The Carousel of Fragrance 'Collecting' - does it ever stop?

[DoctorM81]

With so many discontinuations, reformulations, and what I think is a general trend towards inferiority in newer releases, there's obviously a lot of sense in acquiring fragrances that one finds captivating lest they disappear forever. The older someone is, the more fragrances they're likely to enjoy. However, if one of the scents you love is in short supply, you have to use it sparingly, right? If you're wearing perfume regularly, it's unlikely you can build a fragrance wardrobe in this way, solely comprised of scents you're anxious about finishing.

If you take away the acquisition aspect - the commercial and neural treadmill, or carousel - I can see that there's something to be said for having a number of (particularly older) bottles that aren't worn frequently but, crucially, are worn and enjoyed. There's almost certainly an upper limit to that but it's much higher than what I initially suspected and there's definitely a difference between a collection that has taken time and prudence to amass, versus a younger buyer who has splurged on a number of purchases without much consideration. I can see how a collection could, in theory, be 'completed' or at least enjoyed without necessarily having to wear every fragrance with regularity. I'm not sure it's for me, mostly because I'm too young and too many of the fragrances that would be worth collecting are gone or have changed (and my fragrance tastes were formed in the 90s and 00s, so I'm more content with modern fragrances, including modern versions of traditional scents), but I think there is a way to curate a collection which isn't merely retail 'therapy' or whatever. Time and experience are key. I think modern internet culture - hauls, 'journeys' etc. - take the skin of what would be a carefully curated selection of fragrances that are meanigful and worthy of being owned and mimics it to encourage bugman materialism, which is what played a part in inspiring the idea of the Carousel in the first place. There probably is a way to do it but it's not for everyone and it's presumably going to become more difficult to produce a 'good' collection given the trajectory of perfumery.

Agree with much in this post, but probably nothing more so than bolded!

 

[slpfrsly]

Reading testimonies about people struggling with what to do about collections that have spun out of control, I'm struck by how evergreen the concept of this thread is.

I spent most of 2022 wearing what I already had, and probably tried/sampled approx 30-40 fragrances - which is a lot by any normal measure, but is incomparable to the 500+ I tried in each of the first two covid years. Most of those 30-40 fragrances were either specifically sought out due to having a particular scent profile or suitability (there weren't too many of those) but most were simply opportunistic sniffs as and when I came across a fragrance tester when out shopping. I was looking for a feminine fragrance to buy as a gift just before Christmas and, gravitating towards the old youtube channels and of course the main fragrance forums, I was again struck by how seamless and easy it can be to slip in to a bizarro world that makes riding the Carousel the default or norm - as opposed to anything else.

I'm absolutely convinced that this phenomenon I've struck upon is a mostly modern iteration of a much older phenomenon, and it's one that is propped up several pillars: the ease of shopping (online), the social aspect of sharing/discussing fragrances in the digital equivalent of people sitting around a fire, relatively deep-rooted marketing techniques that work by exploiting personal weaknesses, and finally how habitual it becomes for those within it.

The Carousel has all the sense and feeling of movement, progress, agency, development and so on, but it's not that at all. Instead, it is stasis, repetition (of the cycle), and has an ultimately artificial (and external) energy source - which renders the rider totally passive in the whole process. Like a child in a pram.

I wonder if anyone else has found themselves getting on or off the ride in the last few months? Or have any insights they'd like to share on the topic?

 

[hednic]

To add to what I posted two years ago in this thread - yes, but still not yet.

 

[Cheetah1919]

I’ll just do bullet points…..

* Don’t care if it’s a hobby/collecting etc….buts it’s addicting for sure
* No end in site, I enjoy smelling too much
* I do think that having too many is a problem, cuz you just can’t wear them all
* Buying/selling/prioritizing is the way to go imo, at a # that works for you (mine is around 80)

 

[boui_boui]

Just updating from before.
I've started selling the perfumes that I had kept either as a "reference" or due to their rarity.
Thankfully I never bought whim or cheapie fragrances, so the majority of my collection was things that I had actively researched or wanted.
Regardless, I decided that if I wasn't wearing it enough, i'd sell it - it didn't matter what it was.
I've manged to sell things I would have been quite hesitant to before (e.g. older guerlains, patou PH, vtg derby, bell jars). Turns out I don't even remotely miss them. I"ve also decided that I don't need backups - both cause I'll never get to them, and also because other people should be able to experience them as well.

One of the nice parts of having a decent collection is that you have experienced a lot of different smells and can easily find associations between new and old frags. This has made it a lot easier to sell stuff ("oh this smells decently close enough to this other one"), and easier to dodge new fragrances ("already have another 10 ambers that do this already")

 

[imm0rtelle]

I feel like it is a lot easier if you put heavy restrictions on yourself when curating your wardrobe. Rather than thinking you need to buy it all, I think it is more about thinking you need to buy the "right" ones for you (not the "right" ones determined by some online echo chamber). I'm reminded of failing restaurants on Kitchen Nightmare where their menu is bloated and unfocused. They have pages and pages of things because the owner has FOMO and is afraid of having a very tightly curated menu.

 

[slpfrsly]

I feel like it is a lot easier if you put heavy restrictions on yourself when curating your wardrobe. Rather than thinking you need to buy it all, I think it is more about thinking you need to buy the "right" ones for you (not the "right" ones determined by some online echo chamber). I'm reminded of failing restaurants on Kitchen Nightmare where their menu is bloated and unfocused. They have pages and pages of things because the owner has FOMO and is afraid of having a very tightly curated menu.

Bloated and unfocused could be a product of a scarcity mindset i.e. someone buying/collecting what they can, when they can, with little to no discrimination applied as to whether the fragrance(s) in question are worth buying. Which definitely makes sense as part of one of the pillars: that of social media and marketing creating a feedback system that targets and exploits personal weaknesses. In this case, the scarcity mindset could be for several reasons, but the end result is always the same. Part of mastery is knowing what to exclude but obviously this jars with the way many people approach life - in particular, it jars with the American spirit and commercial habits in the USA, which is based on a Faustian appetite for consumption and growth. And since we all are exposed to American commercial habits in one way or another, this spirit has spread to become the foundation of the 'global' culture. It's an interesting thing to consider, but maybe the Carousel feels much more comfortable to some Americans, where to Europeans it seems more foreign and less comfortable. The ideas of expansion and growth and mass and scale are still treated differently on each side of the Atlantic: on one side it is championed and becomes the spirit of the land, on the other you eventually get to something like Guenon's Reign of Quantity. Maybe my idea of the Carousel does not resonate as much with some people who have a spiritual attitude that embraces mass and scale, instead of seeing it as bloated or unfocused. There is a broader truth about that Gordon Ramsay video (and the series in general), of the ways of the Old World coming up against and trying to teach the New (even if it's primarily for the purpose of cheap entertainment).

Either way, I tend not to think of the need for 'heavy' restrictions per se, rather it should become obvious (although I am questioning this part) over time that having some direction and ability to discriminate leads to a better wardrobe or collection, and more enjoyment out of the fragrances you own and wear. I am reconsidering this assumption; I previously assumed that most who disagreed with this were likely on that cycle of the Carousel without necessarily knowing it, but now I wonder if that cycle is simply much more 'normal' for some than others. Naturally, if that way of living is the norm, then you won't perceive the cycle as a problem in any way - so no need for restrictions, heavy or otherwise. Just buy what you like, when you like, own everything that interests you etc. Maybe it is fruitless trying to advise against this, however quietly.

 

[ChuckW]

I am officially in a lull. We went to Atlanta on a fun trip this past weekend (to see the Celtics). We went in many malls and discount stores, but I did not buy a single scent. Nor did I go in stores like Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdale's, where I could have sampled new niche scents. Just wasn't interested.
I looked at the bottles in Nordstrom, but no purchases.

I'm down to around 43 full bottles (from 48 to begin the year). Maybe I'm subconsciously watching my spending as we have a big trip to Hawaii coming up in June.

I still wear cologne every day and enjoy it, but the buying bug has recently stopped biting. I'm sure it's only temporary.

 

[hednic]

I'm sure it's only temporary.

I'd bet my fragrance collection on it!

 

[Scent Detective]

I am officially in a lull. We went to Atlanta on a fun trip this past weekend (to see the Celtics). We went in many malls and discount stores, but I did not buy a single scent. Nor did I go in stores like Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdale's, where I could have sampled new niche scents. Just wasn't interested.
I looked at the bottles in Nordstrom, but no purchases.

I'm down to around 43 full bottles (from 48 to begin the year). Maybe I'm subconsciously watching my spending as we have a big trip to Hawaii coming up in June.

I still wear cologne every day and enjoy it, but the buying bug has recently stopped biting. I'm sure it's only temporary.

Wow! You’re my new hero Chuck!😃

 

[Scent Detective]

I'd bet my fragrance collection on it!

😳 Now that’s a bet to take Chuck!😃

You’d for sure be done collecting if you won!😁

 

[ChuckW]

Wow! You’re my new hero Chuck!😃

It probably won't last. Could be a combination of inflation and my own cautionary spending/saving. And maybe the realization that I'll never in my lifetime wear all this juice! If I'm still in this pattern by the Fall, I might need a check-up. I usually binge a little on vacation.

 

[DoctorM81]

It probably won't last. Could be a combination of inflation and my own cautionary spending/saving. And maybe the realization that I'll never in my lifetime wear all this juice! If I'm still in this pattern by the Fall, I might need a check-up. I usually binge a little on vacation.

Honestly Chuck, I find this a hobby for which my interest waxes & wanes at the best of times - I've been through several cycles of it over the last decade or so. The last 9 months, my interest (& use of basenotes) is at a multi-year peak, but I'll drift again sooner or later. As hednic said, I'm pretty sure this won't last for you - whether that's a good or bad thing is open to interpretation, of course! 😁

 

[slpfrsly]

I am officially in a lull. We went to Atlanta on a fun trip this past weekend (to see the Celtics). We went in many malls and discount stores, but I did not buy a single scent. Nor did I go in stores like Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdale's, where I could have sampled new niche scents. Just wasn't interested.
I looked at the bottles in Nordstrom, but no purchases.

I'm down to around 43 full bottles (from 48 to begin the year). Maybe I'm subconsciously watching my spending as we have a big trip to Hawaii coming up in June.

I still wear cologne every day and enjoy it, but the buying bug has recently stopped biting. I'm sure it's only temporary.

Yes, embrace the light, Chuck!

 

[slpfrsly]

Honestly Chuck, I find this a hobby for which my interest waxes & wanes at the best of times - I've been through several cycles of it over the last decade or so. The last 9 months, my interest (& use of basenotes) is at a multi-year peak, but I'll drift again sooner or later. As hednic said, I'm pretty sure this won't last for you - whether that's a good or bad thing is open to interpretation, of course! 😁

I think that's largely true. I suppose the whole point about the Carousel, and linking it to the hedonic cycle, is that breaks are disincentivised and enjoying the fragrance(s) as fragrance(s) becomes secondary to that cyclical process. I do now think that a collection of fragrances (as opposed to the way I do it) is possible - and a good collection, one that minimises or avoids some of the pitfalls previously mentioned, at that - but done well it probably shold be achieved over decades, not weeks and months.