perfume statistics

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Entertaining Statistics: February, 2013

 

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.

February 2013 Stats

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

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Does the size… (strike that) bottle matter? Yep!

 

A while ago Monday Question on Olfactoria’s Travels was: How Important Is The Perfume Bottle To You?

Out of 38 respondents 25 (66%) said bottles were very important for the enjoyment of a perfume; 7 (18%) didn’t care for bottles much and 6 (16%) put bottles into the “nice to have but not crucial” category.

I’ve added my voice to the “bottles, please” crowd but my position is a little quirkier; so even though this post covers a slightly different topic I want to reiterate the answer from my comment there.

If I’m in love with a perfume I want to own a bottle of it. And it has to be a real bottle, with a cap and a box: a tester or a refill bottle won’t satisfy my need for a full aesthetic experience. I have no problems with partial bottles though.

When it comes to the perfumes that I just like I’m attracted to unique bottles. And if a brand has standard bottles (Chanel Les Exclusifs, Dior La Collection, Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums, Ormonde Jayne, Guerlain L’Art et La Matière, etc.) owning just one bottle from the line seems to lull the cravings and I feel content with just decants of the other perfumes from that line.

Chanel Cuir de Russie

In the same post Birgit referred to her earlier post about the purchase one of the reasons for which was the beauty of the bottle: So I saw this bottle […] and knew I wanted it for its beauty alone. That it holds an exquisite scent is only the cherry on top and something that makes me happy, but unexpectedly so, because all I knew about 24 Faubourg before I laid hands on my precious Quadrige Edition was from one spray on the back of my hand right there in the store.

I went even further: recently I bought several perfumes… just because of the packaging.

Last July at the First Artisan Salon in San Francisco I saw new packaging for Ineke‘s Floral Curiosities line for Anthropologie and thought it was great. When I initially tested perfumes from the line they were fine but I didn’t love any of them enough to go for a full bottle. But these travel sprays disguised as poetry books were just calling my name. Also since I keep saying that companies should be releasing more perfumes in small bottles I felt like I just had to buy these… So I bought all four: Scarlet Larkspur, Poet’s Jasmine, Sweet William and Angel’s Trumpet.

Ineke Floral Curiosities Travel Bottles

I’ve tested Premier Figuier Extrême by L’Artisan Parfumeur before and thought it was nice but there are several other fig perfumes in my collection and I already have one bottle from L’Artisan Parfumeur line (though those colored labels add some appeal to otherwise similar bottles). Then I came across a special edition bottle… and just couldn’t resist. I will gladly wear Premier Figuier, I like this perfume and think it’ll make a very pleasant office scent. But I do not think I would have bought it any time soon if it hadn’t been for that gorgeous bottle.

Rusty And L'Artisan Premier Figuier

There are several more bottles on my “to buy” list but I think for now I’ve scratched that itch… unless you know where I can buy L’Artisan’s Mure et Musc Extreme in the blackberry-shaped bottle.

4 people from the survey mentioned above also confessed to buying perfumes just for the bottle.

Have you ever bought a perfume just because of the packaging?

 

Images: my own

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Entertaining Statistics: January, 2013

 

Imagine: magazines and newspapers without a single ad; public TV programs and sports events uninterrupted by commercials; downtowns and highways without any billboards in sight; no SALE, Everyday Value or CLEARANCE signs in stores.

All those aren’t scenes from a fiction [unti-]utopian book: that was my life until I was in my early twenties. In the country where I lived there was no advertising, no competing brands and, to think of it, not too many choices for any goods or services.

As a result products’ packaging was minimalistic, not too elaborate or appealing. It was mostly functional. That’s why many products had the same packaging for decades: matches, condensed milk, salt, dairy, etc.

Soviet Products

After moving to the US the biggest shopping challenge for me (after figuring out what “Paper or plastic?” means) wasn’t even choosing the right product from a dozen of similar ones packaged differently by each brand but getting the same product every next time I needed to replenish something. I stopped registering any progress in razor blades after the number reached four. I came to peace with buying a new type of face cream from the same brand every couple of years: I can at least hope they fight my aging process better and better with every new jar (though I’m still angry with several major brands for switching from glass to plastic – at those prices plastic feels too cheap, I still remember how nice old heavy glass jars and bottles felt in hand). But a toothpaste? Sanitary napkins? Paper towels? Do they really improve those every two-three months?

Being annoyed by the necessity to solve a type/size/price riddle every time at a store, I remember complaining that I wasn’t a stupid consumer with short attention span who wouldn’t remember what she bought previously and needed to be constantly razzle-dazzled by “new”, “better” or “improved” qualifiers.

Thinking about perfumes and statistics this moth I started wondering whether perfume brands were really wrong producing 1,000+ new perfumes per year. Are at least we, perfume enthusiasts, immune to the marketing push strategy?

I took a closer look at my full bottles purchases – over the last two years (since I started this blog) and for 2012-YTD. Not to divulge the absolute number of the perfumes that joined my collection I’m operating with %% from the total perfumes bought during those two periods (but actual bottle numbers were big enough to be representative).

January 2013 Stats

As you can see, I’ve bought a lot of recent releases: more than 50% of the perfumes added to my collection during the recent two years appeared on the market in the last five years. It skews even further towards new perfumes for the last year purchases – more than 60% are newer perfumes. And there are at least three perfumes from 2012 on my “to buy” list. Meanwhile some of the bottles from older days stay on that list without even moving up. So it seems that with me the perfume industry is hitting the target. What about you?

I do not expect that normal people keep all that information handy but let’s try something simpler:

What is the release year of your most recent full bottle perfume purchase?

 

 

Image: Soviet products – compilation from multiple sources; stats – my own.

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Entertaining Statistics: November, 2012

 

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.

Stats for Nov 2012

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)

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Entertaining Statistics: October, 2012

 

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.

Stats October 2012

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)

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Entertaining Statistics: September, 2012

 

September was warm and pleasant but autumn is already in the air: I start looking at the direction of favorite amber perfumes.

I was swapping a lot of samples with Perfumeland friends so between that and several new releases from favorite brands my testing went up significantly. I included some of the personal stats in the post but this month I decided again to entertain you with some calculations I ran based on Birgit’s (Olfactoria’s Travels) recent Bottle of the Month article (and a generous giveaway). She asked participants to name a favorite flower and a perfume based on it. Picture below is a graphical representation of the choices.

Favorite flowers in perfumes

For those who prefers numbers (flower – number of votes): Rose – 20; Tuberose – 11; Jasmine – 10; Iris – 10 (it was my choice and it correlates to my personal stats numbers for notes below); Lily – 7; Gardenia – 7; Orange blossom – 4; Lilac – 3; Osmanthus – 3; Lily-of-the-valley – 3; Violet – 2; Narcissus – 2; Hyacinth – 2; Tulip – 2; Carnation – 2; other flowers – 11.

 

Quick September stats:

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

* Different perfumes worn1: 25 (+3) from 18 (+5) brands on 29 (+4) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested2: 52 (+28) from 25 (+10) brands on 60 (+33) occasions;

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

* Perfume house I wore most often: Guerlain;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Dior and Guerlain;

* Most popular notes (only from perfumes I chose to wear): top – (not counting bergamot) neroli, galbanum and orange; middle – (not counting rose and jasmine) iris root and ylang ylang (stays
the same for the last several months); base – musk, vetiver and sandalwood;

 

Are you surprised by the choices others made for a favorite flower?

 

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

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Entertaining Statistics: July, 2012

 

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.

Stats July 2012

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

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Entertaining Statistics: June, 2012

 

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.

 

Stats June 2012

 

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

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Entertaining Statistics: May, 2012

 

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.

May 2012 Stats

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

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Entertaining Statistics: April, 2012

 

I’m so late with April’s statistics that I almost forgot what the month was like. I think it was good though.

I’m still keeping up with my New Year Resolutions but I’m one bottle closer to the self-imposed limit. I just couldn’t resist! I liked Jo Malone’s White Lilac & Rhubarb and didn’t want this limited edition bottle to slip away as those limited editions have a habit of doing. I wish I could have all three bottles from this release in 30 ml bottles but for a reason unknown Jo Malone decided to have only 100 ml bottles for this collection. So if anybody wants a small decant of White Lilac & Rhubarb at cost send me an e-mail.

This month I decided to check if my reaction to perfumes I test depends on the application method. There is nothing scientific about the results since it wasn’t my choice to spray or to dab: I used whatever sample I had. But based on this anecdotal evidence the application method doesn’t affect whether I like the perfume or not (see the chart).

Stats April 2012

Quick April stats:

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

* Different perfumes worn1: 26 (-1) from 18 (+2) brands on 30 (+1) occasions;

* Favorite perfumes worn: 21 (0) on 23 (0) occasions;

* Different perfumes tested2: 50 (+2) from 27 (-6) brands on 57 (-1) occasions;

* Perfumes I tried for the first time: 32 (+7);

* Perfume house I wore most often: Dior;

* Perfume house I tested the most: Guerlain (third month in a row: it looks like once started I cannot stop);

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

* Perfumes I tried for the first time and liked a lot (went to my wish list): Indochine by Parfumerie Generale, La Femme Bleue by Giorgio Armani and Dzing! by L’Artisan Parfumeur.

 

Have you found any new favorites recently? 

 

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 wish I could draw!)