A repeat of a poll we did in 2013.
1. What was the first fragrance you ever owned?
2. What was the first fragrance you bought as a perfumista?
3. What was the last fragrance you bought?
Note: image is Orange tulip [2 versions, cropped] by rick ligthelm at flickr; some rights reserved.
Hello and happy weekend!
Sotd is JM Nectarine Blossom and Honey.
1. Chanel No.5 from my mum. I still have the empty bottle. I will always have it as a keepsake.
2. I am actually curious – How does one really become a perfumista? Are they one when their perfume collection grows bigger than an average person’s? Or when they start vintage or niche hunting?
I would say that I identified as one when I was on my journey looking for a signature scent (we all know how that ended up. How is one scent really enough!?) and my collection started growing “outta hand”, I mean, impressive. I learnt of Uncle Serge and my first perfumista acquisition is Rahat Loukoum.
3. Amouage Material from my trip to KL.
Oh I adore Rahat Loukoum. When I visited my friend living in Paris I drug her around the city on Kellys Perfume Tour of Paris. At SL I bought the bell jar of this. I only have a little left 😢. I guess I’ll be forced to return to Paris. Ha
I’d happily sign up for Kelly’s Perfume Tour of Paris 2!😀
Let’s gooooooo!
Can I invite myself along? ☺️
Happy Weekend, everyone!
First fragrance owned was “Devin” by Aramis.
First “perfumista” fragrance was probably “Bois D’Orage”(French Lover) from Frederic Malle.
Most recent purchase is “Oud & Pink” from Cartier.
Not sure what today’s fragrance will be – perhaps the aforementioned Cartier.
What is the Oud & Pink like?
It’s an oud/rose/jasmine that (to my nose) is quite beautiful. The oud isn’t dirty, so there’s an elegance to it. (I bought it blind, but probably best to sniff in advance if the oud is worrisome.)
1) Sweet Honesty by Avon. My mom gave me a bottle for my 11th birthday and I thought I was just so sophisticated.
2) Jicky perfume. I fell in love with Guerlain scents and Jicky has remained a favorite. This was my first “perfume”, so even though it’s not niche it represents my start of taking perfume seriously.
3) CSP Vanille Cafe. I ordered it unsniffed on a whim 2 weeks ago when it was mentioned here on NST. It’s divine and I really like it. I like cozy vanilla scents when I’m working in my office, they relax me.
I don’t even care for coffee but CSP Vanille Café is heaven, isn’t it? So warm and comforting.
You guys are trying to make me buy Vanille Cafe.
Cozy and CSP are synonymous! 🥇
Hello all!
Might as well finish my little extrait week strong with some 60’s Mitsouko. Just sublime!
1. Burberry Brit Red. My mom’s friend sent a gift set to her for her birthday, but she didn’t like it. It still holds up; I have a bottle! It has a beautiful gingerbread accord.
2. I think Dzongkha. Still an enduring love. I live in fear of it being discontinued.
3. The Narcisco Rodriguez for Her Extrait. It’s pretty, and different enough from the EdP to be interesting.
Have a great weekend everyone!
I bet sixties Mitsouko extrait is pure bliss. Hell of a way to end the week!
It really is!
Wearing Jo Malone Mimosa & Cardamom.
1. Calvin Klein Obsession.
2. Chanel No. 5 Extrait.
3. Comme des Garcons Zargorsk.
Happy weekend! 🌞
Happy weekend PL67!
Thank you, Adanst! 🌻
Your first perfume was a hardcore heavy hitter! Respect!
Last day of licorice week in Guerlain Anisia Bella, a successful blind buy. It’s airy and fresh: it has a lot in common with Hermès Brin de Reglisse, although they’re pretty different — it’s like that scene with the belts in The Devil Wears Prada.
As for the poll:
1) I had a li’l bottle of Maurer & Wirtz Tabac Original when I was 11 or 12 I think. Honestly no idea where it came from.
2) 1979, I guess it must have been. My sister and I took piano lessons one after the other on Thursday nights, and while she was having hers, I’d browse in a nearby bookstore and an adjacent perfumery. I didn’t know anything, but I primordially understood that fragrances were crucial to my inner life. I remember buying Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel, Lagerfeld Classic, and Pierre Lorain Dieci, and loving them all so much.
2. Last thing I bought was SL Écrin de fumée at the Charles de Gaulle duty-free. I must wear that again soon.
Love your piano lessons story — how wonderful to have both the lessons and the store in which to browse!
But makes the piano lessons very expensive!
I think I’ll wear CdG Black today because I discovered it has an anise note and it didn’t make it in the rotation this week.
1. L’Interdit in the late 70s. I can’t remember where I got this bottle. I didn’t buy it so it must have been an estate sale or some random find.
2. Pleasures in the mid-90s. I smelled it on a Bosnian friend while walking the streets of Sarajevo and thought it must be some exotic European fragrance.
3. Vintage Miss Dior. It was one of my mom’s fragrances and it’s always been a favorite.
“exotic European fragrance” oh how that made me laugh. But context is everything. I remember my friend and I following around two girls from Sweden at the hostel in Amsterdam where we were all staying in late 1979 because they smelled so good so my friend and I asked them what they wore. One girl wore Anais Anais which I promptly went to a department store and bought and my friend bought whatever the other girl was wearing and I can’t for the life of me remember what it is. Later we were hitchhiking in rural Ireland and some older genteel older man picked us up and sniffed the air and said, ‘you two smell lovely and very unlike most hitchhikers” I pick up, who smell more ‘ripe.’ “
Context is definitely everything, especially with fragrance!
1. Bought a bottle of White Shoulders at a garage sale at around 12, and felt terribly grown up. Just kept it on my dresser, though, since it was rather too grown up for me to actually wear.
2. After a couple of bottles of Cristalle and Dioressimo, my first perfumista bottle was PG L’Eau Rare Matale. So very sad when it reformulated into a pale shadow if itself.
3. Latest, actually only, purchase this year was Crivelli Iris Malikhân.
Those early Parfumerie Generale/Pierre Guillaume fragrances were his best IMO.
1. Clinique happy or BBW Cucumber Melon.
2. Cuir de Russie when 200ml edt bottle.
3. A travel spray of BDK Tuberose Imperial.
Had a nasty windstorm last night and lost electricity. We won’t get it back until 11pm tomorrow. Wearing Kyoto today.
Hopefully your power will be on sooner rather than later.
Yuck, sorry about the power Dawn!
Thank goodness spraying perfume doesn’t require electricity. I worry about those people with Japanese toilets that DO need power to work.
Hope you get your electricity back early! Well, one can hope. 😉
I still have a decant of that CdR from a bottle split when I had a shopping day with a couple of perfumista friends. I never would have had the courage to go into the Chanel boutique on my own.
Hope your power is back on by now! ⚡⚡
No SOTD yet…have to get moving soon, though. I’ll likely choose at random based on mood. It’s sunny today, so perhaps Temps de une Fete.
1. When I was 7 or 8, I got a small, purple, plastic, doll-shaped rollerball bottle of a lilac perfume in my shoes for St. Nikolaus Day. I’m sure it was some cheap thing my mom picked up at a toy store or something, but I loved that scent. I’ve always loved lilac — we had a lilac bush at my first house, and lived in a city with a lilac festival.
2. I’m not totally sure, but Bulgari Black, 31 rue Cambon, and TDC Sel de Vetiver are all likely candidates. (Not SL because it took longer to find someone going to Paris who would get me a bell jar.) I would say I didn’t become a perfumista until about 2007 or so. There were years of mainstream purchases before that (Liz Claiborne, Benetton Colours, Poison, Jil Sander, Acqua di Gio…). In the mid-’80s, I coveted a bottle of Sung by Alfred Sung, and went to the Base Exchange repeatedly to sample it. So there were early signs, sort of.
3. Travel spray of Ummagumma. (Though I believe there is a Box of Eels extrait hidden from me somewhere in the house.)
Honestly I’d probably buy a small purple plastic doll-shaped rollerball lilac if I saw it in a store tomorrow 🙂
I thought the same thing!
It was a really cute bottle, if targeted at kids. And the lilac. I’d buy it too, in a heartbeat. Best St. Nikolaus gift I ever got.
No SOTD yet. We’re back to winter today. Windy all night — my yard waste bin has disappeared, I’m thinking it blew down the hill, that’s not gonna be fun to recover and refill — now it’s rainy, though it’s snowing at the neighbors who live a few hundred feet up the mountain.
1. First perfume… as a young teen, I had a bunch of hand-me-down Avon scents from the neighbor, hated them all; I remember them as very sweet and powdery, characteristics I still don’t like to this day. The first perfume I liked was Faberge Woodhue, which was a gift from my grandmother’s friend Blanche, who was a true southern lady.
2. First perfumista scent I bought… Diptyque Philosykos. The second one was Donna Karan Black Cashmere. Not a bad start, eh?
3. Latest… that new Nicolai, Une Fleur en Mai. Heh. So much for impulse control.
Oooh, do report back on the Nicolaï…
Second that!
Black Cashmere was my first perfumista perfume too! I still don’t think I’m sophisticated enough for it and I don’t wear it much, but it’s good armour for days when you have to fake it til you make it.
Oh wow — I think the first perfume I ever owned was Chanel No. 5. Not sure if it was the real thing or a knock-off, though. It was in a brass-colored metal bottle with a rubber stopper and a numeral 5 on the front, and iirc my parents acquired it in Europe somewhere, probably at an airport. I was about 14 and I didn’t like the fragrance much.
The first fragrance I ever bought myself was Aliage, but the first one I bought *as a perfumista* was Chanel 19 EDT. I remember going to the cosmetics counter where several Chanel fragrances were displayed and asking for No. 19, and the SA’s eyes opening wide as she said “Ohhh, the 19!” before escorting me over to the perfume counter. Made me feel as if I was acquiring something very special … which, of course, I was.
The last perfume I bought was Francesca Bianchi Under My Skin. Which, coincidentally (and to my surprise), works for next week’s CP.
SOTD is AdP Iris Nobile. Mine is the EDT formulation so no anise note, but it’s perfect for a partly sunny Saturday in spring.
The EdT has star anise for sure! So did the EdP but it was milder.
Does it?! Well, then, I guess I didn’t do so badly on last week’s CP after all. 🙂
Everyone here has such a great memory! Y’all are leaving me in the dust.
1) The first legit perfume I remember buying was Liz Claiborne Realities at the old Maas Brothers Department Store in downtown St Petersburg, sometime in the early 90’s. I loved the architectural bottle of frosted glass squares set on top of reach other with a square gold lid over the spritzer. The store is gone and so is the fragrance (although it looks like some bottles are available on the Bay), but I’m still standing! What’s strikes me now is that it’s a predominantly floral perfume, most of which I can’t jive with now. There is a new Realities which is totally different from the original and very generic, according reviews. Here’s lé original:
https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Liz-Claiborne/Realities-Original-1854.html
2) I don’t really identify as a perfumista. I’ve nowhere near the knowledge base or deep diving interest so many of you fine fragrant folks have. I’ve no experience with classic perfumes as my mom was not into perfumes and would have killed me if I asked for an “expensive” perfume for my birthday or Christmas. Although, she did love Opium and went through several bottles in her lifetime. Generally, fragrance was nice occasionally, but not essential to everyday life. Now, if I likes it, and I can affords it, I buys it. My mother would be horrified. 😀
3) The last fragrance I bought was Bois des Iles extrait in the cute little (but very esssspensive) 15ml bottle. I felt cornered since they are no longer offering them (Chanel, have you lost your MIND?!) and I’ve wanted to buy a bottle (which I’ve planned to buy for years but just never got around to) and the price, once they hit the Bay, will be twice as much, if not more. The good news is that the bottle arrived at my mail forwarding service yesterday, right AFTER I had my monthly mail forwarded to me. So now I have to wait another month! 😭 (As an aside, I AM wondering if Chanel plans on selling off all the current stock of the extraits and then come out with a newly formulated, more expensive version? If so, will surely be a shadow of its former self.)
SOTD is Omnia, le Original.
Looking forward to reading everyone’s answers! Smell well y’all!
Chanel has gotten ridiculous with their whole line. The prices now suck for the size you buy. I have a healthy selection of Chanel to last a while.
Chanel is ridiculous all the way around imo. I’ve never been a fan of their whole ethos and resent myself for giving them any money at all, for less their ridiculous prices today. Sometime early in my perfume adventure, a lovely NSTer swapped or sent me a sample of BoE edt and it was immediate love. I can’t remember who it was but I curse her to this day! 😅 (Just kidding folks, but I AM glad I never sampled any other Chanel because ….💸💸💸💸) I’m glad you have a good stock of their offerings because I fear soon everyday people won’t be able to afford them.
So glad you got your new purchase! Of all the extraits, I find Bois des Iles to be the most markedly changed. Nothing could be better.
I am genuinely curious about what’s happening with them. Is it sourcing? New bottles?
I’d love to know all the deets! Really, someone at Chanel needs to spill the tea. I’m not usually into gossip, but Chanel, along with Bobbi Brown, have done a 180 in their business model and prices, so there MUST be a reason and I want to know what it is!
I had Realities too. I loved all the original Liz Claiborne perfumes.
Oh, I feel so understood! When I mention that perfume to ANYONE I just get crickets. I think it was like 30 some odd dollars? That was a lot for a perfume back then, at least for me. That was more than my monthly phone bill and water bill combined.
I loved Realities! I had a bottle in high school, and my mom had an original triangle bottle of the Liz Claiborne.
🙌 Another Realities lover! I can’t remember if I ever tried the triangular LC perfume, but it looks very familiar.
Congrats on your BdI Extrait!
When they switched out all the EDTs to EDPs, I speculated that all that EDT juice went down the literal drain.
Oh, my heart is hurting at the thought of all those EDTs possibly swirling the drain! 😢
Makes me want to hurl thinking about it. Such a freaking waste if it happened. 🤮
When they switched from the edt to the edp I was very glad I had already purchased a bottle of the edt. Have you smelled them side by side? I’m curious to know which is better. The edt lasts forever on me and I love how understated and elegant it is.
IMHO if you bother to read here you’re a perfumista, doubly so if you just bought BdI in extrait 🙂
Well, that settles it then! 🙃
I remember getting my ears pierced at that mall! My aunt took me on a trip to Disney World when I was in high school. I felt so grown up shopping there with her. We had such a great time together!
Maas Brothers was the place to shop back in the day. Sounds like you made some great memories with your aunt. 😊
1. What was the first fragrance you ever owned? Maybe Exclamation. I had cast offs from my older sister earlier too.
2. What was the first fragrance you bought as a perfumista? Not sure about the definition of perfumista or that I consider myself one necessarily but I did buy Coco in high school. The office secretary commented how good I smelled and I sure did. 🤣
3. What was the last fragrance you bought… Pierre Guillaume Orchidivy which is actually out for delivery today 😇
From yesterday’s thread, I enjoyed Mxxx. and it never went fecal or animalic really to my nose. I got lots of spices, salt, sandalwood and vanilla.
Today I am expecting a package and a sample of Peach’s Revenge which I will break into. 🍑
And two episodes of Shōgun left! It is an amazing show. 🇯🇵
Oh gosh, I think Shogun is the best thing on TV right now! I’m hooked: the story, the COSTUMES, it’s just fabulous.
Yes, it is fabulous. I may rewatch E8 before E9…there was so much going on. 😳
Just looked up Exclamation and never knew Sophia Grojsman was the nose. Mind blown. 😱
Mxxx. is phenomenal to me. It’s like the base of a classic perfume, without all those pesky flowers (which I say in jest, of course!) I do find it animalic but in a gentle, warm-fur way.
Yes, it’s beautiful and classic. I guess I always have thought of animalic as like civet etc. but I can see it being musky/fur.
Mxxx is very good! From the same lab (and maybe also perfumer?) you should try Belle Ame if enjoy iris. No obnoxious synthetics and high quality! It’s my number one love at the moment. It’s a bit gourmandish and does an interplay of iris and cacao.
Thank you for the Belle Ame recommendation…it looks amazing and I had not heard of this house. Just ordered a sample! 😍
Sotd is Allure edt, happy spring!
1. Arpege, my parents brought it back from their first trip to Europe. I think I was about 7 and I’ve always had some form of Arpege around.
2. I bought Norell with babysitting money and have always loved fragrance but my first makeupalley days purchase was Comme des Garcons original, which I still love.
3. No perfume yet this year, my fun money is all going toward my knee replacement.
Good luck with your knee replacement! You smell fabulous.
Hope your convalescence is going really well.
It is, thanks Aurora.
Keep on rocking that knee and getting stronger everyday! How is your pain? I hope it’s well controlled or nonexistent.
Just normal pain and stiffness that good old Tylenol takes care of.
1. I remember having a bottle of Tinkerbell perfume when I was really small. The first fragrance I remember acquiring (as a gift) was Love’s Baby Soft. I was probably 11?
2. Five O’Clock au Gingembre, from Barney’s Copley Place (Boston) while attending a conference in one of the Copley Place hotels. I date my perfumista-hood to when I joined you all here at NST.
3. Not counting splits, Cloon Keen Roísín Dubh — which was TWO YEARS ago. (Could that possibly be right? What am I forgetting?) **Remembered! I bought a giant bottle of 28 La Pausa that an NSTer was rehoming. Thank you!
Was getting ready for work yesterday and found a dress I bought earlier this winter and forgot I had — to be fair, it’s a spring/summer dress and so I’ve not yet worn it, but it seems that it is time for another clothing purge and no-buy, to go with my fragrance no-buy.
I had whatever the lemon version of Love’s Baby Soft was called…can still see that bottle on my dresser clear as day!
Love’s Fresh Lemon!
Yes!
Wow! I never saw that one — and I love lemon!
And just realized my #2 is wrong; I bought a tiny Fracas parfum at Nordstrom during the two years between college and grad school when I was employed and had disposable income. But I wouldn’t say that I was a perfumista at that point., so maybe Five o’clock can stand.
I remember that, too! And Lemon Up shampoo.
Oh yes! Used that for years.
I distinctly remember sniffing Love’s Baby Soft and Love’s Fresh Lemon, and liking LBS more than the lemon one. Early days of sniffing…
1. Loves Baby Soft and I loved after shower splash, Jean Nate? Something like that
2. Cristalle EdT
3. Xocoatl 🤩🤩🤩🤩 yesterday
Has anyone smelled the new Chanel yet?
Jean Nate was great and still is, I had a bottle a few years ago.
I should revisit
There is a new Chanel? Where have I been?
Comete
I got an invite to a release party for it, May 1st. I don’t think they’re bringing it out earlier in the US.
So you DID get a new bottle of Xocoatl! Good for you!
Happy weekend to everyone.
I need to take it easy after a surgery but I’ve been out for a long walk 🙂
1. Probably something from Puma or Adidas that I got as a gift, before I went down the rabbit hole.
2. Prada Amber Pour Homme, the beginning of my perfume journey.
3. Olfactive Studio Iris Shot in February, to celebrate my 34th birthday.
Sotd is Wulong Cha X from Nishane
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5tfIUho9v7/?igsh=NmFuaWthd2RubzBn
Your photos are always so lovely! Here’s to fast healing!
Hope everything goes well post surgery. Love the photo!
Softd Yves Rocher Flower party by night with star anise to continue the CP.
1. Cacharel Anaïs Anaïs was gifted to me when I was in my early teens, everything Cacharel was all the rage in France at the time, I still have a vintage bottle and wear it. But first perfume memory is my mother’s No 5
2. Jardins de Bagatelle in late teens, that’s when I had first a small perfume wardrobe, still wear vintage EDP, I also had Rochas Femme, this was prior to the 1989 reformulation, Pucci Vivara, Balenciaga’s Michelle, both proved not possible to replace and YSL Paris
3. Yves Rocher Folies de Saisons Fantaisies d’hiver to join Folies de Saisons Délires d’automne which was feeling lonely.
We cannot have a perfume feeling lonely so excellent purchase! 😀
Thank you for approving😀, series need to be complete😉
I love Anais Anais
Glad you love it too, I think of it as such a tender perfume.
YSL Paris twins!
I think of you as a perfume sister.
Aurora, happy to see another fan of Yves Rocher Folie de Saisons Delires d’Automne. It ‘reads’ like a much more expensive perfume to me, and I love the mix of amber, vanilla, spices. So cheerful and happy. It has made me want to try a bunch of his obscure and d/c frags.
Yves Rocher used to do such great scents. Victoria of BdJ mentioned that they dedicated a lot of funds to their perfume formulas.
Back in the eighties, YR scents were uniformly high-quality. Even the ones I didn’t care for were obviously made with intelligence and taste and good ingredients. I sure miss those days.
Yes, totally agree their heydays are behind them, even in the early and mid-2000’s with Nature millénaire, Voile d’Ambre, Rose absolue, Iris absolue (the Eau fraîche is my favorite) they were still releasing great scents. Now they are no longer in the UK where I live anyway🥹.
Pucci! I never realized they did perfumes, though. They had a showroom in the same Art Deco building in Chicago where I had a really boring job in university in the ’90s, and I always coveted their clothes.
Oh, their lovely printed clothes. I miss Vivara, they also had a perfume series later with the iconic printed caps, those are expensive now on the secondary market.
Those were truly gorgeous bottles, I wanted one so bad but never loved the juice.
Same here…! Anais Anais was gifted to me as a teen. I wish I found a vintage bottle as the new iterations don’t smell like my memory of it.
So we were twins😀. The good news is vintage AA holds up very well in its white opaque bottles and it’s quite plentiful in the UK at least and affordable. Maybe save a search on eBay.
Anais Anais was so pretty way back when.
I would wear whatever perfumes my mother owned, which in retrospect were way too sophisticated and mature for a teenager. The first perfume I actually bought for myself as a teenager was either Prescriptives Calyx or Cover Girl Navy circa 1990, but I can’t remember which one was first. I don’t consider myself a perfumista, but the first ones that felt fully grown up to me that I bought was Dior Dune and Poison in the 90’s. The last one I bought was a travel size of Maison Margiela Replica Bubble Bath…like I said I’m not a perfumista.
Honestly, see my answer to Diva above…you just named five perfumes, you’re commenting on a perfume blog…you’re a perfumista! There are no membership requirements.
Calyx was such a great scent, I went through multiple bottles.
Prescriptives Calyx…I always wanted to own in the late ’80s / early ’90s but never had the money to buy much for myself (the perfumes I had in university were gifted to me by someone with a very German perspective, even if I guided him). I only bought Calyx once I considered myself a “perfumista”, and that was a reformulated version (sigh). You’re a perfumista!
Hey NST, hope everyone is well!
I am sniffing things at Natural Grocers. I think their red sandalwood soap reminds me of a light Cinnabar, I really like it!
First fragrance: Love’s Baby Soft, age 12 or 13 lol still like this one
First fragrance I bought: Tuscany Per Donna EL, still one of my faves
I have always liked their mini sets they come out with around the holidays too
Last fragrance purchased: Chanel 1957.
I really like 1957
It is my favorite for a while now! Well that and a Guerlain that they disco’d! Ughhhh lol
Oooooooooh, there are several Natural Grocers near me! Thanks for the heads-up.
1. As a child I had many Avon perfumes. The one I remember most was a Christmas Santa splash bottle. I remember dabbing it on my neck with my fingers.
2. As a teenager I was gifted many perfumes. I wore Max Factor Le Jardin and Coty Le Fleur to school. It wasn’t until I was gifted Ysatis that I went down the rabbit hole and started looking at buying perfumes for myself. I remember buying minis of YSL Paris and K de Krizia.
3. The last perfume I purchased is JM Fragipani Flower. I bought a travel spray from Sephora. I tested it in store and it took me right back to the 90’s. I kept thinking I had worn something similar then. On the way home while driving and sniffing the back of my hand, it came to me. Jessica McClintock! Which I adore and have. I will be returning my travel spray tomorrow. Lol.
Like Yves Rocher I was talking about with Denise, Avon had some great scents in the past, of course the novelty aspects like all these figurines are a great introduction to perfume for a child. Do you know Rapture? It smells like a classic Guerlain.
I remember when the Jessica McClintock perfume was being sold right next to the Gunne Sax dresses for prom season. 😁😁
I wanted a Gunne Sax dress so badly for prom! Too pricey, so I got a lookalike. 👗
Hello everybody!
SOTD is Chanel no. 19 EdT. We’re having a gorgeous spring day with temps around 75 F.
Here are my answers to today’s poll:
1. Lancôme Magie Noire, I think. It’s funny how I wore such a powerhouse of a perfume in my late teens but I’m not sure I’d still want to wear it now (I mean the original version). I must be getting softer…😉
2. Diptyque Tam Dao marked my descent down the perfume rabbit hole.
3. Amouage Gold.
Happy weekend!
You smell wonderful on such a pretty day, we’re supposed to be in the 70s tomorrow too.
I also wore Magie Noire and Calandre as a teenager. It just seemed normal thing to do
How interesting! I, too, wore Magie noire in my teens (1980s). To me, at that time that scent, and Lancôme in general, were the apogee of sophistication — a glimpse of a world beyond my rather provincial hometown.
1. First perfume was Sweet Honesty.
2.First perfume I bought for myself was Paul Smith London but I think I’d say Bois d’Iris from The Different Company was my first “perfumista” scent.
3.My most recent purchase was Jacinthes Sauvages from DSH
TDC Bois d’Iris was one of my very early purchases too.
SOTD is Clinique Happy.
1. I am guessing it was probably something by Revlon like Jean Nate or Charlie.
2. Jo Malone Orange Blossom
3. Vahina Sylvaine Delacourte
Drugstore perfumes used to be really good. 😮💨
1. My first bottle was a gift from my boyfriend of that time who was studying in US, brought me back a bottle of Paco Rabanne Metal, it was love in first sniff.
2. I would consider Rahat Loukhoum my first perfumista buy. It was very popular at that time and hard to get in Canada, I bought a bell jar in their boutique of Palais Royal. I still have it.
3. My latest buy is Patou 1000 edt.
Have a great weekend, wearing Champs Élysées layered with Joy.
So special to have your boyfriend gifting you a perfume, mine bought me my second perfume, I’Heure Bleue extrait.
Woow, your boyfriend had good taste!!
First fragrance I owned – I’m not sure exactly. I had a few weeks cheapies back in my early teens, so maybe 4711, or a Jovan. I had Mink and Pearls, and Frankincense and Myrrh. Moondrops came a bit later.
My first perfumista buy – that would be Hiris, tracking that down is how I discovered the whole online perfume world.
My latest buy – Ambra from Omnia Profumi. It had been on the list for a while and I found it on sale at an Australian perfumery, one of the few that shops to NZ.
And I finally found licorice for the CP. My Penhaligons Trade Routes discovery set includes Legacy of Petra.
And just adding my very broad definition of perfumista – someone who loves perfume and thinks before they buy.
Oh, the second part of your definition is debatable around here Gaynor, LOL…
I think the first part is enough.
This is a fun poll.
1. Love’s Baby Soft. I also had Rain.
2. Lauren by Ralph Lauren. I wore this all through high school. I had square bottles and also the more cylinder shaped ones that had to lay on their side. I haven’t smelled it in years. I should really order a sample just for the scent memory.
3. A replacement bottle of Tam Dao in January.
I’ve been very much into sampling again and new decamples arrived today of JHAG Ode to Dullness and Wilgermain Passion Victim. I’ve got one on each hand. The JHAG is pretty much what I expected it to be. Always looking for a pleasant background scent to wear to work. I ordered the Wilgermain because I read comparisons somewhere to Obsession. It is very much a perfume’s perfume, and perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux has this to say, “A slightly retro feeling invades us: the image of a mysterious lady walking in the dark streets of Paris during the Roaring Twenties come to mind… It’s midnight and she leaves behind a trail of seduction, tantalizing and sinful… or was the man she seduced the wearer and his fragrance just impregnated her fringed dress?”
Yep, it’s pretty good.😉
Lauren was so popular and an American friend wore it in the 90’s, you smelled great in high school.
Lauren is very different now. I ended up getting an airport exclusive with mini bottles. I was most excited for Lauren and sadly, was very disappointed 😞.
I remember having the bottle that laid down. It was a classic!
❤️❤️❤️decamples.
I miss the Love’s Rain and Love’s Jasmine perfumes. I had rollerballs of both and loved them.
I was about seven or eight when I bought Meadowsong ( Goya) from the local chemist ( also Tramp, Charlie, a little later) but my first real perfume buys would have been Opium and Magie Noir which I wore through High School, from age fifteen or so. Maybe because it was my first “ true love” Opium has a special place in my heart…it was that cool plastic cased bottle meant to look like lacquer. I’ve never really not worn or bought perfume. Even as a really young kid I wore my mother’s perfume ( Dior, Mary Quant, Guerlain). Probably, discovering Serge Lutens or or CDG , or Yohji Yamamoto or Helmut Lang would be my real entry. It was pretty hard getting perfume in NZ in the 1980/90s. I might see something in a magazine advert but there was no real way to buy anything that wasn’t in a shop, so overseas travel was fundamental to trying things, usually Australia. Wearing Boucheron, another perfume that was a bit of a signature back in the day.
https://thegloss.ie/the-scent-star-of-ripley/
And for those of you who like perfume sightings on TV/ movies. Ripley series and Santa Maria Novella shop
Cool.
I watched 2 episodes and love the scenery and intrigue. Husband watched with me and is not a fan. He has little problem with violent moves but finds Ripley unnerving. I guess I may have to finish on my own.
Even the original books are unnerving!
I just stopped my Netflix subscription a few weeks ago and now I’m kicking myself! I love Andrew Scott, and Johnny Flynn-have loved his music for years. I may have to resubscribe…
I haven’t read much or commented for a long time as I lost my sense of smell and taste from COVID and it never returned fully, and I’m a diminished person as a result. But I’ve just decided to embrace what’s left, find what joy I can in my collection, and I missed this lovely community.
1. Eau Sauvage, which I bought as a teenager after smelling it on a particularly fabulous male co-worker and have continued to wear both before, during, and after the rabbit hole. It’s now in my DNA and my younger son requested his own bottle at 14.
2. Black Cashmere, like others here!
3. Currently bidding on half a bottle of Tam Dao EDP, hoping it will be more available to my mangled scent receptors than the EDT I already have.
Hey Beck, how long has it been? Just wondering, I know some number of people have had their smell return quite a long time later. Anyway, my sympathies, that must be hard.
1. I don’t remember my first bottle. I remember wearing Wind Song, Jean Nate, Coty Muguet de Bois, and a houndstooth box of something Dior that I got in my Grandpa’s shop.
2. I guess I date my perfumista days to when I started buying my own scent. I wore Tatiana and L’Heure Bleue, initially, and then discovered an affinity for Cacharel and wore Anais Anais and Lou Lou. Then I switched to Casmir. I discovered not all perfumes were sold in department stores in 2013, and I bought a lot of samples that year.
3. The last bottle I bought was 10 mls of Astier de Villattes Delhi.
Today I’m wearing Cuir Ottoman.
I used to love Anais and Lou Lou in my teens! Lou Lou was a “loose woman” perfume according to my aunt who said the Thierry Mugler cologne was a much more proper and lady-like choice 🤭. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and reply to her.
I love these questions so much!
1. What was the first fragrance you ever owned?
Fragonard Arielle in that frosted bottle with the powder blue cap.
2. What was the first fragrance you bought as a perfumista?
Mona di Orio Lux the year it came out. I bought it blind just based on the notes. I sniffed it and fell down the rabbit hole.
3. What was the last fragrance you bought?
Grandiflora Michel and Boronai. I bought them so recently they are still in shipment.
But if we’re talking the last fragrance that arrived to my doorstep, then it’s Perfumer H Water Lily.
The memories these questions bring! Perfume really has brought me so much joy over these decades.
Oh, how lucky that you loved Lux if you bought it unsniffed! I wonder if you would have given up if you’d hated it.
SOTD Velvet Love D&G
1. Either Love’s Baby Soft or Jean Nate
2. Fidji by Guy Laroche
3. Sundowner by Andy Tauer
Fidji is so good.
Love’s Baby Soft is ringing a bell. Also Skin Musk, Exclamation, and my mother’s Jean Nate (out of the refrigerator, of course). I think I also bought something called Tribe at the drugstore. There’s a bottle of it on ebay for $500 😯
That would have been in my Makeupalley days. Probably a L’Artisan.
I placed an order on Sunday with Enchante Perfumes in Toronto, and it arrived today over the border lightning fast. Kudos to Canada Post.
Lancetti Suspense
Weil Antilope
Weil Zibeline
Ines de la Fressange
Isabella Rossellini Manifesto (and they included a Manifesto shower cream for free)
Glad to hear Canada Post works better for foreigners than it does for us! 🙂 I could make that same order to come to the West Coast and it’d take 7-10 days. But they know they’ve set our expectations low.
I never smelled Tribe, but I do remember it being sold by Benetton.
And the ones you received today – are those all vintage?
They have a great selection of hard to find perfumes, i ordered from them before.
SOTD = Prada Infusion de Vanille
Root beer! And it dried down to a so so vanilla. Got a travel spray from Sephora and it will not be upgraded. If you love vanilla, you can find much better.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5t7RKeRRlT/?igsh=MWV4NTZ0ajU0cXlzYw==
I am almost positive my first perfume was the original Alfred Sung courtesy of a cousin; I was too young to wear it. The first perfume I bought was probably Kelly Caleche EDP but my memory could be faulty. The latest perfume I bought was Francesca Bianchi Mariner’s Rhyme 👍.
In other news, I went to Barnes and Noble and saw a really cute mint green pen. I bought it with a gift card but I still owed, are you ready for this, $0.03! I did not have coins with me although I had paper cash. Since I did not want to carry coins, I used a credit card 💳. If I were the cashier, I would have let it go …
I tried the Vanille and share your thoughts on it.
I would have let the 3 cents go.
So my nose is not broken! Thanks for the confirmation.
I’m glad I passed on the vanilla because I was tempted. Geez, .03 cents! The cashier probably couldn’t let it go because everything is automated and if her drawer shows up short by .03 cents, it’ll have to come out of her pocket, and she probably doesn’t have any change either. Most places have a little jar or dish with extra pennies…
You’re probably right but seriously, the cashier was not quick on her feet.
That is the glory of Canada these days, if you pay cash they round up or down to the nearest $0.05 as we no longer have pennies. But I pay for everything on my card so it’s always weird at the till when they tell me the cash price and then charge me the actual price.
OMG, no more Canadian Pennies! Growing up in Washington State we were always getting those in our change. The U.S. should do the same, partly to save resources and partly to save the cost of minting new ones.
ITA!
Oy! Even going way back to 2017-ish or so, the panhandlers refused to take Canadian pennies!
Yeah, I think the pennies have been gone for a decade, at least. The government decided the cost of dealing with them wasn’t worth it.
Also, I support your Alfred Sung love, as noted above. I circled Sung at the BX for so very long but never had the money from my (basically nonexistent) allowance to pay for it. I just sampled literally every time I could get over there, which was frequent as my house was very close.
I hear or should I say I smell you?
Thanks for the 411 on the Infusion de Vanille. If it had stayed in the root beer phase, I would have been sorely tempted. Lemming thwarted!
How’s the Gingembre?
Same here…love a good benzoin vanilla.
I love polls!
First perfume I bought was probably Sweet Honesty.
First perfume as a perfumista was Mitsouko, off of Amazon. It was a successful blind buy.
Last perfume I purchased was Aesop Karst, for my birthday last month. The bottle is actually on loan to a friend of mine, who had never smelled it before and was taken with it. It actually smells better on her than it does on me! 😂
I was busy today, a good kind of busy. Went to my monthly book club this morning and drum circle this afternoon. ❤️
A drum circle sounds like a lot of fun! I think of ElisaP whenever someone mentions one, though.
I miss her around these parts!
You are so sweet to loan out your birthday perfume!
1. The first fragrance I remember owning was Avon Sweet Honesty.
2. This would have to be Miss Dior; purchased it when I was in high school. I remember feeling so special wearing it to class.
3. My last purchase was Guerlain MI.
You *were* special wearing it to class. 😸
My first bottle of Diorissimo definitely made me feel special…the houndstooth was so chic!
I distinctly remember at some point in junior high or high school having a tray with 3 perfumes: Diorissimo, Coriandre and Halston.
1. Black XS by Paco Rabanne. I thought it was interesting and weird, a sweet neon-fruity sci-fi of a perfume, back in 2008
2. Arabie by Serge Lutens. I instantly fell in love with this the first time I smelt it. Absolue Pour le Soir by Francis Kurkdjian is my favourite perfume of all time, but when I originally smelt it I thought it was nice, but it didn’t wow me at first. A La Nuit from SL also didn’t impress me either in the beginning, but I now consider it one of my Top Tens
3. Naxos by Xerjoff. I prefer dark, deep, animalic, sweet, vanillic come-hither ambers, but Naxos is my innocent daytime perfume
What is your preferred favorite vanilla? Curious minds….
Hi Ann
Un Bois Vanille by SL is delicious, and Vanagloria by Laboratorio Olfattivo is strange and fantastic vanilla.
Have u smelt Absolute Pour le Soir? What are your favourite ambers and vanillas?
Thanks for the suggestions, kevtronic. The SL was too sweet for me, and I will check out the others. So far, my favorite has been PMC Vanille de Tahiti.
Super busy yesterday, I wore Mademoiselle Guerlain. Today is Le Parfum du 68.
First perfumes were the usual: Jean Naté, Loves Baby Soft, Avon, and maybe a spritz of my mom’s L’Air du Temps.
First real perfume I bought for myself was Dior Poison, although mom and I shared Giorgio before that which she bought.
Most recent purchase… hmmm, I think it was SL Cuir Mauresque.
Ah, Giorgio! The closest I ever got was “Primo”. 🙂
I had a bottle of “Adolfo” (perhaps Adolpho) which was another Giorgio clone. A roommate gave it to me. She didn’t like it. I guess at one time I did like tuberose, ha.
I wore tons of Primo and I still really like it! I went through tons of bottles/cans at one time. I drenched myself in it lol. I still like to spray for a nice, quick WF fix. I remember I wore either Poison and Primo and didn’t wanna wear anything else for a while. Guess I just wanted all that tuberose:)
Couldn’t handle Giorgio back in the day! That one I could always taste if someone had been wearing it in my vicinity.
Good weekend NSTers! Loving the poll idea.
1. Cacharel Anais Anais. Id say a big white floral to today’s standards, was marketed as an innocent floral teen perfume back then. I got it as a Christmas present at 16 and loved it for a long time.
2. Probably Lush Snowcake. I was obsessed with that scent and that sent me down the rabbit hole! But as perfumista properly speaking, maybe Guerlain Mandarine Basilic or En Passant.
3. Caftan by YSL. It’s discontinued now but managed to get one of last bottles sold by online retailers. It’s such a nice incense!
Snowcake😍, I have a little 30ml.
Anais Anais was something I would always get a sniff of way back when while shopping in the department stores. Never did get a bottle of it, though. And I don’t know why.
Ridiculously late to this crew, hope you all had a banging weekend. It’s just clicked over to Monday here in Sydney. We had a chill one other than my work which was excellent.
Answers:
1. Aramis, I still have a modern bottle of it just for old times sake.
2. Tauer’s Eau d’Epices. Yes, there is still some left in the bottle and I sniff the nozzle every now and then.
3. A backup of ZARA Vetiver Pamplemousse. It’s the loveliest, easy, grab, squirt and go scent. It’s taken the place of CHANEL Boy as my very lovely thoughtless spritz.
Hiya Portia! Dunno if it’s still Monday for you; I haven’t figured out Sydney’s time in relation to Colorado yet.
HEY Jalapeño!
Monday evening now.
Thanks for dropping me a line. Hope all well where you are.
We were going to head out today but Dunder und Blitzen has made us pause here for another day until thing clear up. It’s a lovely spot that’s not very trafficked so it all good to me. Wearing CSP Vanille Café for cozy vibes and because it was mentioned several times in the past week or so. My dragon candle is lit and lending a little cheer to the drear! Hope your weather is better 🌞
Well, that CSP sure is gathering a lot of enablers today! I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to hold out.
I can send you some with the Elixer if you like? I have a bottle of both Vanille Café and Amour de Cacao. I think I still have some glass decant bottles tucked away somewhere. If I do, I’ll send a “decample” of each, hoping to get it in the mail next week. ✌🏼
“decample’ ha Deva I’ll have to remember that one.
I wish I spawned that word but alas, I think it was hajusuuri? Whoever, it’s a great word! 🙃
It was actually nancyleandros.
How kind of you to offer, Deva❣️ I gratefully accept.
Looks like I might be getting a touch of your wild weather late tomorrow!
It was quite strange- rain and mild temps, then the sun was out, then it started sleeting, some small hail, plummeting temps and then the sun came out again..? To the east are flood warnings and the SW winter weather advisory. 🤷🏻♀️ Hope all that drama passes you by. Dressing appropriately for the weather has been a challenge today. 🙃
I’m enjoying this thread a lot. I don’t remember the first frag that I ‘owned’ but I’d spray/dab my mom’s perfumes a lot as a child. Having grown up in France, she had Chanels, YSL, Guerlains. I remember slathering myself with Rochas Femme Bath Oil as a tween because I didn’t know that one drop was all it took. But for hot L.A. summers, she also had Bien Etre, a cheap French cologne splash that we’d lug back in large bottles after a trip to France. Also Jean Nate. There was always a note in the Jean Nate that bothered me so I’d try and try to figure it out but it never quite took.
Perhaps the first perfume I ‘owned’ was a solid compact of Coty Sweet Earth that I bought at the local drugstore at 14 or 15.
First perfumista perfume was Donna Karan Chaos, the rabbit hole one, which I wrote about here:, hope the link works and sorry the text is a bit blurry: https://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/947588/27522891/1491951929660/Embracing+Chaos+-+LA+Times+Magazine.pdf?token=XvCZMd6YViqG78kxcEVWky41if8%3D
Last perfume I bought: Fresh Cannabis Santal a very partial bottle. Smells neither like cannabis or santal, and it’s way sweeter than what I usually wear, but I felt like a cheap throwback thrill.
Twin with your mother, I grew up in France😀.
DeniseH, your post caused a bloom in my heart, and your article even more so! I love your writing. Just recently I read Last Lullaby, after having read Damage Control. So I started with your last and am going backwards.
Do you still write? Anywhere I can read you? Sorry if I’m being too nosy. I love that you’re posting here!
Why thank you AnnE, & yes I still write and also edit anthologies. Don’t want to hijack things but you can email me at denise and then the at sign and then denisehamilton and the n the dot and then the com for more info
Thank you!
SOTD = Dior Dune EDT
So wonderful! I do really need to wear this more often since I have two bottles – a 30mL (pictured) and a 50mL.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5wFe6dxX4M/?igsh=MWxxY3A5Z3l2dG1pbg==
Such a great fragrance. I didn’t get it at first but I finally understand what all of the hubbub is about😊
Love Dior Dune, it’s the perfect “desert” scent to me.
You smell wonderful.
Most 30mL perfume bottles are cute, but the 30mL Dune bottle is especially so.
Hello NST
Sotd Tresor, for a lovely, peachy rose.
Hello Omega! Hope it was a good weekend.
1. What was the first fragrance you ever owned?
I was given a bottle of Chanel No 5 cologne for Christmas when I was 11. I was in 7th heaven. 😇 I felt so grown up and loved the scent (and bottle.)
I don’t remember the first bottle I bought for myself. Lost in the mists of time, haha. It may have been Love’s Warm Woodsy Musk. I still wish I could re-create that one.
2. What was the first fragrance you bought as a perfumista?
Diptyque Tam Dao
I think I’ve always been a perfumista, although the word hadn’t been invented yet, of course. I remember, when I was about 6, being at a friend’s house and sneaking a sniff of her mother’s Woodhue in the bathroom. My nose swooned. Waves of thanks to pixel, who posted above and brought back the memory for me. 🧡
3. What was the last fragrance you bought?
A vintage bottle of R&G Jean Marie Farina cologne, since my current one is almost empty. I go through a lot of this in the summer.
SotD is SMN Musk.
Love’s made a lot of great perfumes back in the day.
They sure did!
1. Either a Coty Sweet Earth solid perfume compact or Shulton Blue Jeans.
2. Vintage Je Reviens.
3. Some more samples of Bottega Veneta Eau de velours. A lovely NSTer sent me a sample and I fell in love after a couple wearings.
Beautiful, even perfect, weather here today. I’m very behind on comments but will try to catch up tomorrow.
Note
I remember those Sweet Earth solid perfumes! I had one of those compacts too.
I am wearing a sample of Jorum Spiritcask. Maybe I didn’t put on enough but I can barely smell it., maybe the tiniest vanilla. I do apply lightly if i am trying an unfamiliar sample, lest I get a scrubber and be stuck all day at work.
1. My first perfume was a small bottle of something called Strawberry Musk. It may have been an oil and had a pink heart on the label. This was the groovy 70’s and I was less than ten years old, got it at some discount store with my mother. I kept that bottle a long time and it might be somewhere in my mother’s house still.. Funny, I might actually wear it these days if I had the bottle.
2. I bought SJP Lovely about 2005. I was searching through the internet, reading about scents and starting to learn the basics of notes. I had always liked perfume but the 90’s and early noughts were filled with family and career commitments and perfume was not a big part of my life. Very few of my friends and extended family know about my fondness for perfume.
3. Last perfume I bought was Une Nuit Nomade’s Nothing but Sea and Sky. This was unusual because I bought unsniffed, based on notes and description and it is a keeper, fortunately. I even like the name.
So great when blind buys work out! Hope you workweek goes fast and stress free! 🙂
1. My first perfume was a partial bottle of Lauren, given to me by my beloved aunt. I loved it with all my 10-year old heart! I wonder if the bottle is still somewhere at my parent’s place.
2. I really fell down the rabbit hole in those makeupalley days. I think my first full bottle purchase was a Goutal, or maybe L’Artisan. Most memorable to me was ordering samples from Aedes over the phone, back before they even had a website. Gasp!
3. Last perfume I purchased is a travel spray of Infusion Gingembre just a week or so ago.
I love this weekend’s photo, Robin. Will you be posting a week of tulip photos for Holland? Hmm…. I can’t wait to find out!
Ordering samples by phone definitely gives you extra perfumista credit!
No, I just did a whole week of tulips…will do photos of places in Netherlands.
Call me “Tail End Charlie!” Posting way late for this.
1. First fragrance I ever owned was either Charlie or Love’s Baby Soft. I went thru more than one bottle of both of those. And my Mom and I shared the Jean Nate splash.
2. First Perfumista Perfume? Hmmmmmmm. I’m going to give that honor to the bottle of Samsara EdT that I blind bought back around 2009 or so. It was also the first Guerlain that clicked with me, but that took a little time. It wasn’t an instantaneous love.
3. Most recent purchase? That would be a 1 oz bottle of Eau de Merveilles Bleue, assuming it ever ships and arrives here. I haven’t gotten an email with the shipping info yet, and it’s been about a week since I purchased it online.
SOTD = a bit of perspiration and a couple sprays of Annick Goutal Mandragore Poupre, before the not so great bottle change. It was 82 degrees here today! But the possibility of snow is lurking in the forecast here later on this week.
Did you order it from fragrance net? My last order was delayed about 8 days before it shipped.
Nope. eCosmetics.
But I did order Alien Fusion from FragNet last quarter, and while the emails were prompt, the delivery took forever.