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Saturday Question: When Did You Accumulate Most of Your Collection?

Based on the recurring statements from most of my readers, our days of actively acquiring perfumes are in the past. I rarely hear about new perfume loves from you these days. At the same time, the second often mentioned sentiment is that our collections, as they currently exist, will outlive us. This tells me that the number of perfumes you own is significant, especially compared with “civilians” (© Tara). So…

 

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

 

Saturday Question #303:

When Did You Accumulate Most of Your Collection?

Unless you have detailed records you can check, I’m asking about your impression. Can you pinpoint years (or maybe decades) during which you acquired the majority of perfumes you currently own? Or were you just a steady collector who kept adding approximately the same number of new bottles year after year?

My Answer

Even though I have a database where I record all types of information about my perfumes, it took me several years to start recording when and how perfumes were added to my collection. But while my numbers are not exact, they paint a clear enough picture: about 60% of all of my full bottles, travel bottles and ~10ml decants were added between 2010 and 2012. The years 2013 to 2021 were quite steady, at 3% to 6% per year. And after that, between my “no-buy” and my diminished interest in new perfumes, I added just a handful of bottles, mostly travel-sized ones. I haven’t bought a single bottle so far this year.

How about you?

 

When Did You Accumulate Most of Your Collection?

28 thoughts on “Saturday Question: When Did You Accumulate Most of Your Collection?”

  1. Such an interesting question. You made me think, and I have had a revelation – my perfume obsession isn’t purely about smelling and owning beautiful fragrances, it is a psychological state, which of course it is, but I took it too far. My perfume buying spree took place between 2008 and 2018, and was extreme. And I now realise it is exactly during this time that my life was uncertain, we lived in a rented house and had several bereavements. Perfume was a distraction, a solace and a joy. Not coincidentally, this was also when I discovered perfume blogs and my growing passion seemed normalised! I don’t regret any of it – perfume has been important to me since childhood, and always will be, and I have a hoard that will outlive me. I still get a yearning for buying a bottle, but not often, and new releases hardly ever tempt me. I must try to finish the bottles I have now!

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    • Jilliecat-same here. Mine was through the pandemic. During this time we had a couple of people who were in the last stages of cancer. It was so difficult. I thought that the Annick Guitar line was disappearing from different stores. I love that line and it was still available so I bought a lot. And a lot of other things i considered to be beautiful because they seemed to be disappearing, too. So for me it was a case of loss of people and then the beautiful things I wanted to have in my life.

      Recently I’m putting some order in my own chaos and that feels good. Bottles off to new appreciative homes, nice conversations with people as they buy the tings. Hope life has calmed down a bit for you in the interim:)

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    • It’s interesting how different we all are even in our common hobby. While I’m with you on the place of perfume in my life starting very early childhood, I don’t think it ever served either as a distraction or solace. It’s definitely joy, but I noticed that I need to be in at least a neutral routine to enjoy it. And I tend to avoid wearing perfumes under stress or through any negative experiences.

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      • You are right – there are several perfumes I can no longer bear because I was wearing them on significantly dreadful occasions. The merest whiff of them brings back memories I don’t want. The sense of smell has such a powerful effect on the brain.

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  2. Hey Undina,
    I’m still buying, but not nearly as much. Most of my collection happened from about 2005. I’d had a big purge a couple of years before that and given a few boxes to goodwill.

    Once I found you all online though my purchasing went a bit bonkers and stayed that way till only the last couple of years. The whole scentbloggosphere became a massive and very exciting mania. It’s such a fabulous adventure and while I’m not in the financial position to buy quite so enthusiastically I’m still getting somethings I really love.

    I think. my biggest spend nowadays is on decants. The urge to sniff and have new exciting things at hand is always strong because I also use them to moderate depression spirals. A few spritzes, a lie down and off I go into a fragrant meditative state. So, that’s a big plus.

    Portia xx

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    • My decant phase is behind me: I don’t need much to figure out whether I like perfume enough to wear it, and I know that decants don’t keep as well as original bottles. So, if I want to wear anything new, I’m looking for a travel bottle. Or a real bottle. Because even if I were to finish a decant before it evaporates or spoils, perfume I loved would be, most likely, reformulated by that time, and I won’t be able to replenish it.

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  3. I would say probably between about 2014 and 2020. I had only a couple of bottles prior to 2014; I don’t even remember what started me down the rabbit hole. Since 2020 down to two or three things a year on average; smaller/travel sprays and the odd bottle. No more excessive sampling; I have settled into knowing what I’m likely to wear. I still have way too much!

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    • I’m glad that travel bottles are more readily available these days, and I always check if perfume I liked comes in a smaller bottle. But yeah, even then it has to be something I really-really like, because otherwise it doesn’t make any sense to add another “nice to have” bottle to dozens of those that I don’t have time to wear.

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  4. My perfume obsession kicked into high gear probably around 2005? I fervently read the popular bloggers, there were so many good ones back then, and you were among them Undina. I got into buying a lot on the discount sites, things I thought I had missed in the past that could be found there. It’s hard to say but I’m guessing between 2010-2017 were my big purchasing years. Then I went into buy samples, lots of them, which was expensive itself.

    Only in the last couple of years have I reached that place where I have so many perfumes and I am rediscovering a lot of them, realizing that I have some great stuff, even if it’s not big names. I have felt very little desire to sample or buy bottles in the last two years.

    Maybe this is because a new addiction has taken perfume’s place. I’m into Mahjong. I only have one set but there are all these gorgeous tiles, which frankly, though expensive, don’t cost any more than the bottles of perfumes coming out from some of the niche brands. So far I have restrained myself, maybe using my perfume addiction as a cautionary tale. But that is what takes up a lot of my “I want this” energy these days.

    I have a question in regard to what I said about missing bloggers. I never did really enjoy the online reviewers. So many of them will drag out one perfume for 20 minutes and it drove me crazy, so I never watched. My question is, are there fewer online influencer reviewers these days or is my algorithm just not showing them to me since I don’t click? Thanks for any feedback.

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    • I never liked video reviews, so I followed just a couple of channels on YT. But once YT changed the UI and algorithm and started showing mostly posts from new to me creators (instead of those that I follow), I wasn’t seeing even those 2-3 channels too often. So, I don’t know if they still are going on.
      For me, reviews were never important part of my perfume hobby: I was interested in what people who I “know” thought about new perfumes I was interested in or never heard of. But I don’t care what an influencer who was sent a 150th bottle for review has to say about it. I love stories and feelings, not a description of notes that I, most likely, will smell differently anyway.
      IG over time changed what it shows to me so much, that I’m taking a break from it. If I decide to come back, I’ll try to rebuild my algorithm to show me only cats and perfumes.

      I’ve never known that physical Mahjong tile collecting was a thing! I’m so impressed. You should do a post about it. With photos!

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  5. I’ve been amassing my hoard since 1979. I still have a bottle of Opium from the early 80s that has moved through numerous homes. Same with classic Diors in the ridged bottles from the 90s.
    Discovering Basenotes & Facebook groups opened up a new world & my rate of purchase skyrocketed. This was around 2009, niche was relatively cheap back then, designers were still doing good stuff & older scents were in good order. Vintage was cheap as chips in the preloved market.
    After I retired I had more leisure time to read more about fragrance & the lemmings came on thick & fast.
    The start of mum’s decline & DH’s diagnosis slowed my buyfest. I wore just one fragrance from July 22 until Feb 23!
    I do still get tempted to buy but unless bottles are very heavily discounted I stick with samples, decants or travel sizes.
    It seems many of us are on the same page. I wonder, is it that there are just too many releases, that quality has fallen so far or that pricing is now unacceptable?

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    • All of the above! There are too many releases, from people who do it just as another business, without actual love for perfume, and prices skyrocketed beyond being reasonable for collecting perfumes.

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  6. Before 2012 I had maybe 5 fragrances at any one time. I had always loved perfume, but I didn’t do a deep dive into collecting and really learning more about perfume and the process of creating perfumes until 2012. In 2012 I began devoting much time to reading blogs, perfume boards, Luca Turin’s and Jean-Claude Ellena’s books about perfume, among others.

    I was exploring in the beginning, learning what I liked and didn’t like, which perfumers I admired, etc. Many perfumes were acquired from 2012 to 2019. After 2020 I was more studied in my purchases and I did mostly sampling and decant purchases. Since 2022 I usually only buy 4 or 5 bottles of perfume a year along with 2 or 3 travel sizes. I have sold many perfumes over the years as my tastes have developed and I have become more confident in my likes and dislikes. Now I consider selling a perfume every time I buy a new one to make sure I don’t go overboard again like I did when I first began seriously buying fragrances.

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  7. 2019 was when I fell down the perfumery rabbit hole in earnest and accumulated the most bottles, because my buying threshold was lower and I sometimes made decisions based on first impressions in stores. 2020 wasn’t much better, and I’d buy bottles based on samples I liked. I’ve slowed down considerably in the last couple of years, including with sample purchases. Funnily enough, this year is the first year I’ve bought decants, because I really wanted to try some things that were harder to find, being late to the game.

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    • Being probably the youngest perfume enthusiast in this thread (both age-wise and years in the Perfumeland), you managed to “grow up” faster than many of us. Partially, probably, because of the changed environment: it was hard(er) to restrain oneself from buying and exchanging samples when 15-20 people were writing beautiful reviews for those new and exciting releases from brands everyone loved.

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      • I still wish I could have been in that world and not so quickly redirected to the current state of saturation and most things being unreasonably expensive and restrictive. I’m happy with my current collection of ~60 bottles, though. As I gradually use up those I don’t plan to replace, the size should get even more comfortable.

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  8. There were two phases, Undina. The first phase was from the 1980s to the 1990s. Then, there was a complete pause until around 2008 to 2015. I don’t think I’m bragging when I say that I believe I found the perfect balance in much of what the fragrance industry had to offer. Of course, you’re welcome to disagree. 😉

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    • I wonder: do you still have any bottles from your first phase? Not just perfumes repurchased later but actual bottles from that time?

      Internally, I’m certain that “everything great has been already created” – not just in perfumery (books, music, movies). But from time to time, I can still be pleasantly surprised. Not often.

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      • I have several from my first phase, and they have all remained in excellent condition. I ensured that they were properly cared for. You’re right, Undina, I can also be pleasantly surprised, but these occurrences seem to become increasingly rare as time passes.

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  9. I always love a data question! According to my records the most bottles I currently own were purchased in 2021 (bored during covid lockdown??). But what I’m not tracking is how many were originally purchased and eventually sold. I have a feeling that quite a few of my earlier purchases (2012 is when I started collecting) have been sold and so are not included in my data. Otherwise, the number purchased each year has been slowly rising (a dip the year I was not employed for a few months). I guess it shows that my love for fragrance hasn’t waned over the 14 years I’ve been doing this. And 2026 is right on track for another slight increase.

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    • It’s interesting: I think you’re the only commenter who reported the increase in perfume acquisition. I wonder if selling off perfumes you don’t like any longer is the secret of not settling down with what you have already…

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