One of my New Year resolutions was to add a new option for classifying my perfumes. I got the idea a long ago after reading annemariec’s article on beauty on the outside blog.

There is no real purpose to that classification; I’m doing it just for amusement, so I’m not trying to be too precise.

I think I can do it with the following categories:

Mall scents – this category will include drugstore, catalog and specialty shop perfumes (e.g. Yves Rocher, Body Shop, Pacifica, Crabtree & Evelyn, Demeter);

Mainstream – this category will include mass-market, designer and celebrity perfumes (e.g. Estee Lauder, Lancome, Prada, YSL, Thierry Mugler, Bvlgari);

High-end mainstream – e.g. Chanel, Guerlain, Hermes, Jo Malone;

Boutique – this category will include perfumes sold in brands’ boutiques and exclusive lines (e.g. Chanel, Guerlain, Dior, Tom Ford, Hermes);

Niche – e.g. L’Artisan, Annick Goutal , Atelier Cologne, Histoires de Parfums, Ineke;

High-end niche – e.g. Amouage, Serge Lutens,  Frederic Malle, By Kilian, Puredistance;

Indie – e.g. DSH Perfumes,  Sonoma Scent Studio, Tauer Perfumes, Aftelier Perfumes;

One of a kind – this category will include vintage, bespoke and other odds-and-ends perfumes that I cannot put in any other basket.

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Can you think of any perfumes, lines or brands that won’t fit into these categories?

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Image: my own

I loved our October this year: it was a summer we didn’t have! I did experience some cognitive dissonance reading everybody’s Top N Fall Fragrances lists but I consider it a small cost for the most beautiful weather we had.

I still manage to wear my favorite perfumes more often than targeted “twice a week” but some of those wears were done in parallel with something new being tested (and compared).

In October I tested much less new perfumes. It means that the amount of untested samples in my collection keeps growing. In the attempt to stay in control of those multiplying samples I imposed a rule: no testing is done unless a sample is entered into the database. What can I say? I had 12 of those as of this morning… and now there are 17. I swear they procreate!

There are several reasons why I test less new perfumes. First, during this month I wore several favorite perfumes that required the commitment: they just kept going and going on my skin. Luckily for me I love them. But they do not leave any room for a meaningful testing of new scents.

Quick October stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 64 (0) from 30 brands on 85 (+7) occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 14 on 19 occasions (-9);

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 25 (-5);

* Perfume house I wore/tested most often: Tom Ford for the WTD, Chanel and Amouage – just because I like them;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear, not those that I tested for the first time): top – (not counting bergamot) mandarin, and rose; middle – (since rose and jasmine keep that position unchallenged I include the next notes in the list) iris and ylang ylang; base – musk, sandalwood and vanilla;

* Total number of unique notes in all perfumes I wore/tested this month:  225 (-4);

* Perfumes longevity of which prevented other perfumes testing: Ormonde Jayne Ta’if , Thierry Mugler Angel, Le Labo Rose 31 and Teo Cabanel Alahine.

Did you wear recently any perfumes that claimed your undivided attention for the whole day?

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Finally I caught up on summer. Not only because I went on an eight days Hawaii vacation but also because Northern California’s gods of Nature finally smiled upon us and allowed for a couple of weeks of warm and sunny weather in September.

Have you seen a Kindle vs. iPad commercial where it emphasizes how easy it is to read Kindle even in a direct sunlight when it’s hard to do on iPad due to reflexions? I can confirm the iPad part: you should have seen me trying to read your blogs at the beach! In my beach chair I would curl almost into a fetal position around my iPad trying to cover it by my hat and my arms to see something on the screen. Still most of the time I managed to stay updated (commenting though was slightly harder with a spotty 3G reception).

Since I decided not to do any testing during my vacation both testing and wearing favorite perfumes numbers are unusual: I wore my favorite perfumes much more often than I set as a goal in my NY resolutions but on the downside I didn’t get to test as many perfumes as I’d like.

After reading at another perfume blog about the half of the perfumes in the collection not getting ratings because of not being tested [enough] I got curious about my collection. I have roughly 100 (a hundred!) samples I haven’t tested even once. And I didn’t even dare to count those I tried once or twice and plan on testing again! Of course, some of those that I haven’t tried are samples of mainstream fragrances I wasn’t particularly looking for and might never try (unless one of you sings love to it in your blog) but still.

Quick September stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 64 (-19) on 78 occasions by 34 brands from 7 countries;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 19 on 28 occasions (+9);

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 30 (-21);

* Perfume I wore the most often – Bronze Goddess by Estee Lauder;

* Perfume house I wore/tested most often: Annick Goutal;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear, not those that I tested for the first time): top – (not counting bergamot) mandarin, orange blossom and pear; middle – (since rose and jasmine keep that position unchallenged I include the next notes in the list) iris and ylang ylang; base – musk, amber and patchouli;

* Total number of different notes in all perfumes I wore/tested this month:  229 (-39).

Out of all perfumes I’ve tested for the first time during September on 10 occasions I didn’t like what I smelled, on 16 I had a positive reaction and on 7 the reaction was neutral.

Do you care for the country of origin of the perfume you try/wear?

Image: my own

No summer in our area this year (two hot days in July and two in August) – check.

Wore favorite perfumes three, sometimes four times a week (better than my New Year resolution of two times per week) – check.

Did more testing and less writing – check.

Quick August stats:

* Different perfumes worn/ tested: 83 (+18) from 36 brands on 91 occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 16 on 19 occasions (-6);

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 51 (+15);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Chanel – I seem to be drawn to the brand this summer;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear, not those that I tested for the first time): top – (not counting bergamot) carnation and pepper; middle – (since rose and jasmine keep that position unchallenged I’ll start including the next notes in the list) iris and ylang ylang; base – musk, sandalwood and vanilla;

* Total number of different notes in all perfumes I wore/tested this month:  268 (+50).

Out of all perfumes I’ve tested for the first time during August one was added to my collection, one went to the “to buy” list, thirty eight I will test more and eleven were sent to the purgatory box.

My August posting I wish more people would read – Know-how: Storing Your Perfume Samples.

What is yours? (post a link in your comment)

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End of July, still no real summer for our area and I’m still not complaining. If I weren’t trying to give a fair rotation to my “summer” scents I could still easily wear most of my winter favorites. I’m still being really good with my New Year Resolution to wear the perfumes I own and love at least two times a week. I tend to do it even more often now since my “permanent collection” (full bottles or decants that I acquired by choice) grew significantly in the last seven months.

Quick July stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 65 (+15) from 34 brands on 71 occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 20 on 25 occasions (-5);

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 36 (+21);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Chanel (as I was trying to figure out if I was happy with my unsniffed purchase of Chanel No. 19 Poudre or regretted it);

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

* Most popular notes (from perfumes I tested for the first time): top – (not counting bergamot) lemon, freesia, grapefruit, rose and tangerine; middle – jasmine and rose; base – musk and vanilla. Clearly, I’m testing perfumes that are different from what I choose to wear currently;

* Total number of different notes in all perfumes I wore/tested this month:  218.

While thinking about this post a week ago I thought of a question to ask and came up with one – only to find its variations on two friendly blogs in the next couple of days: Weekend Poll just for fun: 3 Scents in Heavy Rotation (eyeliner on a cat) and Monday Question – What Are Your Five Most Versatile Perfumes? (Olfactoria’s Travels). As Birgit commented: “a common unconscious in Perfumeland.” That made me think in the opposite direction from favorite perfumes – samples.

Since my success rate for the first time testing isn’t too high (see the chart: I have a positive reaction in less than 50% of cases) I try to run those tests at home or while running errands. To the office or parties I wear those perfumes that I know I like. It leaves less time for testing and the number of untested samples – bought, swapped or obtained from stores, – grows.

What if for a month you were to wear only those perfumes you already have (bottles or decants) and had to choose three new, never tested or even smelled before samples – which would you choose?

My answer: Plum by Mary Greenwell, Green Witch by Roxana Illuminated Perfume and Honor Woman by Amouage. I do not have any of these yet but if I had to limit myself to just three perfumes for testing I would want to try these three.

Image: my own

Since the end of the last year when I made my resolution to spend more time with perfumes I love and own I’ve improved my relationships with y collection significantly: even if I spend a day testing new perfumes I go to bed wearing something I like. And still I have more perfumes that I want to wear than time to do so. What will I do when my collection grows?

Quick June stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 50 (5 less than last month) on 63 occasions;
* Favorite perfumes worn: 19 on 30 occasions (+7);
* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 15 (-2);
* Perfume house I wore most often: Jo Malone (for the third season of the weeklong test drive) and Chanel;
* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear, not those that I tested for the first time): top – (not counting bergamot) rose and violet; middle – rose and jasmine; base – musk and sandalwood. The only change in comparison to the previous month is violet in the top position.
* The most popular beginning letter in perfumes names this month was letter C.

Do you have any trivia facts about your perfume collection or usage habits?

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I’m still on the course of wearing one of my favorite perfumes at least a couple of times a week. This month on most occasions I did wear those perfumes and didn’t just test or use them for a comparison. On one hand, it allows me to enjoy perfumes that I love more often. On the other, it leaves me less time for testing.

Quick May stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 55 (-5) on 70 occasions;
* Favorite perfumes worn: 15 on 23 occasions (+7);
* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 17 (-9). Loved 2 (unfortunately, both are vintage – Dioressense and Diorling), liked 5, disliked 5 and on 5 was undecided;
* Perfume house I wore most often: Frederic Malle and Sonoma Scent Studio (I wore perfumes from those on 6 and 5 different occasions correspondingly)
* Perfume house I tested the most: Yves Rocher (for the second weeklong test drive)
* Most popular notes¹: top – (not counting bergamot) mandarin and rose; middle – rose and jasmine followed really closely by iris root; base – musk and sandalwood.

While composing that statistics I also found several of my favorite perfumes that I’ve been neglecting for a long time. I didn’t wear elle by Yves Saint Laurent and Lotus Blossom & Water Lily by Jo Malone for at least six month. It can be explained partially by the fact that I consider them both summer fragrances and it’s barely spring now in our area. But I still feel bad: I should get them some attention.

Are there any of your favorite perfumes that you weren’t spending any time with for many months?

¹ Excludes those perfumes that I tried for the first time not to skew the picture of the notes/seasons correlation.

Image: my own

Wore one of my favorites at least a couple of times a week – check.

I’ve decided to change which fragrances I count towards the notes and brands statistics: I will exclude those that I tried for the first time not to skew the picture of the notes/seasons correlation.

Quick April stats:

* Different perfumes worn/tested: 60 (1 less than in the previous month)
* Favorite perfumes worn: 14 (-7)
* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 26 (-1)
* Perfume house I wore most often: Jo Malone (I wore it on 5 different occasions)
* Perfume house I tested the most: Annick Goutal (for the first weeklong test drive )
* Most popular notes: top – (not counting bergamot) rose and pink pepper; middle – rose and jasmine; base – musk, vanilla and sandalwood.

Image: my own