never add up how much money you spend on this hobby...

[synecdochic]

This post is a free-for-all for people to:

a) post links to perfume-related content they posted elsewhere (on or off DW)
b) talk about anything they want to talk about that isn't big enough for a full post
c) socialize and hang out without worrying about "off topic".

Have at!

Comments

What's your motivation?

[lunabee34]

I'm really interested in hearing about what motivates people wear perfume. Most people probably have multiple reasons they wear perfume rather than just one, and I love hearing those reasons and how they coexist.

Tell me why you're into perfume, everyone! :)

I'll comment to this thread with my reasons.

Re: What's your motivation?

[lunabee34]

Reason 1: I want people to smell me and say, "OMG, you smell so good. What is that?" LOL So far in nearly a year, that's only happened once (BPAL Ameles Potamos, one of their IMHO undiscovered gems).

Reason 2: When I smell good (to me, regardless of what other people might think), it makes me happy. I think it even makes me more productive. I'll be in a meeting and catch a whiff of myself or typing away and stop a moment to smell a wrist, and it's like a little pick me up.

Reason 3: The whole experimentation process is good bonding for me and my older daughter. It's a fun thing for us to share, especially in a time her life when she's going through a lot of changes that often involve being annoyed with grownups, particularly her mom. LOL

Reason 4: I like learning about perfume and developing my nose. It's interesting to read about the history of perfume and about trends and other peoples' reviews.

Re: What's your motivation?

[synecdochic]

I wear perfume entirely for myself, really. I have a very sensitive nose (odd, because I am a fairly heavy smoker, but I'm the one who can always, always smell mildew/mold and the one who can smell it in an instant when the cats peed on something while my wife can't smell it at all, for instance, and I'm always the one wandering around the house going "...what's that smell?" when somebody opened up a bottle of something on the other side of the house) and having something pleasant to smell nearby -- namely, me -- means that if there's something funky and odoriffic nearby, I can just stick my wrist up against my nose and smell something pleasant.

Like you, smelling good also does make me happy, and it's part of a whole wheelhouse of techniques for my mental well-being -- scent is one of the great emotional triggers, really, maybe even the strongest, and I can tweak my mood really well by putting on various perfumes that invoke various moods -- but honestly, I wear perfume to drown out the other smells around me. I find a lot of personal care products to be very over-perfumed in a way that smells really grating to me -- I usually don't wash my hands in public restrooms, for instance, because the soap clings to my skin for the next eight hours and always, always smells awful on me -- and having something nice to cleanse my 'palate' helps me to put up with being in close proximity to somebody wearing a really cloying lotion. Or Axe body spray ;)

Re: What's your motivation?

[lunabee34]

That's really interesting and a great idea to have a personal scent oasis you can retreat to when a scent you don't like intrudes.

I do not have a supernose; my husband does, which makes perfume testing frustrating at times. I'll love something, and it smells over the top awful to him. LOL

[vass]

My local supermarkets (both of them) and my local chemist no longer sell Old Spice Classic body wash. I am displeased.

[lunabee34]

I hate when that happens. :(

Can you buy it online?

[vass]

I'm looking into it. It might not be worth it, with the shipping.

[tasyfa]

I was poking around the blog of a cosmetic scientist and came across a post from last spring about fragrance: Perfume makes you more attractive. It's an interesting read, and he does link to the study he's referencing (yay sources!).

Re: What's your motivation?

[sine_nomine]

OMG... Axe!!

Which a certain Former Supervisor at UPS wears like... all... the... time... and washes with their gel and so on....

Why does anyone think that stuff smells good??!?

Re: Axe

[devon]

One of the Axe scents is basically like Old Spice, and I happen to like both. However, too much of either can be deadly. I think that teen boys are overwhelmed by advice to stop the wretched stench that comes from their armpits that they overdo it. A small amt of Axe on an older guy (still very young to me, but maybe late 20's) usually smells like traditional but inexpensive/not-fancy aftershave to me.

Re: Axe

[sine_nomine]

I can deal with regular Old Spice aftershave but, I'm afraid, that's where I draw the line.

I just don't understand this whole "body spray" thing, especially as so many of them smell (to me) like "where's the dead skunk?"

As for Axe, I have no idea what scent this (40+ year old) guy wears... Phoenix something maybe? ... but oh the horror.

Re: Axe

[devon]

Maybe find someone in the office (ideally male) who will team up with you. Then you can each say something like, "Whoo! A bit extra aftershave today?" on different days. That seems like a fairly gentle way to bring his attention to it. Or get one of the guys to whisper that Old Spice might be more flattering on him because Axe is really only cool on teenagers.

Sorry you suffer, and good luck!

Re: Axe

[sine_nomine]

Thanks for the ideas but no, this isn't a colleague at work. It's an acquaintance of mine who, thankfully, now lives about 900 miles from me so I don't have to see him frequently!

Wish I could tell him Axe is only cool on teenagers but, unfortunately, there are people in his life who encourage his addiction.

Ah well... appreciate the sympathy!

[lunabee34]

That's a really interesting article; thanks for linking!

I saw that the fragrance didn't seem to make any of the faces appear younger; I wonder if that would change if the fragrance were changed. I love rose, but it can feel like the scent of an older or more mature person. Just musing, but I wonder if they used something citrusy or "breezy" if youthfulness would be a factor.

[lunabee34]

Oh, boo.

*crosses fingers*

Re: What's your motivation?

[sathari]

Oooh, fun, even though I'm soooo late to this party!

I wear perfume for myself--- to have something that smells good to me nearby when I need a mood boost. I also associate certain scents with certain favorite characters, which I talked about in another post back at the beginning of this community, IIRC, and so there's a second-order mood lift of having the scent of a favorite character close to me, or smelling like that person. In the past I've also liked room-scenting as a mood-lifter thing.

Re: What's your motivation?

[lunabee34]

I think it's so cool that you so strongly identify scents with characters. I can usually think of a character that goes with a particular scent but only after thinking about it and not ever on a visceral level like that.

Re: What's your motivation?

[sathari]

Heh, I definitely go looking for scents for certain characters, trying to find ones that match them in some way--- so very much a conscious and deliberate process, though once I find the match it does become somewhat visceral.