Some of my thoughts for the freshly anointed (a.k.a budding perfumistas)

There's been a lot of posts written about advice for budding perfumistas, so this is not advice, these are the things I learned in the process of becoming one. :)

1. Once you start calling yourself a perfumista (perfume lover, perfume geek, however you want to call yourself), IT'S FOR LIFE. There is just no way you are going to go back to that time in the past when your nose could distinguish only the most common things. And dismiss them in the next instant.

2. However do you start, ordering an army of samples and getting lost in their perfumed sillage or taking time with one by one, it will still take a couple of years of constant smelling for your nose to learn enough so you can finally smell and name the nuances.

Take your time, the journey is lovely and fragrant.

3. After learning this works for me, I actually read it on one of the perfume blogs as proven fact. Nowadays, when I smell anything, I breathe in several quick breaths instead of one long one. Pretty much like a dog sniffing out something. :) Works much better.

4. Once the fragrant world opens its doors and lets you in, you will be joyfully smelling everything in your path as you probably won't be familiar with the smell of so many things you live surrounded with. And you will start cataloguing them in your mind.

5. Your sense of smell will improve and you'll be able to detect whiffs of things people around you won't be able to smell.

6. Don't got for naturals if you haven't had previous experience with essential oils and are unfamiliar with the way they smell. Naturals are a perfume category for itself.

7. Pretty much the same goes for vintage. It takes time to understand and like perfumes from days past. But you will. :)

8. The perfume community is full of the most lovely people you are ever going to virtually meet (and some of them you might actually meet in real life). Finding beauty in such an ethereal thing like perfume is not something many people actually appreciate and my thoughts run in the vein of perfume people being positive and optimistic to find and actively search for beauty in those little wispy whiffs.

9. Frustration with mainstream will abound. But sometimes, a gem will be found among those shelves of synthetic fruity-florals (or whatever the current vogue).

10. At one point, you will be sure samples procreate and have children of their own. Beacuse they will take over every free space you have (and those that aren't free, too).

11. Don't worry if at one point you lose all enthusiasm for smelling and you feel you'll never get it back. It happens. It also never lasts long. :)

12. Thanks to Undina who reminded me - NEVER SAY NEVER. :) You might think you don't like a perfume family or a single note, but it's just a question of discovering the right perfume that will open the door into the previously forbidden smelly teritorry (you just wait and see). :)


P.S. I plan on updating the list when something new occurs to me.