Do you ever wonder if there exist within our community “recovering” perfumistas?
Imagine a dusty perfume cabinet, with twenty or thirty (or more) flacons, multitude decants, and boxes of samples, all introduced with the phrase, “I used to be a perfumista.”
This haunting tableau assaulted me as I lay in bed awaiting sleep last night. I know we all go through phases where our noses develop, tastes change or evolve, and the buying slows down (full bottles at least); but this hearkens sophistication, doesn’t it?
The thing is, you never hear from anyone in “recovery”. Robin, the matriarch at Now Smell This, may buy very few bottles these days (visit her damage poll to see what I mean), but she’s still smelling.
On to happier and less frighteningly random thoughts.
Sometimes when I get up in the morning, it seems like I spend hours deliberating which scent to wear for the day. Other days, I wake up knowing. This morning was one of those days: Today was a Tabac Aurea day. Since my sample set from Sonoma Scent Studio arrived a little more than a month ago, I’ve genuinely enjoyed each fragrance. However, two clear favorites emerged: Champagne de Bois, and Tabac Aurea.
Hauling hay under bright, late-summer sun, he’s got a pouch of sweet vanilla tobacco folded in a flannel shirt pocket— for later, when the job is done. He’s a Stetson man, and the last lingering kiss of the cologne mingles with clean sweat, dirt, and the work-warmed leather of his gloves. Handsome and strong, but with a soft side accessible to the ladies.
Tabac Aurea, that is.
Fragrance Notes, provided by SSS: Cedar, sandalwood, tobacco, leather, vetiver, patchouli, clove, labdanum absolute, tonka bean, amber, vanilla, musk.
beauty on the outside 
I have a few SSS samples coming, I couldn’t withstand your enticement any longer 😉
So clearly no signs of recovering perfumista-dom over here, I think for me it is a life-long affliction. 😉
I wonder, as a psychotherapist, do you ever encounter people who are terrified of *losing* their desire for an obsession?
Probably just neurosis induced by an over-heated brain! 🙂
Oh, oh, do tell! Which perfumes did you select? I think you’re going to really enjoy them!
Fragrance brings such transportive joy, I can’t imagine a life barren of it… and on that note, I bought Yohji Homme un-sniffed on eBay yesterday after reading Gaia’s wonderful review—and I swore that after the last Prada I was never going to do this again (how many times can I expect to get lucky??)
😉
Lol, no the majority of people with obsessions are looking for a way to get rid of it, not the other way around. But what an intriguing thought! Our perfume -mania is probably more of a passion than an obsession, although the difference between the two often only lies in the connotation and the level of suffering involved. 😉
I’m curious how Yohji Homme turns out for you. You are not alone, I have bought unsniffed countless times, not always a success, but that doesn’t stop me in the least 😉
Well, I’ll tell you, I’m suffering with anticipation waiting for Yohji Homme. Hahah!
I shouldn’t joke about mental heath, but sometimes there seems to be a fine line between my obsessive (and sometimes compulsive) perfume acquisition habits, and the habits of hoarders. Hoarders frighten me.
Ooooh! Strange, isn’t it, that you never know what happens after rehab…my sister (aka. the Musk&Patchouli Monster) once saw my collection and commented…”And I thought I was bad…” 😀
No rehab for me, alas. I’m a hopeless case. I’ll be hopeless until the day I am no longer, probably.;)
Tabac Aurea…Hmm…Maybe some time during this winter, we could do a Cowgirl series group blog…Lonestar Memories, Tabac Aurea, and all those other great, outdoorsy, horsey, campfire fumes! 😀
Cowgirl fragrances! Oh, that sounds like so much fun! We should do that, for sure. It will give me an opportunity to hunt down a bottle of Lady Stetson (or even the original mens).
Can you just imagine though? I think the only way my perfume collection will stop growing, or that I’ll stop smelling new things, will be when medical students are carefully peeling back my dermis!
Sounds yum.
As for perfume-obsession, I don’t think one can recover. It’s a chronic condition. 🙂
Chronic, with regular acute flare-ups! 🙂
Ok, I give in: I have to try both of your favorites. In the recent couple of months they were stadily moving up to the top of my “want to try” list.
Undina, they are both very good and worth trying! 🙂