Tips I Wish I Would've Known When Starting This Journey
Hey there! I (27F) really love to write and keep track of my journey through this amazing hobby that is perfumes. I started not too long ago (end of November 2022) and since then, I've read countless numbers of articles and reviews from different people. I've also scoured Sephora and Shopper's Drug Market website for fragrances and sniffed a whole lot of different perfumes in-store. I often like to keep track of my observations and thoughts, so here are things I wished someone would've told me when I started out this journey. I just hope it'll help people who are also starting and feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything.
- Take your time. Although it might often seem like a race because of the countless new releases and discontinued fragrances, it's not a race to get to the finishing line (is there even a finishing line?). It's all about enjoying the fragrances you own and researching before you acquire another one. When I started, I felt I had to sniff them all, everytime, at the same time, which kind of burned me out. Since then, I've been a bit more careful: I'll be getting samplers and testing them out, but I'll also be going back to my older fragrances and enjoying them (self-care benefit y'all!).
- This hobby can get quite expensive. Perfumes are a luxury item not everybody can afford. There's absolutely no shame in trying out samplers or buying travel sized bottles instead of full bottles. People on social media (looking at you Instagram reels) often show their grand collection full of sparkling bottles, which is nice of course, but will they ever be able to use them all? Some people have even been collecting them for years and have spread their expenses over those said years. When I first started this journey, I fell for this trap and acquired a few full bottles before stopping myself and realising I wouldn't use them all. Since then, I've set up a system that alleviates the expenses that go towards this hobby (I might write an article just on that). Perfumes should never come before your more important expenses and remember: there will always be another sale!
- Keep an open mind. Scent is present in all spheres of our life. In skincare, in haircare, just about everywhere. There are also different types of fragrances: Bath & Body scents, celebrity fragrances, designer perfumes and niche ones. None are better than the other. Sure, some use more luxurious and high-end ingredients, but it all comes down to your enjoyment of the scent. If Bath & Body is so disgusting, wouldn't it have gone out of business a long time ago? Everybody should be able to enjoy their fragrances no matter where they come from. Being snobby and stuck-up about it is a disservice to this magnfiicient hobby. I remember when I started, I avoided body mists because of this preconceived judgement I had. I ended up smelling a few body mists at TJ Maax and loved some. I even went to a Bath & Body shop and took the time to smell different body mists and they smelled nice (some were better than bottles of perfumes I had back home!).
- Be careful about scammers. Just like about anything in this world, bad people will often cheat newcomers. Do your research before buying a fragrance on eBay or other fragrance-selling website. Some offer nice discounts and are legit, but others sell cheap, diluted or faux juices. Some bottles may almost look like the real thing, but are not. Be wary when you fall on a great (too great) deal. I haven't bought fragrances on websites yet (I'm way too over-cautious about it), but if I ever do, I'll be sure to triple-check my sources before committing.
- Last of all: Enjoy yourself! This is a hobby. It must not become an addiction. Take pleasure in the scents you have acquired and those you will get in the future. Talk with other people, get to know an amazing and helpful community. Learn about popular and more indie houses of perfume. Explore, do your research, self-care because you can and grow from all of this. Just have fun!
I hope my tips will have helped those who are just starting out. As for those who have been in this hobby for a long time, do you have any other tips you'd like to add? Write it down as a comment, I'd love to hear y'all! 😊
*** Cover from (unknown)