A Tale of Two Scents: Guerlain Shalimar Millésime Jasmin & Hermès Barenia

Why, with a collection of (probably) over 1,000 perfumes, did I choose to PURCHASE these…?

People outside the fragrance industry sometimes look at me as though I’m the Imelda Marcos of perfume. 

It’s a look I know well: eyes widened in disbelief, or sometimes, lips curled in judge-y contempt; and it happens when they ask me how many how many perfumes I have, and then I answer them, truthfully.

It’s a question I get asked a lot, when people find out what I do.

In fact, I don’t have them all in one place (no storage at my mum’s house while I live there and help care for her!) so while the finite number of fragrances isn’t easily calculated (how handy for displacing my moral turpitude), I know it’s got to be well over 1,000 bottles by now. 

Many of these I’ve been lucky enough to have been sent over the fifteen plus years I’ve been writing about fragrance professionally, but there are also a lot I’ve purchased myself. When I tell people *that* the eyes veritably pop, the disbelief mounts. 

“But… WHY?”

Why do I want *more* perfume? 

Have you met me? Okay maybe you haven’t, or perhaps you’ve only just been introduced, but I bloody love the stuff. It does more than sit on my skin and smell (hopefully) nice, it gets under my skin and infuses my whole being. It changes my mind about existential crises (of which I have many). It makes me a better person.

In actual answer to the question: Mostly, I buy for personal use, and to add to my collection as reference. And I like having a lot of perfumes around, even if I don’t wear them all the time, in the same way I love being surrounded by books. Perhaps I’ll re-read them, but equally likely, perhaps I simply enjoy being in their company, and the fact they are there if I need them.

Why do I buy it when I get sent samples?

Well, sometimes I might have been sent a vial by a PR and, after it’s finished, I decide I cannot live without it. Other times, it might be a very small niche brand, it’s for my personal use, and I want to support them, so don’t want to ask for a bottle. Sometimes, I might not have a contact I know at that house, and I can’t wait to try a new launch so just seek it out for myself and (if I adore it) buy a bottle. Or, if I’m pretty sure I’ll like it, and I’m really excited about a scent - or just in a dangerously wanton ‘what-the-hell’ mood - I take the plunge and blind buy it. Also: I HATE asking for things, even calling in samples for something I’m professionally writing. It makes me want to scuttle away under the skirting board like a woodlouse.

Yes, I’m a professional writer, my career is about researching and reviewing fragrances; but I am always a perfume-lover, first. I still get excited about new launches, or new-to-me discoveries. If I didn’t, I don’t think I’d have any right to be writing about fragrance daily (and now, recording twice a week about it, too!) Nothing worse than a jaded critic (of anything) popping other people’s bubbles of joy because their own have become withered and deflated by decades of carefully constructed cynicism. 

So yes. I will keep on buying fragrance when I can, and in the last few days, I’ve purchased TWO new bottles of perfume! 

Here’s what they were, and why I handed over hard-earned cash for them…