It’s so easy to complain about perfume these days. Beautiful materials are banned or restricted; the market pumps out hundreds of cheaply made, mediocre fragrances yearly; many of our favorite old perfumes have been reformulated beyond recognition; perfume advertising is often laughably banal; and more.

But we’re still here, loving perfume. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to list some of the reasons I’m grateful for fragrance:

First and most important, exploring scent is profoundly rewarding. Before I fell headlong into perfume, I loved the smell of coffee, old leather purses, and lilac bouquets, for example, but I had little appreciation — or awareness, even — of balance and structure in fragrance. I couldn’t luxuriate in how a scent transitions as it ages on skin. I didn’t see how a hint of ugliness throws a perfume’s beauty into relief. Now I know that appreciating perfume has less to do with having a keen sense of smell and being able to pick out individual notes than it does with understanding a perfume’s whole tableau.

Now for something less grand but still gratitude-worthy: travel sizes, sample sets, rollerballs and 30 ml bottles…

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