Before you start freaking out, hear me out. It’s not a sudden disaster scenario where you inadvertently lose everything you lovingly collected over the years. But imagine that all your perfumes, let’s say in 10 ml or larger format, magically moved to a different dimension: they’re all safe there and can be brought back, but don’t have to be. Now, you get a choice: you can wish any of them back or forfeit that bottle forever and receive money instead. The caveat for the first choice is that the bottle you’d be getting would be your current bottle (so, if it’s turned or is almost empty, you won’t benefit from this magical reset). Choosing money would also come with its own limitation: you would get the portion of the price you paid for that perfume proportional to the remaining quantity in your bottle (but in today’s money), and you could spend it only on something related to your perfume hobby. With all that said…
Saturday Question #299:
Would You Want To Restart Your Collection?
My Answer
I would! While I don’t dislike any of my perfumes and probably even like most of them, over the last couple of years I’ve noticed that I rarely feel that I love whatever I decide to wear. That increases my indecisiveness every time I try to choose a perfume, so sometimes I end up not applying anything at all for fear of putting on something I won’t enjoy. At the same time, I know myself too well: I won’t be able to voluntarily part with any perfume I previously welcomed in my collection. So that magical intervention might be the only way for me to get back to enjoying my perfumes every day.
How about you?
Undina's Looking Glass 
I feel exactly the same! A combination of factors (including one of our cats hating perfume) has meant that I haven’t been wearing perfume much. But I don’t think I would like to relinquish my collection. That’s a tough dilemma. I take it you would never give up your Climat???!!!
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I played a mental game after initially reading your comment, and I can tell that after the definite first 3 (Climat, Ta’if and Ubar), I counted another 27 that I would not want to part with. I’m sure I have more, but I fell asleep while counting, so I stopped. But Climat stays with me until the end.
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Fragrant sheep? I must try that
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If my collection suddenly disappeared, I would be partly sad and partly relieved. It’s an ongoing PITA to sell and downsize all the perfumes I no longer want to own. But there are several favorites I would definitely still want.
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If I had to sell anything, I would have probably also welcomed disappearance of at least 50% of it: I can’t sell anything! But I definitely would want to carefully go through making decisions on the other 50% of my collection.
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Never! For several reasons. I think it’s partially age and partially just saturation of having so many perfumes, but I’ve found the last year I really have lost interest in even buying samples. I have so many perfumes, and now I’m trying to concentrate on putting them out seasonally and really enjoying the ones I have. I was buying samples like mad for a couple of years prior, and what I found was I wasn’t moved by anything. I either already had something similar or like what I already own better than the new stuff. This is not to say that there aren’t things that still grab my interest but it happens much less frequently than it used to. If I were to suddenly lose all my perfumes, I think I would have a collection of only two or three bottles, as opposed to the probably 100 I have now.
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I could probably settle for 30… I think. But definitely not two or three.
But I agree with you on the state of current releases: I rarely find them even interesting – let alone want to own and wear any of them.
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I would definitely restart my collection and would probably reclaim about 90% of my collection.
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I wonder: were you that disciplined in buying only those perfumes that you absolutely loved, or were you constantly culling your collection?
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I have ‘curated’ (culled) my collection over the years so it now contains fragrances that I love.
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Ooh. Yes! Some perfumes I’ve bought feel like sunk costs, as I would not get back what I paid even in proportion if I tried to sell them. I’d probably reclaim most, but could live with fewer.
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Selling perfumes for pennies on the dollar I initially paid makes the idea of doing that even worse (though, I’m not sure it’s possible: I hate even thinking about selling anything!).
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At the moment I am very happy with my collection. Ofcourse there are some perfumes I don’t wear often but when I do I am pleasantly surprised (like today YSL In Love Again). That has happened even with perfumes I thought were kind of mweh, but they actually were much nicer than I remembered they were (AG Eau de Charlotte). There are a few I wouldn’t mind parting with, but not many.
Some time ago I had a bit of a situation perfume wise, my drawer with most of them in it got stuck…Fortunately a dear friend helped me out, and it turned out he had worked in a perfumery for many years! I never knew. Anyway this also forced me to rearrange my perfumes so I have a good overview of them which really has helped wearing all of them.
Great question!
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I think rearranging would have helped me… But I need to figure out first how to get some free space.
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Great Saturday question, Undina. I’m currently revisiting my love-hate relationship with my collection. What I’ve discovered is that I adore a significant portion of it, and what doesn’t make the cut, I’ve decided to sell off.
Would I want to start a new collection? Only if I had the chance to acquire some missed vintage gems. Based on your question parameters, I believe I wouldn’t have enough money to participate in exploring vintage items, especially considering the current prices. I’ll stick with my current collection and the decisions I’ve made, regardless of whether they’re good, bad, or indifferent.
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It feels like all perfume prices went through the roof. I’m glad I have perfumes that I have, and I don’t need or even want more. But it would be tempting to have a freedom to replace some of those that I don’t love with something else… very slowly.
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WOW! I had to really think Undina.
With what I’ve got here the money could pay off our mortgage, maybe even leaving enough for a goodly part of a deposit on another place. I’m going to say yes. I’ll take the money.
I’m allowed to go shopping again though with my own income for the things I really wear and love, yeah?
Portia xx
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No-no-no, no mortgages! Unless, of course, another place would be specifically to hold all of your perfumes ;)
Of course, many of us would have found a more reasonable way of spending those money. But the SQ “exercise” meant only perfumes for perfumes, same or different ones.
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Ah! OK, I get it Undina.
Then no, I’n sticking with what I’ve got.
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This is such an interesting question. I am still trying to do a Swedish Death clean of my collection. It now overwhelms me.
I will opt for the money option. I think 10-20 different fragrances would now last me forever.
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10-20 would be my sweet spot as well.
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But you wouldn’t be able to spend money for anything non-perfume-related! You could probably pay for a trip somewhere… to buy some specific perfume ;)
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Could I buy back ups of my chosen 10-20?
In real life I will be listing a whole load of bottles & travel sizes. Even loves I rarely wear will be sold
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Yes, that’s definitely allowed!
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I’d cash it in. I’d keep ten, it wouldn’t be too hard to pick my ten favorites. The collection is rather overwhelming now, but I’m too lazy to sell it. It would require time input that I just don’t have at the moment. Perhaps later in the year when things are calmer, but I think the time is coming when I will have to make that move.
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But then you’ll have to spend money on new perfumes (or something perfume-related). Just taking money wasn’t an option! :)
(So, you’ll have to do it the old way – selling them).
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