Last week, as I was checking my collection for Serge Lutens bell jar bottles, I realized that I haven’t worn De Profundis in about 18 months. I rectified it since then and confirmed that I still like that perfume. But since then I was thinking about all the perfumes that I own and like (at least, I think that I still like them), but never choose to wear.
Saturday Question #264:
What Perfume in Your Collection Do You Still Like But Haven’t Worn in a While?
Since you ignore that perfume (perfumes?), you might not know for sure that you still like it, but unless you know otherwise, you can assume that you still do. Why do you not reach for it?
My Answer
I decided not to check anything but bottles – full and travel – while looking for neglected favorites. It was slightly depressing: I have so many beautiful perfumes! Why don’t I wear them more often?!
I’m positive I still like Coco Chanel. But I haven’t worn it in more than 2 years. Ineke‘s Hothouse Flower seems still very attractive – and yet, it didn’t get any skin time in the last 3 years. And I’m not sure if I can still claim liking Champs Elysées by Guerlain because the last time I wore it was… 9 years ago.
Why?.. Too many perfume decants that are more easily accessible than bottles tucked away on a shelf. New favorites competing for my attention. And probably working from home for the last several years. I will try to rotate perfumes in my collection better. Because I’m sure that if I look at decants as well, I’ll find many more perfumes that never get into the rotation and sit on the shelf or in a drawer forgotten. But if you were to ask me, I would have told you that I still liked them.
How about you?
Undina's Looking Glass 
Great question and prompt, Undina. I neglect too many fragrances, always chasing something new. I’ll nominate 34 Boulevard Saint Germain from Diptyque and rectify my neglect for it by wearing it more often over during the upcoming cooler months (hopefully) in Australia.
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I like 34 Boulevard Saint Germain very much, both on me and my vSO, but for whatever reason neither of us wore it recently. One of us should!
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SO MANY Undina,
I REALLY love all my Pierre Guillaume perfumes but the boxes are very high up on my cupboards top shelf and I always see something else before I reach up to get one of the boxes down.
I’m now thinking to rearrange it all a bit.
Portia xx
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If the physical proximity is the main factor in your neglect of those perfumes, you should definitely rearrange your collection! They say making periodic changes in your surroundings helps our mental health. So, we could probably get a double benefit periodically playing with our collections.
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I had not heard that Undina,
Maybe that’s why I rearrange the art in our home every so often.
I’m going to do it in the perfume room too now.
Thanks,
Portia x
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Well, it’s quite sad really that about 80% of my collection hasn’t been worn in over 3 years. I know this because since I moved house in February’22 my original collection has remained in big boxes. In the time since then I have managed to acquire about 50 bottles and countless decants and samples. It’s beyond ridiculous at this point. I should make the effort to just swap out some of the older perfumes. The one that’s just popped into my head is Songes, I’ll have to get that one back in rotation.
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How many boxes are we talking about? Unless you plan to move again soon, you should start unpacking! Even if you do it one perfume a day, you’ll finish it eventually :)
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I’m (hopefully) moving by the end of this year. And lack of proper easy-to-hand storage here for more than about 20 bottles means that there was little point unpacking four big boxes. These boxes are not the kind that I can grab and run in a fire/flood/any other disaster.
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Too many to mention! I’m sure I have ignored far too many.
Before reading this I opened my bottle of modern Dune that my DH bought me over 3 years ago. It confirmed I still love Dune, even in its neutered modern form. Over 3 years & it was still in its cellophane wrap
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Baby steps, baby steps… See? It took you just 3 years to open a new bottle. :)
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Like everyone who has already posted-I have way too many. I tried to get organized-I put things in really beautiful baskets which I already owned. So if I reach for Eau d’hadrian I can see I also own Eau de Charlotte, and Vanille Charnal. Some of my collection are too special, ie too opulent or too noticeable, for my work days. I can get away with very discreet amounts of Hadrien for work, or I can have one spray of Coromandel, for example. I also do some yoga classes and it’s really not appropriate for that application. I don’t like the thought of giving something away and having the recipient not appreciate it. But then , like Scrooge and Marley in A Christmas Carol, I add to my own chain by buying more lol.
So what’s in my collection I almost never wear-mystery Rochas, and Alexander McQueen Kingdom. Cedre by SL. I Miss Violet. Miss Dior (original).
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Almost any perfume can be worn to almost any occasion if dabbed lightly! Just saying :)
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So many! I keep gravitating to the same few over a period of time, and then somehow feel surprised when I find I haven’t touched something in 2 years. Recently this happened with Fico di Amalfi by Acqua di Parma.
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I had an impression that your collection was a lot more manageable that some of ours :) Interesting to read that you also neglect your perfumes.
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It’s all relative! I have maybe 60-70 perfumes, but these days have tended to wear the same 4-5 over several weeks, with occasional exceptions, so older ones get neglected.
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The more perfumes you own, the easier it becomes to neglect some of them. I’ve compiled a short list of five perfumes in order of their likelihood of being neglected.
I appreciate questions like this one, Undina, because they prompt me to revisit some of my favorite but neglected perfumes.
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So true!
I remember times when I remembered all of my perfumes and was constantly rotating all of them. These days, I could wear a new scent every day of the year – and still not exhaust all the choices (that includes decants, not just bottles). And with the most favorite perfumes getting more skin time, the chances for each perfume from the next tier of my affection diminish even further.
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That’s where I am now, Undina. My Instagram page was inspired by a way to combine my creative side with my love of perfume, which has inevitably led to the creation of a one-year perfume calendar. I’m over two-thirds the way there.
I believe I’ve mentioned earlier that I occasionally enjoy neglecting perfumes. It may sound peculiar, but when you revisit them after a certain period, your perception of them shifts for the better or worse.
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I haven’t worn Alexander McQueen My Queen for a few months. Spraying some on today ❤️
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Few months is almost as “yesterday”! :)
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Even though I try to rotate thru my perfumes on a daily basis, like everyone else I have found that there’s a few that haven’t been worn in quite a while. I don’t track what I wear on a daily basis but I have found that a few from the Bulgari Omnia line haven’t been worn probably haven’t been worn in several months or even a year or longer. The one perfume that stands out that hasn’t been worn in ages, until today thanks to your question, is Guilty by Gucci. I’ve generally categorized this one as a “better for evening/special event wear” rather than “everyday daytime” wear.
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I have several “special” perfumes that just don’t get enough occasions to be worn. So, recently i started nominating any tiny occasions for that “special” status and wear those “dressier” perfumes to dinner with friends or even just going to the mall.
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I have to agree with everyone who responded with “so many”! But to narrow it down, I’ll say all my original Amouage attars do not get hardly any love. I know this because I had to seal them up very well for the move back to the States and the majority are still all in their wrappings. Plus, knowing that they are all basically discontinued, means I feel bad wearing them. I know I should enjoy them more…maybe this is the kick I need!
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You should wear them! Just think how much you’ll enjoy them! It doesn’t matter that you can’t buy them any longer: it’ll take a long time for you to empty any of them.
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A big yes to all the reasons you’ve mentioned above, dear Undina.
I was planning on a collection edit / fragrance revisit as it happens, so this is a motivation to do so asap!
Lalique Encre Noire, Alaia EDP, Narciso Rodriguez Fleur Musc are just some of the fragrances looking at me as I type this comment. 😂
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