really ever seen them and had always read about them in mags. It was quite a shock to my nose when I first smelled Hadrien, b/c I’d never smelled anything like that before. I bought a very small 15 ml bottle of it and milked it for many years. I didn’t really get AG for a long time, and now I think her ability to capture nature is just outstanding. I think I have 12 AGs? Unbelieveable. I just love them.
SOTD: Le Male Jean Paul Gaultier for men
I think CD’s Diorissimo was what started me on the slippery slope when I was 19 – my aunt who was visiting her parents/my grandparents in Scotland from upstate New York left me the end of a bottle – I loved it, not surprising though given that Lily of the Valley is one of my all-time favourite flowers. It has of course been reformulated (probably more than once!) but I have smelled it recently & the CD line it is currently part of does seem to have restored it at least in part to its former glory. Not sure that I would ever wear it again, unless I thought it smelled exactly the same, but I do have a sniff of it from time to time just to bring back those days! Can you wear the same fragrance at pushing 59 that you wore at 19, though?
Of course you can!
Yes, especially if it’s Diorissimo!
Jean Paul Gaultier, the original fragrance (now called Classique). A flashback to the late 1990s for me!
I’ll never forget that bottle!
I tried for a long time to fall for the fragrance because I adored the bottle. It reminded my of my mother’s bottle of Schiaparelli Shocking.
I could write a discourse on my destiny to love perfumes. I was always interested in the smells and the bottles – all very charming to my young eyes. My first frags went from hand-me down Chantilly to Perfumer’s Workshop Tea Rose, to Jardins de Bagatelle, Coco, Dune, Venetzia, Boucheron, Bal a Versailles, on and on…. What really sent me down the rabbit hole was my sudden desire to absolutely HAVE the No 5 Eau Premiere when it first came out. There were gorgeous magazine strips with Nicole Kidman, and then bam – it’s all pulled from the shelves. I was so frustrated and spent a lot of time poking through google searches for it, which ultimately landed me on the NST review of Eau Premiere. So, that was the beginning of my realization there were whole resources and communities of like minded fragrance nuts in the world and that I could have access to frags that actually smelled interesting to my nose. It was quite a while until I could actually get my bottle of Eau Premiere b/c it was gone for so long. In the interim, I began my exploration.
So to commemorate my perfumista-hood, which essentially bloomed in 2008 from general fragrance lover to all out nut, I chose this morning my first niche/indie frags. SOTD is Rose Musc by Sonoma Scent Studio.
And I want to send hails of cuddos to Laurie Erickson who was so kind and generous to me during those early years – 2008 – 2010 ish when I thoroughly benefitted and enjoyed discussing fragrances, smells, and samples from her that all lended to my expanded nose vocabulary. I wore SSS Velvet Rose for my wedding in June 2008 and proceeded to fall in love with about 8 other frags of hers, esp. the above mentioned Rose Musc, and then Femme Jolie which I have three backup bottles. So cheers to indie frags, fragrance artists, and the whole rest of it. I love perfumes and that is that!
Laurie’s a lovely person.
It’s one of the things on my list if I ever visit the US again. To get hold of samples from some of the US indies. They sound so wonderful.
I loved reading your story which isn’t that different from my own. I must have had around 2-6 perfumes from the age of 18 till my late thirties. Fragrances included Paris YSL, Anaïs Anaïs, Kenzo parfum d’Eté, Dune, Venezia, Roma, L’Eau d’Issey, Deci Delà, Bvlgari Pour Femme, Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert, Paco de Paco Rabanne, CK One, VC&A First and the unforgettable Nina. At some point I was just getting really bored with what I was able to sniff at local department stores. My sister in law used to wear Chanel Cristalle which I loved on her. Seeking Cristalle out I stumbled upon this lovely blog and fell headlong into perfumed space.
Goutal led me to Malle, Lutens, Guerlain, Hermès and the rest is history.
Austenfan, I had almost identical choices from that era! Chanel Cristalle was the first significant perfume a group of friends bought me, because they could tell I could not stop talking about it! (ca. 1994).
I can’t remember when I purchased mine, probably around 2006 or 2007. I still love it. Wore it yesterday and was very aware of that wilted fruit note that dominates Diorella even more.
Being bored at department stores really was a problem for me too. I always felt mostly underwhelmed. It’s not that everything was so awful, but my brain just wanted *more* from the whole thing. It was such a revelation to finally find the vast resources on the internet – blogs! samples! swappers! friends! Amazing.
I think I was mostly ready for quirkier things, which is why Goutal was such a wonderful house to explore. Still accessible but very different from the department store brands.
I didn’t realize how into smells I was until I started getting really into perfume – then I remembered how the smell of Italy after a rain made me homesick for California, how much I love smelling a good earl grey before brewing, and realized scent has always been an important part of my life.
I think most people don’t really realize how important smell is to our daily existence. I love smelling things!
SSS was my first indie love as well. I read about them on I Smell Therefore I Am and wrote to Laurie asking for samples. Fell hard for Tabac Aurea and Winter Woods, and many others followed.
Gosh, I remember the first time I ever smelled Rose Musc and thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It was my first fav spicy rose. It tooke me a few years to really get comfortable with incense, but now I enjoy wearing Champagn de Bois. I need to catch up on her newer releases.
I was in a local mall killing time at NM and half heartedly sniffing perfumes, which I never wore, preferring to stick to perfume oils and body lotions, when I stumbled across the original Bottega Veneta.
It was like nothing I had ever smelled before and I kept coming back to it for another sniff. It never occurred to me to ask for a sample since I didn’t even know a sample could be had! I didn’t even know ANYTHING about indie or niche perfumes- it was the beginning of an adventure and the portal to a whole new world!
Strangely, I only have a mini bottle of it and hardly ever wear it now, although I do still like it.
Instead, I am wearing Eau Duelle edp from a sample I asked for at a local Diptyque counter, since I now know samples can be had!
Eau Duelle is one of my fav vanillas!
Glad to see someone’s first was a leather. Leathers may be my favorite fragrance family, but they are a bit hidden or relatively rare – did not discover them until well down the rabbit hole. I don’t actually care for BV, but I’m realizing it performs a service by being easier to find.
CK Be, which I purchased on a whim at a drugstore circa 2008, is the scent that led me to NST after a Google search. After that, it was down the Internet-fueled perfume fandom rabbit hole. I had no idea that any of this – perfume blogs, vintage auctions on eBay, decant sellers, The Guide, MakeupAlley, IFRA, niche brands, Chandler Burr, beaver secretions, you name it – existed. I stumbled onto an entirely new realm of obsessive interest, research, and enthusiasm, and I plunged headlong into learning everything I could about the great perfumes of today and yesterday, the master perfumers behind them, the amazing chemistry involved in fragrance construction, the various movers and shakers in the industry, and the glorious ad campaigns from decades past.
I don’t own CK Be any more – I used up the bottle, a trick I haven’t been able to repeat since jumping on board this hobby! – but I have it to thank for kickstarting my fragrance fanaticism.
Was thinking there’s probably a simple formula to date how long someone has been a perfumista by how long it takes to drain a bottle…assuming you do wear fragrance every day, of course.
I used to be able to drain one of my regulars (when I wore about 3-4 frags only) in about 2.5 years. Now we’re talking heavy hitters like Coco that I only wear one spray. But still. I haven’t drained a bottle in 7 years, but am close on a few. It would be nearly impossible for me now.
Lol, yep, at the dawning of my perfumista-hood I drained Nu, Alchimie and D&G (red lid) all within a few months. It was partly trying to find replacements for the now-discontinued Nu and Alchimie that led me to all this..
However, now that I know about reformulations and discontinuations, I try NOT to empty any bottles.
Hi everyone! After breaking both my laptop and phone in the same month, I’m back to share!
I’m in Timbuktu today. Iwas already in love with perfume before I made the jump to niche (blame the Burberry Brit Red body lotion my mother received and detested!), but the first perfume I googled was Eclat d’Arpege, which I adored. Not so now. The first fragrance I fell in love with from my first luckyscent sample set was Dzongkha. I’d wear that today if my loving boyfriend hadn’t used the last bit! Timbuktu is related but my first love will always be Dzongkha.
You’re in Timbuktu? How is the internet reception there? 😉
There is a certain time of day here in the DC area when I think camels would be faster than my internet connection! 😉
When Robin mentioned Philosykos as the one that broadened her definition of perfume, I thought of Timbuktu.
Couldn’t wear my gateway today since it was a gift with purchase of a whole bunch of perfume samples. I’d always loved perfume and still remember buying my first grown up perfume (Chanel No 19 which I love to this day). But only ever had one at a time. Getting this bag of samples was a revelation…I could smell something different every day, or twice a day! Wow! Then started looking up the reviews, and found this great community of friendly, sharing like-minded people from all over the world and became completely hooked. You guys are great!
My SOTD is Vetiver Fatal, btw. I never would have found out how much I love Vetiver (or even that vetiver is a “thing”) otherwise.
The first perfume I loved was Mitsouko and it was my signature scent for several years. Then one day I made some perfume related internet search (can’t remember what now) and ended up on PerfumeShrine. A whole new world revealed itself, and I learned about ordering samples and bottles online. My first sample order was to Andy Tauer- SOTD is Une Rose Chypree.
Mitsouko is an amazing first love!
Mine is 5 o’clock au Gingembre.
Ive always loved perfume and began collecting and wearing when I was about 10. I went from Yardley and Avon to chemist brands then to ‘real’ perfumes. By my early 20’s I probably owned about 20, which was even then way more than anyone I knew.
When Mecca Cosmetica opened here it was my first introduction to niche, and to Uncle Serge. I immediately fell in love with 5 o’clock and googled it to find out more about it. I found the BdJ review, then other blogs. It was about the same time as I was looking for more Alchimie by Rochas, and it was then that my interest became an education and a passion.
Another perfumista generated by SL – I wonder if Uncle Serge really realizes what he’s done!
I can’t remember my first gateway. I believe it was a Diptyque scent (probably L’Ombre dans L’Eau) because I was at a boutique in 2006 and spied the candles and perfumes. Around the same time I had decided that it was important for me to have a ‘signature scent’ (silly me. I’m a Gemini. I can’t stick with just one kind of anything). I then dove headfirst into gourmands and citrus scents. I thought I hated rose (silly me, again….what is L’Ombre if not a pretty mysterious rose???)
I no longer have any L’Ombre Dans L’Eau so I’m just staying low key today. I’m wearing Escale a Portofino.
That’s still my favorite Diptyque. It never occurred to me that it contained rose until I read that somewhere. To me, it’s one of those perfumes that has its own unique olfactory “shape.”
I bought The Guide, hoping to find a review of my former signature scent, Farouche by Nina Ricci. Since Farouche had been discontinued and wasn’t included in the book, I hit the internet and haven’t looked back.
Wearing Farouche parfum today. It is so pretty, especially the opening.
What is it like? I’ve loved some of the older Ricci’s. Nina and Fleur de Fleurs in particular, but only know L’Air du Temps from their first masterpieces.
It’s a floral aldehydic that pushes all my buttons: Top notes are aldehydes, mandarin orange, galbanum, peach and bergamot; middle notes are honeysuckle, carnation, iris, lily, clary sage, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, rose, geranium and cardamom; base notes are sandalwood, amber, musk, oakmoss and vetiver.
I never cared for L’Air du Temps, but loved Farouche and Capricci!
My mother wore L’Air so I used to like it because of her. But even 20 years ago I much preferred Nina.
Farouche sounds right up my street and is actually still for sale in the Nina Ricci store in Paris. Probably very costly, but still.
I didn’t realize that it was still available! Next time I’m in Paris (haha), I’ll make a trip to the Nina Ricci store to pay my respects.
Ah, hence your username! I didn’t know the story!
Yes, I was a serial monogamist for the first few decades of my perfumista-hood!
Farouche is really very beautiful. Someone gave me a sample a few years ago, and I think it is the best of the aldehyde lactonic fragrances. I’ve never smelled anything else like it.
We like so many of the same fragrances!
I know – it’s fun to have scent twins!! I have very similar tastes to Austenfan as well.
Me too (obviously)!
At what point do you fall down the rabbit hole? I’ve always loved perfume and even at a fairly young age had high-end tastes thanks to my very french grandmother. I wore Je Reviens, a couple of Guerlains and was quite happy with just that. Then on a trip to Paris with a friend we stumbled into Serge Lutens salon and it was a game changer. I bought Ambre Sultan in the regular bottle and also Rahät Loukoum in the bell jar. Both on different sides of the scent scale and I loved them equally. I’d never heard of SL and returning home I ended up Googling for more information. That’s when I found NST and THAT is when I say I fell down the rabbit hole. Thanks to you wonderful people I’ve expanded my knowledge of perfume and perfume making. I’ve tried more scents in the last 4 years then in the 4 decades before, some where misses and some where hits, but I’d never even have known about them without all of you. I wear perfume everyday, it is something that makes me happy and I wouldn’t have said that all those years ago. I now see perfume as a true art and have learned to appreciate it and indulge in it more for the sheer enjoyment. So I “blame” NST for leading me down the rabbit hole and I thank you for it everyday.
I would love to stumble into a Lutens shop in Paris! Now that a perfumista dream to aspire to!!!
How mythic! The Serge Lutens Salon IS the rabbit hole to which all other rabbit holes ultimately connect. Even those who don’t love any SLs have been lured by the names, the reviews and the images of SL, I’d wager.
I’m not sure there was a rabbit hole in my case. My mother and grandmother were both perfume-savvy. My grandmother had a sizeable collection of French perfumes my grandfather would bring home to her when he traveled about on business. My mother wore Chanel #5 and a few others on and off over the years, but could talk knowledgeably about almost any perfume you could find at a fine fragrance counter.
I think what marked the turning point for me was when I started experimenting with layering as a teenager. I had purchase a big bottle of ambergris at a hippie market and started experimenting with blending it into my fragrances to see what would happen. That’s when I began truly understanding and appreciating the chemistry of scent.
I don’t have any ambergris oil anymore, but I’m wearing Miss Dior (houndstooth check label era), as this was one of the first scents I mixed with the amergris oil.
It’s fascinating that layering opened up another dimension for you. You were fortunate to find ambergris, which has a catalytic effect.
Miss Dior is one on the few perfumes, warm feelings to which I have through my life from early childhood and until now.
I also wore it as a young teen and still love it!
Using one of my last spritzes of PG L’Eau Rare Matale. I was at the Perfume Shoppe and Naz did her mysterious plucking of a bottle from mid-air, and despite the fact that I had never worn a smoky tea scent before, it was perfect. Alas that the new version is rather watery.
I wish I’d tried that one early on. The name discouraged me. Naz must be amazing!
In high school, I remember going to Europe and falling head over heels for K de Krizia, Paco Rabanne Metal and Coriandre. By the time I was at university, everyone knew the best present for me would be perfume – especially something “unusual” 🙂 and a boyfriend had one custom made for me! Don’t have any of those anymore, though I would love to smell some K and Metal again! Forgot about the theme this morning (wearing TF Black Orchid – so someth much more recent), but will spray some EL Private Collection (the original) this evening in memory of the time I realized this smell thing is for me. Love reading everyone’s stories! LOVE going deeper and deeper into the lovely rabbit hole thru’ NST!
Metal is one of my favorite green chypres. So beautiful!
I had bought a few bottles prior to 1985, even a few things that I sort of figured I couldn’t live without, but when I smelled the original Salvador Dali and held that amazing bottle In my hand, I was hooked, bad. It was my gateway drug. I still love it to this day: I never got sick of it and never outgrew it, which hardly ever happens.
When I was somewhere around the end of high school or early college in the late 80s, I ordered a set of the small 8 ml bottles of Deneuve, Salvador Dali, Opium and something else I can’t remember with an order form from the back of a magazine. It was real nice of my mom to spare the check for it too! I loved the Salvadore Dali & the Deneuve although I don’t remember either of them. It seemed just so cool and chic. I can see why the Dali got you hooked! That nose was really outrageous!
My rabbit hole fragrance was Creed Original Santal, because it led me here (seems to be a theme today). I’ve been interested in fragrances since I was wee, but about a decade ago my husband obtained a sample of the Creed, I tried it on, and it immediately reminded me of a women’s fragrance from the ‘80s. I couldn’t figure it out so I went to the google and I came upon an NST review of the scent. “What’s this, a blog about perfume?” Aaaaand the rest was perfumista history, because blogs (this one in particular) were truly my gateway drug to the hard stuff.
And for what it’s worth, I still have the Creed sample, which hasn’t been touched in years, and I’m wearing it today. The top notes were bad (not off, just generic and sharp in a really unappealing way), but the dry down is pleasant enough.
Amouage Gold, because discovering it meant a reconciliation with the present.
That sounds intriguing…can I ask what you mean?
I’m glad you’ve asked – I interpreted it as discovering there are modern perfumes to love, after mourning the lost greats – but not sure.
Yep, spot on, nozknoz. Sorry I was so cryptic. 🙂
We are fortunate to live in the age of Gold.
I spent an entire year in Paris trying to figure a new perfume for myself, but found nothing in the middle of all the pink and fresh stuff – looking at you, Very Irresistible… Old perfumes were too closely related with my mourning of my departed aunt, but I could find nothing as good as them. Until I discovered perfume blogs, Amouage, and a new chapter begun in my life. So happy I had this opportunity.
Whatever the reason Gold is one of the greats; you smell wonderful!
Thank’s! Just received a compliment from my son’s teacher, and I smilled inside, thinking that she has a good nose, lol!
It’s the most expensive bottle in my collection and I have no regrets about it at all. First fragrance I really saved up for.
Officially wearing Kingdom today. My search for something similar but still in production led me to Perfume Posse then NST and everywhere else.
I made my stop at Sephora today for sale stuff and tried Man in Black and a big spritz of Black for the heck of it and because I still don’t have a bottle, so I actually smell completely foul from a distance. I’m enjoying the individual scents greatly but have to say it isn’t a layering success 😉
I would layer Man in Black with a vanilla to tone down the spiciness. I got my long-awaited big honking bottle at 20% off yesterday 🙂
Accidentally posted above in the wrong place (whoops):
I had always loved perfume, and had a few signature scents when I was younger, but Perfumes the Guide is what sealed my fate. Then, I moved to New York in the summer of 2008 and would go on various sniffing adventures, being too poor to be able to spend money on any of them.
Then in the summer of 2009, I had a job that paid more than nothing, and I went to Bergdorf’s on my lunch break. A salesman romanced me into buying the Feminite du Bois that I had read Luca Turin rave about, and I skipped out on to Fifth Avenue with my little purple bag, having never been so delighted by a purchase in my life.
The bottle has served me well in that time, and is still about half full. Uncle Serge still has my loyalty – I’ve purchased two other bottles (Chergui and Gris Clair) since.
I love this stuff.
The Guide was key for me, too. Almost too many enabling factors came together at the same time, and The Guide provided a compass, making it possible for to explore perfume intelligently at the point when the internet had opened up vast, uncharted territories.
I’ve also learned a lot from blogs, but, early on, the diversity of tastes and opinions was confusing.
The Guide was really important to me too – it just validated that I wasn’t insane.
I’m actually out of Chinatown at the moment, which was what got the whole seriously exploring perfume ball rolling in my case, but prior to that, it was TM Angel edp that made me really take notice of how different perfume could be. Before that, I either got “nice” perfumes as gifts or generally bought drugstore fare while saving up for a bottle of Chanel No. 5. But when I went to purchase my first bottle of No. 5 (in the edt at the time and I’ve since switched to edp and am on my fourth bottle), the sales lady offered to spray me with some Angel just to try something different. It was different than anything I’d ever smelled and I was horrified… Until I was walking out of the mall. I paused, thought “Something really smells nice. Could it be?”, sniffed the back of my hand and my gast was totally flabbered. It promptly went on my want list and I got my first bottle under the tree a month or so later from Mr. Ab. Scent.
After that, I started lingering more at the counter, trying to experience more scents I might otherwise not try and finding some really good ones that I still like today even if I don’t wear them as often. And a couple years later when I got more active in shopping online, I googled “reviews for Angel perfume” and ended up on Make Up Alley and was forever lost since then. I started ordering samples of fragrances in a similar family, got my first sample of Bond’s Chinatown, nearly fainted at the gorgeousness of it and then the exploring really picked up.
My credit card, poor unsuspecting test subjects–I mean friends–and storage space will never forgive me. 😉
Great story – and nothing beats having one’s ‘ghast flabbered! 😉
I laughed at your closing paragraph 🙂
I love Angel (but it took me slightly longer then a walk from a perfume counter to fall for it).
I found this poll challenging, partly because the definition of “falling down the rabbit hole” (or “perfumista”) was left to each commenter, and partly because I’ve loved perfume for half a century. It seemed to me, at first glance, that “falling down the rabbit hole” had been a long, slippery slope, rather than a sudden precipice, and that enabling factors, such as the internet, sensual awareness, magpie brain, and gainful employment were more important than any particular perfume or brand.
Nonetheless, after meditating on “motive, means and opportunity” (reading way too many mysteries lately), I realized that there WAS a “hinge” of my personal history in the 1980s when my approach to perfume changed from seeking a signature scent (as women’s magazines had advised) to active exploration. This occurred when I read a wonderful profile of Annick Goutal in Connoisseur Magazine, found the line at Nordstrom, and tried all of them. (Obviously, the luxurious zeitgeist of the 80s was a factor, too.)
Eau d’Hadrien, Heure Exquise and Passion joined my then signature scent Chloe and formed my first perfume collection. I’m wearing Passion today because I’m lucky to have found an old extrait version on ebay, and it’s still fabulous. I love my more recent AGs, but there was a lot of real, irreplaceable sandalwood in the originals.
BTW, I googled “Annick Goutal Connoisseur Magazine” to see if I could find it in an online archive (no luck) and found a post on the blog “aperfumeblog by Blacknall Allen” citing the same article. Must dip more deeply into that blog.
I think it was probably a long slippery slope for many of us. I remember some blog – maybe NST – sometime a year or so ago, someone was asking “when you got over 15 bottles”? Well, one way or the other since I was about 18, I always had 2 or 3 bottles and some essential oil blends and other smelly products. So that I can say from that time to my late 30s when things kind of exploded for me, one way or the other, I’d probably had about 25 different fragrances. A big factor for my perfumista situation now is that by my late 30s, my income had changed to basically support my urges, and the internet just allows for so much access and exploration. Swaps and decants are a big part of all this and when was that possible before? It kind of permitted collecting as part of my urge.
Ahh a fan of Passion! Me too. I’m so lost without it and I can’t stand the reformulation. Have you found anything like it? I know there are quite a few notes in it that would point to very different scents. I miss the sweet note that’s in it- it felt very white flower tropical to me.
This is a difficult one. I think what makes Passion great is the quality of the ingredients and the harmonics between the intense flowers and the intense sandalwood – they just vibrate against one another with this wonderful, intense, sensual buzz. Otherwise, flowers can be too sweet, if you know what I mean.
Perfumers use other things to cut the sweetness, but patchouli and vetiver and so on don’t have that zing of real sandalwood; Australian sandalwood is too sharp; and don’t get me started on those brutal, boorish synthetic woods!
Amouage Gold has some of the same high quality ingredients as Passion. The effect is silkier but it creates some of the same olfactory ecstacy.
I also love the ingredients in Aftelier perfumes; Tango has a weird seashell attar that creates a unique counterpoint and gives the olfactory cortex a buzz of something completely new and wonderful. You might also try Manoumalia. But these take a different tack from Passion.
Maybe others have ideas – it would be good to ask in the weekend poll!
I should also mention about Goutal Passion that I haven’t had much luck buying older versions online, because much of the older Goutals seem to turn “badly”
I think I really lucked out with this particular little bottle. The top is a bit wonky, but then it straightens out and flies forever. I haven’t managed to find a good Eau d’Hadrien, though. I wish I could smell that one again!
In late 90s I remember a wide range of AG perfumes at Nordstrom counters where I live. Then over years it shrank to 3-4 bottles somewhere among more mainstream offerings. It saddens me because I like the brand and would like to see it getting more love.
Replica Beach Walk by Maison Martin Margiela. It smells like a much “tamer” Womanity to me…no doubt because of the salt accord.
The perfume that sent me down the rabbit hole is HM by Hanae Mori. As a teenager, I wore all sorts of fragrances, but mostly only the “safe” clean / spicy masculines available for cheap at places like TJ Maxx and Marshalls, and never anything stronger than an EdT. Everything changed for me when I was about 20 years old. I was at Nordstrom perusing the mens fragrance counter, sampling a few fragrances on paper test strips. I picked up the bottle of HM, which I had never seen before, and something in my head told me to spray this one on my skin. Once I could smell it, I was amazed. It smelled delicious! I had never experienced a gourmand fragrance before. But HM is more than a gourmand. I think there are about 50 notes in there. This fragrance was so crazy! It has everything AND the kitchen sink listed in the note pyramid. But it somehow worked in harmony, and I couldn’t figure out how that was possible. It’s also got loads of coumarin (tonka bean) which is another note I was unfamiliar with at the time, but now know that I love. The SA gave me a few samples, and a few weeks later I bought my first 100ml bottle of the EdP. I was blown away by the lasting power and overall depth of an EdP vs the EdT’s I was accustomed to. Fast forward about 6 months and 2 finished 100ml bottles of HM, and I was hooked on perfume. I learned to shop both the male and female fragrance counters, and found many new favorites.
Wearing HM today is really fun. I hadn’t worn it in so long that I forgot what it smelled like, and now that I have some on, I still love it just as much as I used to. I’ll have to break this one out more often! Although for me, spring time is the best for this fragrance, as the scent conjures up memories of my 21st birthday weekend in Manhattan in late March. It was one of the first times I really felt “grown up” and independent, and smelling this fragrance for me is like reliving all sorts of fun memories from that time in my life.
Of course, HM’s weird juxtaposition of fresh vs. gourmand set me up for loving fragrances that have an element of contradiction, my favorite of which is the women’s version of Angel by Thierry Mugler. If HM is my first love, Angel is my soulmate. So next week’s challenge won’t really be much of a challenge for me at all, as I still wear Angel regularly. But I will definitely be back to tell my Angel story next week. This was my first comment here actually, until today I had just been a lurker on this blog. But I felt that I needed to register for today’s challenge, as nobody really talks about HM, and I wanted to share my appreciation of it!
My first fragrance that made me feel all grown up and totally wonderful was when I discovered Coco when I was in college. I felt so independent and thought I smelled amazing. Your memory is wonderful. I’m glad you came out of lurking. This year while I’ve been doing extensive vanilla research (for the “perfect” vanilla frag), I came across a lot of comments about HM and have never smelled it. It sounds very nice!
Ann,
Thank you for welcoming me! Yes, HM is easily unisex, I’ve let many female friends borrow a spritz or two. In fact it leans so heavily feminine, I think they now market it as a “shared” fragrance. I’ve seen it at the Women’s counter at Nordstrom recently. Keep in mind before sniffing though, that it is very, very sweet, and the lemon is quite strong in the beginning.
As far as your vanilla search goes, many people on Fragrantica (the other perfume site I haunt) say that Cologne of the Missions by Le Couvent des Minimes is a perfect dupe for Guerlain’s Spiritueuse Double Vanille, and can be found at Ulta beauty stores for a fairly affordable $38 / 100ml. http://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Le-Couvent-des-Minimes/Cologne-of-the-Missions-18811.html
I’ll have to check the two Ultas within reasonable distance again. Last time I looked they were both heavy on stuff like Pink Sugar.
Thanks for the tip on the dupe! There is an Ulta not far from where my sister lives, so I can probably manage a swing around during the holiday visits. I tested SDV a long time ago and don’t really remember it well. It may be too sweet for me, but it doesn’t hurt to check, right? Anything for research. 😉
Eeek, i now want to run to my Nordstrom to smell all the HMs! There are quite a few of them in the dainty bottles with butterflies. Is there only one EDP in the bunch?
And welcome out of lurkdom!
hajusuuri,
It’s actually not one of the Butterfly series, it’s just called HM and comes in the frosted glass bottle with the cap designed to look like the end of a tsuka, or japanese sword. I’ll put a link for you!
And thank you! I’m glad to be here with all the other ‘fumeheads 😉
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/hm-by-hanae-mori-mens-eau-de-parfum-spray/2856452
Oops if I’d kept reading I would’ve found this.. Thanks! 🙂
Glad you were able to find the link! Wish I would have specified in my original post that it’s not the ladies Hanae Mori, I didn’t realize most people relate Hanae Mori to the Butterfly series. And I know what you mean about the folks who are afraid to shop outside of their marketed gender; I used to be one of them! If I had never worn HM, I’d never have thought to try the ladies frags too, and I’d probably still be wearing boring mens frags! What a dreadful thought that is now. My perfume wardrobe is mostly feminine marketed fragrances now, all thanks to HM! This is why I had to write about it. Glad you liked my post! 🙂
Thanks…I wish the Men’s fragrance section was right next to the Women’s. I will check it out!
Hi Matthew 🙂
What a great story. It still surprises me the number of people I know who refuse to cross to the other side of gender marketing…
Is the edp the blue bottled one? HM is on my list of things to try, but I’d wondered whether the edt and edp were very different?
When I first started thinking about what fragrance to select for this week’s theme, I couldn’t decide between Chanel No. 19 and Cristalle … but eventually I realized that they were merely my gateway drugs. The one that really, truly sent me down the rabbit hole for good was Parfums de Nicolai’s Le Temps d’Une Fete. I don’t wear this fragrance as often as I should – had nearly forgotten how gorgeous it is.
All those greens are really gorgeous. Temps makes me think of a perfect summer day.
I am a green junkie, for sure. 🙂
I still wonder what happened that day about five years ago when, as AnnS so aptly put it, “my nose and brain just burst open”. The only thing I know is that I suddenly experienced and appreciated perfume in a new way and instantly longed to learn more. The great reviews, informative and funny, together with the initiated and funny passes from the community made me stick to NST almost at once.
Back then niche perfumery was almost unknown here in Stockholm, Sweden, so I spent hours reading through the review archives marvelling at everything exciting available somewhere else.
A trip to Amsterdam brought me into sniffing range of the Frederic Malle and Serge Lutens lines, the ones that appealed to me most in the reviews. And I was not disappointed (not that time anyway). Today I am wearing SL Santal Blanc, which was a mindblower at that time and has come back to a position as a favourite.
It is so great reading all your stories. Thank heavens for internet and NST making it possible to chat away over a shared interest/hobby/passion regardless of where in the world we are!
One of the things I love most about the fragrance blogs – esp. NST – is that I can communicate with people from all over the world. How cool is that? When I was young I always dreamed of living and travelling around the world, so now I get to “travel” via my scent experiences and everyone else’s experiences and comments. A trip to Amsterdam to smell FM and SL sounds just wonderful!! Cheers!
I think I kind of came to this in a slightly unusual way. A few years ago, I was just wearing body sprays that I could get at the drugstore or at Whole Foods. I was wearing one at the time called Zum Mist. It was an oil/water thing that you shake and then spray. The fragrance was supposedly at least partially natural. I had always been curious about the “inner workings” of fragrance, how it’s made, what’s in it, etc, and this one seemed simple enough to give me a foothold into beginning to understand. I had also been playing around with essential oils and such, having absolutely no idea what I was doing. So I did a bit of searching around about natural perfumes, which brought me to Mandy Aftel’s site. I ordered some samples, which I think may have been the first samples I ever ordered. From a mention on her site, I learned about NST, so that brought me here. I guess it was about 3 years ago or so, and this blog and fellow commenters here, I learned about other blogs, and found out who Luca Turin is and all that wonderful stuff. It opened up a whole world I never knew existed.
I don’t have any Aftelier samples at the moment, so I’m DIY-ing it today, since that was kind of what led me to all this.
I’m wearing a new thing I worked out a couple days ago. I’d been having an urge to do something with patchouli for some reason, and to do something all-natural. This is patchouli with a bit of labdanum, star anise, clove, geranium, davana, and blood orange, and a touch of cacao. The davana and orange in the top take some of the sharpness off the geranium. It also creates kind of a strawberry-like accord that made me realize this morning that I’ve basically made a fruitchouli..lol. Now it’s down to a slightly spicy woody patchouli with a hint of incensiness from the labdanum (which is diluted so it’s never distinct as a note).
Your mix sounds nice. I really like labdanum. I’ve recently tried a few of the Aveda Chakras b/c I wanted to try something natural (and not too costly). Sometimes I try and mix up some of my essential oils, but I don’t really have enough to do anything too exciting. I got some Peru Balsam, but it’s all goop and I can’t figure out how to dilute it effectively. I love the way it smells.
I am so glad you mentioned Aveda! Aveda Love is one of my favorites and was originally a message oil, half a bottle from the 1980s still resides in my medicine cabinet and has aged nicely by getting darker, thicker and more pleasing with the passing of time. I suspect there is some excellent sandalwood in there. I have a little rollerball of the modern version and though I enjoy it, it pales by comparison.
I hadn’t seen an Aveda salon for a long time and then recently stumbled across one at a new hair place in a new plaza, etc. So I just poked my head in. I coudn’t resist trying the Chakras and the Men’s Aveda frag. I vaguely remember the older ones that are no longer available. I discovered that I really like the Chakra #1 which is massive vetiver and funky patchouli – lots of green dirt, right – but I’m enjoying it more as a room mist than an actually body product. I tested the Chakra #2 which smells almost identical to their “Shampure” smell, so that is really nice.
Labdanum is one of my favorite materials. It smells so good just on its own. Peru balsam is good stuff. If you can get very high-proof alcohol at your local liquor store, like Everclear, you might be able to dilute it, or at least tincture it if it won’t dissolve into the alcohol. Tincturing can be fun to play with.
Thanks for the tip. I was just using some regular grade vodka, and I managed so scrape some goop in the same vial as some vodka. If I shake it really well, I do get a bit of scent out of the vodka part, even if it’s never dissolved. Is that tincture? I didn’t know about that. I’ll have to look for the Everclear and try again.
May I join the labdanum lover’s club? Essential oils are great to add to lotions to layer with other things. I am currently finding Ylang-Ylang essential oil so intoxicating I just put a dab right on my skin. Olympic Orchids Dev series all contain labdanum. I have this in essential oil as well but have been so distracted by the Ylang-Ylang that I have not played with it much……
Even though I love and wear perfumes all my life (starting probably from when I was around 5 y.o.), I consider “down the rabbit hole” event when I realized that there was life beyond mainstream perfumes and started reading about niche perfumes and buying samples to test them. The perfume that nudged me into doing that was Ormonde Jayne Ta’if. Since then it became one of my all-time favorites.
Usually I wear it for special occasions so it feels a little strange to smell it in the office environment.
Ta’if is so unusual and compelling. And it has one of my favorite LT reviews in The Guide.
[runs to find LT review of Ta’if]
Ta’if is an awesome fragrance to convert you to a perfumista!! It is one of my favorite roses of all. I can wear small doses when I go to work, but you are right – it is so amazing that it seems to call to amazing situations.
When Chanel released Les Exclusifs, I read a blurb about them in the magazine. They sounded intriguing, especially Cuir de Russie; I didn’t know that a leather note could be used in fragrance. Actually, I didn’t even know niche fragrances existed…I didn’t know anything existed beyond what’s found in department stores! But I decided I had to try this perfume that didn’t smell like fruit or flowers or patchouli, and went online to see how I could get samples. The online search not only led me to a seller, but also to perfume blog reviews, and thus I discovered NST, Perfume Smellin’ Things, and Perfume Posse, and that there was a whole world of interesting scents out there to discover. 🙂
Now that you mention Cuir de Russie, I remember wanting very much to try it and Bois des Iles in the 1980s or 1990s but being unable to find them here in DC. What a difference the internet makes!
The first perfume I bought was Rive Gauche, but I’m wearing L’Heure Bleue, the one that convinced me that I want to wear perfume every day.
I loved Rive Gauche when I was just out of college. It was the fragrance that got me interested in perfumes once again when I finally had a job and money to indulge a little bit.
I could cry over a long discarded bottle of Rive Gauche from when I was about 22? 23? years old. I bought it when I was on study abroad my last year of college. It smelled so good! But when I got home it just seemed too sophisticated for my post college situation – bumming around between nothing and grad school – and I never wore it. There is no way that Rive Gauche was anything but sophisticated, even in very small doses. I wish I had it back.
Mitsouko. It was the first one I have selected for myself, the rest were presents or give aways, I loved some of them, but I never was consciously selecting them even if/when I was choosing them.
I think what marks the start of collection is when you are aware of it, even before all the bottles and samples. Collecting is a state of mind, a certain level of awareness, which sets you apart from mere consuming
That’s a good point.
Like many of you, I’ve been into perfume all my life. First, I poached from my mother’s Chanel No. 5, Opium, and White Shoulders. Even as a child, people noticed I enjoyed scent and gave me gifts of little girl perfumes. (The Tinkerbell Perfume set, anyone?)
I was in really odd territory in suburban Texas when I started crossing the aisle, and trying men’s fragrances. I loved Fahrenheit (and Drakkar Noir, she adds in a smaller voice), but acted like I was buying them for my brother or dad. Even Bvlgari’s Black was sold in the men’s section, and it’s the only bottle from that time that I still own, so that is my rabbit hole fragrance. I love very feminine fragrances as well, but I suppose my nose finds fun in a multiplicity of notes.
Somewhere around 2005 or so I found the online community, and have delighted in learning about fragrances and sharing experiences with you who find fragrance as compelling as I do. I’m so glad to have NST and the other blogs that make up the frag com. You are wonderful. (superlative intended :D)
This is a good point. I would probably have gotten tired of this hobby/avocation/obsession by now if I was still doing it by myself or just reading about perfume in magazines. The interaction adds another dimension, and such wonderful people love perfume!
I had the Tinkerbell sets, too. It was really fun stuff for little kids. I think mine was purple, probably a lilac scent?
My sister and I had very small dolls, and each one fit in a plastic perfume bottle-shaped box. The dolls smelled faintly of perfume. I think they were called Kiddle Kologne dolls. I remember that plastic doll + flowery perfume smell right now.
Thanks for prompting that fun memory! 🙂
I love how you put that: ” my nose finds fun in a multiplicity of notes”. That describes how I feel about fragrance, and music for that matter. It’s so enriching to enjoy very contrasting things.
Hey, I loved Drakkar Noir too! No shame there. I remember wanting to buy empty perfume bottles when I was a little girl when we’d go to flea markets, antique shops, etc. I still have one I got that is so small – maybe 3 mls – and came in a tiny pale green velvet pouch. It was like catnip to my imagination. It was that entire dressing table vibe that really attracted me as well. The extension of which is the promise of something that smells and is wonderful. Those bottles were so mysterious and alluring. It was part of the whole package. I am most certainly a juice girl now, but the allure of a fragrance bottle was always in my mind before actual fragrance became a reality.
You are not alone! My initial serious perfume purchases were almost all masculines. I still wear vintage Fahrenheit. I am thankful every day for the wonderful community that is found here and at other fragrance blogs!
That’s interesting. Now that you mention it, unisex perfume has been key in taking my interest to another level. First Eau d’Hadrien, later vetiver perfumes and uncategorizeable ones like Timbuktu. They were a bridge to masculines like Eau Sauvage and Troisieme Homme. You and HemlockSillage were more adventurous to discover them on your own – I have to credit LT, TS and the blogs!
I had always liked perfume but the perfume that really made me fall down the rabbit hole is Chanel Cuir de Russie. This was slightly before I knew about perfume blogs, decants and tons of other things. But I do have that huge bottle of Cuir de Russie before Chanel had the bright idea of a 2.5 ounce bottle.
What a wonderful introduction!
I feel like I fell down the hole in several stages….
First, as a teenager, I was interested in alternative therapies, aromatherapy, making my own incense, etc.
Then in college, I smelled jasmine (the flowers) for the first time. That blew my mind, and I went in search of a jasmine perfume oil (I was kind of a hippy and wanted an essential oil) that would replicate the jasmine I’d smelled. I smelled a bunch, and finally found one (can’t remember the brand now), and drained several bottles over the years. Then went in search of a jasmine perfume, and found IT: Crabtree & Evelyn Jasmine de Provence.
There were many years of not-high-interest, just a couple of perfumes that I’d wear often.
Finally, in 2011, I was at a church rummage sale and found samples of Hermes Hiris, 24 Fauborg, and Caleche. Caleche made me sit up and take notice, and get really interested in scent again. That’s when I found the blogs, and this community, and started smelling ALL THE THINGS.
Today I was running out of the house like a madwoman in the morning, forgot all about the scent of the day, and wound up wearing Ael-Mat, which is lovely, and has quite a lot of jasmine in it.
A lot of my understanding of perfume came from aromatherapy too. At about 16 I stopped buying and wearing all ‘chemical’ products and made my own. The Fragrant Pharmacy by Valerie Ann Worwood was my bible before The Guide 🙂
Oh how I wish I’d kept those old essential oils I had – fabulous Mysore sandalwood, jasmine and rose, frankincense and vetiver all viscous and divine. I had about 50 of them and when I thought them too old ditched them all 🙁 Now I hoard. Lol.
Perthgirl, your oils sound amazing. At least you’ve learned the hoarding lesson. 🙂
There was a really outstanding therapeutic oils shop in Columbus OH when I lived there in the 90s. They sold the most amazing “Myrrh” fragrance for oils, and I used to buy it all the time. I still hoard a small bit of this, which is just so wonderful. I know now that it is most definitely not really myrrh, but is more some kind of rosewood eo blend.
Oh, me too, me too, me too. Fresh jasmine flowers just blow my mind. A lot of my perfume adventures have focused on finding a jasmine perfume to love. No real luck so far though. The jasmine fragrances I’ve tried so far don’t really work for me . . . so I keep looking. Hurray for a never-ending quest!
Donna Karan Gold. No question about it, immediately identified in my head as my rabbit hole fragrance. 🙂
I don’t wear it much any more and I really thought today about why I don’t. It’s still pretty, and I love the combination of the lily and pear (with a touch of vanilla/musk). Honestly, one thing is that it isn’t shy; but it’s also really simple. Big but simplistic might not be where my head is at these days.
I can totally see Gold being a turning point – it’s so different from anything else.
And as soon as I discovered it it was discontinued. I turned to the internet to research alternatives and whoooom! There I went.
I (partially) blame my most recent fall down the rabbit hole on CB I Hate Perfume Tea Rose. I had it for a few years but forgot about it. I’m glad I found it again. It reminded me of the rose fragrances my grandma wore — in a really good way — and it got me excited about fragrances again.
As a child I was very aware of the perfume used by the adults around me. My grandmother usually wore carnation or rose soliflores. I have no idea what they were, but I vividly remember how lovely she smelled.
Grandma allowed my sister and me to play “perfumers” with her perfume collection. She had more than 150 bottles of fragrance.
For mixing we used little pink, plastic Dixie cups from the pink cup dispenser that was on the wall in her pink bathroom. The walls, tiles, floor, sink, tub, toilet, toilet paper, bath towels, bar soap, even toilet paper were pink! We mixed whatever scents we felt like using with no thought to what we were doing. It all went down the drain when we finished playing.
What a stink we made! And sometimes I think it was a waste, but we had such fun at Grandma’s house. She was happy that we were happy. Grandma decided to really, really de-clutter her house when I was a teen, and all that perfume disappeared. I hope some one had a truly great day at the Goodwill.
Your adventures in perfume-making sound grand! As does your grandmother’s collection…drooling at the thought of what could have been in there, and what someone found at goodwill.
It was tremendous fun to play with Gran’s perfume, and she was so generous about it. Reminds me of the generous ladies and gents here on NST who share their favorite fragrances, thoughts, experiences, and expertise. It’s truly a place to find treasures!
Oh my god – that sounds awesome! What else will we do with our scores of unused bottles, lol! I remember my grandfather’s second wife (this is from the early 90s), had a dresser tray full of bottles. It was so amazing, but I would never have been able to ask to sniff or handle them. It seemed almost scandalous and illicit – a “mature” woman who wore heels and did her nails until the day she died. With a dresser full of bottles! What a vixen!
She must have been fabulous! Reminds me of my other grandmother. She had the most beautiful nails and let me use her polish. She only had one fragrance, Youth Dew, and her house always smelled fancy because that fragrance wafted faintly around every room. I didn’t know what the fragrance was until I was grown up and got a Youth Dew mini with an EL cosmetics purchase. It made me smile. 🙂
I’ve worn scent all my life: Canoe, Jovan Musk for Men, Devin, Halston Z-14, Halston 1-12,Paco Rabanne pour homme, Fahrenheit, and enjoyed them all.
When I think back, what made me really interested in parsing perfumes, were the oils that the Body Shop sold in the early ’90s. Smelling the individual notes was a revelation. Also there was a franchise of shops called Cosmetic Center that had actual testers of all the vintage scents that they sold!!! Smelled them all, and purchased so many of them there: Antaeus, Shalimar, Eden, Casmir.
Uncle Serge I discovered via the Neiman Marcus catalog – when you had to telephone to place an order, and the 50ml bottles were $80. Memories light the corners of my mind…..misty………………LOL 😉
Ahhhh, The Body Shop. Way back when the No Animal Testing tagline gave a brand extra points, I bought the strawberry oil (heh, I liked fruity notes way back then), put a smear on my wrist and promptly broke out in a rash. This actually put me off scented products for years. The IFRA can probably use me as a poster child for why they have those stupid guidelines.
Me too. Sigh.
Ah, Canoe. My first boyfriend when I wsa 13 wore Canoe. Giggles abounding here.
I’m giggling, too. Z-14 was so great. It can enter a room before the person wearing it when used liberally. I remember girls in high school who had a Pavlovian response to that one. It was hysterical to see their heads whip around only to find an unexpected face. Right fragrance, wrong boyfriend. Whoops!
SOTD = Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille
This has nothing to do with how / when I fell into the rabbit hole. It was one of my purchases during a super indulgent January 2013. SDV was perfect on a cold Friday – I smelled sophisticated AND delicious 😉
This challenge was challenging. Having now thought this through over and over, I concluded that the turning point down the rabbit hole for me was when I read this article in The New York Times about layering Shu Uemura perfumes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/fashion/20pulse.html
What attracted me were:
1) the Shu Uemura brand – I have their very well-made natural make-up brushes and blotting papers
2) the aesthetic of the perfume bottles – simple round 50 mL bottles with a splash of blue, yellow or pink
3) the idea that I can layer the perfumes to smell different
I blind-bought the entire collection. My favorite was Fleur de Source (blue-light spicy citrusy and softly floral) which I wore by itself or layered with Fleur de Terre (yellow-woody light spicy) but the Fleur de Rose was a fail – it went all dirty socks on me. Anyway, I went through 2 bottles of Fleur de Source and 1 of the Fleur de Terre. I still have my 3rd bottle of Fleur de Source and I got a bottle of Fleur de Terre from a swap last year. It was too cold to wear it today but when the weather gets warmer (next year!), I will definitely revisit these old loves. P.S. I really ought to re-try Fleur de Rose to see if it now appeals to me given more experience with AND liking some rose perfumes.
Hello hajusuuri!
You just jogged my memory – I purchased the original Shu Uemura parfum at the Soho Sephora in 1999. They had the giant ‘perfume organ’ as you entered with the various notes. I could have spent a few weeks just smelling that.
I’ve never used anything from the brand (I’m not even sure where it’s sold around here) and I’ve never heard about their perfumes but I totally understand how layering idea made those perfumes even more attractive.
That Shu Uemura sounds really cool!
SOTD = LL Lolita Lempicka EDP
Bit late with this post – especially since I’ve been lurking for far too long!
LL Lolita Lempicka was definitely my “down the rabbit hole” fragrance. I’d never been much into fragrance. I was gifted Blue Grass in high school in the late 60’s and liked it (still do). I was also gifted No 5 EDT in high school and hated it (still do) — and I am chagrined to say that I binned that 60’s juice! I seem to have always had Blue Grass, Canoe and 4711.
My first ‘serious’ purchase was Shalimar EDP which I bought in remembrance of my dear sister who left a monstrous hole in my life when she died in her 40’s. My sister had in turn bought it in remembrance of my fabulous great aunt, who always smelled intoxicating. I still love Shalimar, but, although intoxicating, it was also familiar, so it didn’t drop me down the rabbit hole.
In 2009, I picked up Lolita Lempicka on a whim from TJMaxx based on a vague recollection of a positive magazine review. I was flabbergasted by it (in the best possible way!) – I could’t stop huffing my wrist. I had to find out more about this juice and thus discovered Robin’s review and NST and many of the fabulous perfume blogs – each with enticing descriptions of other lovelies and my smelly adventure began. Thanks Robin!
Although I still can’t do No 5, through Mals, I discovered MB Mariella Burani and I lurve this. Thanks, Mals! I owe a debt to so many other bloggers and commenters. Thanks, everyone!
A final perfume close to my heart is vintage Arpege – in remembrance of my mother.
Hi and welcome! So glad we were your gateway to the perfume blogs 🙂
Welcome from lurking! Mariella Burani is a wonderful aldehyde fragrance and I have half a bottle that I horde. I also have a very old bottle of Blue Grass bath oil that belonged to my Granny. It always sat proudly in her bathroom.
Okay, this is totally late but yesterday flew by too quickly to type out my contribution.
Yesterday I wore Folle de Joie, a scent I found in my BirchBox subscription. It’s a citrus woody cologny thing, pleasant and has lots of great reviews on BirchBox. I had worn Marc Jacobs self-titled, Lolita Lempica original flavor, and a couple others including JM Nectarine Blossom and Honey, in the years before, but it wasn’t until I had about 7-8 perfume samples from Birchbox lined up in front of my, and testing which ones I liked enough to keep.
From there I started getting into sampling and reading online blogs. It happened to coincide with a time in my life when I needed an outlet – something new to learn about and experience. I also quickly came to love the way perfume defines my personal space. I needed that definition, and since I’ve always loved clothing and such, this was another way to define my personal style.
Anyway, samples led to samples led to more samples then small bottles then ebay then Surrender to Chance… and bam! Here I am, a full year later, and it’s officially down the rabbit hole into the puffy, scented pillows at the bottom. I don’t regret a second – and my guy is starting to slide his way down as well 😀
Loved reading everyone’s stories, and so appreciate this community.