Which type of perfume collector are you ?

The idea for this topic came to me originally from an article by Elena Vosnaki in PERFUME SHRINE -
perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2011/05/which-type- of-perfume-collector-are-you.html

Well, I will go to great lengths to get just THE scent. It usually happens that something is new or advertised. Then, I seek it out in a department store and probably buy it on the internet.
Or, via members' recommendations, from an occasional sample, just potluck.
Bottles are not displayed, but hidden cool and dark. Almost everything is decanted into smaller for the handbag or travel.

I am a snob, probably. Will spend the money for an extravagant scent, will use lesser ones for room spray when I am tired of them.

Will never tire of perfumes/perfumery as such.

Ha ha, very good article. Thank you for the link. My collector profile probably snuggles in somewhere between the housewife and the serious collector.

I will travel the earth for the right scent if my nose and/or mind gets fixed upon it. No single obstacle will stop any pursuit of some whiff. Patience and much research is my game and will wait a long time to add the last bottle to a set. Having found it, I will obtain it against all odds if the searching has lasted for many years. Woe betide any opposition in an ebay auction unless it gets too silly.

The classics are my favourites and my extensive collection shows where. Especially lovely are the bottles of the really ancient ones, but often they are out of my realistic price range so I just have to wait. The focus has to stay within a few favourite houses for the moment. My perfume cupboard is darkened and has a special ancient bottle shelf and a normal house section. No harm in asking if you take a fancy to anything. I understand the nature of collecting the last item to complete an idea/range/house/line. I haven't finished listing yet.

Modern perfumes are interesting and it is fun to try or swap or play games online. I love it all really. Samples are useful things to keep for a library as an interesting reference point. That has the advantage of not needing much space for storage.

I have always loved perfumes since I was a little girl and also will never tire of it. This is a delightful gentle place with similarly minded people. The collection listing facility is superb and it is fun listing all these lovely scents. I have been revisiting many to do so.

Hmmm. You know how a friend will say "Why do you use the word ______ so often?" And it is perfectly obvious to them that you use that word all the time, even though you have never been conscious of it.

I guess I need an objective outsider to tell me which parfumista category I fit in as well. My FBs are more designer than niche. I'll seek out all perfumes I can find that feature one of my favorite notes more than I pay attention to the nose behind them. I guess I'm kind of a bargain-loving gal as well. Nothing in my collection is much over $100. There are just so few things I enjoy enough to justify buying them much beyond that.

Now that was a funny article.
I fell in love with perfume ever since I first smelled Shalimar as a little girl. As a young teen, I began spending my hard-earned baby-sitting money on drugstore scents. Fast forward to college, and I would head for the department stores and the niches. I've always been a collector, a user and a lover of perfumes. These days, I know what notes I love and that's what I'll buy as a FB. Sampling is easy to do from the net if I really want to know a new perfume. What I truly love to do is find the old vintages that I no longer have and re-stock them or find ones that I never had to simply try them.

Once a perfume is past a certain price bracket ($30-$40 AUD for a normal perfume, more for something with rarer, quality ingredients like oud) I go by reviews and notes alone. I couldn't care less if it's niche or a huge brand, if anything niche is much harder for me to get due to being overseas, not being able to sample easily and extra shipping costs. The only time I become enamoured of a brand is if I've tried enough of their scents to say, hell yes, more please!

The price bracket I mention is simply general regard how much it costs to make a passable perfume... once upon a time I would try out knock-offs of popular houses but now that I have more experience the formulations are palpably cheap mixes not worthy of the term "juice", just rough, unfavourable synthetics. Still, you can pick up something like "Lovely" or "Believe" for the price of a pizza delivery, but those are exceptions to the rule.

a super tongue in cheek article of which I am sure many might see a little of themselves. However, my choices have always been based upon my favourite notes and their varieties, with the occasional pretty bottle thrown in for good measure.

I am the "Perfume is for use" collector and partly go to great lengths for getting my hand on a bottle of a juice I find promising (however, blind buys have become rare after some annoying drawbacks)....but this love might be over very soon.

I am a feeble leaf in the scent world, today here, tomorrow there

My aim is not to have a large collection but one that satisfies all my strange moods. Some treasures have been with me for a longer time (and probably will be forever), others will be replaced by the latest fashion and trend.

Having reduced to about 50 bottles I have now the feeling this volume is perfect for me.

I like to wear evweyrhing but I am finding myself attracted to boxes and bottles of many vintages more than rhe fragrance itself.

I used to buy perfumes for the bottle's looks alone...but I have found that to be a huge waste of money. I don't enjoy them as much if I tuck them away from light and warm areas. I have been happy using decants and samples lately.

PontNeuf, I get this. I select fragrances almost entirely by how I believe they will fit my varying moods throughout the course of a year or particular occasions for which I intend to wear them. I'm particularly particular about wearing scents that fit certain environmental factors of a day or season. I have fragrances that I only wear in the fall, like Chene when oak leaves have fallen from the trees and their scent perfumes the air. I can't imagine wearing it at any other time of year. On hot, humid days, Pamplemousse Rose by Hermes. On cool, breezy summer days, Phylosykos and in cold, dry weather Fou d'Absinthe… you get the idea. With that in mind, my collection is fairly small.

I am definately more inquisitive than acquisitive. There are times that I just feel privileged to be able to try, to experience, a beautiful fragrance, but I don't need to have it. Well, not immediately..........

No really. I don't collect for the sake of it. I collect for the love of it. I'm not a prolific buyer. I also have a long wish list!

Lol! I am definitely somewhere between the eager novice and the housewife (even though my actual living situation is far from that). I have little patience for the really hard-to-understand perfumes - although I will give each one that I get my hands on a fair trial and control for factors that might turn an experience sour for me before writing anything off as unwearable. I hold on to my samples because my tastes and personal chemistry will probably change a lot as I age (see: Mitsouko, a true olfactory love but not one I could yet pull off). Also this:



My thoughts exactly! Also I try not to hold on to perfumes that I wouldn't use. I have very little storage space and precious few full bottles, and if I am not convinced by a perfume, I take a decant for reference and try to find the bottle a good home.

That reminds me -- do you have any particular criteria for committing to buy a full bottle?

I used to go for style over substance but lately go for classy spicy smelling fragrances I am addicted to nice/ unusual bottles though

Funny article but none of them quite describe me.

I remember when I first started, it was after I did an aromatherapy course and it confirmed what I already knew - 1. scents affect/enhance mood and 2. blending different notes is incredibly satisfying magical alchemy which presents infinite possibilities.

I bought The Guide and starting reading about perfumes. I made lists of the classic, 'must try' perfumes. Then I researched online. Then I ordered samples. I remember sniffing and looking at the notes and trying to sort them out in my mind - what am I smelling now? Is this what violet leaves smell like?

Once I had tried all the classics and modern popular scents, I started reading notes and imagining what different perfumes would smell like. I selected a few from Lucky Scent without thinking of the word 'niche'. They were artisanal to me. Artistry. Craft.

Now I am as appreciative of a well crafted designer/celebrity scent (not an oxymoron necessarily - there are some very good ones) as a vintage or niche beauty. If it smells good - sign me up! But what keeps me sniffing? That's the question I get asked. Don't I have enough? I love such-and-such so why don't I just wear that?

The answer is in the original seed of this passion - the infinite possibilities inherent in blending notes. There is always something new to try.

I'll go for some cheap but good perfume. I do not prefer expensive perfumes. Fragrance attracts me the most then price.