It feels almost wrong but I can’t stop telling everybody how great our summer is so far: sunny but cool and breathy. But I should mention that I sympathize a lot with those who suffer from the recent heat wave.
For those of my readers who might still remember that I had some… ambitious New Year Resolutions I want to report that as of the end of June I was still good. Unfortunately, that was probably the last month about which I’m able to say that. I’ve reached my self-imposed limits on both full bottles and decants.
Now I’m trying to decide what to do. I know that there is no way I can go through the rest of the year without adding any perfumes to my collection. So should I just accept that and hope I’ll be somewhat reasonable or is it better to set new quota and try to stay within it? I don’t know.
I’m testing less of new perfumes because I’m trying to spend more time with those samples that I previously tested and didn’t make up my mind. It means that my pile of untested perfumes isn’t getting any smaller. My dream: all companies in perfumes from which I’m interested decide to take a year-long hiatus in launching new perfumes… Yeah, right.
Quick June stats:
Numbers in parenthesis are comparison to the previous month’s numbers.
* Different perfumes worn1: 26 (-1) from 19 (0) brands on 29 (-2) occasions;
* Favorite perfumes worn: 19 (-1) on 19 (-4) occasions;
* Different perfumes tested2: 38 (-7) from 23 (-5) brands on 45 (-11) occasions;
* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 9 (-20);
* Perfume house I wore most often: Dior;
* Perfume house I tested the most: Serge Lutens;
* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) rose and neroli; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) iris root and ylang ylang (the same as last year); base – musk, vanilla and sandalwood;
* Perfumes I tried for the first time and liked: Grand Bal by Dior, Chypre Palatin by Parfums MDCI and Vetiver Oriental by Serge Lutens.
If you had NY resolutions regarding perfumes are you still following them? Are you succeeding? Are you failing?
1 For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.
2 When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.
Image: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 
Hey Undina, Always interesting looking at your stats. I think you should try Birgit’s 1/month bottle buy.
Do i really think that? NO!!!
Portia xx
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Hmm… A bottle per month sounds … interesting. Thank you for thhe idea, Portia ;)
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Hi Undina,
Big faliure here, my NY resulotion was a limited perfum budget per month and this was exceeded every month and the yearly budget is also already exceeded. My strategy for the rest of the year is to restrict myself to try out only new offerings from the houses that I appreciate the most. But as MdO, Amouage, Serge Lutens and Vero Kern is among those houses, this fall also seems to be quite expensive. But on the other hand: I’ve been good also, selling off a bunch of bottles during the first half of 2012.
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Just those four?! You are being modest ;) Didn’t you forget By Kilian, Frederic Malle and Xerjoff?
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Must have repressed these facts…. :-) And probably PG will release something more this year too
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September promises to be challenging :)
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This has nothing to do with your stats, but am I allowed to do a happy dance because you like Vetiver Oriental? (And Chypre Palatin, which I already knew from your comments at Birgit’s blog).
We are moving closer to becoming scent twins. :) Well, maybe not, but we certainly like a lot of the same things (and I saw at BOTO blog that you recently named Ubar as one of your top 3 most beautiful perfumes, which made me happy too.)
Not that I’m spying on you at all these other blogs, or anything. :D I just notice, that’s all. :)
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Dance all you waitnt! And it’s fine, I also notice on different blogs who of my friends likes/dislikes which perfumes.
I would sooo like to get a scent twin! It would be so great!
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My piles of samples are having piles of samples, and while I spent less on acquisition in q2 than in q1, I’m still not happy with where my spending levels are at. HOWEVER, I’m pretty happy with where my collection is at. I’m enjoying my fumes, and rotating through them as much as possible, which has to be a Good, right?
I made a resolution about buying in July (limit per pay period) and then immediately failed to keep it (well, there’s an eBay seller cleaning out old Ava Luxes, and…) But really, I think you’d agree with me that it’s about enjoying the process more than anything else, no?
I’m so fascinated that you are interested in new releases, whereas I am constantly haunted by classics and discontinued oldies. I’ve been looking at bottles of Shulton’s Desert Flower on eBay for a month, for no other reason than as soon as I saw it, I remembered seeing it in someone’s house as a child. Interesting!
My next goal is complete my “scent profile” as per your outline.
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I made a point of not trying discontinued/vintage perfumes unless they just fall into my laps – just because I do not want to fall for a perfume I cannot get.
I think it’s really great that you’re wearing those perfumes that you love. That was my last year’s resolution and I succeeded there and keep doing that this year. But I do think it’s important to try limiting at least one’s collection – even if money isn’t an object. (I hope you realize I’m trying to persuade myself ;) ).
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I admire you for these statistics; as soon as failure looms on the resolution side, I tend to want to give up! I’m curious about that high spike of positive reactions to indie perfumes this month. Has that been a particular house, or a mix of houses?
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It was a mix, but a good mix – Aftelier Perfumes, April Aromatics, DSH Perfumes and Sonoma Scent Studio. But most of those weren’t perfumes I tested for the first time. I decided to go over some of those that I liked when I tested them the first time.
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Those are some pricey “like at first sniff” perfumes – you have my sympathies, Undina :) Honestly though, I doubt any of us rigidly stick to our budgets/restrictions. I think it’s a success if it reins us in a bit and makes us think about our purchases and I’m sure you’ve done that.
I didn’t have any perfume resolutions but I had in mind that I didn’t want to exceed the 30 bottles mark. I’m pretty sure that’s no longer the case and totally unrealistic in the long-term.
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(innocently) 30 bottles per year? ;)
I agree that those are more of a guidelines than strict rules but I’m still trying to stay within at least some limits… I’m trying :)
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Ha! I think I’d stand a good chance of sticking to my guidelines if it were 30 bottles a year :)
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Always marvel at your organizational skills. The only way I manage to stave off anarchy in the perfume cabinet is by 1) strategic substitutions of reasonable for horribly expensive and 2) 10 bottles at a time. I trade or sell or what have you you but I stick at ten.
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I think the last time I owned less then 10 bottles (we’re not talking about samples, right?)… probably 10 years ago. And now, when I mentally tried to choose just 10 from my collection to use, let’s say, for the next year, I almost fainted :) I admire your resolvement!
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