Perfume Angst

While trying to fall asleep last night, feeling guilty because I didn't have a post ready for this morning, I started thinking about perfume. Perfume, Fragrance, Scents, however you refer to it, is a passion of mine. But my knowledge is akin to the person enjoying the silhouettes projected on the wall in Plato's Allegory of the Cave. I like what I like and I don't question much about why I like it. There are expert reviewers in the blog-o-sphere that have broken free of the cave and seen the light. They can articulately tell you the difference between a peony from a rose, describe a musk and aldehyde, identify top bottom and middle notes and explain the dry down.

Me?
I just like what smells good. My previous lame attempts to describe perfume here, have been my biggest shame. As much as I would like to explain what it is exactly about Serge Lutens Nuit de Cellophane that makes me love it so, I can't. I lack the vocabulary, the "nose" if you will, to describe scents. Some bloggers out there that can weave an entire story out of amber, and leather and blonde woods. They are my idols as far as fragrance description goes.

Annie over at Blogdorf Goodman, is an artist at describing scents that make me have unnatural desires for bottles of perfume that cost well over a day's wages.
Gaia over at The Non-Blonde, weaves tales of fragrance so well that I can almost smell the perfume as I read her posts.
Let's not forget to mention the collective brain trust at Now Smell This blog with Robin, Angela, Erin Jessica, to name a few. I consider them foremost authorities on perfumes.
The equally talented Perfume Posse, consisting of Patty, March & Lee, a power trio of the olfactory sense, bring their reviews of fragrance to life with their expert knowledge of the subject.
And these are not the only perfume blogs out there. There are tons I just don't have the energy to write about, or the knowledge of them.
Do you have some favorites?

After reading all these blogs, one would think that I could muster up enough brainpower to write about more perfumes. But alas, it's a mental block. I'm not sure if it's my lack of vocabulary, my inexperienced nose, my anosima to musk (Seriously I can't smell musk at all...put a bottle of pure musk perfume to my nose and I smell nothing.) or if it is my own insecurity that prevents me from writing reviews. Either way at least I have resources elsewhere on the web to read about fragrances, perfumes, scents, what have you.

I don't consider myself a scent snob. I don't look down on people that only wear the sickly sweet Pink Sugar or
Calyx perfume, nor do I think any less of people that love the heady and almost suffocating Serge Lutens Chergui
or Estee Lauder Youth Dew.
However I might judge you a little bit if you overdose of pure patchouli oil...but that's a personal bias. I am in therapy to work through it. You understand don't you?

While those scents aren't for me, they make other people happy. That's the important part right? I'm sure my constant rose scented perfume obsession is not shared by many. We like what we like. If a scent makes you happy then that's the only reason you need to wear it. I won't think any less of you if you wear Evening In Paris or
Brittney Spears Curious....nor should you think any less of anyone else that wears those scents. And while I described Pink Sugar and Calyx as Sickly Sweet...that's only my perception of the scent. To you, Pink Sugar may be your ideal scent.

What is your ideal scent?

For me it has to be flowery, light and must have rose, peony or lilly notes to it. Not powdery and must be crisp.

Now that you have your favorite scent what is the application? Ah ha! That is the age old question. How does one wear perfume? Are there a lot of rules to wearing perfume? Should there be no rules?
when I was little my mother would apply Halston by spraying on her neck and her wrists and rubbing them together.

The Infamous picture of Marilyn Monroe dabbing Chanel number 5 in the hollow of her neck and decolletage is burned into my brain as the"right" way to apply perfume.

I have a friend that sprays the air and walks though the mist, which I personally find to be waste of perfume.

And others that apply the perfume to "pulse points" and allows the perfume to dry naturally.

So go as far as applying the fragrance to a cotton ball and applying it to their wrists and behind their ears and then tucking the cotton in their bra.

How do you apply perfume?
Personally. I probably wear too much at one time. I like to spray my neck, my wrists and sometimes between my breasts. If I have perfume without an atomizer I like to dab some behind my ears, my neck and my wrists. But I also like to carry a tiny sample with me to refresh the scent during the day. This is mostly because the fragrances I choose ted to fade quickly because they are so light and also because I like to smell the scent all day long.