August was nice: we had several hot days and the rest of the month was on the cooler side. But perfume wear/test-wise it was a strange month for me: as I was trying to figure out if perfumes contributed to my persistent cough (I think they didn’t) I took a break from any perfumes for a while; in addition to that, at least several perfumes I wore during the month had such staying power that testing anything else the same day was out of question. As a result, I both tested and wore fewer perfumes.
So I decided to entertain you with another type of statistics data.
Do you remember the fun question Birgit of Olfactoria’s Travels asked last year: Guerlain or Chanel? and the results we compiled? So when last Monday Birgit asked to choose ten “deserted island perfumes”, I got curious to see if answers to this question correlated to the previous results. But when I started I couldn’t stop just there.
Our deserted island will be populated by at least 45 perfumistas, though there was some dissension as to the climate choice: concerns were voiced that not all favorite perfumes were tropic-friendly.
Future settlers named 310 unique perfumes from 91 brands (when a concentration or vintage were mentioned I counted perfumes as unique). See the chart above for the total number of selected perfumes for top 15 brands.
Two most popular perfumes were Guerlain Shalimar and Frederic Malle Carnal Flower – 11 voices each; Chanel No 5 got 6 votes (including one for parfum); Amouage Lyric, Chanel Coromandel, Lancome Cuir de Lancome, Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan and Chanel No 19 (counting EdP, EdT, parfum and vintage) got 5 voices each. 79 perfumes were named by more than one perfumista. It means that we’ll have 231 unrepeated perfumes to enjoy ourselves or swap – not bad for a group of 45.
Only 4 out of 10 perfumes on my list were unique (Climat by Lancôme, Tiempe Passate by Antonia’s Flowers, Vert pour Madame by DSH Perfumes and Sweet Milk by Jo Malone). Only Chanel No 19 though was among the most popular selections. The other five were on two to three people’s lists.
I wonder how good my swapping chances would be.
Undina's Looking Glass 
Excellent! You are simply awesome, Undina!
I love that post and the image is hilarious!!!
Thank you very much for this!
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Thank you, Birgit! Your Monday Questions are always so much fun!
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SO GOOD! What a great insight into us all. I enjoyed the question but only you Undina, would have thought to make a chart. Excellent,
Portia XOX
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Thank you, Portia! :)
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This is great! :) Thank you so much for compiling this – I like the fact that among 45 of us, there would 231 different perfumes. :)
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Provided we all have an unlimited supply of those we all should be set through the rest of our lives :)
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Awesome, Undina. I was in fact thinking about Birgit’s Chanel vs Guerlain recently. Now I’m sorry I didn’t take part in the desert island question, but it was a bit too close to my current living situation to be fun. Needless to say I would have added considerably to the Guerlain count;-)
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Asali, if you’re living on a deserted island with just 10 perfumes please give us the coordinates and we’ll send you some more! :)
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hahahaha! Now wouldn’t that be something to cheer me up :-D At the moment my real life desert island perfumes were picked a bit randomly and in haste, and are only 7!!! What’s so nice about decants apart from the fact that they travel well, is also that I bring my perfume friends along, since I always think about each person who send me the decant when I use it:-)
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I’m not surprised to see Guerlain on top. Interesting breakdown of the results. Thanks.
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But Chanel is the close second! :)
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Very interesting analysis and hysterical cartoon!
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Thank you, I’m not an artist so it was a challenge.
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Absolutely fascinating! And I agree: the image of the island is awesome!
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It’s really hard when you have an image in your head but can’t implement it properly. I tried really hard and, in general, am happy with the result. So thank you.
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Oh my gosh! Wonderful work! Makes me wish I had answered the survey!
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Susan, you still can do it! :)
What are your 10 deserted island perfumes?
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So funny… since Mals brought the topic up on her blog yesterday, I actually typed my choices up over there, and then my comment got eaten. So I’ll try one more time. But I’m not sure I’ll perfectly replicate what I typed over there.
-Lanvin Arpege
-Chanel No. 22
-Tableau de Parfums Miriam
-Tauer Perfumes Orange Star
-Tauer Perfums Carillon Pour un Ange
-Dior Escale a Pondichery
-Chanel Cristalle
-Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess
-Sweet Anthem Mary
-LUSH Lust
-Matiere Parfumeur et Gantier Tubereuse
That’s 11, but I have some close runners-up… Estee Lauder Tuscany per Donna, a few more Tauers… and on and on! :)
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11 is fine (since Mals allowed 12 ;) ).
I should probably get to try Lanvin Arpege: I keep reading about it but somehow I never came across it.
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do you want me to send you some?? :) :)
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Oh, now this is a fun poll! I went back and checked, and five out of my ten were unrepeated: Black Cashmere, Pulp, 28 La Pausa (which surprised me), Ambre Fétiche and Cuir Ottoman. You and I both had Heure Exquise on our lists, and I shared Après l’Ondée with Carol. And Coromandel got lots of love, yay!
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Oh! Pulp, Ambre Fétiche and Cuir Ottoman are definitely my favorites so I just hope I’d have something to interest you when we all lend on that island! :)
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Woman, you are a force of nature! This was the most entertaining of your “Entertaining Statistics” … I absolutely loved it, and you drew that cartoon??!
Awesome.
By the way, I’m sure you noticed that I had Heure Exquise on my list too. Just thinking about it right at this moment makes me want to wear it. :)
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Thank you, Suzanne. I didn’t completely draw the cartoon, it was more of a compilation of different parts I found online but, I think, it was more work than it would have been had I been capable of drawing :)
I noticed both Heure Exquise and Antonia on your list. And I will definitely come to your part of the island at least for Opus I, No.22 and Chypre Palatin.
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Oh, FUN!
I am obviously a freak for not being that into Carnal Flower.
Extremely pleased to see the preponderance of Amouages, however! :-)
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Carnal Flower isn’t for me either. Amouage, on the other hand, is a brand that alone might be enough for me for a while.
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This was definitely fascinating! I’m surprised about Carnal Flower too, and also by how popular Mona di Orio is for a small line – that says a lot about quality, doesn’t it? Thanks for compiling the stats!
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Thank you for highlighting that fact about Mona di Orio – I didn’t realize that it was the most popular brand after all big players. It’s fascinating how many different angles there are to any set of numbers.
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I also woner if you combine other perfumes what would be the ratio of “others” to the charted perfumes?
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I’m not sure what it tells us (it definitely can be used for something, I just cannot figure out now for what: my statistics course wasn’t too deep) but it’s easy to get.
Most popular brands got 295 perfumes mentioned (with duplicates), “others” have 158 perfumes mentioned (again, with duplicates).
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It’ll give an idea of the market’s “megavendors” to those who have limited time – should I look for one of a kind or a “megavendor”?
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