We all have our routines when it comes to social media interactions and information intake. Since I see many of you here and on some other platforms regularly, I assume you have several online places you visit repeatedly, either following the subscription prompt or just doing your rounds.

Saturday Question #113:

Do You Take Breaks From Perfumeland?

Let’s not count heavy reasons, such as serious health issues or life-changing events. But in day-to-day life, do you from time to time stop reading blogs, checking Instagram, visiting FB groups – or however else you manifest your hobby? Why and how long do usually these breaks last?

My Answer

If not to count situations I suggested we shouldn’t count or rare occasions when I actually do not have access to the Internet, since I’ve started this blog, I’ve never been completely away from Perfumeland for any prolonged period. I do not feel the need to pause, be away or “change the subject,” so to speak.

But sometimes life just takes over, and I physically don’t have time or energy left to do everything I want, including publishing my posts or reading blogs from my reading list. But even in those days I usually manage to read a post or go through several screens of pictures on IG. It’s just a part of my day without which it won’t feel complete.

How about you?

Do You Take Breaks From Perfumeland?

(I hope not all of my readers would suddenly decide to take a break – it would made for an awkward Saturday Question post)

I’m not sure if this question sounds strange in a perfume blog but I’ll risk my perfumista card.

Saturday Question #111:

Do You Want More Perfumes?

I know that not all but many of my readers have been at this for years if not decades. We all accumulated more perfumes than we’ll be able to use up in our lifetime. And still we keep searching for the next Holy Grail perfume. Or do we?

Do you want more perfumes? Are you still buying or planning to buy any full bottles? Do you hope to find new perfume love without which you won’t feel your collection is complete? Or do you feel like you’ve smelled it all, and “there is no new thing under the sun”?

My Answer

I still love perfumes. But in the last couple of months I was so overwhelmed with life that even choosing perfume to wear on a daily basis became a chore. I want to wear my perfumes, but I just don’t have any energy left to choose the one that fits my day, my mood and weather. Too many choices. And it’s not even the case of “nothing to wear” but rather an internal indecisiveness: I’m sure that I have a perfect choice in my collection – I just don’t have time to figure out what it is. So, I end up either not choosing anything or making a choice that seems subpar. With all that, I feel that I don’t need any more choices.

But at the same time, I can’t stop getting new samples to test more and more perfumes. My success rate from testing perfumes is still very low, but I’m not sure if I get upset or feel glad that I don’t love the next one I sample. Because if I were to love it, I’d want to get it… and it would have become one more option to consider in the morning. So, why do I buy samples? I think it feels safer to test perfumes than wear them: since I know that I won’t like most of those that I try, I won’t be as disappointed as I would because of the “wrong choice” I made in my collection. And also because secretly I hope to find the next “it” – perfume that I would just need to have.

How about you?

Do You Want More Perfumes?

Not all perfumes are amouages. Well, even not all Amouage perfumes are what they used to be in terms of longevity. So, there is a good chance that perfume you put on in the morning is just a whisper, if that, in the afternoon. And then you face a choice – to reapply it or to go for something else.

Saturday Question #109:

Do You Reapply The Same Perfume During The Day?

If you cannot smell your perfume any longer, do you reapply it? Or do you use that as an opportunity to wear another perfume?

My Answer

When I was going to the office, I would almost always have a decant with me to reapply perfume if it subsided during the day. And then, in the evening, if I stayed at home, I would use that time to test samples.

These days, working from home, I often go scentless for the first part of the day – just because I don’t have time to properly dress up and apply perfume for the morning meetings (without video!). So, whatever I apply later, usually lasts me until the end of the work day without reapplying. After which I would test whatever I want to test. So, even though because of COVID-19 I’m free to use perfumes hajusuuri-style (I still don’t, it’s usually not more than 4 sprays), since I do not reapply the same perfume during the day, the net result is that I use even less of my perfumes.

How about you?

Do You Reapply The Same Perfume During The Day?

In her recent guest post Brigitte… I mean, Pickles asked about unusual perfume bottles in our collections. That made me think about bottles, caps, boxes…

Saturday Question #108:

Are You Willing To Pay More For “Full Presentation” vs. Tester?

Having a choice of a less expensive “tester” version of perfume that you want to get, would you buy it? Or would you prefer a real bottle with all “bells and whistles” even if it meant paying more?

My Answer

In my pre-perfumista years, if I could find a cheaper version at one of the discounters, I would gladly buy and use it. It didn’t really matter to me then since my bottles were done within a couple of years.

But as my collection grew, I discovered that I prefer to keep my bottles in their boxes. So, I usually prefer perfumes in original bottles and boxes.

Two years ago, I decided to buy a bottle of Cierge de Lune by Aedes de Venustas. I found it on Totokaelo website. It was going out of business, so they were selling everything. Discount wasn’t that great at the moment, but since it was one of the last places on the web that has this perfume (I didn’t know then that Aedes would re-launch it repackaged), I decided to buy it before it disappeared.

When the bottle arrived, I discovered with a surprise that, first of all, it was in a wrong box (from Grenadille d’Afrique), and in addition, it had a “Tester” engraving on it (if you look closely, you’ll see it on the back side of the bottle in the photo below).

I was conflicted: clearly, it wasn’t a brand-new bottle, and they inadvertently mixed the boxes, but I did want that perfume, and I couldn’t get it from anywhere else… So, I contacted the site, and we agreed on the fair additional discount. I’m glad that I have this bottle – even though perfume has been re-released. But bar situations like that, I would pay more for the “real deal.”

Are You Willing To Pay More For “Full Presentation” vs. Tester?

I remember that I promised to share more details on the operation “Moms’ Evacuation,” but I’m still dealing with too much to finish the story – I will. Meanwhile, let’s talk perfumes – shall we?

Saturday Question #106:

What Spring Perfumes Do You Look Forward To Wearing?

I know that it’s not Spring yet in many places. But it is getting warmer, and you can feel at least a promise of Spring. Unless you’re in the different hemisphere – then you’ll have to wait a little bit longer.

Are there any perfumes that you rarely wear in different seasons but enjoy wearing specifically in Spring?

My Answer

Our weather suddenly went haywire: it was quite warm for the last week or so (21C/69F), so we were in our Spring already; tomorrow it promises to be much cooler (13C/56F); and by Tuesday they promise almost summer (24C/76F). I was preoccupied with… life, so I missed the change of the season. And now suddenly I realized that I might not get that much time to wear all those perfumes that I love wearing specifically in Spring.

Chanel No 19 extrait and EdT – both are Spring perfume for me. I can wear them all-year-round but usually don’t.

Guerlain Chamade extrait is also one of those that I prefer wearing that time of the year.

Sonoma Scent Studio Wood Violet smells great on my skin in Spring, and I almost dislike it in all other seasons.

What Spring Perfumes Do You Look Forward To Wearing?

We had an extremely stressful week. Tomorrow I’ll publish a detailed account of the events not to keep doing it again and again in private emails to those who were asking me about the situation. But today I decided not to skip the Saturday Question and instead use what has happened as an invitation to discuss the topic.

* * *

With the aggressor bombing Kharkov, the city I was born and grew up in, at some point it became clear that we had to evacuate my vSO’s mother.

Talking on the phone, I was helping my MIL to pack her things for the trip. Since she has not traveled in decades, she didn’t even have a suitcase. So, for the (most likely) one-way trip, leaving everything behind forever, we had to figure out the absolute minimum that she could take with her in a largish bag she had, as a “single small luggage item” she was allowed. It is still winter in Ukraine, so she needed to bring some warm clothes, as well as medicine, water and food for the road. So, there wasn’t much else she could take with her from her previous life. I suggested taking a couple of pictures of her late husband and any jewelry with sentimental value. She isn’t a perfume lover, so the question of perfume didn’t come up.

I tried to imagine what I would have done in this awful situation. Having very limited space, leaving everything behind and running for my life, what one bottle from my collection, if any, would I have taken with me?

Saturday Question #105:

What Single Perfume Would You Take With You?

Hoping to never find ourselves in such circumstances and not playing our usual perfumistas’ games of creative counting or sneaking in some extras, being brutally honest: having 5 minutes to decide and extremely limited space, knowing that you would never get back, do you think that you would have taken with you any one of your perfumes? If yes, which one and why? If not, why?

My Answer

Even without having to move, I was so busy coordinating the evacuation and under such enormous stress that for several days I didn’t even think about perfumes. But once my MIL got to safety, I immediately went back to wearing perfumes. This tells me that my love for perfume is very deep, and even in such a horrible situation, not having anything with me at all, once I had calmed down a little, would have added to my unhappiness. So, if I had a chance (and not all people in Ukraine do – some have to leave their houses to hide just to come back to the black hole in the building where their apartment was), I would have taken with me a small bottle of my all-time perfume love, Climat by Lancome. Probably not even to wear, at least initially, but to be able to smell something that I loved back when my previous life wasn’t shattered by the crazy egomaniac.

How about you?

What Single Perfume Would You Take With You?