Following great tradition started by two wonderful bloggers, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) and Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies), once a week I or one of the guest writers will keep the lights on in this virtual leaving room, but I hope that you, my friends and readers, will engage in conversation not only with me or the other host, but also with each other.
Saturday Question #14:
Do You Wear the Same Perfume Two Days in a Row?
I doubt any of my readers are of a “signature scent” type. At least not any more. But how about wearing the same perfume for two or more days in a row? Do you ever do that? If yes, when and what perfumes?
My Answer
I can still remember times when I could wear the same perfume for several days or sometimes every second day alternating just a couple perfumes from my wardrobe. But in the last 10 years I hardly ever wore the same perfume twice even in any given month – let alone for two consecutive days.
A couple of exceptions from this rule I can think of are my trips to Hawaii and my Imaginary Signature Scent experiment from many years ago.
In Hawaii I usually wear Bronze Goddess every morning (taking it from the fridge and using it as a cooling mist over my body), but, first of all, it became a tradition for me, and second, with all the swimming, sweating and showering, when in Hawaii, I manage to wear 2-3 perfumes per day, so repeating Bronze Goddess doesn’t feel restrictive at all.
During the experiment that I mentioned (and linked to) above, I chose one perfume and wore it for (almost) a week. I described what I thought and felt about it in the post Imaginary Signature Scent: A Conclusion, but in short, while I can manage that kind of experiment, even without an unrepairable damage to my relationship with a test subject perfume, I would prefer to never do that.
Do You Wear the Same Perfume Two Days in a Row?
Undina's Looking Glass 
Oh yes, absolutely. 😀
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Hardly ever. With the odd exception such as on holidays if my decants are running low. I love your Bronze Goddess in the fridge parked right beside the wine. That’s my kinda thinking.
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I want to bring it to your attention that the third, absolutely essential item for Hawaii vacation item – water – is also in the picture :)
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Yep, I noticed that too. All the bases covered😉
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In the early years I never used to but I do it a lot nowadays. I wear Iris Silver Mist for a stretch in late autumn, Tea for Two for most of December, No19 for days in a row in Spring. I guess sone perfumes epitomise the season for me.
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How interesting! It looks like your development goes into the opposite direction to mine.
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:)
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No, unless I am trying to finish a sample or decant that is evaporating but that never takes more than 2 days in a row.
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I have an issue with finishing … anything :) So, with the evaporation, I would just probably try to either isolate better or move to a different bottle/vial.
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Very rarely, unless I am traveling. One time I took a decant of BV The Knot for a week long trip to visit my parents. I never want to smell it again.
Back in the 80’s and 90.s though, I would often wear the same scent for months at a time. Once I discovered niche perfumery those days were over.
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Having a large perfume wardrobe probably pushes us towards … diversifying :)
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Oh absolutely! I consider doing so a sign of good perfume health. Omg that sounds like a terrible thing.. let me explain. I can get very frantic with perfume, wearing multiple ones a day for days on end in some kind of sampling/mood frenzy. And then suddenly I’m just not appreciating anything the way I should. Then I fall back to an old favourite, or a new discovery that is going to become a besties and I wear it for two days. We get to know each other. Moods, food, weather. We grow close through it all. And then I’m centered. I can go back to a few a day and sampling and I’m good, my bestie is in my corner.
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Since my “testing” and “wearing” are two different modes, while testing, I might try the same perfume many days in a row or do it once and forget for years, but it’s not wearing – it’s more like a patch test. But when I apply perfume to wear (almost always one from my collection, not a sample), I rarely want to repeat it the next day. But I understand your reasoning.
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I agree with that. Like slipping on a comfortable piece of clothing. It fits and always makes you feel good. You enjoy the different nuances, the minuscule changes that occur depending on weather, season, time of day. I have recently worn Malle’s Rose & Cuir 5 days in a row. xxx
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If not to count these crazy WFH times, I don’t like wearing the same piece of clothing either ;)
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I do wear the same thing for a few days in a row, because I like the way the dry down lingers, and then when you apply the next day you really get to appreciate the entire scent all at once. I love Mona di Orio’s Suede de Suede-the opening is fantastic, and the musky dry down just thrills me. I wore it a lot during March and enjoyed having the cloudberry top simultaneously with the music dry down. Then I like to take a one day scent free break-I find I can still smell some kind of scent residue and it helps me reset my nose.
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It’s an interesting explanation.
Not too often, but sometimes when I wear perfume that stays with me over night sleep, I feel tempted to repeat the experience.
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Yes! I totally agree. When you reapply over the dry down the next day it’s like the perfume becomes even more part of your skin. You get to experience the top notes over the dry down. I love that.
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No, the second day I love it immediately. It feels like an old friend.
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OOOH! Another good question Undina,
Not often.
During C19 lockdown though I have been prone to. Doing a bit of tidying up in the perfume room means discovering favourites that were put away and forgotten. A couple of these have had consecutive wears to really relive my love for them.
Also, my long time go-to faves I can wear a couple of days.
On holidays it happens quite a lot because I only carry a few decants and travel sizes with me. OR I might buy something new and addictively wear it for a few days, enjoying the thrill of new ownership.
Portia xx
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Do you wear those “forgotten” perfumes longer than usually because one time is not enough, or because you’re trying to “make up” for time you neglected them? :)
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I have reborn only two of them two days consecutively Undina and I enjoyed the first day so much I wanted to do it all again.
Portia xx
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During vacation but rarely otherwise. I think I feel guilty if I don’t keep working through my collection. Perhaps if I ever manage to pare it down (because if I only owned perfumes that made me absolutely SWOON I wouldn’t own nearly as many as I do) I would do more repeating. I have been working toward a more minimalist approach this year; I’m succeeding in some categories but not making a lot of progress with perfume…
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I know the same guilt! LOL. Too many fragrances and not enough time to wear them all.
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I think, my reasoning is similar: I want to keep going through my collection, otherwise I’ll have to think about why I got those bottles in it in the first place ;)
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Don’t feel guilty! Wear what you love. Life is short :)
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Yes, partly because I only have samples with me here for variety but mainly for comfort I think. I’m wearing Parfum Sacre a lot these days, I love it, it suits the colder weather we are having and I need all the comfort I can get. We’re in the epicenter now and waiting for the peak to hopefully come soon.
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That is a good one!
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Oh wow. I forgot how much I love Parfum Sacre. It’s been years since I’ve sniffed that one!
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Hang on in there!
I have a sample of Parfum Sacre, so I’ll re-test it soon.
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Thank you!
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I rarely wear the same perfume two days, but often I wear the same category of scents like Chypres or Orientals.
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It kind of makes sense to me: those genres roughly fall into weather/season ranges, so wearing perfumes from that genre in the same period feels natural.
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My collection is small. And (to me) every perfume is damn good. Mediocre does not cut the mustard. 😄
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I wish I had your perspective when I started down this rabbit hole. I would have bought much less and only the swoon-worthy ones! Perhaps I’ll get there someday…
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It is such a healthy approach! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be like that: it’s hard for me to let go, even if one of my perfumes doesn’t get any wearing (which probably means that I don’t like it as much).
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Not anymore, except when travelling and I would bring a decant sample to use up. Interesting that you have the whole box in the fridge and not just the bottle – any particular reason for that? I’d be worried about the box getting soft ☺
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To tell you the truth, I don’t remember whether at the trip when I took this picture I kept the bottle in the fridge in the box or put it back into it just to take that picture.
In general, 5-7 days in Hawaii, in or out of fridge won’t make much difference to a box. I know that I usually keep it in the box if we share the same condo with our friends (not to shock them by a perfume bottle next to food) and separate them when we have the fridge for ourselves.
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I rarely wear the same scent two days in a row in the daytime, but sometimes I go through stages when I enjoy the same scent at bedtime on successive days. The one that comes to mind first is Jicky EDT, but I’ve had a few others I wore that way.
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I just realized that while I love and wear Jicky extrait, I can’t remember how the EdT version smells. I need to find my decant and try it again.
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It smells to me like a sparkling lavender, more noticeably so than the EDP.
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Never. I only buy what I truly love, but even then, I would say not more often then every six months with the exception of my go-to travel and work meeting scents.
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My perfumes are also on a long rotation cycle, but I have a tendency to wear most perfumes just once a year, and the most favorite get 3-4 and up to, I think, 12 occasions (I might wear 2 different perfumes during the day, e.g., one to the office and one in the evening – that’s how I create additional opportunities for me to wear perfumes I love).
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Once a year????? I find that incredibly sad 🤷🏼♀️
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Yeah, I know… But I still enjoy it, even this way – so, at least for now I don’t plan to change anything.
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Sad is relative. Ahahahahahaha! We all have totally idiosyncratic perfume behaviour. Please do not change a thing. 😄
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Except for vacation and when I am trying to experiment, I usually don’t wear the same perfume 2 days in a row. Due to a failed experiment today to see how long 16 sprays of CDG Series 2: Red Carnation last, I will be repeating it tomorrow 🤣.
Thinking about this further, I think I can wear several perfumes multiple days in a row without getting bored (e.g. Chanel No19 EDP, Chanel No5 L’Eau, Chanel 28 La Pausa EDT, Parfum Satori Satori, SSS Incense Pure, just to name a few).
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Pray tell: how exactly could that experiment possibly fail?! :)
Interesting: I’m not sure I even recognize the name (Satori), while it got “an honorable mention) in the list with known “heavy-hitters.”
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Parfum Satori Satori is a light incense perfume. I’ll include some in the package which probably needs to wait a few months.
As to the failed experiment, I got blowback from decanting Papillon Anubis and since it also go on the gloves, I decided to just rub it on my hair 🤣. Red Carnation stood zero chance.
I repeated the experiment today with 16 sprays and I am being generous when I say I got 4 hours out of it. It was very good while it lasted … and the red bottle is pretty!
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I definitely don’t have a signature scent. If I am reviewing something, I will wear it several days in a row to get a feel for it. Otherwise, I am pretty much influenced by my moods, which means a great variety.
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It would be curious to meet a signature scent-type perfume reviewer ;)
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Not very often, but it happens. It’s most likely going to happen with my favourites, but it can happen in seasons too. Like the short time of lilac will have me reach for White lilac and rhubarb. Or if it’s very warm outside, something my perfume wardrobe is less geared for because of where I live, I might also have only a handful of suitable perfumes. Then I might have one preference that summer, and wear mostly that. It happened with Lys soleia.
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I have to admit that my perfume wardrobe is less geared towards warm weather, even though it’s mostly warm (and sometimes hot) where I live :)
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Often, and there is no pattern to it, ie it could be any perfume I happen to like. Laziness is usually the trigger. Today is a case in point – Day 2 of Love and Tears.
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Laziness is a very respectable reason, in my book :)
I also like Love and Tears, and I’ll probably wear it at some point this week since it’s going to be hot.
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Yes.
I spent seven weeks a few summers ago in Assam of India and started the NST Assam craze.
One winter I wore Stash for three and a half weeks and thunked the bottle.
Last spring wore Reglisse Noire for a month and finished that bottle.
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You were the only person, in whose response I was sure when I asked the question :)
I must say that you, single-handedly, moved me towards buying a discovery set of Parfums Berdoues and then later Assam of India, which I liked but might have never bought if it weren’t for your fascination with those elephants.
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I also thought of Brigitte and knew her response. I love it how we learn to know each other’s habits and favourites :-)
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Undina and Neva,
I am so predictable!! LOL
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Almost always! And sometimes three days in a row. Even when it comes to my favorites, when I apply it in the morning I may wonder why I ever thought this perfume was good! After 4 or 5 hours I’m in love with it again. So, naturally I want to wear it and enjoy it all day the next day!
Favorites to wear multiple days in a row the past couple of years: All four seasons: Amouage Opus X (a resinous rose), Commes des Garcons Sticky Cake, LAP Passage d’Enfer.
Winter; PdE Tabac Tabou.
Summer: LAP Nuit de Tubereuse.
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I’m curious: when you apply the same perfume on the second day, do you again go through the same phase of “acclimatization,” or the second day is fine from the beginning?
With Opuses I stopped at, I think, VII or VIII, but now, of course, I want to try that resinous rose.
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Yes I do! (I don’t mean ELDO’s perfume ;-) )
Spontaneously I’d reach every day for another perfume but sometimes I make a decision to wear the same perfume for a few days or even a week and observe how I feel about it. What I like about it is that I can actually finish a bottle every now and then and it works fine only with perfumes I haven’t worn in a long time so I really enjoy wearing them a few days in a row. Clinique Wrappings and Tiempe Passate I can hardly get enough of…but there the fun ends and I return to “normal” – each day another perfume.
Holidays are different, I take a full bottle with me and I am determined to finish it before I return home so I spray all the time from head to toe. I take sample vials as alternatives, just in case.
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Once you’re done with those bottles, do you buy new ones?
“In real life” (I.e.: pre-lockdown) I wear to the office my … less offensive perfumes. So, whenever I go to holidays, I try to use those perfumes that I cannot wear to the office. So, finishing those would be especially hard (those bottles are fuller), and I wouldn’t want to wear my office perfumes during holidays just to finish them.
Nice to see one more fan of Tiempe Passate :)
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I never repurchase my holiday fragrances. They are supposed to be temporary, just like the holiday.
There are several perfumes I will always repurchase when I finish a bottle, no matter how long I’ve known them…and I hope Tiempe Passate will also be among them :-)
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Unfortunately, Antonia’s Flowers took an open-ended hiatus, so I’m not sure whether that perfume will be available again.
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Yes, I wear the same perfume several days in a row. When it is really warm (which here means anything over 25C), I have a Limited selection of perfumes to pick from and on other days it is just the wish for something totally predictable and easy (the office friendly perfumes mostly or a smooth amber for a winter evening). Also, I’m really trying to finish a few bottles, like Bulgari Mon Jasmin Noir and Guerlain AA Mandarine Basilic and so I make an effort to use those more often than last year even if they are no longer favourites.
With new bottles I sometimes wear the same perfume for a week, since it is always something I have waited a while to get my hands on.
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I might wear perfume for several days (maybe not straight but close) before committing to a new bottle. So, afterwards, once I get it, it takes some time for me to go back to it.
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I don’t think I’ve ever worn the same thing twice consecutively since getting into fragrance. Twice in a week, maybe!
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When you say “getting into fragrance,” do you mean started using perfumes in general or moved from a functional use to being interested in the field? I’m asking because it’s hard to imagine having 2 or more fragrances in somebody’s collection from the first go.
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Moving from function to an interest. My collection consisted of 3 frags for a few years, before I developed an active interest.
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I definitely wear the same scent 2 or 3 days in a row. Now that my collection is down to a more manageable level of around 60 bottles, I can wear each fragrance for 6 days in a row if I want and still enjoy them all in a year.
I usually just wear a fragrance 2 or 3 days in a row so I can feel that I really smelled all the lovely nuances of each perfume.
I often wear 2 or 3 scents in the same day as well, 1 in the morning, another in the afternoon if the morning scent fades quickly, and another at night. If I’m sampling, there will be one on each arm. I love being enveloped in a cloud of perfume all the time. That’s the joy of retirement. Woo hoo! No more do I have to worry about some annoying person saying, “What’s that smell? I thought we weren’t supposed to wear ‘loud’ perfumes.” We all know those grumpy people!!
Lucky for me my hubby lost some of his sense of smell after 2 sinus surgeries so I can smell as loud as I want! All the time. It’s great!!
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Working from home now allows me to test multiple perfumes in parallel during the day. I’ll miss that when I have to go back to the office.
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