The olofactory sense of human beings is comparitively weak & unsophisticated. It is the fifth sense, unsupplemented in second-hand descriptions of rooms & little noted in our own recollections.
So, perfume. Smell is a grounding sense to me. I am anxious & sensitive to the hectic whirlwind of stimuli drumming out of cars- exhaust, the buzz of the engine, the angelic shriek of sunlight off of their glittery metal shells- people- speech, their consciousness, their dogs, the rhythm of their footsteps, their own heavy perfumes and body odors- and nature- flurries of bird-chatter, the supersaturated greens, the tactile fingers of wind mussing my hair. I walk or bike with earbuds in to buff the noise, though this can become grating in its own right & there are many times that I need/want to listen. The fragrance oil on my wrists is a concentrated version of the shielding offered by audio. Smells plod along steadily, linear gradiations & shades of form rather than the excitable progressions of sound or the moment-to-moment changes in touch or sight. Olfaction is the extra sense. You can remember suddenly to tune in, and analyze that thing which you rarely give much thought to. Settle down. concentrate & deconstruct it for just a little while. Remember the tale it told you. How do you feel?
I also enjoy smelling good.
A signature scent is a fragrance that you or others identify you with. An aromatic fingerprint. I have tenatively annointed Flower by Kenzo as mine. Flower came to me by way of a 3-piece sample set I purchased off of Ebay. It came with two other favorites: Kenzo Amour, a weighted vanillic blanket with a strangely pleasant plastic play-dough quality, and Parfum d'ete, which I imagine to be the smell of pure white light and early morning spring air, that synthetic quality just like its cousin taking the shape of some lotion or sunscreen.(The seller kindly suprised me with a perfectly nice bubbly floral called London Flirt by Rimmel.) Flower is baby powder. I loved it ! It was somehow clean & cooling. I'm not sure if my classmates approved in my 9AM Trigonometry class (which I FAILED), but I thoroughly enjoyed its comforting nostalgic cloak. I identified with its gentle hand & the connotations of infancy &- to me- the elderly. Samples usually aren't totally representative of the full scent profile toted by their larger bottles. This was the case for Flower. I received a 1.7oz bottle, pictured somwhere around this text, and found that the sample neglected this facet of the fragrance that skirted around stale & musty. Amour had playdough, Parfum d'Ete had sunscreen, and Flower had this odd dusty turn to it. I returned to the sample and it sheepishly presented that strange quality to me there too. However, like Amour & Parfum, I still liked it !
I currently own >1mL bottles of 11 perfumes. (by date purchased, ascending)
>Guess, Guess Girl
>Bath & Body Works, Champagne Toast
>Bath & Body Works, Lemon Snowdrop
>Belcam Inc. ?, Light & Harmony (I have no idea where I got this or the previous 3)
>Jessica McClintock, Jessica McClintock #3
>Cacheral, Noa
>Karl Lagerfeld, Sun Moon Stars
>Valeria Mazza, Valeria
>Giorgio Beverly Hills, Wings
>Kenzo, Flower
>Jesus del Pozo, Halloween
I own samples of 8 perfumes.
>Issey Miyake, A Drop D'Issey
>Kenzo, Parfum D'Ete
>Kenzo, Kenzo Amour
>Lanvin, Eclat d'Arpege
>Elizabeth Arden, White Tea Vanilla Orchid
>Elizabeth Arden, Sunflowers Sunrise
>Aerin Lauder, Lilac Path
>Universal FLowering, Saffron Flour
I previously owned two perfumes.
>Jimmy Choo, Jimmy Choo; My first real perfume, I gifted it to my mother who liked it much more than me
>Taylor Swift, Wonderstruck; A miniature given to my by a middle-school friend. I thought that it was some mysteriously fragrant antique container. Nope ! I don't even like Taylor Swift.
One of the unfortunate aspects of being "into" perfume is that developing your taste requires a helluva lotta cash. If you don't live near any perfume stores or are too timid to walk into Ulta, spray product on yourself, then tail it every day, you have to spend around five dollars for about a millilitre of fragrance oil to see how it plays with your body chemistry. This is a mildly embarrassing hobby & none of us are escaping samsara.
These are some perfumes that I have been excitedly lusting after lately.
>Tan GiudiCelli, Annam
I was lead to this perfume by its promise of rice & tuberose. Rice, having been an eye-catcher since my interest in fragrance first stirred, is garunteed intrigue. Tuberose is something I have begun searching for just recently. I like the idea of a heavy, creamy, white floral, like the smooth gliding texture of a petal. Rice, tuberose, lily, milk, sandalwood, other "woody notes." I'm imagining something cool & comforting. (I don't think that you can really get an idea of a scent simply by looking at the listed notes, but I am enamored with that list.) Lastly, I like that round dollop of a bottle. Annam is rare & expensive, a 3mL minature of the thing is going for ~90USD. 50mL bottles go for hundreds of dollars on Russian & Japanese second-hand websites. Not that it matters, since apparently it is incredibly difficult to ship perfumes internationally. Decants are available for somewhat reasonable prices here. Annam is at the top of my list of perfumes to try !
>Yves Saint Laurent, Cinema
Fragrantica has a perfume finder function that gives you suggestions similar to inputted combinations of fragrances. Cinema came up a couple times when I did this for a few perfumes that I liked. But a floral vanilla in an interesting patterned glass bottle.
>Michael Kors, Michael
A discovery on my tuberose quest. Idetrich introduced me to the term BWF: Big White Floral. I liked it because it reminded me of BBW & PAWG. I think that acronyms are hilarious. Why, yes, I do love BWFs & PAWGs. I don't actually know if I love BWFs as much as I love PAWGs, but I figure that the best way to find out is to try one.
>Demeter, Kitten Fur
Demeter creates all kinds of interesting fragrances, like Thunderstorm, Pizza, Laundromat, & Funeral Home. Demeter seems to seek accuracy through reproduction rather than abstraction. Like many lesbians, I really love cats, owned several & occasionally I would stuff my face into their fur. You have to wonder about much of Demeter's stock. I decided that I would try Kitten Fur first, as I wondered about it most.
