Perfume Passion - How It All Began!

Discussing perfumes with other people is something new, and this way to live one's passion for perfume is not so common yet. I always have to explain a lot when I tell people about it. So, here is the place for you to show us how your love for perfume started. I know, everybody has a story to tell!

I am starting this thread with my own story. I always owned one or two perfumes, like everybody else. But my life changed on a sunny afternoon 4 years ago in Nuremberg/Germany. I strolled along the city centre, I had nothing in particular to do, and I was bored. In that mood, I went into a perfume chain store, and it was bigger than usual. In the basement there where lots of fragrances I had never heard about before.

Shopping kills boredom, so I thought: fine – let's see if I can find a really posh perfume from Paris. I tested this and that on paper strips, but it really struck me when I came across Micallef's “Aoud Man”. I had never heard anything about Oud before, and I just could not believe how anything could smell that good!

Of course, I bought it on the spot and used it immediately on my very pleasant 500 kilometer drive home. I was in best mood and wanted to know more about it. Coming home, I immediately searched the net and found – Basenotes! I was fascinated about all those perfume reviews – at that time they had numerous reviews coming in every day. I read a lot, ordered samples, tested them and made my first attempts to write perfume reviews myself. I just sat down with a perfume, tried to put into words what came into my mind when I smelled it, and posted it. Unfortunately, they put every review into an approval queue, so I had to wait many days to see them on their site.

When my interest for perfume became serious , I decided to become a BN plus member. But I changed my mind after I saw they had no paypal option and wanted to have my credit card number instead to be regularly billed. That was the only pay option, so I had to look for alternatives. I found Parfumo which was a very small community at that time. I never regretted to join. I immediately got responses to my reviews and posts which had almost never happened on BN. I saw Parfumo grow – and I think you know the rest of the story.

I still have my bottle of Aoud Man, but I do not wear it that often. I found out that other, less opulent fragrances suit me better. Aoud Man is an olfactory eyecatcher. I had the opportunity to tell my story to Msr. Nejman from Micallef, and he could reply with other, similar stories from their customers. What a fragrance to get people hooked on perfume!

Because no one in my family ever wore fragrances my introduction to perfumes had an unusual genisis; it was literary. While in music conservatory I took a course in French poetry and among the professor's scholarly interests were the poets Rimbaud and Baudelaire. Needless to say, I was introduced to the term, synesthesia. It was also the first time I had ever really been aware of my sense of smell.

Then, a few years later, I read the book "A Natural History of the Senses" by Diane Ackerman. Being a musician I fully expected to skim through the book until I got to the chapters on hearing and music. The book, however, starts with chapters about the sense of smell and the story of the nose Sophia Grojsman. I really don't remember the rest of the book, much less the chapters on music. But Ackerman's poetic yet factual writing had me hooked on the idea of wearing a scent. Unfortunately, at that time, the internet was in its infancy and there weren't any resources to educate the casual consumer of fragrances so I just started making blind purchases. Lots of bad blind purchases.

I was a typical guy and didn't have a clue about picking out a scent for myself. I was constantly disappointed by my choices. But out of all those poorly considered purchases there were two fragrances that I really did enjoy, Pi and Obsession. Maybe not the greatest "colognes", as I called them then, but they had many of the qualities that I still look for in a fragrance. What I didn't realize at the time was that many designer fragrances shoe horn in notes to make them smell "manly"; thus inelegant and clumsy. However, Pi and Obsession have what most men would consider a feminine quality to them. I didn't realize it at the time, but to me that translated as a certain character of elegance that I found lacking in everything else I bought simply because it was labeled "pour homme".

My wife, on the other hand, faired much better because of my ignorance and naivete. I only knew one name in feminine fragrances and after a couple of years of giving my wife perfume as gifts she owned a very nice wardrobe of Chanel. The first fragrance I bought for her was #5. When she put it on I melted. I couldn't believe how she transformed the perfume and it transformed her. Thank God for dumb luck! Why couldn't I find "men's" fragrances like this?

Finally, just last year, I read an interview with Jean Claude Ellena. A composer (as he calls himself) who spoke of perfume using terminology and philosophical thought common to all the arts! It was also about that time I realized there were so many resources to help me find fragrances that I felt comfortable wearing, that really spoke of my character and personality. As it turns out, one of those authorities whose work I was reading was Sherapop. What an honor to share her company here on Parfumo.

Apicius, I can relate to your experience finding Parfumo via Basenotes although my reasons for doing so are slightly different. While BN is an incredible resource of knowledgable people I've also found the atmosphere can be a little rough and tumble at times even when the most benign subject is being discussed. I don't enjoy the drama. I've found Parfumo much more welcoming and personable. Thanks to everyone!

Let's see ... 1975 and my age wasn't yet in double digits when my Father won a trip to Europe via the company he worked for as a rep. I knew that it was far away and that he would fly there on a 'big aeroplane' but I was more excited about the fact that he would go to Spain as one of his stops. I was a budding young dancer and when asked what I wanted as a gift I requested "spanish dancer dolls" ... teehee ... great excitement!

That excitement was surpassed, however, upon his return by the presentation of a small bottle of 4711 eau de cologne. Back then, these were apparently handed out to travellers to refresh themselves (even in economy class!! - how things have changed) and I fell in love with 'smelly' things. Something must have 'clicked' because I started noticing the fragrant world around me ... the heavenly scent of rose when I stuffed my nose into an exquitisely opened flower, the smell of a freshly mowed lawn and the gorgeous scent of the earth after a rainstorm. All too soon my little bottle of cologne was finished. I played at my Mothers dressing table regularly from then on, gratified to receive a spritz of Blue Grass every now and then . Dad also had a bottle of Old Spice in the bathroom cabinet ... I loved the way the stopper came out of it with a faint "pop".

Fast forwarding a few years I was finally a teenager and by this time my Mom was wearing Private Collection. I LOVED IT!!! ... desperately wanting to know what was in it! I became rather friendly with one of the ladies at the local Lauder counter (also a friend of my Mom) and she introduced me to my first grown up fragrance ... all for myself ... Aramis 900. It was a long love affair and pocket money was diligently saved up so that I could buy my own. I thought I would always wear it ... a signature 'til death us do part' ... not to be so!

Around the age of 16 or so I was after a holiday job and was lucky enough to get one at an Aramis counter. I studiously read all of the promotional material and was soon peddling fragrances. It was an opportunity to try a vast number of different things. I found myself leaning more toward frags designed for women ... Oh! the scandal! I had many more jobs in the Industry after that, eventually moving on to work for Chanel. Heaven was found in a bottle of No.5 and I still wear Coco quite often! To this day, there is nothing more wonderful in the world to me than a luxurious fragrance department with hundreds of tester bottles beautifully arranged on glistening counters!

I've been a collector on and off since then. More than that I am also an ardent 'wearer' of fragrances. It's become more of a passion in the last 10 years or so, especially with the advent of the Internet. So much information at one's fingertips!

What a privelege to belong to a community such as this! Thanks for the wonderful forum.

Hello, Fragrant Friends! Your stories are beautiful! I wrote one about my journey in 2007, "Perfume Destiny," and sent it to a couple of magazines but got no response. It is now posted at my blog:

salondeparfum-sherapop.blogspot.com/2011/12/pe rfume-destiny.html
I had encountered basenotes a few years before that, but I never pursued it because I was busy with other things...

In 2009, I discovered fragrantica while attempting to access basenotes (the server was down lol...). But what really got me into writing reviews and discovering new perfumes was the onset of HRH Emperor Oliver's diabetes (also in 2009), which made it very difficult to travel, one of my lifelong passions. Even my seasoned catsitter refused to give him insulin shots! Although it would be possible to put him in an animal hospital while I travel, for him it would be like solitary confinement, and since he has already had a stroke, I fear that I would return home to a dead kitty...

So I started traveling through the olfactory universe instead of the physical world, which is now possible because of the internet. I still have very far to go! The Emperor is doing well, and I am happy to have helped him survive with the aid of two insulin shots each day and three servings of B-12. He has other health issues (including debilitating neuropathy and a stroke-induced wobbliness) but still retains a robust joie de vivre, as you can see in my photo album.

About a year and a half ago, I ordered an eighteen-month supply of syringes. Remarkably, he seems to be doing better now than he was back then, when I thought that he would be alive today only by a sheer miracle... I placed another order only a couple of days ago, so now he's committed to surviving for another year and a half!

It may seem odd to some people that I have photographed The Emperor in all of my pictures here at parfumo, but it makes sense in the context of the story of why I spend more time with perfume now, since I cannot travel to other geographic destinations at this point in my life...

I discovered Parfumo because of Aromierotici, whom I met at basenotes and who has been a friend from the moment he sent me a pm encouraging me to continue to write despite the hostility I encountered there.

Parfumo is the perfect place for me: filled with intelligent, open-minded, creative people! The reviews here are so thoughtful and enlightening!

Thank you for sharing this space with me!

Wow, I can only imagine what it must have been like to persuade a cat to accept insulin injections, although Emperor Oliver does look pretty laid-back.

My perfume story isn't particularly unique. I discovered perfumes through my lovely mother, who always favored chypres. As a teenager, I wore a spritz of Mitsouko for luck to a college interview at my dream school. The admissions director recognized it and complimented me, and we end up talking perfume for a few minutes. I've always wondered if that helped me get in. :

My journey into the tremendous world of perfume started at an early age. The sense of smell is one of the most amazing of the five senses. Smell can instantly transport you back in time. It can conjure up wonderful memories with something as simple as a whiff of apple pie. It has the ability to resurrect feelings in an amazing way. A smell can be a sort of sensory time travel by which you are transported to another time and place.

I have been interested in fragrances since my teen years and an active consumer since that time. I enjoy perfume history and its march through the ages to its present day form. I also enjoy the design aspect of product development and advertising. This journey through the world of perfume is from the eyes of a novice. I hope you find my contribution to Parfumo filled with useful information. Your comments or questions about are always welcome.

My ongoing voyage through the vast world of perfumes began at a very early age. My mother always looked beautiful and smelled luxurious. Naturally I wanted to look and smell like Mommy. As a little girl of five, I had to experiment with what was on my mother’s vanity. What was on her vanity were the vintage original pure perfume extracts of Shalimar, Arpege, My Sin, Narcisse Noire, and Nuit de Noel. Mom didn’t mind my experimentations with her treasures. My mother and I used to stroll through department stores, always stopping at the perfume counter to smell and sample whatever was new. She loved perfume as well. When she was finished deciding that nothing new on the counter smelled better than what was in her collection, we moved on.

I dallied with a few things like Avon’s Sweet Honesty and Faberge’s Babe in grade school with my friends. However, in junior high and high school, I simply went on to regularly wear Mom’s perfumes. They just smelled good to me and on me. Mother detested fresh floral soapy scents, she thought them cheap and was not shy about announcing her opinions. She loved richly complex vintage oriental scents. I wore the richly complex vintages for years until my skin chemistry changed and my preferences matured into another direction.

As I began college, I also began to be interested in the individual scent components of these complex rarities that mother typically used. I slowly began the process of learning to understand different notes in perfumes just by smelling individual plants. I went to lots of florists. I then ordered many different pure essential oils and absolutes of different plants and resins in order to familiarize myself with their individual scents. My beautiful olfactory journey continues on to this day!

My memory isn't very good, but I know I hated perfume as first. My dad gave me the original Chloe from 1987 when I was born. I've told this story before elsewhere, but long story short...I accidentally sprayed it in my mouth when I was little. I was so traumatized by the act that I kept away from perfume until the end of high school. I wore cheap body sprays in the meantime.

I would say maybe in middle school when I would hang around the beauty counters as my mom was making a purchase, I was attracted to a bottle of Estee Lauder's Beyond Paradise. I fell in love with the scent, but I knew I could never afford it. I would spray it on every time I passed that counter. My first real perfume purchase was 2-3 years ago, a bottle of Ralph Lauren Dreaming. Then things just went on from there.