Category Archives: Perfume thoughts

Thriving niche sub-culture in Zagreb

Perfume thoughts September 19, 2012 Comments: 8

And I wasn’t even aware of it until now! 🙂

I mean, I knew there must be people in Croatia who loved niche perfume as there are 3 perfumeries in Zagreb carrying niche perfumes but I never met those people who shop there and love those perfumes.
Until now.

As I’m not really a strong character, saving money is not something I am good at. Or at all. So, after spending way too much money on perfume in the last 3 months (I can’t even bear to count how many bottles I acquired during that time), I figured it was time to get some of it back.

Therefore, I decided to sell off some decants from my bottles as there is no way I can possibly use up all of them, and I listed them on a Croatian forum.

What can I say?! I learned there are people here who can’t wait to get their hands on some of the things I have. 🙂 Which is a sentiment I can relate to.

Not to mention that they have some things I’d love to have so I predict some swapping in the cards as well.

Perfumes forever!

P.S. We really should come up with a good catch-phrase or a slogan for our fragrant community. 😉

I breathe in…. and relax

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts August 30, 2012 Comments: 2

I’ve probably said this many times in my posts but I can’t help being surprised again and again when it happens.

The feeling comes upon you at the strangest times, you breathe, you realize there is a smell in the air you would like to smell better, you breathe it in more fully and then you feel your body relax. The stress sort of siphons out of your body and you smile without meaning to.

It can happen anywhere and with any kind of smell (well, a pleasant one).
Breathing in the smell of freshly baked bread, sensing the seasons in the air, a new perfume discovery that not only makes you let go of all your stress but also sends pleasant shivers down your spine, the lingering perfume of a passerby, the freshly cut fruit and vegetables (especially at this time of year) and grass any time of year, in my case also snow, the freshly washed smell of shampoo in the hair….

The list goes on and on, but the important thing for me is that there is no other sense that I can use which will enable me to relax in the space of one breath.

I just wish I could utilize this consciously. 🙂

How I manage to forget this, I have no idea

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts July 22, 2012 Comments: 8

I guess it comes down to this: I don’t sample (test) any of the perfumes I have and then, a couple of days goes by, life takes all my energy and I have no more left to use for testing a sample (in order to write about it).

So, after several days pass in such a manner and the only perfume I smell is the one I apply in the morning and then forget about, it somehow slips my mind and I forget how much perfumes help with easing one’s (stressed) mind.
And that is exactly what they do for me. No matter how much I like them or not, the fact is, when I smell a perfume, I can feel my mind easing off the stress and my body relaxing.
I wish I would remember for future stressful times that I don’t need to apply perfume in order to write about it, I could just apply different things to my arm in order to get lost for a bit in this beautiful universe.

Although, honestly, I’m not that surprised that perfumes are the last thing on my mind (for testing and writing purposes) – so far, this has been a very difficult year, for me mostly because of the workload, but also full of bad news not applied to me directly, but hitting very close.

Perfumes and books (and now running) help me deal with all of this, I just wish I wouldn’t keep forgetting how big a role perfume actually has in helping with stress.

Oh well, hopefully now I’ve put it down in writing, I won’t forget it soon. 🙂

Random perfume (and other) thoughts

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts July 13, 2012 Comments: 12

These are the things that don’t require a post of their own but that keep going through my head lately:

  • After falling in love with Chypre Palatin, I cannot but think about Denyse’s book The Perfume Lover and what she mentions there of her talks with Bertrand Duchafour – that he would do so many different and strange perfumes but has no financial backing for them (I now wish Mr. Duchafour could win lottery so he can create whatever he pleases and of course make it available)
  • And speaking of Mr. Duchafour and Denyse, I really want a bottle of Séville à l’Aube

  • I’m looking forward to reading Alyssa Harrad’s book, Coming to my Senses, I haven’t read any of the reviews as to not influence mine
  • Then again, I am looking forward to reading many books once my vacation starts (just 2 more weeks to go!) 🙂
  • While I’m on the subject of books, there is way too much of them I want to read and not enough time in my life to do it

  • Speaking of reviews, it’s a minefield out there in the perfume community if you want to review a perfume that just came out, and you were lucky to receive a sample, but don’t want to be influenced by what other reviewers wrote (especially if you’re slow like me)
  • I’m still amazed by the perfume synchronicity happening – a perfume seems to find its way to you at the right moment when you need something exactly like that (latest case, Mito)
  • Hopefully, with my vacation nearing, I’ll be able to write more perfume reviews as there are many perfumes I’d like to talk about (Chypre Palatin being on top of the list)

  • I also need to read my posts before I publish them because when I get to them later, I find really stupid mistakes I made while writing them

  • They might tell you (they being your trainers) that it’s not easy to lose weight while running, but everyone else will think you did – you might lose a little bit but the rest gets re-arranged so everyone will think you actually lost quite a bit (I’m not going to talk about rising energy levels now which you get too)
  • While I’m on the subject of running, as with everything else in my life, I am slow but I get there in the end – you just need to let me do it in my own rhythm

OK, I’m off to finish the book I’m reading at the moment (re-reading Kresley Cole’s Lothaire).

The fragrant air in Zagreb

Perfume thoughts June 6, 2012 Comments: 10
I must say, I don’t remember ever so vividly smelling and remembering the period when the linden trees were blooming in Zagreb.

And I’m only just becoming aware of the fact, that along the chestnuts, those must the most common trees around Zagreb. Because when you’re walking (or being driven on a motorcycle) you pass through these wonderful linden-smelling parts of the city.
Each time that happens, I try and inhale as much of the scent as I can, it is just so full of memories for me.

So, is it just me or does linden smell a bit wistful to you?
It is quite possible that is just my state of mind…

Stuck in perfume limbo

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts April 28, 2012 Comments: 13

I’m blaming it on the weather (and possibly fatigue and stress, but mainly weather).

The spring started here even before the calendar said so, and then went back-tracking into something resembling more autumn and now  we’re finally getting the sun and warmth, and now we’re hitting almost summer temperatures which is coming as quite a shock to many people (the instant rise from cold into summer).

I had started contemplating spring perfumes sometime in March when the spring first showed its face and then I got stuck, as the temperatures fell and I needed to wear my coat again in order to feel warm enough.

So now it’s very warm, I’ve skipped my spring perfumes and I’m at a loss what to apply each day (like I’ve been for the last month and a half).
I’ve sort of lost my perfume (wearing) thread.

Not to mention the fact that most of my summer perfumes are hidden somewhere in the depths of my closet …

If not sooner, I’m hoping the next trip to Paris will deal with my perfume limbo. After all, Paris helps with any problems you might have. 😉

I’ve been thinking

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts March 28, 2012 Comments: 13

As the title says, I’ve been thinking about discontinued perfumes all day today, prompted by Birgit’s find of a perfume shop with vintage treasures.

My mind went mostly the way of discontinued Guerlains but it could be applicable to any company still in existence and producing perfumes.

The way I figure it, it all revolves around money and economy. Economy being the operative word here. One I hate sincerely. Because you cannot possibly convince me it’s in my best interest to follow economic principles that can’t be understood through common sense (which is most today). And honestly, the banking and economic systems in effect today seem very far away from common sense to me. That especially includes banks. Basically, any institution that makes you pay for the mess they made of the world we live in today.

Ok, I’ll stop with the rant – this really is about perfume. 🙂

So, I was thinking, most discontinued perfumes went that way because of lack of sales (making enough money as the company deems profitable). I say most, I’m aware some can no longer be produced due to unavailable ingredients.
But basically, the perfume goes into alcohol so you don’t need that much of the original formula to make several hundred bottles.

What I’ve been thinking is, many discontinued perfumes have fans that would love to get access to bottles of their favourite perfumes.
So, why not make smaller batches of those perfumes and  not place them into boutiques but make them available at order? You wouldn’t need to ship them to boutiques and basically, only hardcore fans would buy them straight from your headquarters. I’m pretty sure you could even put those in simple bottles, just as long as fans would get the juice they wanted.

And I believe even eBay wouldn’t be a problem because anyone could order a bottle for themselves and those that went on eBay would mean that the seller would have to go below the original price, otherwise anyone could get a bottle for the usual price from the company. So, I don’t think many of those bottles would appear on ebay.

Basically, this sounds sensible to me (bear in mind I have no economic knowledge).

What do you think? Are there huge holes in my idea I can’t see?

Hoarding

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts February 16, 2012 Comments: 18

Sometimes the most unexpected things occur to me.
Although, I probably shouldn’t call them unexpected. It’s just the fact that they haven’t occurred before that makes them unexpected but then again, every idea anyone has could be called that. 🙂

Basically, I realized I hoard my samples and decants.

Especially decants.
They are rather small to begin with (compared to bottles) and are either 5 or 10 ml of perfumes I like, and would like to know better (so I can review them).
But that same size makes them rather fleeting, when compared to bottles, so I’m scared of using them, in order not to use them up before I get the chance to write about them.
I realize it’s rather stupid, because if I wore them, I’d have a better chance of actually talking about them than now, when I’m hesitating of wearing them in order not to use all of what I have.

That is also why this winter I’ve been rotating 5 bottles I have in order not to spend any of the decants I have. Which I guess contributes to the winter blues I’m experiencing, but hopefully, now I’m aware of my perfume hoarding tendencies, I’ll be able to combat them with spraying decants with abandon. 🙂
After all, they are a legion. 🙂

Does this happen to anyone else?

Being careful around SL perfumes

Perfume thoughts January 25, 2012 Comments: 14

It hit me this morning when applying Rousse.

It’s not only Fleurs d’Oranger you need to take care when you decide to apply, as Birgit  explained the other day.
Many Serge Lutens perfumes are mischievous, not exactly beasts, but creatures they could be. Everything is working fine until one day you put the perfume on, and it smells off. I’m pretty sure this has happened to many of you but the only perfume house which perfumes do this to me is Serge Lutens.

I will have to employ some investigative methods  to discover why exactly does that happen but I think I know.

*psssst*

I believe they know when you are applying them without being sure it’s the right perfume for that day as you’re thinking, today this might work.
They know…

That is what happened to me today.
And that has also happened with Fleurs d’Oranger, and Cedre, once with Serge Noire, Fille en Aiguilles and Boxeuses (I’m pretty sure it will happen with some others I decide to wear without being sure it’s their perfectly right time).

I tell you – they know your heart wasn’t in it when you sprayed it. And they take revenge.

The sweet smell of fall…

Perfume thoughts October 13, 2011 Comments: 10

This year, autumn has taken its sweet time in arriving. 🙂

Practically, until week ago, we’ve been having summer days – I think that was the longest I remember of having such sunny, warm days.
This September in Zagreb was the warmest since the start of measuring temperatures (some 150 years ago), so I guess that tells you a lot.

I’m not one to enjoy the summer heat, but the warm, balmy days we had, suited me fine. The only problem was that my fall/winter perfume collection kept beckoning, and I kept giving it a wide berth. The time to wear it just wasn’t right.

Well, now it is. 🙂

My collection got turned around so that the perfumes that warm me up are now close at hand, and those that cool me off, are having a vacation.

I also noticed that my mood for perfume these days leans toward the more masculine of the warm genre. Dry, herbal patchoulis, dry woods, sniping orientals.
I guess you might say I’m not in a mellow mood these days… 😉

(which is mainly caused by work and me finally starting to learn to stand up for myself – I hope…)

Pic is mine – the Versailles gardens. 🙂