– Why is it so cold?
– Because it’s summer…
A typical exchange between me and my vSO

While many places in the world were suffering from a heat wave here, in San Francisco Bay Area, we had just a perfect July: a couple of hot days – right in time for the 4th of July – and then a very pleasant warm breathy weather for the rest of the month.

For this month’s statistics I decided to look into my readers’ answers to the question from the recent post “My” brand and “not my” brand. I didn’t want to warn anybody beforehand about my intentions but I naïvely thought that after I explain with examples how I define terms “my” brand and “not my” brand I would be able to get two examples from each commenter. Right… Well, it’ll teach me to be more forthcoming about my plans the next time I decide to do anything like that. For now I’ll go with all the votes I’ve got.

33 participants in this poll named 46 unique brands (total 152 votes). The first interesting discovery was that people were more generous naming favorites than bringing up nemeses: 91 positive vs. 61 negative nominations. 21 brands were mentioned just once and 5 got two nominations. For my chart below I used top 20 brands by the total number of votes regardless of the sign (+/-).

How to read the chart: each bar represents 100% of votes for each brand (so all bars are of the same size regardless of whether the brand got 15 or 3 total votes); each bar is placed vertically against horizontal (X) axis in the way that corresponds to the ratio of positive/negative votes for that brand with the number (N%) representing the percentage of the positive nominations; pink asterisk marks the total number of votes for each brand using the vertical (Y) axis as a scale.

For example, Serge Lutens was mentioned the most – 15 times (see the asterisk) but only 10 votes (67%) were positive and 5 votes (33%) were negative – that’s why Lutens’ bar is placed lower than the bar for the next most popular Guerlein that got 11 total votes (see the asterisk) but 9 (82%) of them were positive. The most “controversial” (50/50 split) were Chanel and Hermes (5/5 and 2/2 yay/nay votes correspondently). Several brands got 100% positive responses (that’s why they are placed above the X axis) albeit with just 3 or 4 votes. The only brand that got all negative responses (all 3 of them) was Bond No 9. There would have been 4 negative votes had I considered them a brand worth my attention. But since I’m boycotting them as an opposite of “not getting” but appreciating other “not my” brands I didn’t cast my nay vote for them.

After putting together the chart and an explanation to it I realized that it was probably a little (?) too much to be entertaining so I promise to do something lighter the next month.

Image: my own

Most of June I’ve spent either traveling or recovering from it so perfume-wise that month went like in a haze.

Since I didn’t want to bring samples with me in June I tested¹ less perfumes than I normally do but I had a chance to sniff a lot of new perfumes both in Vienna and in Paris so most perfumes I tested this month were new for me.

For my trip (have you seen my pictures of linden blossom I took in Ukraine, Austria and France?) I took with me about 20 different perfumes but I wore² only 14 of them.

What I realized was that living in the area with a great climate and adequate AC systems everywhere I’ve got a completely wrong idea about what perfumes would be suitable for heat. Not only I couldn’t enjoy many of my favorites I thought I would but also I discovered that hot humid weather disagrees with most of my perfumes: they would disappear from my skin within a couple of hours after the application and under the circumstances I didn’t even feel like re-applying.

For this month’s statistics I decided to look into how weather conditions affected my enjoyment of perfumes. I compared my reactions during this trip to the most recent pre-trip ones I had for the same perfumes.

I still enjoyed the perfumes I wore on more occasions than not. And there was even one perfume – Diptyque Volutes that I loved much more wearing there than when I tested it earlier. But eight times of twenty the weather came between me and perfumes I used to enjoy at home.

Has anything like that ever happened to you?

Quick June stats:

Numbers in parenthesis are comparison to the previous month’s numbers.

* Different perfumes worn: 23 (-3) from 19 (-1) brands on 29 (0) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested: 24 (-4) from 17 (-1) brands on 26 (-4) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 21 (12);

* Perfume houses I wore most often: Jo Malone, Keiko Mecheri, L’Artisan Parfumeur and Le Labo;

* Perfume houses I tested the most: Neela Vermeire Creations and Xerjoff;

¹ When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

² For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.

Image: my own

May was pleasant when it came to the weather: there were just several very hot days and we even got a couple of showers. For me it was hectic and extremely busy. As a result my testing went down significantly.

Half a year ago I based my statistics post on the language of the perfumes names. This month I decided to look into brands themselves. I’ve discovered that more than half (66%) of the brands I wore¹ or tested² in May were from France. Neither of the other seven countries in calculation were even close to that number (see the chart).

From what country comes the perfume you’re wearing today?

Quick May stats:

Numbers in parenthesis are comparison to the previous month’s numbers.

* Different perfumes worn: 26 (+2) from 20 (+4) brands on 29 (+3) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested: 28 (-12) from 18 (-3) brands on 30 (-14) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 9 (-9);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Chanel;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Serge Lutens;

¹ When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

² For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.

Image: my own

April wasn’t my best month: I managed to hurt first my back (many things contributed to that) and then my neck (that happened in a heartbeat – who would have thought that a simple morning stretch in bed might be that traumatic!).

I discovered that while effecting my perfume wearing¹ routine these types of health problems did not impede much my perfume testing²: I could still entertain myself by sniffing perfumes even while it was difficult to move.

Since I wear most perfumes just once per month – not intentionally, it just happens this way – I realized that as soon as for whatever reason I repeat the same perfume two-three times the favorite notes calculation gets skewed towards notes from that perfume. I’m not sure if it makes that part of my findings less accurate (or more?) but this month I decided to skip that point.

At the same time I got curious how often with that pattern of a single wear I reach for those perfumes that I chose this month.

So I didn’t neglect most of my favorites: I wore 18 of them (75%) within the last six months. It was interesting to find out that I wore Diorissimo 364 days ago – for May Day 2012. It wasn’t a full year because I knew I would be working from home on that day so this year I wore Diorissimo on the last day in April. Two perfumes that I didn’t wear for the longest time were Dior Diorella and Giorgio Armani Eclat de Jasmin. The completely unexpected was the fact that I wore them 499 and 498 days correspondently before I wore them again this April.

Quick April stats:

* Different perfumes worn: 24 from 16 brands on 26 occasions;

* Different perfumes tested: 40 from 21 brands on 44 occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 18 (I liked 5; disliked 5; and felt indifferent about 8);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Guerlain (yep!);

* Perfume house I tested the most: Jo Malone (I was testing Sugar & Spice collection before it’s gone to decide if I wanted to buy any of those. PUBLIC WARNING: Bitter Orange & Chocolate is almost sold out; jomalone.com is the only online retailer that still has it);

Do you think in your collection there are perfumes that you still like but for which you haven’t reached in a long while?

¹ When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

² For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.

Image: my own

Our March was good though a bit dry. Luckily it started raining right before the end of the month and we’re still looking at a couple of showers before the end of the raining season.

Recently Steve (The Scented Hound) wrote: But in looking at my perfumes, I noted that there were a few this winter that I barely touched but once or twice.  But last year, I wore these same fragrances multiple times per week (Serge Luten’s Ambre Sultan for instance).  I started wondering if my tastes were changing or if my interest in perfume was dominated by the thrill of the chase in purchasing new perfume rather than for the pure love of the fragrance.

I read it just as I was thinking about my perfume usage and what to do for this month’s statistics post. I almost never wear the same perfume not only two days in a row but even more than once during the month. So to track my habits and to see if I favor the same perfumes year over year I decided to look at a three months period – January-March 2012 vs. the same period of 2013.

In more than 40% of cases I wore the same perfumes in the first quarter of both years. But my wearing pattern changed: this year I used perfumes from more brands so I was less loyal to any of them.

Quick stats:

Numbers for Jan-Mar 2012 / Jan-Mar 2013.

* Different perfumes worn¹: 58/61 from 26/34 brands on 87/84 occasions;

* Perfumes that I wore both years: 25 from 18 brands on 38/33 occasions;

* Out of 36 perfumes I wore in 2013 only, 10 I owned (bottles or decants) in 2012 and 26 joined my collection after March 2012;

* Perfume house I wore most often: Chanel/Guerlain – just to think that I bought my first Guerlain perfume inFebruary 2012!

Do you usually wear the same perfume for several days or do you change it every day?

¹ When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

Image: my own

February was a short month. I don’t mean just a number of days: it ran away from me before I noticed. Probably because there were many pleasant occasions – my birthday, Valentine’s Day and just in general good days. As a result I tested less perfumes but I did not feel pressured to meet any milestones so I went with a flow.

The weather was… great if you ask me – warm and sunny; poor if you talk to my vSO – too warm and not enough rain. We do need more rain but I still enjoyed our local take on Spring (yes, it usually starts in February: fresh green grass, blooming trees and fledging birds).

After discussing the importance of a nice bottle in the matter of getting the most from perfumes I decided to see if the numbers from my February usage support that theory. I took into the account only perfumes that I chose to wear¹ and not just tested².

It looks like I equally enjoy perfumes I apply from real bottles (50% of all perfumes I wore in February) and from all other possible vessels. But I still like owning beautiful bottles.

Quick February stats:

Numbers in parenthesis are comparison to the previous month’s numbers.

* Different perfumes worn: 23 (0) from 18 (-2) brands on 26 (-4) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested: 28 (-15) from 14 (-15) brands on 31 (-14) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 12 (-9);

* Perfume house I wore most often: None (There were no defined favorites);

* Perfume house I tested the most: Guerlain;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) galbanum and rose; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) ylag-ylang and iris root; base – sandalwood, vanilla and sandalwood;

From what type of bottle did you apply the most recent perfume you were wearing (not just testing) and do you think you’d have liked that particular perfume more/less had it been in a different container?

¹ When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

² For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.

Image: my own

November was unusually warm even for our area. But I decided it was time for my heavier perfumes. Ambers and vanillas keep me feeling warm but, as a small price for that, stay on my skin long enough not to allow the change of the scent or even proper testing of new fragrances.

Also I noticed an unusual for me pattern: there were five perfumes that I wore twice during the month. I’m not even close to Birgit’s (Olfactoria’s Travels) sudden perfume monogamy but it’s still rather unusual for me. It must be something in the air.

For the entertaining part of this post I chose to look at how many notes are listed for perfumes I wore or tested in November. Of course, it’s all based on just officially reported notes and each brand chooses how much to disclose.

Most of the perfumes I used this month (twenty-nine) had six to nine notes listed. Thirteen perfumes had eleven to fifteen notes; ten fell into the minimalistic basket with less than six notes listed; four were in the “the more, the merrier” camp with sixteen to twenty notes listed and one was almost off the chart (figuratively and literally) with twenty-two notes.

Quick November stats:

Numbers in parenthesis are comparison to the previous month’s numbers.

* Different perfumes worn¹: 22 (-3) from 13 (-5) brands on 27 (-3) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested²: 41 (-12) from 29 (0) brands on 45 (-15) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 17 (-10);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Guerlain (I can’t believe: third month in a row!);

* Perfume house I tested the most: By Kilian;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) pepper, cardamom, galbanum and sage; middle – (not counting rose) jasmine and iris root; base – musk, vanilla and sandalwood;

Can you guess (at least) the brand of the perfume with 22 notes?

¹ For the testing I apply a perfume to one area on my arms easily available for the repetitive sniffing. But, most likely, I’m the only one who can smell it. I can test two, sometimes even more perfumes at the same time.

² When I wear a perfume I apply it to at least three-four points and usually I plan to spend at least 4-8 hours with the same scent so I’m prepared to re-apply if the original application wears off.

Image: my own (well, I compiled it)