Hiking in the Nature with My Seasonal Fragrance Rotation Bottles

Happy November, my dear fragrant friends! What are you going to wear this month? Last week when I was photographing my selection for November 2023, I came up with this thought that I could also write a little bit humorous blog article about the amusing fact that I'm often hiking in the nature with my camera and all fragrances of my seasonal rotation inside my bag.

I don't know if I'm the only crazy fraghead lady in the world doing this... 😂 But even though sometimes it's a little bit difficult, I think it's very fun. I strongly dislike all traditional sports and I never went to gym. Instead, I love to get my daily exercise in the nature, and of course it burns even more calories when carrying something extra, like perfume bottles, hahah!

I love the sea and beaches so those are the most common places for me to take a hike. It's funny that during the summer time many Finns bring lots of beer bottles with them on the beaches and that's what clinging in their beach bags. My bag is clinging too and it's full of... Well... Some different type of alcohol! 😆

Here in Finland winter time might last even 6 months so sometimes hiking with perfumes in the cold through all ice and snow feels like extreme sports, LOL!

Those of you who have followed my photos know my imaginary concept called "Lempi's Perfume Café". My perfume bottles, that are the most precious items that I own, enjoy some cafeteria treats occasionally because they definitely deserve it, and during the winter time they also deserve not only to see the most beautiful frozen views but also to have some hot beverages to warm themselves up in the coldness. 😁🍵

People ask me very often if the backgrounds of my perfume photos have been photoshopped. I'm an old school photographer and I have no idea how Photoshop even works, the only thing I use for editing is Lightroom to crop, straighten and adjust the light and colours. I love the idea how all landscapes, objects, reflections, lens flares etc. are real. Indeed oldschool and probably old-fashioned too, more difficult and sometimes even masochistic with all the effort and painful photographing positions, but to me overcoming obstacles feels somehow satisfying when seeing the final result.

My whole perfume collection consists of about 1,000 bottles, and due to my neurological illnesses I have sometimes problems to remember certain issues or get things organized inside my head. That's why I've found having a seasonal selection placed on a tray very helpful. Also I suffer quite easily from olfactory fatigue so I need to rotate constantly and change my rotation mothly or sometimes even weekly in order to avoid anosmia.

I make my selection based on my current cravings. Sometimes I have theme weeks or whole theme months when I'm wearing for example perfumes that contain certain notes that I'm craving at that moment. And sometimes there's no particular theme and I just choose whatever feels like right, or if I know my nose is needing great variation, I choose many fragrances that are as different as possible and from many totally different olfactory groups.

Before I started doing rotation trays, it felt a little bit difficult to open the door of my perfume room every day to select my SOTD (and often also SOTN, usually I wear two fragrances per day). I found it sometimes exhausting to search through all the perfume shelves constantly. A tray makes it a lot faster, less overwhelming and easier to remember. I can still choose my daily fragrance based on my mood, the occasion or the weather but everything that I'm currently needing is easily accesible in one place.

How do you select your SOTD? Do you need any rotation system? And do you ever take your perfumes with you when you're hiking in the nature?