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Saturday Question: Which Perfume Names Refuse to Stay in Your Memory?

With the largish collections many of us have, it happens sometimes that we forget we have a perfume (especially if it’s in a decant or sample format). It would be strange to ask you about those. With perfumes from different countries, named in different languages, we might not know the exact pronunciation of some names. Not asking about those either. Do you have perfumes in your collection that you remember owning but can never remember their exact names?

 

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

 

Saturday Question #297:

Which Perfume Names Refuse to Stay in Your Memory?

What do you do about it? Do you have nicknames for those? Do you use partial names? Do you approximately envision the form of the name on the label?

My Answer

There are three perfumes in my collection that I can never remember – and I love them and have full bottles of each!

Mona di Orio Les Nombres d’Or Vanille – all I can remember is “Vanille,” so for my daily records in the database, I had to “rearrange” the name to Vanille Les Nombres d’Or (so that it would appear in the type-ahead field when I enter the only part that I remember).

Houbigant Quelques Fleurs Royale – that “Quelques”… Too many vowels. I checked the pronunciation, and still I can’t remember the name when I think about that perfume, even though the last two words don’t confuse me at all.

Serge Lutens La Dompteuse Encagée – even though this was one of the latest additions to my collection, the name disappears from my inner eye as soon as I stop looking at the bottle or the screen. I haven’t come up with a good mnemonic for it yet.

 

How about you?

 

Which Perfume Names Refuse to Stay in Your Memory?

7 thoughts on “Saturday Question: Which Perfume Names Refuse to Stay in Your Memory?”

  1. interesting question! It’s almost always the French names that trip me up but only subtleties (I student French for a couple of years in college and spent a summer there…). When I was posting my daily perfume on IG there were a few that I always had look up; Champagne des Bois by Sonoma Scent Studio is one that I never got right, singular vs plural articles can be confusing! Despite having a large collection I have a pretty good memory for names.

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  2. I have trouble remembering names of flankers or reinventions of earlier fragrances. Which one did I like? Was it J’Adore d’Or or was it J’Adore d’Or Nacre? Was it EDP or EDT? Which Miss Dior was it? Those are impossible to keep straight!

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  3. I was going to say, how can I tell you if I don’t remember what they are? Haha… So far I don’t really have that issue, but in the case of some perfumes where the brand name is part of the perfume name, I often forget to include the brand name (eg, Galop d’Hermès I just think of as Galop). Similarly to RR, I also can’t keep track of whether “Parfum” or “Eau de Parfum” is part of the name.

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  4. I’m with RR as well with all the flanker name shenanigans. Dior are the biggest culprits. I simply refuse to even try any Miss Dior other than the Originale. Same with J’Adore.
    Post Mugler, Mugler also pump out flanker after flanker. As do Lancôme with Tresor & LVeB. They become one chemical haze in my head. I just can’t tell one from another!
    I think we all have a shorthand in our heads of how we refer to our collection. Be it initialising, like LVeB, or a nickname like Mitzy.
    I’m sure I’m not alone in being like Smaug & knowing every last bottle of my treasures!

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  5. Hey Undina,

    I did write a detailed answer but it got eaten by WP.
    SO MANY I have trouble with, flankers, other languages and a lot from the ELdO, Cartier les Heures, Pierre Guillaume, and a bunch of the niche houses.
    My memory isn’t good at the best of times but once you start getting lengthy or esoteric I’m lost. Especially if it’s not a regularly used favourite.
    Portia xx

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  6. I agree with others here who have trouble with flanker names! Other than those, I can’t think of any in particular whose name I regularly forget. On the other hand, I do enjoy clever fragrance names! Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays has some great ones.

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