The Significant Other - Perfumes?

I know that often one of the partnership is a declared perfumista/o and the other so-so.

My husband used to appreciate whatever I bought but I was the leader.

How is it with your situation? Do you do things like that together, do you have to convince your dear, or do you find non-understanding or opposition?

Do tell.

My partner supports my perfume interest. He never used perfume previously, only deodorant spray. However he has slowly picked up some appreciation by osmosis. I joked on here a while ago that, if I held my wrist to him and asked him what he smelled, it was always 'flowers'. The fragrance might be gourmand, spicy, or aquatic, but always he would say 'flowers'! But now he has a little more understanding of notes, maybe three or four additional descriptives!
In truth he is probably the reason I feel I can actually buy perfumes without too much guilt... he encourages my interest because he sees that it makes me happy, so if he walks in on me umming and aaaahing over an eBay listing, he is usually the one to say, within reason, "treat yourself"!
He is also a good sport when it comes to me randomly sampling perfumes on him. My other housemates and guests are also quite used to it by now.

I am my husband's perfumer . Sometimes I just buy perfumes for him knowing his taste but most of the time he behaves like a " perfume house" and tells me what he would like to have and I do my best to make my " customer" happy.
He sincerely likes my passion for perfumes and encourages it.

My boyfriend doesn't have much interest in fragrances. I have bought him a few as well as given him samples. Most of the time, he uses the Oak deodorant spray from bath and body works I bought for $3 on clearance.

He doesn't like much of anything I wear and often says, "it stinks". Whatever.

Like Scarletting, he see that the hobby keeps me happy so he doesn't complain about it.

If anything, he shows more interest in the lotions, soaps, and candles I buy. He loves candles, especially ones that smell like pine, oak, vetiver, etc.

I've posted previously about Mr Triffid's journey of fragrant enlightenment and his conversion from being a soap-and-water one-cologne sort of guy into a modestly enthusiastic fragrance user with a small collection.
He wasn't all that interested in my hobby until last year when I began ordering samples for the Triffid sons to choose from. After that, his personal requests starting coming in. It definitely encourages the menfolk if you compliment them on how good they smell (and for Mr Triffid, to imply that he radiates a new-found fragrant manliness and allure).

I knew a milestone had been reached when we went on a trip together recently. On day two of our holiday he became quite anxious that I hadn't decanted sufficient amounts of his favourites to last the trip. He was really annoyed! One would think that a combined total of 8ml would be enough for a week (it wasn't) so in the end I had to give him some of the less feminine sample vials I'd packed for myself, just to stop him complaining.
He has not gone so far as to learn the fragrance names and still refers to things as "the red box", "the blue box" etc. Nor has he acquired any perfume vocabulary beyond a few randomly applied terms such as "nice", 'woody', metallic" and "oud". And he does get nervous about the expanding army of perfume boxes that seem to be colonising every barren nook in the bedroom.
Still, I'm pleased to have his interest and it's fun to share and compare our fragrance selections for the day.

Between my postage boxes from ordering samples and full bottles online and my SO's boardgame obsession/addiction and the packages they come in, I doubt I'll ever be short of cardboard storage again! We really must to invest in some renter's insurance, the mental image of my perfumes and his huge stacks of games fuelling each other in a great ball of flame is nightmare material.

That's so funny, you're sitting on a bonfire right there. I guess one of those Montale fire extinguisher bottles would be unhelpful at this point.

My hubby is not a connoisseur of scent or flavors (which I think of as related). He does have some things that he definitely doesn't like (amber!)and skank (things like My Sin, Shocking) but otherwise, he has no interest really. He doesn't mind that I enjoy it. He supports my choice to have a hobby though.

I have trouble getting him to wear much as he's always convinced that it bothers his nose, however, nothing I wear seems to do so. He's conflicted. LOL

A cute update:
The other day I finally managed to visit Klein's in Melbourne. It was heavenly. The shop assistants were both knowledgeable and generous, spraying samples of what I asked for and also what they thought I'd enjoy. I was able to knock out some perfumes I was curious about ("Timbuktu" was a bit too fresh for me to wear often) and decide that others were 100% for my buy list (Tokyo Milk's "Bulletproof" will be mine ASAP!)

Anyway, my SO knew how long I was likely to spend indulging my nose so at first he went to browse other stores on the street. He eventually came back and watched, much amused. I don't get out much and it has been a stressful day of getting things done in the CBD so not only was I in my element, my happiness was infectious. "Like a kid in a proverbial store."
Just as we were about to leave (read: I had to drag myself away) I said, "Hey, let me find a perfume for you to try!" At first I looked seriously, thinking, hmm, what will he really enjoy? There were so many brands to choose from. But then I spied the Demeter range! Haha!
I have tried to explain Demeter's shtick to him before but I don't think he quite believed how close to the mark their scents can get, so when I prayed some "Pizza" on his wrist, he went from dubious to amazed to bewildered. We laughingly agreed that while it was a perfect impression of margherita pizza (slightly burnt cheese, doughy crust and italian herbs) he didn't particularly want to smell like a pizza!

I wish we had a store like Kleins here in Sydney. Perhaps there is something in the CBD (there must be!) but I don't go in to the city much. Probably just as well - too much temptation!
Demeter have a fragrance called 'Earthworm' that has me curious. I imagine it smells dank and earthy with perhaps a little sweet compost....

For us, it's about a 60/40 split, or maybe a touch higher. I'm the one more into fragrances. However, she's more into food. So we've ended up expanding each other's sensory worlds and it's awesome.

We do go to Sephora and Ulta together and there's no problem about buying fragrances and such. There's no opposition. If anything, there's some mutual enabling going on. LOL!

Correct me if I'm wrong. Sometimes I feel like Ulta has a better selection of men's colognes than women's perfume.

One of the ways I spiraled into the addiction was buying perfume for my wife as gifts which then led to buying fragrances for myself. Like Silverfire, there's no covering up the dysfunctional level of mutual enabling that goes on between us. I know things are bad when my wife -usually the careful money manager- is tries to goad me into buying a high end perfume for myself and I have to say no!

Hayven, maybe your Ulta has a better men's selection than our local outlet. But then I always think the women's selection is better no matter what the store! Last year Ulta remodeled our local store but they hung onto the same old, shop worn men's display. They simply moved it to a different location. To see fragrances on the bottom-most shelves you practically have to crawl around on the floor. The women's display is now set on nice circular and curved, serpentine shelves set no lower than waist height. Although I will say, those refill CANISTERS of Alien look hideously industrial, don't they?

I think it comes down to what perfume really is to us. For those willing to take the time to appreciate and develop their noses, perfume is right up there with food, drugs, sex and other "vices", but with little to none of the negative aspects; you can't gain weight from it no matter how good it smells, you can't get STDs or fall pregnant from perfume! The only real downside is the expense... and the greedy temptation to buy a full bottle of every whiff we enjoy.