Following great tradition started by two wonderful bloggers, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) and Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies), once a week I or one of the guest writers will keep the lights on in this virtual leaving room, but I hope that you, my friends and readers, will engage in conversation not only with me or the other host, but also with each other.

Saturday Question #13:

Do You Currently Own Any Back-up Bottles?

Most of us have SABLE (Stash Above & Beyond Life Expectancy – Vanessa ©) collections of perfumes, and, as much as we complain about the state of the industry, every year one way or the other we keep adding more perfumes than are being used up. So, chances of running out of any particular perfume are low – and still from time to time I hear about back-up bottles. Now, I’m curious how many of my readers currently have at least one back-up bottle in their possession.

A back-up bottle is defined as a produced by the brand bottle (of any size) that you have in addition to another bottle of the same perfume. It doesn’t count as a back-up if tor the same perfume you have an EdT, EdP, extrait and a “Poudre” flanker and wear all of them from time to time.

My Answer

Yesterday “back-ups” were on my mind. First, I read in hajusuuri’s post on Instagram, in which she mentioned having back-up bottles for two of Chanel perfumes.

Later that day I got a scare while reading one of the Roses de Mai Marathon’s posts on Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities. Writing about one of my all-time favorites Ta’if by Ormonde Jayne (if you’re not familiar with this perfume, read her beautiful review; if you are – take a look at the wonderfully chosen illustrations), Old Herbaceous mentioned that she didn’t see it on OJ’s US website and thought that it was replaced by Ta’if Intensivo. Immediately I regretted not buying a back-up bottle of it when one of the sites recently had a sale. It was a false alarm, I confirmed since then that the original Ta’if is still available. But now I know that I’ll be on a look-out for the next sale to get that back-up bottle.

Other than that, I have multiple back-up bottles for my life-long love Lancome Climat and 4 more back-up bottles for perfumes that I really like and went 60-90% through the first bottle – Jo Malone Sweet Milk and French Lime Blossom, Yosh Ginger Ciao and Les Parfums de Rosine Rose d’Amour.

Do You Currently Own Any Back-up Bottles?

Disclaimer: this blog doesn’t use any affiliated links or benefit from any of the G-d awful ads that some of you might see inserted tastelessly by the WP engine inside the post and/or between comments. Encouraging readers to post more comments does not serve any purpose other then getting pleasure from communicating with people who share same interests.

Following great tradition started by two wonderful bloggers, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) and Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies), once a week I or one of the guest writers will keep the lights on in this virtual leaving room, but I hope that you, my friends and readers, will engage in conversation not only with me or the other host, but also with each other.

Saturday Question #11:

How Do You Decide What to Wear?

With all the bottles, decants and samples that you have, how do you decide which perfume to wear on any given day? (The question was suggested by Hamamelis.)

My Answer

Many years ago, when I had just 5-7 bottles, every morning I’d look at all of them and decide what to wear. Since I wore them all quite frequently, even before applying perfume I knew how it would smell, so I rarely chose a wrong one.

Once I started down the rabbit hole and accumulated some samples, every night before going to sleep, in my head I would go through everything I owned and choose what to wear the next day. I enjoyed this small routine, but the results were mixed since some of the samples I wore were new to me.

These days, since going through all of my perfumes in my head would be like counting sheep (with a predictable effect), instead, if I have 5-10 minutes in the morning, I’d read through the SOTD thread of NST to see if one of the comments would give me an idea. Sometimes, though less often, I would participate in a community project there (like this week when for 5 days I wore iris perfumes – Olfactive Studio Iris Shot, Histoires de Parfums 1904 (Madame Butterfly), Xerjoff Irisss, Parfums Dusita Splenderis and 1907 Mon Ame). But on most days I would just stay in front of the shelves with perfumes trying to figure out which of the perfumes that I haven’t worn in a while would fit the weather, my mood and any other variables I care to introduce that day. Since I wear mostly perfumes that I own and know well, the method works, and I rarely make a wrong choice. But I constantly have a feeling that I neglect some of my favorites just because I don’t see them or make my choice quickly without considering all the options.

How Do You Decide What to Wear?

Disclaimer: this blog doesn’t use any affiliated links or benefit from any of the G-d awful ads that some of you might see inserted tastelessly by the WP engine inside the post and/or between comments. Encouraging readers to post more comments does not serve any purpose other then getting pleasure from communicating with people who share same interests.

Following great tradition started by two wonderful bloggers, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) and Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies), once a week I or one of the guest writers will keep the lights on in this virtual leaving room, but I hope that you, my friends and readers, will engage in conversation not only with me or the other host, but also with each other.

Saturday Question #10:

What Are Your Favorite Perfume Names?

Earlier this week Narth posted a review of perfume she liked despite its questionable name. Seeing a lack of enthusiasm for that perfume, I thought that we should go into the opposite direction and share those perfume names that inspire us.

What are perfume names that you think are beautiful, interesting, funny or clever? To make it slightly harder, let’s consider only perfumes from the current century (created in 2000 – 2020). You do not have to necessarily like perfume itself since the question is specifically about names. Which names do you like (for any reason)?

My Answer

When I started thinking about it, I realized that once you discount Shalimar, Chamade and Vol de Nuit, it gets harder to come up with something that fits the criteria.

But after thinking for a while, I thought of three names that I like (and I happen to like perfumes as well). The first that came to mind was Felanilla by Pierre Guillaume Paris. I know, I’m biased, but I just loved this word forged with a cat in mind. When I think of it, I feel a purr raising up my throat.

The second candidate is Splenderis by Parfums Dusita – one more clever word play with my favorite perfume note. There are several more great “iris-based” names, but I’ll leave them to others.

And the last one I want to mention, is a simple word combination, not frivolous or playful but rather regal: Bronze Goddess by Estee Lauder.

What Are Your Favorite Perfume Names?

Disclaimer: this blog doesn’t use any affiliated links or benefit from any of the G-d awful ads that some of you might see inserted tastelessly by the WP engine inside the post and/or between comments. Encouraging readers to post more comments does not serve any purpose other then getting pleasure from communicating with people who share same interests.

Following great tradition started by two wonderful bloggers, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) and Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies), once a week I or one of the guest writers will keep the lights on in this virtual leaving room, but I hope that you, my friends and readers, will engage in conversation not only with me or the other host, but also with each other.

I haven’t published anything in this series in a while. Then I thought that these times called for any positivism that we could master, and I started writing this post, but was either too busy or too tired to finish it a couple of days ago. So, I decided to combine it with the weekly Saturday Question.

Saturday Question #9:

What Are Small Things That Brighten Your Life?

Off the kitchen in our townhouse there is a tiny patio. When the house was on the market, the previous owner put there a small round iron cast table and a couple of chairs: those of the type that look great on pictures as an idea of sitting outside with a cup of … something, but in reality are not comfortable to actually do that.

After we moved in, we never furnished that patio and allowed a bush that grew in the corner to fully overtake it. We liked it even more like that.

About a month ago, one morning having looked out of the window, we noticed that a hummingbird had built a nest on the branch of the bush.

Since then, once or twice during the day we would be carefully looking out from the window to see how she was doing. We were being very careful trying not to open blinds too wide not to disturb her. Most of the time the hummingbird was sitting in the nest leaving it just for a short while, probably to find food. Then one day, while the nest looked empty, I noticed some movement there… and then several days later we spotted two beaks.

For the next week or so the bird was absent most of the time: I suspect, it wasn’t easy to feed two growing nestlings. Also, I’m not sure all three of them would still fit into the nest. But it was joyful to see those two little birds growing.

Short before two young hummingbirds left the nest, Rusty had finally realized that something was going on there. When he peaked out of the patio door, the mother bird started flying angrily in front of the screen door, making threatening sounds and looking very resolved. I hurried to distract Rusty with a treat in another room.

Now the nest is empty, so we’re free again to open the blinds and the door to let light and fresh air in, and Rusty is free to sit in front of the screen door and enjoy sun. But, as I read, hummingbirds might return to their nests in future, if those survive. So, we’ll be very careful pruning the bush, and hopefully our hummingbird will return the next spring: seeing her every day provided some normality into the current strange and slightly unrealistic situation.

How about you? Please share anything nice that helps you these days, be that nature outside, beloved pets, comforting perfumes, interesting books, movies or sites, favorite (or new?) recipes, supportive exercise or self-help videos or anything else. Feel free to post any links.

What Are Small Things That Brighten Your Life?

Disclaimer: this blog doesn’t use any affiliated links or benefit from any of the G-d awful ads that some of you might see inserted tastelessly by the WP engine inside the post and/or between comments. Encouraging readers to post more comments does not serve any purpose other then getting pleasure from communicating with people who share same interests.

Following great tradition started by two wonderful bloggers, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) and Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies), once a week I or one of the guest writers will keep the lights on in this virtual leaving room, but I hope that you, my friends and readers, will engage in conversation not only with me or the other host, but also with each other.

Saturday Question #8:

Do You Own Any Solid Perfumes?

Solid perfumes are much less typical version of perfumes than many others, but some brands produce them. Do you have any of them in your collection? Are they of the same scent as you have in other format (EdP, EdT, etc.), or are they unique? When do you choose to wear them?

My Answer

I looked at my collection and realized that I do not own a single solid perfume. For a while I was entertaining the idea of getting Diptyque‘s Volutes in this form since it is perfume that my vSO and I share when we fly somewhere, but since this one is (was?) available only from the Paris Boutique, and I made us a decant into a tiny roller ball bottle, I’d never gone through with that plan.

Later, I was tempted by Jo Malone‘s solid perfumes, but since I never saw them in a store, I told myself that I wouldn’t expect them to be more tenacious than their liquid siblings, which already are pushing my tolerance towards the necessity to re-apply perfume multiple times per day, so that lemming had also died unfulfilled.

Thanks to hajusuri who sent me a tiny sample, I tried Bergamoss by Aftelier Perfumes. I didn’t expect that, but I like it very much. Not $275/8 ml much, though. I mean, I do not question the price of this creation (it includes a “refillable” $50 sterling silver case): with all that goes into the development of these perfumes, it might be well worth the money. I just do not love that perfume in that form enough to want to pay this price. But maybe I’ll buy another tiny sample, try again and change my mind? It is quite unique.

Do You Own Any Solid Perfumes?

Disclaimer: this blog doesn’t use any affiliated links or benefit from any of the G-d awful ads that some of you might see inserted tastelessly by the WP engine inside the post and/or between comments. Encouraging readers to post more comments does not serve any purpose other then getting pleasure from communicating with people who share same interests.

Following great tradition started by two wonderful bloggers, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) and Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies), once a week I or one of the guest writers will keep the lights on in this virtual leaving room, but I hope that you, my friends and readers, will engage in conversation not only with me or the other host, but also with each other.

Last week we had 91 comments, and the winner is: cookie queen cassieflower. Please contact me before the next SQ post with your choice of an indie brand’s site, for which you’d like to get the offered gift certificate.

Saturday Question #5:

Do You Keep Perfume Boxes?

On those rare occasions when I visit Facebook, I come across people posting in different perfume groups pictures of their collections: beautiful bottles displayed on shelves, dressing tables and vanity trays.

Also, in the same groups, people are selling perfumes, oftentimes without box or specifying that they’d send a box with extra postage.

It always makes me wonder: were all of those bottles testers? Or do people throw them away? Or store separately? Aren’t they afraid to expose their precious perfumes to light?

My Answer

In almost five years since I did a post on a similar topic (Thinking outside the Box), nothing has changed: all of my perfumes that have boxes are stored in them in the walk-in closet. Decants and rare “naked” bottles are tucked away into drawers in the same closet. And from time to time I’m adding to or changing a set of decorative bottles on my display tray. Wait… not exactly “nothing has changed”: we’ve added an accordion door to the closet, so now my perfumes are even more protected from a stray sunbeam that theoretically might peek into my bedroom through shades.

So, throwing away a box or keeping perfume that came in a box outside feels completely unnatural to me.

How about you? If we get to 75 comments, I’ll do one more round of a random draw for a $25 (or equivalent in pounds or euro) gift certificate to an indie brand of your choice.

Do You Keep Perfume Boxes?

Disclaimer: this blog doesn’t use any affiliated links or benefit from any of the G-d awful ads that some of you might see inserted tastelessly by the WP engine inside the post and/or between comments. Encouraging readers to post more comments does not serve any purpose other then getting pleasure from communicating with people who share same interests.