Today's poll was suggested by Marjorie Rose, and was inspired by the You might be a redneck if... series of jokes. Go ahead, get creative: you might be a perfumista if...
Or, as always, just go ahead and talk about something else. Or tell us your scent of the day.
I am on the road today and might not be able to join in until late tonight or tomorrow. And I'll be out of town all of next week and part of the following. Next week, Angie is taking over with her annual summer drugstore perfume bash.
Note: image is Passiflora 'Perfume Passion' [cropped] by Harald Hoyer at flickr; some rights reserved.
I would like to post the info for a charity auction featuring a lot of fragrances, is that okay?
Would rather you emailed me the info first if you don’t mind, since you are a new account. You can send to robin at nstperfume dot com. I am on the road so might take me a bit to respond unless you send soon.
You might be a perfumista if … you are sitting up at midnight checking perfume blogs.
Or it could be because your teenage son has turned nocturnal and wakes you up to tell you he is ‘just going out for a walk’. Sheesh …
lol! I’ve done that more times than I care to remember.
OMG, that’s what i am doing right now, and that’s what I do just after checking the most basic news from the world every day in the morning.
Sigh, yep.
Or the corollary to this is that you’re sitting up in the wee hours of the morning trying to snag that vintage bottle on eBay!
You might be a perfumista if… on vacation, you forget to pack your deodorant, hairbrush, and mascara but have easily 30 perfume samples. Thank goodness for the drugstore on every corner in America.
Ha! This is so true
You might be a perfumista if you say, “I only brought two perfumes for a two-week vacation — what was I thinking?!”
Or if you never have the money to take a vacation because you spend it all on perfume samples.. lol
You are so right! Whenever I travel I bring at least 10 decants cuz you never know what mood you may be in!
Or, you check the weather channel and your wardrobe to coordinate which fragrance suits the weather or your outfit best.
Speaking of vacations, next month I will be stopping in Toronto for a couple of days. Does anybody know what’s happening with Noor? Any other suggestions for perfume shopping? I am running low on ELdO if anyone knows who stocks it…
Noor is still closed. From all the information I’ve been able to gather, it won’t be re-opening until renos are completed. Holt’s, Chanel, Hermes, and the Guerlain boutique are all right around the corner from Noor on Bloor St. I believe Prada is there as well. A pretty good guide can be found at your-perfume-guide.blogspot.com/2011/10/toronto-canada.html. Unfortunately, I don’t know where you can purchase ELdO around here. Enjoy your time in the city!
Thanks for that link. I looked at their Houston page, and I just found out there may be places here that sell ELdO and CBIHP, and I didn’t know about them! I think I need to go check them out and see if the info is good. 🙂
Thanks so much for the link to the TO guide, ojaddicte!
You might be a perfumista if you want to know about perfume shopping before you visit a city
Or if your decision on which city to visit is based on what perfume is available there…
Oh, I totally cop to that!
I’m almost embarrassed to say that I’ve never been to New York although I’ve always wanted to go for many, many reasons. But now I know that Caron Urns reside there and it has soared to the top of my “next destination” list. I’m sure I’ll also go to the museums . . . . . after Caron of course.
Touché!
You might be a perfumista if……you start noticing that the smell of a distant skunk has interesting musky undertones…the smell of hot motor oil would smell good in a perfume (just a whiff, of course)…you chase after perfect strangers to demand to know what perfume they’re wearing….you find perfume samples in all your coat pockets, older purses, suitcases, under the furniture, your kitchen drawers, your canvas grocery bags – not that I would know personally of course 😉
Oh yes, only in my case it’s fox, not skunk! I notice really interesting notes of coffee overlaying the musk ………….
Interesting! I’ve only seen wild fox twice in my life. Do you live in a wooded area where you can smell them, or do you have foxes as pets? Enquiring minds want to know 🙂
Hi! At the moment I live in the countryside, in the middle of woods so there are plenty of foxes around, but they are secretive and only come out at night. I used to live in the suburbs of London, and we had more foxes in our garden there! And they were tamer too. One big old fellow used to amble up the garden path in full daylight, sit down and look at me, lazily yawning. Really beautiful animals that seem to be half dog and half cat.
Right, we’ve just hypothesizing here, of course! 😉 I appreciate your vivid imagination, righthing!
Thank you nozkoz 🙂
Yes, yes! My husband thinks I’m totally deranged. Now, when we drive through farm country and the fields have just been fertilized I roll the windows down as he feverishly tries to roll them up! I really hope I don’t get as “earthy” as my dog and start trying to roll in it!:)
You might be a perfumista if you spend your grocery money on Dinner by Bobo…
Wow, that’s a blast from the past…I did not know they still made it! (or were you just cracking a joke?)
Trying to crack a joke… (It sounded funny in my head, but obviously nowhere else!)
You might be a perfumista if the first thing you do every Saturday morning is jump on your computer to announce to a bunch of strangers from all over the world what your body is going to smell like that day.
Hahahaha! Wait, is that weird? 😀
Only if you want it to be.
Good topic, MR!
The screen names are so familiar that you don’t realize that they ARE strangers
Exactly, LOL!
I lamented to Robin that most of my “friends”, i.e. the group that I started on here with years ago, are no longer here. And of course you’re right – they are all strangers! 😀
Ditto!
Perfect. You nailed it.
You might be a perfumista if you purchase a refrigerator for the storage of perfume, not food.
And you keep the temperature at 53 degrees F, of course, because that’s the temperature of the perfume cellar at the Osmothèque in Versailles. 🙂
Been there, done that!!!
Now that’s hard core!
Hello everyone! This is my first post after a year of reading this blog. You might be a perfumista if your son (6) can tell you the names of the perfumes in your collection and your daughter (3) wants to also pick a SOTD. No, this is not my life 😉
Not only might you be a perfumista, you may also be raising a pair of them 🙂
JaiLea, glad you delurked and we hope to get to know you and your perfumistas-in-training.
Hi and welcome!
You might be a perfumista if a successful vacation/work trip to a city outside NYC includes visiting Nordstroms to get loads of free samples of scents you love or are curious about.
I’ve found stores in NYC are not generous at all with giving samples, whereas at Nordstroms you can help yourself and I literally seek out the Nordstroms wherever I travel.
Nordstrom is fabulous about samples. And Sephora — my 2 favorite sampling grounds.
You might be a perfumista if…
…you spend more time deciding what perfumes to take on your vacation than you do in choosing what clothes to take.
..,you spend more on perfume than you do on clothes.
…your perfume refrigerator is bigger than your food refrigerator.
…you actually have a perfume refrigerator
…the first thing you read after starting up your computer each day is the perfume blog(s).
…you actually know that there are perfume blogs.
…you hear the word “notes” and you first thought is about perfume, not music or writing.
…ditto for the words “compose” and “composition”.
…you have a spreadsheet to keep track of your perfume collection, samples, swaps, etc.
…
Do I qualify? I have mine in a relational database. That way I can pull them up by house, nose, notes, type, style, etc.
no.
But you can apply at the desk in the corner;)
If you have a SQLServer database devoted to your perfume collection, you might be a perfumista.
bonus points if you have a web page connected to said database where you can enter or edit the perfumes in your database with a form.
I would say that makes you not only a perfumista, but also a certified computer geek.
Yep… web development is my day job, hence the nerding on about databases and forms and such. The form thing actually gave me a website idea for a little bit there.. until I realized that Basenotes already does most of the stuff I was thinking of.. lol.
Hah, you beat me to “spend more on perfume than you do on clothes”! Way more. 🙂
Perfume always fits and doesn’t notice if I’ve gained a few!
Corollary: you may be a perfumista if you can think of multiple excellent reasons to spend your money on perfume instead of any alternative purchase. 🙂
I checked all of the boxes except spreadsheets, Roses! I guess I qualify. 😉
You might be a perfumist(o) if you find perfume samples in every room, on every piece of furniture, and every time you clean out your car. Or you might just be as messy as me! 😛
I don’t think I ever shared this, but when I first started, I ordered a 4 sample pack from TPC of exclusive SL perfumes. Well, I ended up losing my TC sample, until three weeks later I find it in the yard while cutting my grass. Still smelled fantastic!
Found*
You might be a perfumist(o) if your posts are full of acronyms of perfume houses and fragrance names!
So true about the acronyms! I felt like I was learning a new language when I began to frequent this blog! HG was the toughest one for me to figure out! From context, I knew it had to be something good!
You are definitely a perfumista(o) if you don’t have to ask what the acronyms mean!
You might be a perfumista if you keep a couple of bottles (or sample vials) of your current favorite scents on your nightstand, in case you need a spritz of two of something before you fall asleep at night, or first thing in the morning (to help you wake up).
OR, like me, you reapply perfume in the middle of the night after getting up to pee. In the middle of the NIGHT. Have to do it.
I always have a vial of Philosykos in my bed table drawer 🙂
……… if you see the eyes of “muggles” glaze when all they’ve done is tell you that you smell nice, and you launch into a complete description of what you’re wearing, including its notes, history, nose who created it, date it was discontinued etc etc.
Or when you tell someone else they smell nice, then launch into the significance of the fragrance they are wearing as a turning point in the history of perfume.
And see their eyes glazing over:o
Or (this is very snotty, sorry) when they say “You smell nice, what is that?” And instead of answering you just shake your head sadly. Because there is no chance that they will ever 1) find any or 2) understand the name you reply.
I’ll add 3) and you know they’d never pay that much for a perfume.
True enough.
I know that look….
You can walk into a perfume store and immediately spot all the nes releases.
You can walk into ANY store, anywhere, and if there’s perfume present you’ll find it, even if it’s just 2 bottles in a back corner
If the standard SA inquiry, “What kind of scent you like?,” elicits both a barely audible “um, lots of different things” and an internal villainous “MwaaaHAAHAA!!!”
Next time I hear the inevitable question I’m definitely going to repeat that sound effect – at least in my own head!
LOL YES!!! I was just talking about this with someone a couple weeks ago! The counterpart to that situation is the SA asks the question and you actually name something, and the SA is boggled because they’ve never heard of the scent you named.
Perfect!
I once asked a SA what chypres she had. She thought I was asking for cheaper. I was a new perfumista and was mortified.
If your perfume collection reaches into triple digits and your bank account does not, you might just be a perfumista.
If you have no idea what Fruit Loops are, but could name 6 different fruitchoulis without even trying, you might just be a perfumista.
If niche, Indie, and mainstream make you think of fragrances before films, you might just be a perfumista.
By now, I’ve practically forgotten that niche has a context outside of perfume.
If you are on a first name basis with all delivery workers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.) and when they hand you your package, they say: “This looks like the LuckyScent order. Maybe tomorrow for IndieScents.”; you just might be a perfumista.
This is a great one!
Or when you feel like something sweet you spray it rather than eat it.
Yep, but far better for your health.
Yay, Robin! This is such a fun poll! This community makes me laugh!
You might be a perfumista if on a first date you find yourself explaining that a touch of barnyard in that vintage Shalimar is really what makes it special!
Speaking of which, I had a good first date last night! (Unfortunately, the two “decant relationships” from a few weeks past, neither turned out to be FBW!)
. . . if you find your relationships elicit perfume analogies, you might be a perfumista!
. . . if you feel that having under 50 bottles of perfume is a “modest collection.”
OH, OT but big fun! Our Lady (The Perfume House to the unanointed) is beginning to host some evenings of perfume-goodness, and the first event is an author reading Aug. 7th from the lovely Alyssa Harad! (Unafiliated, just pleased to see Our Lady branching out. Want them to stay open and continue supplying the NW with good scents!)
You spend a serious amount of time trying to figure out what perfume will be number 50
When someone chides you for the number of bottles you have, you offer rationalizations: the five Chanels I have that came in the gift coffret really only count as one bottle or the buy one, get something else for half-price, both only count as one bottle.
Great idea, thank YOU! We might have to make this a yearly repeat.
It really is turning out to be loads of fun, huh? I’d be very happy to see it again from time to time!
Brilliant idea, MJ! And more fun reading than commenting this time!
you know you’re a perfumista if:
primary definition of edt isn’t Eastern Daylight Time
“I’m wearing vintage Chanel” doesn’t refer to clothing or accessories
and, if during a summer power outage, you’re more concerned about how the contents of your perfume cabinet will fare vs. the contents of your fridge!
Love the edt one. And the combination of your screen name and edt reminded me that I want another bottle of vintage Vol de Nuit edt! Another sign that I’m a perfumista. 🙂
If you think a bell jar is the correct souvenir to bring back from Paris
If you can easily wear a different scent every day for more than amonth (including samples)
If you have used the internet to obtain a perfume that you didn’t grow up with
If your bottles outnumber your age
If you read a list of notes and can guess whether it will suit
If you can make a Monday Mail suggestion
If you know about a new perfume release before the SA does
If you dislike IFRA
Oh, my bottles certainly outnumber my age! That’s a good one.
. . . if you know who IRFA are and have strong feelings about their policies!
I like the idea of wearing a different perfume every day for a month. That sounds like a fun project.
But then there’s the afternoon and going-to-sleep perfumes… Must they change every day as well?
I might need a few more bottles to participate in this game! :}
If you feel a need to up the challenge go right ahead. I have scent-glue skin so I don’t reapply in the afternoon but even applying 3x/day I could still go for a couple of months–I’m pretty sure I’ve got a couple of hundred samples around
Oh I do too – I like the idea of pushing myself to use the samples by playing this game!
80% of perfumes wear off me by afternoon so I usually put on some sort of a pick-me-up – possibly coordinating, possibly not. (Can’t mix an iris with an Amouage. At least *I* can’t.)
Great list! But being a “woman of a certain age”, I’m not sure about bottle count vs. my age. Too many years and bottles to count!
You hear of a friend/cousin/co-worker or a relative of all of the above about to travel to Paris and don’t hesitate to ask ‘would they mind just swinging by the Salon les Parfums Royale’?
I did the “do you mind swinging” by bit when I heard my niece was in the UK and going to Paris next. She became my perfume mule 🙂
Hajusuuri,
I have a co-worker who does guided tours of Paris, I suggested ‘swinging by’ Uncle Serges’ Salon-and now it’s a regular part of her tour. She mentioned the staff were lovely, and the salon was beautiful.
You may be a perfumista if your nose is developed to a point where your olfactory perception of the environment becomes rather powerful (and it isn’t always pleasant).
Example from yesterday evening: my husband and I were at an Ukrainian restaurant. The dinner started well with delicious food, but then … first, two guys were seated at the table next to us. Their cologne (and it wasn’t a particularly refined one) started to dominate everything. Then, one of the kids on the table behind us (there were two families with four little kids) must have pooped … That was way too much for my nose — it totally spoiled the meal …
Robin, hope your travels are going well!
Very well so far, thank you!
What I notice more and more is that nearly every woman on earth smells like some variation on Flowerbomb.
You Might Be A Perfumista: if you ask your cat which one to where today because you have too many choices and she is sitting on the dresser knocking bottles off with her tail…
🙂
Also, got this for a late birthday add-on gift from my sister and I am very pleasantly surprised! What a gorgeous hippy-beach inspired little collection! Not as small as samples but not as large as individual drug-store fare–the lotion is a little on the thin side (but so are many others I have tried that cost ten times more!) but it sinks in quickly and is silky soft! I LOVE the Body Butter. My husband said I smell like a Head-Shop on the beach and proceeded to put in a Bob Marley CD…but it was quite refreshing in this heat-wave. It wears close to the skin and lasts most of the day (inside in air-conditioning.) http://www.walmart.com/ip/Island-Spa-Cinnamon-Clove-Orange-Body-Care-Gift-Set/21472962
oh and the soap is a nice hard-milled french-style with molded massage bumps. Not bad for made in China.
…a colleague compliments you on the perfume you’re wearing, and the next day you bring him/her a sample. Or several.
…a recurring regret is the time(s) you caught a whiff of a fantastic perfume in a museum and failed to follow the sillage to ask what it was.
…you have a dedicated outfit for each of your stronger perfume favs (it wouldn’t do for traces of Messe di Minuit on that espresso brown sweater to clash with Liaisons Dangereuses one day, would it?).
…in one of your perfume drawers, there is a 1/4 oz. bottle of Corday Toujours Moi exactly like the one you had when you were 16.
Oh yeah, the clothing thing is why I’m increasingly interested in a signature scent.
The jacket that I used to wear during my Opium phase is so worn out but I have a hard time throwing it out because it smells so good.
I bet your jacket smells lovely-I love Opium, especially the extrait. I’m getting down to the last drops of my perfume and I savor every drop.
Busted! How did you know about my Toujours Moi?
🙂 The Art Nouveau-inspired bottle and box are rather unforgettable, aren’t they?
And you just might be a perfumista if you read all of these comments, laugh out loud, and realize that 99% of them apply to you. It’s also a sign if you feel a sense of relief that you’re not the only one who…(fill in the blank) 🙂
Yes! Welcome to the club, huh? It’s very reassuring. . . 😀
So true! 😀
You change your fragrance more than twice a day and have specific scents for bedtime (not romantic bedtimes, just “I must wear perfume to sleep in” scents),
You love to read and are constantly searching for books where perfume is mentioned frequently, even if the story has little to do with scent overall.
Related to reading. . .
. . . if you pause a classic movie to try to identify the bottles on the heroine’s dressing table!
Oh . . . done that. Wish I could remember the movie, I think it had Betty Davis and she had an ginormous bottle of Femme on her frilly dressing table . . . . sigh . . . .
Go see the Bling Ring and see if you can name the perfumes/brands of bottles which the group of teen age thieves help themselves to after breaking into celebrity homes.
(No points for the Paris Hilton line of perfumes. Ms. HIlton seems to have required the director to shoot a display of her full line of “Heiress” perfumes in exchange for letting them film in her home. )
Like being hugely excited at the part in Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies where the waiter gets told off for wearing too much Nuit de Noel! 🙂
When I get the inevitable “What sort of perfumes do you like?” question from an SA, after I mention my favorite obscure Caron fragrances such as French Cancan, Tabac Blond and Or et Noir, etc, I like to work into the conversation that I am a member of Sniffapolooza, as that seems to intimidate them. I like giving them a challenge;)
I wonder if most of them even know what Sniffapolooza or Basenotes even is…
You plan entire transatlantic vacations around which perfume shops to visit in a particular city…
You discover an office-mate (or any mere acquaintance) is going to Paris and you beg them to stop at Palais Royal to get you the latest SL exclusive…of course you convince them that you’re really doing them a favor by introducing them to Uncle Serge.
You refer to Serge Lutens as Uncle Serge and your perfume friends know exactly who you are talking about 😉
Your husband has his own perfume collection… Albeit much much smaller than yours.
And you wear scents from his collection more often than he does!
Yeah, you might!
It’s so easy to enrich a kid’s life by just talking to them about what interests you. They don’t have to like the same things as you do, but showing them how to live in touch with their senses can’t be anything but good. Thumbs up, mama.
WHOOOPS. THis was supposed to be a reply to Jai Lea up there, talking about her kids knowing about her perfumes!
Great topic, dear NST!
… if you are considering taking along bubble wrap on your next overseas trip – so the bottles you’ll bring back will be snug and well looked after in your suitcase.
I haven’t done that but now I realize that I *should*!!!
You know…I didn’t even think about this! Thanks.
If, while watching vintage films and t.v. shows, you spot and can identify specific perfumes in the set background–especially when the scene is in a bathroom or bedroom. For example, HUGE Dior bottles are prominently shown in the Hepburn/Tracy film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” as well as Doris Day’s last film, “With Six You Get Eggroll.” Arpege is often shown in films of the 60s. I’ve spotted several Emeraude’s on “Bewitched” (the t.v. show) and films of the period as well.
Excellent! I love spotting perfume in movies & books.
Or when you pack bubble wrap in your husband’s suitcase, along with a list, addresses and how to say sample in french when he has to go to paris.
🙂
or you divorce your perfectly wonderful husband for one who travels regularly to Paris!
. . . if when you use the term “scrubber,” you don’t mean a household cleaning product!
Clearly I have found this question a bit late in the game. Just when I thought I had a response that hadn’t been mentioned, I read on and found it. You all have said what I would like to say, and it is all true. Except maybe the refrigerator being bigger than the one for food. I had to laugh when I read the comment about bringing a sample to someone after they complimented you on a perfume. Just today I took the girl at the Goodwill drop off center a sample of Cristina because she complimented me on it yesterday when I dropped off 6 pairs of high heels that will never touch my feet again.This was a most fun and entertaining read. I am so very glad that you all are out there, and yes the names are starting to be very familiar. Great question, Robin!
High five for the Cristina sample, Tora!
…if you have started thinking of any expendable income or money saved in units of bottles of perfume. For example, “I could finally buy that gym membership for $100/month, which is $1200 dollars a year…or I could buy soooo many bottles from my ever growing list of perfumes I want…”
Yes!
If you spend ten thousand dollars on 220 bottles in 3 years.
Or if you do the math and figure out that “it’s only about $45 a bottle; that’s not so bad!”
OK you asked for it so here goes, in order of thinking them
You may be a perfumista if …
1. You plan your holiday according to fragrance stores existing in transit airports and at your holiday destination
2. You call fragrances only by name, omitting the name of the fragrance house – everybody knows that right?
3. You group fragrances by the nose who developed them.
4. You compound the confusion by calling the nose by either first name or second name, never the full name. Who hasn’t heard of Jean-Claude or Sheldrake?
5. You talk to non-perfumistas in initials like HG, FBW and mysterious words like “decants”and “splits”without explaining them.
6. You turn your nose up at mainstream fragrances but follow them nonetheless.
7. When a non-perfumista wants to talk about the latest mainstream release, you pretend to be enquiring into the quaint practices of a primitive tribe and then mumble something about the cashmeran clashing with the petitgrain here, unlike in the original (niche creation no one in the room has heard about).
8. You are able to hold at least a half hour conversation – or worse, monologue – about one fragrance note and its creative uses. By the time you have finished analysing the many facets of vetiver, you may be talking alone.
🙂
That is the anti-social perfumista!
What I find funny, relating to your second point is that some non-perfumistas refer to their own favourite perfume by calling it the brand name, rather than the perfume name. I wear Chanel, one woman told me. Turns out Chanel no. 5, and I never got so far as to EDT or EDP.
She didn’t even realise that she was not being specific. For her, Chanel IS no.5.
Oh, don’t know about anti-social. Spending a lot of time talking to other perfumistas makes one forget they have to explain things to those who don’t share the same passion.
You are right on the money with the brand-dropping, I know women who say they wear “Chanel” when it’s clearly one of the Chance Eau flankers and get annoyed when asked to mention which one because chanel is Chanel right? Sometimes they don’t remember the color of the bottle, and yet they apply it every day! LOL
….if you understand more french words without ever having studied the language.
Hi everyone. I feel like I know everyone because I am a looooong time lurker…
You may be a perfumista if you immediately go from this site to the aforementioned purveyor to purchase whatever amazing review object you just read based on the description and passion of the reviewer. Or does that make me an undisciplined amateur?
Good one…I do the same thing and I’ve been in the rabbit hole for a while.
We’re all guilty! And welcome. 🙂
If at the evening you think of what shower gel to use and which body lotion after that so it will match the fragrance you might want to put on before bed
…if you pay more attention to which perfume you’re gonna wear for the party instead of clothes
…if after sampling fragrance in the shop you walk in the way to feel the fragrance and position yourself in a way that the wind blows from behind so you can smell it
… If you sniff your wrists pretending that you have to move your glasses on your nose or your hair that need to be pulled back… That way you can feel the fragrance again
…if before the party you check the weather to estimate which fragrance would suit best on that day
… If you need to make a list of your perfumes cause you’re not sure what you have when you need to decide what to put on
yes, my glasses.. they’re really slippery today.. it’s weird.
Maybe kind of similar to the wind thing.. which I hadn’t thought of, by the way.. when I get in my car after putting on perfume, I sometimes position my hands on the steering wheel so that they’re right in front of the air vents, which waft the scent back toward my face.
How about putting the perfume on the backs of your hands so that you can sit there with your hands folded in front of your face in that “I’m really deep in thought” pose, when actually you are sniffing your perfume.
Oh, back of the hands is my favorite spot – easier on the wrists, too!
But then don’t you wash it off too fast? I’ve started to spray my forearms rather than (or in addition to) my wrists because otherwise I wash it off within an hour or two. (Maybe I just need to drink fewer liquids? 😀 )
Or you could have my skin – some scents will linger through TWO showers (not to mention hand washing, dish washing, etc.).
My hair will hold onto scents for several days, and through the occasional shower (not that I shower occasionally, but my hair will hold onto scent occasionally through showers!), but not my skin! I can’t decide if I’m jealous or not!
It’s like hair – I have super straight hair and have always been jealous of people with curly hair, and those people usually want straight hair. I’d love to be able to wear an afternoon and/or evening scent rather than commit to one for 18 to 24 hours! But is saves money. 😉
While browsing in the Marionnaud store at my local mall, a woman walked in and asked for a fragrance she once bought in the airport. The SA responded she couldn’t advise her as she hadn’t the foggiest what that fragrance was about. I knew it – alas it was discontinued – so I recommended something similar. The lady thought it was close enough to what she wanted, bought the fragrance and left.
When she was out of hearing range, the very young SA exploded in great sobs accusing me of humiliating her in front of the customer. She said it was not her job to know the fragrance offer in other shops in town, let alone “what stupid clients sniff in stupid airports”. Her manager appeared and asked me to leave the store.
A week later while passing by I saw a new SA I knew from Sephora, and she told me both that SA and her manager had been dismissed. That store is now closed, as so are at least 3 other Marionnaud stores I know in Prague.
I don’t know if that makes me a perfumista, it sure made me one shocked woman at the time.
That is rather shocking behavior. Sorry you had to experience that when you were only trying to help (and it certainly seems like you did!).
Well I was a bit at first – for being asked to leave a store where I actually made a sale for them. The manager should have known better.
But the SA’s reaction was rather like a 2 year old’s temper tantrum – and rather funny at her age.
Hope in other parts of the world personnel is better trained.
Well, it’s nice to know that poor service tells in the end, but it was awful you had to go through that. They should have been happy to make the sale.
Anyway, you are in welcome company here.
Thanks Annemarie. I do sales coaching among other things and have pretty thick skin – so I was merely amused. Some fragrance stores just hire young beautiful wannabe models to attract male customers and people who buy because of cute SA’s. They do get training for what they sell and she was probably right in that her job description did not contain anything about sniffing out the competition. But a perfume lover would do that anyway, right?
Very odd! My question though is how did you guess which perfume she was talking about – given that so many perfumes are sold at airports?
I used to wear it myself – it was one of those limited airport editions.
Omg what a bizarre reaction! What you did was the only thing that could be done! 🙂
I’ve done that in dept stores- overheard customers discussing some now-unavailable fragrance, and I’ve waited until the SA has stopped saying sorry can’t help you to lean in and give them details of where to go and how much it is 🙂 it’s just being helpful right?
True. I guess the girl’s ego was hurt. She was very young and probably thought it unfair that a client may want something “old” or something not in the shop’s offer. Sometimes SA’s chose their job because they like fragrance and make-up and “talking to people” but selling fragrance isn’t about what you like, it’s about what customers like. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard SA’s “advising” customers to buy what they themselves like, with complete disregards of the customer’s wishes. This is not selling.
That’s bizarre. If the SA didn’t know the fragrance, what business did she have being upset that you helped a customer, especially if that resulted in a purchase. It’s like, I’m sorry, did you get credit for the sale? Did the SA?
For all the times you probably kept quiet as a courtesy when some badly-informed SA gave you a pitch about how something was 100% natural or was extracted from some flower that in actuality can’t yield scent, you are 100% entitled to be helpful to a fellow perfume fan who is now a little bit happier for your kindness. And you weren’t even contradictory, the SA simply had no knowledge base of the perfume in question. Everyone on this comment thread even has some gap in their perfume knowledge, and if a person can’t accept this without getting defensive they deserve a life lesson. My 2 cents.
Thank you, that is so true – the life lesson I mean.
Well, I agree, a SA is not required to know what other stores carry, and (as I often repeat) most fragrance SAs are basic retail workers given minimal training (if any) in their own brands, much less the industry,
On the other hand, there is no reason for an SA to ever ask a customer to leave for helping another purchaser chose an item. (In some stores, that happens all the time, with women advising even strangers on fit etc.).
Perhaps the SA already knew her store and job were about to end, and the outburst was upset at the fact that she was about to lose her job anyway. Still very professional.
Very professional? I would have guessed the contrary …
If your car is littered with scent strips from your last trip to the mall or perfume shop…
If your coffee table is always strewn with sample vials…
If finding out about a shop that sells perfumes you thought weren’t available in your city totally makes your day…
If you’re in a shop and see a perfume you had only read about previously, and you gasp like you just spotted a celebrity…
Forgot one…
If you read this comment thread and find yourself chuckling and muttering, “Yep” at more than half of the posts here… 🙂
I’m so glad for all these comments indicating that I’m not the only one whose samples are completely uncontained and out of control.
Also, I love the one about gasping – so true!
You might be a perfumista if you are on your way to work and stop in the middle of the road because you realize you forgot to put your fragrance on for the day. You turn your car around and go back home to apply because without it, you feel you are naked! I have done this several times! LOL!
This is why I always keep a couple of minis or solids in my purse. So if I forget before I leave the house I can still remedy that after I get to work. It’s also handy if I put on something new in the morning and end up not liking it, so I can wash off as much as I can of the offending scent and cover it with something better.
Or if you keep at least three bottles and five samples at work so you won’t have to go back home …
You might be a perfumista…if you hold out your hand for your husband to hold and he sniffs it (out of habit)
That’s never happened to me (especially since I don’t have a husband) but I have been in conversations in which someone says something like “are you wearing perfume…?” and I wonder why they’d ask. And then I realize that I had my wrist to my nose.
LOL..that’s too funny! In the ‘early days’ (of perfume sniffing) when all this was still new to my husband, he was always worried that somebody would think I was doing drugs (ALL those vials and the constant sniffing, and sighing)
Hah, I’ve always been a bit worried what the front desk in my apartment building would think about all those little parcels I get from different addresses all over the US as far away as Kuwait. I’m not sure it would help to explain that I have an ebay perfume habit, not a drug habit.
I dunno, addiction’s addiction and when I need my fragrance fix, I can get seriously grumpy.
True, Merlin, but when was the last time you heard of a perfume “cook” gone wrong, leaving a neighborhood practically a superfund site?! And I haven’t quite yet been led to bank robbery to feed my scent habit. . . 😀
okay, so there are some subtle differences! 🙂
When you buy a new camera and the first thing you take a picture of is your perfume collection.
🙂 Corollary: you have pictures of vintage perfumes on your cellphone.
Your desktop background is a perfume bottle or bottles (I alternate pictures periodically, right now it is L’Abeille de Guerlain.)
You might be a perfumista if:
1. you have pipettes, vials and funnels and you are not a chemist
2. the word “discontinued” sends you running to find a back-up to your back-up bottle of perfume x
3. you know that Iso-E-Super is not the next Marvel superhero but a perfume additive
4. you know who Robin, Alyssa, Victoria, Denyse, Laurie, Mandy, Andy are
5. you know the authors of Perfumes: The Guide
6. you live in a country that does not use the metric system but yet you refer to volume in mls.
7. you know irisss is not misspelled
8. you know what a decant service is
9. you don’t believe perfumes are flammable and send them first class
Check … check … check … check … (except number 6) …
‘Discontinued’ would have to be the most hated word in perfumista/o language, closely followed by ‘IFRA’. Possibly followed by ‘ozonic’ …
Actually, with regard to no. 1, I AM a chemist, but I would not have vials or pipettes around the house if I were not also a perfumista. I do have funnels in the kitchen, but they are too big to be useful for perfume purposes. I am so used to using milliliters and grams in my job that it seems perfectly natural to use them when talking about perfume.
50_Roses, do you, like me, shiver a bit when you see “glassware” for casual use around the house? I was in a shop with test-tube shot glasses, and it really freaked me out! If there’s one rule I try to reinforce with my students, it’s that food and labs do NOT mix!
Actually, I would like to have a few of those. I know, of course, that actual labware should never be used for food or beverages, but my inner nerd would like glasses that look like labware. Actual Erlenmeyer flasks do, however, make good flower vases.
Oh, I can see how a flask would make a good vase! And you don’t have to worry about it shattering if you drop it. 🙂
Yes, yes, yes …
If you have back-up back-ups of perfumes that aren’t your signature.
If you have a strong opinion on Iso-E Super.
If you have any opinion on Iso-E Super.
Great list and I lol’ed at #3! 😀
You rotate your collection to be seasonally appropriate.
You write down your sotd in your diary to keep track of what frags you wear, in what season and how often.
You buy your bf your favourite masculines (he’s not at the crossing over point yet!) not only so he has immediate great taste, but so you can ‘borrow’ his when you stay over, and so your collection doesn’t look quite so excessive..
You now hide/correctly store in a cool dark place the majority of your collection because trying to explain to new friends visiting that HUGE yet artistically arranged collection is just too much!
Haha, I too keep a scent diary, “The Potion Diaries” as my hubby calls it, and I feel totall itchy and anxious if I cannot remember what I wore the day before! Call me a weirdo? Me? Not.
Mwahhaha! That’s great.
You might be a perfumista if your boss walks into the office and says “okay, what’s it today, tulip’s armpits?” instead of “Good Morning!”
Your boss sounds like (s)he has a great sense of humor!
Haha, yes, sort of. He’s got used to my scents changing on a daily basis, but he jokes about them frequently:P.
At least he doesn’t ban wearing them, thank God:).
Lol @ “tulip’s armpits”
You might be a perfumista and have a wonderful SO if you hear him telling someone: “She would love a perfume gift from you. But I should tell you she is crazy about Duchaufour’s work and you can find some at Lucky Scent.” Yes, I actually overheard him telling my cousin that on the phone.
Wow congratulations Mutzi on such a wonderful husband! Husbands like these are worth their weight in gold.
Isn’t he a bit of a perfumist himself? 😀
I don’t know if he’d like that designation, but he has very discerning tastes. His favorite scents on me are Angelique Encens, Les Secrets de Sophie, Mon Precieux Nectar, and Cuir Beluga. He only wears four scents: Halston 101, Green Irish Tweed, Sartorial, Divine L’Homme Infini.
You might be a perfumista if you persuade your boss to give you a ride in his car to akwardly located post office in order to pick up perfume samples from Paris-and we had to use GPS to find it 🙂
If you organize interested parties in your office to bring in their favorite perfumes and have a sniff-off…
If having over 400 samples doesn’t seem the least bit unreasonable…
Not a bit!
…but rather necessary!
You might be a perfumista if the waiter brings you a lovely fruity Chardonnay and you dab it in your cleavage . . . . .
*snort!*
This works with gin, too.
…… when you don’t wanna hug someone in case
they leave traces of their generic fragrance on you.
YES!!! And I immediately wash whatever I was wearing when this can’t be avoided!
I also have coworkers I avoid getting in the elevator with because I know the smell of their shampoo will give me a headache for hours…
thoroughly laughed, loved and nodded in recognition through the posts! Great Sunday!
Very funny!
….you take a shower because you want to wear a different perfume
….you think perfume decants are great gifts to give to someone
….you try hard to suppress the urge to lecture the SA who lectures you
….when you mention Chanel, Bvlgari, CK, Balenciaga, etc…, you mean perfume, nothing else
….you sniff hard on public transport, hope to figure out who wears what or where the scent wafting in the air coming from
Or, you are reluctant to take a shower because you don’t want to wash off a scent you tried at a shop. Or, you shower/bath in strange ways to protect a patch of skin that has the scent sprayed on:)
Just a quick pop up to say “hi” to everyone and to share that I’m back from my week away
Hi Lucasi, nice to see you!
…if you are looking forward eagerly to the blooming of a flower that smells like a dead elephant.
Yes, I’ve been following the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum aka corpse flower) at the U.S. Botanic Garden all week online. It looks as if it’s about to open but hasn’t yet. Unlike some other botanic gardens, they haven’t posted measurements, and the daily photos are from slightly different positions, so I’m not certain if it’s still growing taller or what. Will report back if it does open (sometimes they just wilt, instead opening).
Ha! You know, my date Friday night mentioned the corpse flower blooming! He earned a few points for that! . . .
Keep us informed on the progress!
Ah, I can see why you said that it was a good date!
🙂
Just saw on the webcam that it’s finally opening – must slip over there tomorrow!!!
Enjoy!
I see that they have a webcam. It is such a cool looking plant thatit would be interesting even if it didn’t reek. I would name them all Audrey (or Audrey II) 🙂
That is cool. I missed it the last time the one here in Houston opened. I think I was living in Austin at the time. If I remember correctly, I believe its name is Lois.
Perfumistas, you have truly made my day with your witty comments and observations!! Hubby has been totally immersed in watching the British Open golf championship for FOUR DAYS straight, and I have been so very lonely, and it’s been wonderful to check in and chuckle in scented camaraderie.
Hmmm, I must be a perfumista if I am wondering what fragrances Lee Westwood, Michelson, and Tiger Woods are wearing while swatting those golf balls around….
…if you read the description of a micro-brew and think “that sounds like a perfume I’d like to try” as I did just last week at the Jolly Pumpkin:
“Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire – dark, smooth, and delicious with aromas of worn leather, notes of sweet plum and hints of coffee and cacao.”
Oh heck ya! I’d sample that! 🙂
That sounds delicious, both as a beer and as a perfume! I’ve kind of dine the same thing with the descriptions on the backs of wine bottles. I had one, Primus Malbec, that described notes of plum, violet and tobacco.
I realised that my perfumeobsession has gotten out of hand a little when last night my children pretended they could not sleep because they needed some ‘magic sleep-perfume’ (Hermès Hiris and Nobile 1942’s Casta Diva do the trick, Heure Exquise also works.), and in the morning my 4- year old daughter had problems deciding if she would ask for daddy’s Eau Sauvage, or Equipage, or maybe instead mummy’s Cuir Mauresque, and later when I was shopping with my son (6) he begged me if he could spray on some Chanel no. 5 at the Chanel counter, and after careful consideration decided it was better than my No.19.
Wow! Your kids are developing quite sophisticated noses! Could make for some expensive gift-giving over the years, but nice to have someone to share the hobby with!
I’m laughing but it’s going to be tough in a few years when bell jars start showing up on their gift lists!
You are a perfumista if your oblivious to public snuffling/huffing body part (s) that’s just been sprayed with perfume.
Perfumes over $150 are the new ‘free’.
You give a new Perfume/Counter SA a quick quiz to see if they know their stuff.
You bring your own decanting supplies to the perfume counter.
You might be a perfumista if you ask your hubby to test out various leather scents to see how they smell (Bandit, Azuree, Daim Blonde) on him vs. you.
You might be a perfumista if you have ever bought for yourself a perfume that is marketed to the opposite sex . People who aren’t seriously into perfume seem to have a very hard time getting past the gender stereotypes, whereas perfumistas don’t care whether it is “supposed” to be masculine or feminine.
Second this one! I think not only do perfumistas NOT care as much if it is stereotypically masculine or feminine, they also perhaps do not care as much if it smells stereotypically good! I often find myself choosing something interesting over something that smells pretty but boring.
Oh you guys I am SO late to the party! I just read all the comments and they were so hilarious…and true!! Thanks Marjorie Rose for the terrific poll idea.
You might be a perfumista if, at a rave where everyone else is saying, “oh, you look so sparkly,” “oh, your hat.shirt/skin/etc feels so nice,” you are the one saying, “oh, your perfume smells SOOO good.”