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some_stars) wrote2022-02-09 11:15 am
some_stars) wrote2022-02-09 11:15 am
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whole lot of stuff has happened (HORRIFIC depression that seems to be lifting, compulsive and out of control retail therapy that...is still happening and may be the reason i feel less depressed, gross finger injury last night that required cauterization by silver nitrate which hurts SO FUCKING BAD) but i would like to discuss perfume!
i've been cultivating a perfume sample collection since 2019, when i got into lipstick and started making a lot of orders from sephora where they give you 2 free samples w each order and i always chose the perfume bc i don't use other makeup or skincare. and over the past month i've been getting more into it, and today i finally made the spreadsheet ive been meaning to make so i can test and record each one, and it turns out i have 46 of them now.....i ordered some random sample lots on ebay yesterday so i will soon have a dozen more. and i made an account on fragrantica and basically i'm WAY too into this for someone who can't afford to buy more than one or two 1.7 oz bottles a year and also never gets close enough to another human to be smelled anyway.
rydra_wong are you still into perfume? is anyone else into perfume? i really want to learn more about how to describe things and interesting weird ones to try and also just talk about it bc i feel like this is a topic i could get VERY nerdy about. i'd also love to learn about smaller niche less ruinously expensive brands, lmao
i've been cultivating a perfume sample collection since 2019, when i got into lipstick and started making a lot of orders from sephora where they give you 2 free samples w each order and i always chose the perfume bc i don't use other makeup or skincare. and over the past month i've been getting more into it, and today i finally made the spreadsheet ive been meaning to make so i can test and record each one, and it turns out i have 46 of them now.....i ordered some random sample lots on ebay yesterday so i will soon have a dozen more. and i made an account on fragrantica and basically i'm WAY too into this for someone who can't afford to buy more than one or two 1.7 oz bottles a year and also never gets close enough to another human to be smelled anyway.
rydra_wong are you still into perfume? is anyone else into perfume? i really want to learn more about how to describe things and interesting weird ones to try and also just talk about it bc i feel like this is a topic i could get VERY nerdy about. i'd also love to learn about smaller niche less ruinously expensive brands, lmao
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I am ALWAYS into perfume, whether I am currently babbling about it or not.
and basically i'm WAY too into this for someone who can't afford to buy more than one or two 1.7 oz bottles a year
Fuck bottles, bless websites that sell decants (I've forgotten, are you in the US? If so, https://surrendertochance.com/ and https://www.theperfumedcourt.com/ are good). I made a rule a while back that I'm not allowed to buy a bottle of anything (or even a larger decant) until I've worn my way through a whole vial, and the result of this rule is that I buy a lot of sample vials and wear a lot more perfume and probably spend less money overall.
and also never gets close enough to another human to be smelled anyway
Also irrelevant, imho! I mean, I personally think more people should appreciate how amazing (or at least interesting) I smell, but I wear perfume for personal mood-boosting, and the same way I use headphones, to provide me with a bit of a sensory bubble when venturing into the outside world. It helps.
Anyway! What have you been smelling? What do you like, what's been interesting to you so far, what would you like to talk about?
(Also: very sorry to hear about the depression; it is the most awful thing. Gglad it seems to be lifting.)
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my favorite since 2019 has been miu miu twist; i like florals and SOME fruitiness but i HATE gourmand scents and fruit sometimes seems to lean that way. anything that smells sweet more than a little bit is on the no list. the ebay samples i ordered were all men's scents which i want to try more of. i really like chloe, also, and most things that could be called "grandma scents," and citrus & ocean smells. also i put on a sample of lush's lust a few weeks ago and ADORED it but i can't remember details. (i have like....no vocabulary for scent, at least not yet.) i've had fairly bad luck with bpal, which saddens me bc the descriptions and concepts are so cool, but also i haven't tried the imps i have in like a year so i might feel different now.
and honestly i'd love to support more indie brands and get away from the sephora/department store stuff, which i love as products but ethically, you know, meh.
edit: also i just want to try some INTERESTING and DIFFERENT stuff even if i don't end up liking it. i am treating my depression with a constant stream of novelty, and it's not a good long term strategy bc $$ but it does work, lmao
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Honestly, I can think of much worse strategies -- just a question of keeping it affordable (and decants help so much with that). New brain stimulation is good, and a whole new field to learn and nerd out about is a rich source. I feel it's got to boost BDNF or some such.
(i have like....no vocabulary for scent, at least not yet.)
But you get to learn it and develop your "nose" and start to pick out specific notes and see how they fit together, and that's a huge part of the joy!
(There are also some fantastic books about perfume out there.)
Btw, my past perfume posts are tagged, should that be of interest: https://rydra-wong.dreamwidth.org/tag/perfume
Some linkspam, some posts about different perfume genres and notes, various olfactory adventures, some very good discussions in comments.
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If you can get ahold of single note perfumes, those are great for going "ohhhh that's what this is", which is how I discovered that I really don't care for tuberose, at least not on its own.
Also at least one of the BPAL cinnamon notes turns to absolute angry snarling tree bark on me, and I'm not sure which one.
The columns in my spreadsheet:
Perfume (name); Scent Notes (large unwieldy field for notes and flavor text; House (maker); Group (if there are collections like with BPAL); Tried it? (y/n); Have/ Want; How much?; Willing to swap? (how much do I want to keep it); Commentary Notes (to distinguish from scent notes); Provenance (this is where I name the decant circle); Worked? (yes/no-ish); [here begins the sniff test commentary]: Bottle; Wet; Drydown; dry; Done; Mood (that I would want to evoke with the scent); Forum/Reviews (link); Shop (link); Perfume (repeat of column for spreadsheet reasons); [here begin the calculated fields which I mostly hide, yes/no based on whether there's anything in the field]: checkscent; checkreview; checkshop; checkhouse; checkgroup; needinfo (shown: sum of research fields left empty); checktry; checkswap; checkcomt; checkwork; checkbot; checkwet; checkdd; checkdry; checkdone; checkmood; needrev (shown: sum of trial fields left empty);
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It's a big jasmine, right? Suggests you might have fun exploring other jasmine-heavy scents, and/or the wider category of "white florals" (also gardenia, tuberose, etc.). There are a lot of very generic ones because it's a popular category, but also some really fascinating scenes in the genre.
I wrote up a few weird jasmines for
https://rydra-wong.dreamwidth.org/382973.html?thread=4528381#cmt4528381
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https://surrendertochance.com/frederic-malle-lys-mediterranee/
Lilies but with a salty breeze. The lilies are next to a beach.
(Some people find lilies send their brains straight to funeral homes; as I said, YMMV is especially applicable with perfume.)
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I am so happy to be able to share this deeply life-enhancing knowledge.
now i just need to figure out where to start...
Pick a theme or themes you're interested in and ask for recs here! And/or look through the decant sites' listing for "perfumes by note" or themed samplers; even if you don't want to buy the whole sampler, there might be a few items that sound interesting enough to investigate.
edit: also i just want to try some INTERESTING and DIFFERENT stuff even if i don't end up liking it.
Yes! It can be interesting and enriching even if what you find out is that you hate such and such a perfume. There are many many scents which I personally wouldn't wear but am really glad I spent a few quid on smelling, because I learned and experienced something. As long as stuff's not boring/generic/interchangeable (to me, all judgements are subjective, especially with perfume, ymmv).
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I got a sample subscription from Bloom - they are in the UK - https://bloomperfume.co.uk/pages/samples-subscription
and that let me learn about notes and what I like.
Last time I was saying perfume on twitter someone mentioned The Book and
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I will second the rec for
I will also second the Turin and Sanchez book which is very helpful.
Here via rydra-wong
If you want to try smaller perfume brands or like to read other’s reviews of same, there is a site for that: https://indiescentlibrary.com/
I, too, use a spreadsheet to keep track of scents and who I have given things to: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-PpL2UEroNS6_3U0DSLfeBhVUtlSISX2w0no5_7q12k/edit (if you/anyone wants to exchange any of your unwanted gourmand/woodsy/floriental scents for anything on the list not marked in gold or struck through, everything on the Heidi tab is my current crop of scents) (if it’s marked in pink you don’t even need to swap me for it, just get it the hell away from me, lol)