With online shopping growing all over the world, we have to communicate with live people less and less. But for us perfumistas, a visit to a brick-and-mortar store often means a chance to try something new without spending money and accumulating even more samples that stay in our collections, dying a slow (but, hopefully, not painful) death of evaporation. But approaching a perfume counter or visiting a specialized store often means human interactions.

Saturday Question #238:

Do You Talk To Sales Associates?

Are you a “talkative” type who uses any chance to discuss your hobby? Or are you quick with a “just browsing” dismissal and get back to what you planned to do?

And if you do talk to an SA, what do you think is the best answer to their question: “Which Perfumes Do You Like?” Or, maybe, not the best, but what do you usually answer?

My Answer

For a long time, whether I talked to an SA depended mostly on my intent to ask for a sample. I considered “the talk” to be a currency I had to pay instead of spending money. And usually, it worked.

These days, I rarely want samples from department stores, so usually, I politely decline any help and just proceed with trying what I came there to try without even attempting to get anything from the visit other than a sniff test. Rarely, I’ll engage if the person seems bored and genuinely interested in perfumes, which doesn’t happen often.

I used to be annoyed by the question about what perfumes I liked and used a variety of answers that, in more or less polite form, meant “Leave me alone!” These days I feel much less confrontational, so I usually cheerfully share my 5-6 favorite notes (and 1-2 that I don’t like), which most of the time puts out their enthusiasm for finding which of the du jour “most popular” perfumes might interest me.

When I visit specialized stores, I try to set expectations immediately. On rare occasions when I plan to buy something (usually while traveling), I say so. Otherwise, I tell them directly that I’m there to see what lines they have and to try new perfumes, but I do not plan to make a purchase that day, except for samples if they sell them.

How about you?

Do You Talk To Sales Associates?

Vacations are great. Coming back from them has its drawbacks, one of which, for those of us who still hold full-time “office” jobs, is catching up on emails, MS Teams/Slack/etc. messages and tickets in Jira. (Ha! My browser doesn’t know this word and suggests replacing it with “Lira,” “Mira,” “Kira” or maybe even “IRA”—I wonder, does it mean “Individual Retirement Arrangements” or “Irish Republican Army”? Anyway, getting tickets from either of the two upon return would have been, let’s say, unexpected if not disturbing. But I digress.) All that to say, I didn’t have time to “develop film” and still hope to share additional photos soon. But the majority of illustrations for today’s post are from that recent trip.

Saturday Question #236:

What Is Your Favorite Water-inspired Perfume?

I know, I know, many perfumistas shudder just from hearing the scary A-word (I mean, “aquatic”). But fear not: if you are one of those, I didn’t necessarily mean only “fresh, watery, and often marine-quality” scents. The question is much broader. It still can be a marine-related aroma. But it also can be something inspired by any body of water – an ocean, a seaside, a river bank, a pond or even a pool. The association can be by the scent, the name or any other connection.

My Answer

Hapuna Beach, where I spent my most recent Big Island (Hawaii) vacation, didn’t smell of “ocean” (you know, that combination of decaying seaweed, algae and decomposing marine life that we all romanticize when talking about our olfactory impressions from spending time at the seaside). And I like it because it’s not a scent I particularly enjoy, even though I don’t mind brief encounters with it.

The photos above are not from the beach I mentioned. That beach is a beautiful white sand beach, but since we go there for short swims, I usually don’t take my phone with me, so the only photo of that beach I was able to find was from 3 years ago.

Most photos I have of that beach were taken at sunset from the balcony of the condo we rented, so most aromas were food- and drink-related.

There were some floral aromas when we visited that waterfall at the Botanical Garden, but nothing to think of any particular perfume. The infinity pool at Mauka Meadows Botanical Garden and Coffee Plantation smelled of coffee that we were tasting sitting in front of it. And I suspect that the man-made pond at the golf course at best (worst?) would whiff of some disinfecting agent had I come closer, but luckily I didn’t have a chance to spoil the impression from that beautiful view.

The perfume I decided to offer as my favorite water-inspired scent is L’Artisan Parfumeur Traversee du Bosphore. As you can see, its connection to the topic is strictly in the name. That and the fact that Traversee du Bosphore is one of my favorite perfumes for a tropical vacation. And during this trip, as I almost finished my decant, I felt a pang of regret that I didn’t buy it when it was available because I didn’t want another 100 ml bottle in my collection… (sigh)

During this trip, while I wore my other favorites as well, Traversee du Bosphore fit my mood and the place the most.

Bosphorus Bridge (Jorge1767, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

How about you?

What Is Your Favorite Water-inspired Perfume?

In the early years of my descent into the proverbial rabbit hole, Le Labo‘s City Exclusives collection was available in September. I didn’t follow it closely, so I’m not sure when it changed, but this year I noticed that the collection opened for online orders on August 1st. I wonder if it’s the beginning of the end of that exclusivity idea. Anyway, earlier today I came across their “Last Call” ad: just 3 more days (until September 30th) left to buy one of these “special” perfumes.

Saturday Question #233:

Do You Own Any Of Le Labo City Exclusives Perfumes?

If yes, which ones? Do you keep trying new cities when they are added? In general, what do you think about this approach to rationing access to perfumes?

My Answer

I do not own a single full bottle of Le Labo perfumes, either from their Exclusives collection or their Classic line. With the Classic collection, it’s the brand’s “fault”: even though I like Rose 31 and Iris 39 a lot, I always thought their bottles weren’t attractive at all. Because of that, I wasn’t tempted to buy a bottle and instead voted for a much more economical (and not significantly less visually pleasing) decants from a FB splits group.

With the Exclusives collection, everything is even worse: not only are the bottles still the same ugly (for my taste, you might disagree), but the prices seem over the top. Le Labo’s regular perfumes aren’t the most affordable ($3.35/ml if you buy a 100 ml bottle), but the City Exclusives collection went even further charging $5.35/ml. And one has to jump through the hoops to buy these perfumes! I just don’t believe that raw materials for perfumes in that line cost more than for the regular line. And did I mention that I despise their apothecary-style bottles?

Still, I liked two of their perfumes enough to pay for decants. No, it wasn’t $5+ per ml. The first one, Poivre 23, I bought years ago for my vSO. Back then it was much cheaper. I think, there is still a couple of ml left in that decant. The second one, Vanille 44, almost made it to my full bottle collection, but in the wrist-to-wrist competition, Vanille by Mona di Orio won that spot in the end. Since then, after I finished the first decant generously shared with me by a perfumista friend, I bought the next one from Royalty Scents. I still don’t know how they could pull off the price I paid (they claim all their perfumes are authentic).

I said it before: I find stupid the idea of offering these days “hard-to-get” expensive perfumes in minimalistic packaging: times of niche scarcity are gone, and brands need to come up with something more dazzling and enticing to persuade consumers to splurge on that particular perfume out of thousands being released every year. For one, this consumer is not super interested even to drive 30 minutes to the boutique to try a new “exclusive” perfume for free.

How about you?

Do You Own Any Of Le Labo City Exclusives Perfumes?

Recently, while preparing the SQ about Serge Lutens perfumes, I was looking through their current offerings and discovered that now they offer something called confit de parfum. The investigation revealed that it stands for “oil perfume” (which wasn’t obvious from description on the brand’s site).

Saturday Question #231:

Do You Own Oil-based Perfumes?

Do you have any in your collection? When do you wear them? Do you like them in principle?

My Answer

Over years, I tried several oil perfumes when a sample came my way, and some of those that I tried weren’t bad. Even though I think that perfumes in high concentrations (extraits) are better when applied dabbed, for some reason oil-based perfumes aren’t “my thing.” But I do have several.

First, I bought a mini bottle of Milk by Ava Luxe. It reminds me my favorite Sweet Milk by Jo Malone, and I enjoy wearing it in colder months.

Two years ago I bought a sample set of Amouage attars. I brought it with me to the vacation in Sedona, and since then revisited them several times, but I haven’t warmed up to any of the six attars enough to want more.

How about you?

Do You Own Oil-based Perfumes?

One would think that working a “short week” after a three-day weekend makes it easier. But somehow, days after holidays and vacations tend to be so busy with additional tasks that would have been completed in that extra day, that by the end of the “easy” week I wholeheartedly welcome a weekend. This after-Labor-Day week was one of those.

Saturday Question #230:

Do You Differentiate Weekday and Weekend Perfumes?

Do you reserve certain perfumes for weekends, or does your mood dictate what you wear regardless of the day?

My Answer

In pre-pandemic times, when I worked mostly from the office, I used to classify some of my perfumes as office-friendly and wore them for that purpose. Additionally, I had “special occasion” perfumes that I wore predominantly for said occasions. The rest of my collection consisted of perfumes that I thought weren’t suitable for work but at the same time weren’t “special” enough. Those I wore “after hours,” on weekends and while traveling.

These days, working from home, I still lean toward “SFW” scents during the day (if I remember to put anything on at all) – probably out of habit, which was further reinforced by my concerns that strong perfumes could bother Rusty when he wasn’t feeling well or wanted to spend time on my lap. So, on weekends, especially if we leave the house, I try to “air,” so to speak, all my bolder favorites. Tomorrow, I’ll probably go with Encens Mythique d’Orient.

How about you?

Do You Differentiate Weekday and Weekend Perfumes?