Are You The Only Perfumista In Your Family?

So my daughter was visiting and I was showing her my collection. Her eyes roamed the bottles. I was attempting to find some that she might like so I could decant some for her.
Bottle after bottle I'm opening, she's sniffing, and I know she's not really into perfumes as I am, but I'm attempting to find one that she might enjoy.
My 2005 Miss Dior Cherie she tells me is "too strong". Forget the Chanels. Maybe Taylor Swift's Wanderlust, she likes the vanilla in that one. She sniffs Juicy Couture and says she remembers she thinks she likes one of those.
Finally, I don't want to overload her, and she's not liking any, which is frustrating, but that's ok, she's entitled to her likes/dislikes. She really doesn't wear perfume, she says. She says she knows how much I love my "babies", and she will treasure them one day.
We finally laughed about it, which is good, knowing that it's ok that we're not identical people.
I've always loved perfumes, and began my journey with them when I began selling them. But no one else in my family was ever like I am in collecting them or seeking the ultimate bottle. Working around them just intrigued me so much, it lit a fire along with that first whiff of Shalimar at an early age.
So here are my questions:
Are you the only perfumista in your family? At what age did you become one? And did anyone influence you to become one?

I've always loved scent but it took me a while to get into perfume. My mother and I didn't have the best relationship (read: she was crazy, in the not fun way) and she would often wear those cheap knock-offs, especially a fake of what I now realise was supposed to be Opium. I came to associate the screechy, headachey scent with the word 'perfume', but that was an error.
Into my teens I started to realise that perfumes could be amazing sensory windows, but quality perfume was a luxury, a 'fancy' thing, and most girls my age preferred scented body sprays and deodorants anyway.

My first actual perfume was "Green Tea" by Elizabeth Arden, having requested and received a bottle as a Christmas gift. I loved it, I was caught between enjoying it and wanting to have the bottle last forever. Funnily enough I don't recall ever actually finishing the bottle... maybe I lost it in a move? Hmm.
Fast forward a few more years and "Omnia" was my 'going out, feel sexy, feel confident' fragrance. I remember having to qualify the expense to myself for weeks! If "Green Tea" was my first perfume, "Omnia" was my first signature. That bottle I finished, and then another. I still love it. It's only over the last year or two that I've actually been able to afford perfumes as an interest. I've bought more perfume over the past year than I ever anticipated! My past self would be agog. But I picked up plenty of smells from gardening, essential oils, natural medicine... I was really into all that as a teen, and it has helped me appreciate note structure even with my relatively small perfume experience.

I assume you've explained to your daughter that perfumes generally take some time to settle? Have you perhaps sprayed some card for her to take some time and smell? I know many people don't initially understand that a scent develops over time... they'll sniff it straight from the bottle or spray it and not give it enough time to settle down. I know that most of the people that don't appreciate perfumes much seem to have a better experience when smelling a scent already in dry-down.

My Mother worked as a housemaid in International Hotels. Quite often a house guest would consider the small amount left in a bottle as not worth packing and would leave it behind. Sometimes there would be a forgotten bottle and there was no way of reuniting it with the owner once they were in the air to another country. We live at the bottom of the world. My perfume collection began this way in the late sixties and I knew most mainstream French perfumes by the time I was a teenager; they ruined me for the drug store fumes such as Charlie, Intimate, etc. The perfume supply dwindled when my Mother went to work in Cinemas, not hotels. She is eighty seven now, still loves perfume. The early days made me a chypre sister, I never say never, but very sweet perfumes are not my bag, baby (Move over Austin Powers) I took them all for granted, gave them away to favorite girlfriends, had multiple bottles of Chanels, Femme, Fidji, Zen,Ma Griffe, Shocking, and many more from Rochas and Caron. I didn't discover Bal a Versailles until the late seventies. My Mum left my house the other day with my Ce Soir Ou Jamais, she loved it more than I do and I can't say no to her when we shared so much at the beginning.

Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Not sure if I'm a perfumista but I am a perfume fan and been so for two years now. I really got into it when a couple of factors coincided. One of them being that my sister in law gave me a gift set of "Drakkar Noir" for Christmas

Yes, but I'm working on that. I have some cousins who love perfume, but like most sane people, they think it's weird to have/use more than a few at a time.

One has taste very different from mine, so I gave her some of my blind-buy rejects and from those she found some new favorites. That was very gratifying to me.

Her sister, however, has almost exactly the same taste I do and shows the most potential for developing an abnormal interest in perfume (like me). I recently sent her six decants of my favorites along with a list of notes and description for each one. She said she felt like "a kid in a candy shop." Also very gratifying for me.

My early impression of perfume's usefulness came from my mom and her sister, who wore perfume only when dressing up to go out on the town. They owned several bottles, but hardly ever wore any of it. For them, perfume bottles made nice gifts that became great decoration for the top of the dresser or the bathroom counter. My mom's bathroom is where I first stole dabs of "Zen / Classic Zen" and "Aromatics Elixir". And it was "White Shoulders", "Youth Dew" and "Cinnabar" at my aunt's house.

If either of them could see my collection right now they'd think I'd completely lost my mind.

I would say yes. My aunts and mom do have an interest in perfume, but have very, very little knowledge. They sort of just wear the same 2-3 things with almost no interest in branching out.

Yes but I'm trying my best to solve that out!

I'm the only one that is really into it, yes. Now my mother wears her signature daily - Coco Mademoiselle, but I've sent her oodles of samples and gotten her to branch out a little. As for me, I'm always branching out. I'm going to try this year though to dial it down a notch or two and enjoy what I've got.

I was probably influenced by my mother's mirrored perfume tray when I was a kid. I marveled at those beautiful bottles which seemed like magic potions to me. As soon as I was old enough and allowed to do so, I had perfume. I believe my first one was Helena Rubenstein's Heaven Scent.

No one really knows the amount of perfumes I have! A few fragrance friends, and my husband - that's it. If you are wondering, my husband totally encourages my hobby. He benefits from it as well!

My niece buys a lot of perfume just like me. She prefers the designers, only because of the label I'm sure. She has a ton of Bath and Body works stuff too.

I can't remember for the life of me when I started this perfume journey but I'll guess that maybe it was when Opium was first released. I wanted to smell like that all the time. I began collecting the clocks that were given out as free gifts with Paul Sebastian products so for a few years I exclusively wore Design. I could never smell this fragrance (still can't) but I've always been complimented on it.

Everybody gave me perfume as gifts for birthdays and Christmas, it didn't matter what it was, just so long as it was perfume it was good enough for me. When my sister was in the military, she would bring me fragrance from different countries and I just kept stacking them up. Ironically, she now accepts my rejects and even asks for some at times.

I am the only avid wearer of perfume in my family. My mom wears soapy/clean scents and will gladly accept any I come across and buy; but she won't buy any for herself.

I have always liked smells--food, candles, incense, etc. I had random body sprays from Victoria's Secret or Bath and Body Works. My first perfume is Chloe which was gifted to me at birth but I never wore it. I sprayed it in the room and hated the smell, but I felt like a grown-up because I had my own bottle of perfume.

I purchased my first bottle, Tommy Hilfiger Dreaming, when I was 19 or 20. I didn't pick up buying lots of perfume until a couple of years ago.

yeap

Interesting how perfumes can interest some, and not others, isn't it?

Omnia, what a wonderful introduction to perfumes at such an early age!

As far as the question with my daughter, since she has been a little one,(and I do mean little), she has "played" and had access to my collections that I was lucky enough to accumulate from work (vendors-gratis) and my own tastes. She just happens to enjoy two perfumes of her liking and that's it. Versus her Mom, who wants to explore all. But then again, in time, she may change and find an interest in perfumery, who knows?

I am the only one in our crowd of relatives. Everyone gets gifts from me, at holidays, to introduce them. Nobody gives perfumes to me anymore as they say, we cannot buy wine for the wine connoisseur. It has been fun. Countless decants have also been given away, and sometimes somebody gets a love from that. I can smell the perfumes on them, and say, "how are you doing with this one?" Nobody shares the passion enough to join a discussion group, although I have recommended those, too.

Even the personnel at the boutiques are not that hot about the discussion groups although they have heard of them.

Yes, I am, and it's a very recently acquired habit. One of my aunts was visiting over Christmas and she actually laughed out loud at my perfume shelf in the bathroom -- little does she know I have since moved half of it to my bedroom and even packed away some frags I don't use frequently. My collection is very small compared to some, but in my family it is immense. I'm not sure if I have anybody to pass the perfume bug on to at the moment, but if I ever have daughters they will get to play with sample sizes and maybe some bottles too.

What lovely stories from everyone!
My answer to the question is: not any more!
My sister and I have always worn fragrances and had an interest in trying new ones but until recently I would have put us in the 1-3 bottles-at-a-time category, with new purchases only being made when a bottle is drained.
I have quite a few other hobbies and collections and only started actively sampling and collecting fragrances about 12 months ago, initially through a desire to revisit discontinued (now reformulated) perfumes I loved and wore in the past.
Since then, however, my interest has spread, ripple-like, to other family members and they are now asking for new samples and acquiring modest collections of their own (we're talking a few bottles here, not dozens). I live in a household of men so this is no mean feat!
My teenage sons have gone from wearing Lynx body sprays to owning three fragrances each and using them daily.
Mr Triffid, who has spent the last five years eking out a bottle of CKOne, now owns six fragrances and is borrowing from the sons as well. I was amused to discover that when the three of them went on an overseas trip recently, they spent an hour sampling fragrances together in the airport duty free and returned with a wish list!
"Ooh, that's nice, what are you wearing?" is a phrase I never would have imagined hearing in our household, but now I do!
Mr Triffid and I have somehow adopted a ritual before we walk the dog in the evening. It happened unconsciously, but we each find ourselves lavishing on a new fragrance to smell and comment upon during the walk (actually, this sounds like a strange fetish now that I've admitted to it).
My sister, who pretty much wears Chanel No.5 every day, now has a few new scents and a slew of samples in her stash, whilst her husband has gone from three or four favourites to an expanding wish list courtesy of a box of samples I passed on.
All of this now makes for easy gift buying and I find that if relatives are hesitant to choose for 'the perfumista", the best way is to give them a list of choices and let them choose one. That way, they can buy to their budget but the final choice will still be a surprise.
My other tip for perfume gift giving is to include a sample of same with a full bottle purchase. That way, if the perfume isn't liked the sealed bottle can be returned or exchanged for something else.

Someone give this lady a medal for 'service to humanity'!
Triffid your whole post makes me grin, especially the part where they went and sampled at a duty free.

I know! Who would've thought? With the junior Triffids, I think it was definitely a case of wanting to smell more sophisticated to women when out on the town.
Mr Triffid has been slowly indoctrinated through me harrassing him to smell things. He started by borrowing some of my perfumes until he clued to the fact that there was a world of masculine fragrances for blokes such as himself (he still wears Paloma Picasso though).

I'm making slow progress with my SO, he now has a few more descriptives besides 'flowers'. I have figured out that he likes some roses on me, but others he says smell like pot-pourri, which he dislikes.
I also have a male housemate who, in another life, could be a monk. He's quite the ascetic, but occasionally I can get an appreciative noise out of him, generally with something earthy and spicy. When I explained to him how oud is produced he was very fascinated.
And I have a female housemate who couldn't pick out a note to save her life, so it amuses me that she thinks BPAL is the pinnacle of perfumery.

I know about some of BPAL's issues, but still I have to give them props for demonstrating that fragrances *could* express emotions and perspectives that would never be popular.

But to answer the question -- I am the only parfumisto in my family, yes. However, my fiancee` has an interest in fragrance and I am helping expand her horizons.