Before I talk about this month statistics I want to try one more time and if it doesn’t work I’ll drop it: please vote for me. You do not need to register, log in or do anything of that kind. All you need to do is to click on the link, wait for five seconds (flash loading) and then click on I ♥ TOO. That’s it. People! I cannot even dream of wining a trip to Paris looking at the modest number of votes I managed to get by pleading with my readers, FB friends, Twitter followers and even abusing my position at work. Now back to regular programming.

It was a wonderful October this year – mostly warm and sunny. I’ve got some cooler weather on my trip to New York but it was still nice. I’m extremely glad that I’ve got to visit that one of the best cities in the world before the Cruel Sandy did.

During that trip, while visiting different stores and talking to people about perfumes, I realized that there were so many names in different languages meaning different things. I got curious and once I got home I’ve added more information to my perfumes database and for this month’s statistics post I calculated the number of perfume names in different languages that I wore and tested during October.

Abstract (not real words) – 11, English – 19, French – 33, Italian – 3 and NA (names, streets, etc.) – 7.

Quick October stats:

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

* Different perfumes worn¹: 25 (0) from 18 (0) brands on 30 (+1) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested²: 53 (+1) from 29 (+4) brands on 60 (0) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 27 (+5);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Guerlain (again! Who would have thought a year ago);

* Perfume house I tested the most: Serge Lutens;

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

What is the most “exotic” language for a perfume in your collection?

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)

July was nice and cool; I could wear almost any perfume from my collection though some of them didn’t feel right even with weather permitting.

Almost all perfumes I wear¹ are those for which I own either a full bottle or a decant so I do not worry any more about not paying enough attention to them.

I am trying to slow down with my perfume purchases. One bottle per month, as somebody suggested in my June stats post, seems like a reasonable goal (in theory, at least). I almost met it! If not to count a small bottle of ISA that I bought for sentimental reasons, I got just one bottle: Field Notes From Paris by Ineke (as always, if anybody wants a decant at cost contact me).

This month I decided to chart price per ml of perfumes I wore. I took an MSRP price for 100 ml where available and calculated for the rest. If not to count the parfum (Chanel No 19) that is clearly the most expensive per ml (~$14), the next one is By Kilian’s Love & Tears ($4.70), Neela Vermeire Creations’ Bombay Bling! ($4.55) and Amouage’s Beloved ($4.30). On the other side of the distribution, the cheapest perfumes I wore were Yves Rocher’s Nature ($0.50 – though now it’s impossible to find it at this price) and Hugo Boss’ Deep Red ($0.50). The median price for the perfumes I wore in July was $2.60/ml. I can’t say I enjoyed the most expensive ones more than the rest.

Quick July stats:

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

* Different perfumes worn¹: 25 (-1) from 16 (-3) brands on 28 (-1) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested²: 33 (-5) from 19 (-4) brands on 44 (-1) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 22 (+13);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Amouage and Tom Ford;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Sonoma Scent Studio and Cognoscenti;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) pepper and neroli; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) iris root and ylang ylang (the same as in June); base – musk, vanilla, sandalwood and cedarwood;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time and liked: too many to list, it was a good month.

Of the top of your head, what is the least expensive perfume in your collection that you love and wear?

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

It feels almost wrong but I can’t stop telling everybody how great our summer is so far: sunny but cool and breathy. But I should mention that I sympathize a lot with those who suffer from the recent heat wave.

For those of my readers who might still remember that I had some… ambitious New Year Resolutions I want to report that as of the end of June I was still good. Unfortunately, that was probably the last month about which I’m able to say that. I’ve reached my self-imposed limits on both full bottles and decants.

Now I’m trying to decide what to do. I know that there is no way I can go through the rest of the year without adding any perfumes to my collection. So should I just accept that and hope I’ll be somewhat reasonable or is it better to set new quota and try to stay within it? I don’t know.

I’m testing less of new perfumes because I’m trying to spend more time with those samples that I previously tested and didn’t make up my mind. It means that my pile of untested perfumes isn’t getting any smaller. My dream: all companies in perfumes from which I’m interested decide to take a year-long hiatus in launching new perfumes… Yeah, right.

Quick June stats:

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

* Different perfumes worn¹: 26 (-1) from 19 (0) brands on 29 (-2) occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 19 (-1) on 19 (-4) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested²: 38 (-7) from 23 (-5) brands on 45 (-11) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 9 (-20);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Dior;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Serge Lutens;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) rose and neroli; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) iris root and ylang ylang (the same as last year); base – musk, vanilla and sandalwood;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time and liked: Grand Bal by Dior, Chypre Palatin by Parfums MDCI and Vetiver Oriental by Serge Lutens.

If you had NY resolutions regarding perfumes are you still following them? Are you succeeding? Are you failing?

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

I can’t believe it’s summer already. At least according to calendar. May was cool and I could still wear my ambers though I noticed a more floral and lighter tendencies in my perfume choices.

For many months I concentrated on being fair towards my favorite perfumes. And I succeeded: I wear one of them on most days. Then I’ve added another resolution/goal: not to buy any samples until I reduce the number of untested samples I already have. In the last five months I bought just five samples (it was a really good deal – $8 including shipping). And I managed to decrease the number of untested samples. But in pursue of these two goals at the same time I didn’t realize that it resulted in me not being fair to new perfumes I was testing. How?

I created a list of all perfumes I tested in May for the first time. Then I rated what I remembered was my reaction when I tried them: like, don’t like or indifferent. Then I compared that to my notes. Not only I remembered my reaction correctly in only 66% of the cases but also in 24% of the cases my recollections were worse than a reality. I got curious and pulled a similar set of data for the same period last year. Results were slightly worse (61% of guessing right and 28% of more negative memories) – see the chart below.

My thoughts: it doesn’t make much sense to test new perfumes if I can’t even remember if I liked those that I tested or not. So now I’m trying to decide how I should change my testing practices.

Quick May stats:

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

* Different perfumes worn¹: 27 (+1) from 19 (+1) brands on 31 (+1) occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 20 (-1) on 23 (0) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested²: 45 (-5) from 28 (+1) brands on 56 (-1) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 29 (-3);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Chanel and Tom Ford;

* Perfume house I tested the most: DSH Perfumes;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear) are almost the same as in March: top – (not counting bergamot) galbanum, pepper and mandarin; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) iris root and ylang ylang (the same as last year); base – musk and sandalwood;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time and liked enough to put them on my wish list or bought already: Ambre Noir by Dior, Iris Silver Mist by Serge Lutens, Rose d’Amour by Les Parfums de Rosine and The Beat Look by DSH Perfumes.

How do you test perfumes to get the right impression of them and keep it? 

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

We had a great rainy March. Now everything is green and fresh and blooming. I enjoy wearing my favorite perfumes and try to do it almost every day. I decided for myself that it didn’t make any sense to keep testing new perfumes in the search for a new love if I do not use those that I love already.

I tried to be good with my New Year resolutions but I think I’m failing: I bought two bottles of perfume. And though one of them (Samsara EdT by Guerlain) was during the The smell good do good charity sale at Scents of Self and the second one probably doesn’t count since I’ve already split it (I still have 5 ml of Une Rose Vermeille by Tauer Perfumes to share at cost – send me an e-mail if you’re interested), I still feel I’ll have to increase my yearly FB quota.

Also, I realized that even though I wear perfume every day I do not get too many acknowledgements. I do not know if I’m constantly under-applying and nobody can smell it or if I choose perfumes that people do not like and they are being polite by keeping it to themselves but results are the same (or at least it feels like that). Starting this month I record when I get a reaction to the perfume I’m wearing (both positive and negative – see the chart below).

Wnen was the last time anybody complimented you on the perfume you were wearing? Do you remember the last complaint?

Quick March stats:

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

* Different perfumes worn: 27 (+8) from 16 (+4) brands on 29 (+7) occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 21 (+7) on 23 (+6) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested: 48 (+6) from 33 (+8) brands on 58 (+14) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 25 (+1);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Chanel;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Guerlain (second month in a row – and this is after not owning/not testing a single perfume from this brand);

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) mandarin, lemon and pepper; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) ylang ylang, iris root and lily of the valley; base – vanilla, musk and sandalwood;

Image: my own

February was good: nice weather (though if you ask my vSO, he’ll say there wasn’t enough rain), a very enjoyable trip to Las Vegas, wonderful care packages from my blogo-friends (thank you all once again) and some great additions to my perfume collection.

Since I do not record perfumes that I do not have in my collection and test at a store and I was doing a lot of that type of testing in Las Vegas, the numbers are slightly skewed. But I still wore my favorite perfumes more than twice a week.

Ines raised an interesting question about hoarding samples and decants and I was curious to see what my usage habits were. Inconclusive (see the chart).

In addition to my new Guerlain love (which doesn’t count towards NY resolutions since it was a birthday gift) two more bottles joined my collection this month. At this rate I’ll run out of bottles allowance early in the year.

Quick February stats:

* Different perfumes worn: 19 from 12 brands on 22 occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 14 (-6) on 17 (-6) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested: 42 from 25 brands on 44 occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 24;

* Perfume house I wore most often: Hermès;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Guerlain (and it’s not counting those perfumes I tested in the boutique);

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) mandarin, lemon and orange; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) ylang ylang and orange blossom; base – vanilla, musk and iris root;

* Total number of different notes in all perfumes I wore/tested this month:  205 (-9);

Image: my own

January finally has brought some rain. There is a threat of drought in our state so I was glad it was raining. There were five really cold days (coastal California cold, I mean) but no snow storms or freezing rains.

Let’s see how my first month went resolution-wise.

I haven’t bought a single full bottle or any samples and a damage on decants front is 15 ml.

Even though it was a last year’s resolution, I’m still keeping an eye on my perfume habits: this month I wore my favorite perfumes 5-6 times a week. Somehow it felt right to wear perfumes from my bottles and decants instead of chasing new scents. Also I tried to revisit some perfumes which I tested before but about which I hadn’t made up my mind yet. As a result, my testing of new perfumes went down significantly.

I’ve implemented adding categories to my perfume collection. I found out that mostly I wore/tested perfumes from the high-end niche category and didn’t wear any mall scents at all (see the chart).

Quick January stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 57 from 25 brands on 69 occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 20 on 23 occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 14;

* Perfume house I wore/tested most often: Tom Ford and Neela Vermeire Creations (if you haven’t tried yet read and see if you could solve Three Pieces of Neela Vermeire’s India Puzzle);

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear, not those that I tested for the first time): top – (not counting bergamot) orange and pepper; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) iris and ylang ylang; base – sandalwood, musk and vanilla;

* Total number of different notes in all perfumes I wore/tested this month:  214;

Do you think in January you tested more new perfumes (compared to the previous month) or less?

Image: my own