It is not a serious question: I couldn’t help but paraphrase the philosophical question “If a tree falls in a forest… ” It was prompted by real events earlier this week (see My Answer for more details), but for the Saturday Question post I meant it more along the line: How often does it happen to you?
Saturday Question #225:
If You Can’t Find a Perfume in Your Collection, Does It Even Exist?
Is your collection small enough or well-organized so that this never happens to you? Or do you also struggle with locating perfumes you want to wear or test?
My Answer
In the beginning of the week, after reading Vanessa’s (Bonkers About Perfume) post about Epona, a new perfume from Papillon Perfumery, and its place in Vanessa’s personal hierarchy of preferences for this brand (I’m not telling – check it out in her post if you haven’t done so yet), I realized that I haven’t worn my two absolute favorites from the brand in a while and decided to rectify it. Immediately. Riiiight…
In my defense: I do not own bottles of Bengale Rouge and Hera (yet). A decant of Bengale Rouge that a generous friend shared with me still has a couple of ml. This perfume has a special meaning for me: missing Rusty while traveling to London years ago, I fell in love with Bengale Rouge. So, this bottle is on my mental “to buy” list once I finish the decant.
I bought a sample of Hera right before my self-imposed “no-buy,” so I was cherishing it, knowing that eventually this perfume would join my collection (and secretly hoping that maybe the brand would release their perfumes in travel bottles).
I spent two days looking for both perfumes. I knew that I had them. I could envision them in my mind. But I couldn’t remember in which box or drawer I put them. That’s when I thought that if I couldn’t locate a perfume when I wanted to wear it, it wasn’t much different from not having it at all. Well, in some respects, it was worse if you count my frustration from going over and over all the possible places.
I dug them out eventually, wore them again and confirmed that I still liked and wanted both. But don’t I risk “disappearing” more of my current favorites by adding more perfumes to my collection?
What is your experience?
Undina's Looking Glass 
Undina! This happens to me regularly. Even though I have bottles boxed by house. Sometimes they just aren’t where they should be.
Just this last week I spent 40 fruitless minutes hunting down my set of Headspace samples. I finally came to the conclusion I must have lent or left them somewhere. So I rebought the set. Most infuriating.
Portia xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Keep us posted if you end up finding your original set of Headspace. Good ol’ Murphy’s law is that the original set will show up as soon as the new set arrives (or shortly thereafter).
LikeLiked by 1 person
HA! Juli, you are so right.
Hopefully it does and I can share.
Portia x
LikeLike
You bought the second set of samples because you couldn’t find the first one? Wow. Was it at least good? :)
LikeLike
The two I had tried were excellent Undina. Interesting and left of center. I must have cleaned up and put them somewhere safe. SO ANNOYING!
Anyway, I’ll take better care of the next set when it arrives. Hopefully.
Portia xx
LikeLike
All of my perfumes are on a single shelf in a wide closet. So I need only pull every box and tray off that shelf to find things (and sometimes that is what it takes!). I actually pull everything out at least once a year to re-inventory and update my spreadsheet. At that time I remove anything I want to try to swap or give away, and reorganize what’s left. But seeing the size of some collections I can definitely see the possibility of losing track – especially little decants!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Physical inventory once a year is a great idea! I should try doing that.
LikeLike
Well, let’s just say I have dupes (not the fake ones but a BUB which I just had to buy) and am never without the ones I really really want to wear. 😅
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do i understand it correctly: you bought those BUBs not because you wanted to have a BU but because you couldn’t find the original bottle?
LikeLike
My collection is small enough that I generally don’t have an issue finding the fragrance I want to wear. Although, some of my collection is at my house and some at my boyfriend’s house so sometimes it’s a matter of just being at the wrong house when I have a desire to wear a perfume that’s at the other house.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You could make decants and keep them at the second location :)
LikeLike
My collection is relatively small and I don’t have decants, so I haven’t encountered this challenge so far. I’m more likely to forget I have a perfume that I never wear, which to me is evidence that I probably shouldn’t have bought it in the first place… most of those are cheaper ones that I bought without smelling before because it was known as a masterpiece (eg, Lalique Encre Noire) or the bottle looked clever (eg, Mauboussin Histoire d’Eau), or some other influence that wasn’t my nose.
LikeLiked by 1 person
WOW! That Mauboussin Histoire d’Eau bottle is fabulous, and the juice is by Christine Nagel. Not good?
Portia xx
LikeLike
I think it’s probably the nutmeg note that puts me off, and maybe some clove – only a matter of personal taste. I still enjoy looking at the bottle though!
LikeLike
Wait another 5-7 years when you accumulate enough perfumes :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had a much loved scent that was MIA for over a year. It was on my list, I had the box but despite searching every nook & cranny to no avail. It was a unicorn so irreplaceable.
Then I decided to go through the glory hole under the stairs. It was full of things from mum’s, things from the caravan, things from DH’s dad.
And there I found it, in the bag I used when we were away in the caravan. The joy when I felt the weight of that chunky, hourglass bottle. I had D’Orsay La Dandy in my collection after all
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love stories with a happy ending :)
It drives me crazy when I can’t find something I know I had.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I generally can find all my perfumes, but a couple are hiding from me recently. I’m going to be cleaning out some shelves this week and I feel sure I will find them. I re-arrange them at the end of each season so the ones I will be wearing most are the most accessible.
LikeLike
I don’t have enough space to arrange my perfumes in more than one basic Tetris, so no re-arranging by season. But I should try to do the inventory once a year.
LikeLike
Firstly, many thanks for the blog shout out!
And this is a post I can definitely relate to, as I am forever failing to locate perfumes, which are housed in two wardrobes. I have a lot of decants and samples, which seems to compound the problem, but I can just as easily lose bottles. Conversely, sometimes I astonish myself by going straight to a decant or sample about whose whereabouts I would have thought I would be very fuzzy. And that is deeply satisfying when it happens. ;)
LikeLike