..to wish my boyfriend's mum would ask what perfume I like before buying for me?

[101handbags]

For the second year in a row my boyfriend's mum gave me perfume for Christmas...a different one this year to last but both were expensive. Unfortunately I don't like either of them (and the one this year is particularly bad - I went to the Perfume Shop to test it). Fortunately two of my sister's friends actually use the perfumes so I have found homes for them and they won't go to waste. I know that she means well and I would never ever tell her I dislike them and I went through all the 'oh that's lovely' thing and sent her flowers etc. afterwards... but am I unreasonable to wish she would find out what I like first before buying me perfume? I love perfume and have several favourites which I would gladly receive at Christmas.

yabu

it's so easy to flog perfume on ebay or as you did pass on to friends, ( i take it they gave you some money for it?).

YABU.

Twas a gift.

Not unreasonable to wish but UABU if you ever say anything.

Accept the gift with good grace and a smile (as you did) and accept the nature of gift giving menas you don't always get what you want.

You could drop hints next year?

Scarier scenario here. My MIL gave me perfume for a gift once. Nice enough gift but it's the same one that she wears!!

Is she trying to stepford wife me or did she forget my birthday and have a spare bottle lying around?

Hopefully she forgot!!!

Thanks for your replies... a friend has just told me her MIL got her black shiny bedsheets that would look more at home in a brothel so I think I got off lightly!

Ebay it and buy one you like!

An ex once gave me a perfume that his mum wears! He had asked his dad to buy me one duty free and his dad bought two bottles of the same stuff...

It was awful, old lady stuff (but a massive bottle and v expensive.) No ebay in those days so I charity shopped it. Hopefully an elderly lady was very pleased and the charity made a bit of cash too. Honestly he could have spent half what his dad spent buying me a small bottle of nice perfume.

Ha, sorry but 14yrs later and I still get an expensve perfume every year from MIL but this year I actually got one I liked!

YANBU to want to ask her but really I wouldn't. From bitter experience it never made any difference anyway.

doughnutty my mil does this every year too, she's 64 and I'm 30!!!
every year some little old lady gets a bargin at the charity shop!

My MIL gets my nice pj's every year, one size too small.

It should be really easy to say to her 'I'm a size 14, not a 12' but somehow I can't say it.

It's just a smile and be nice situation really isn't it - people do get hurt if they think they haven't got you a good enough pressie.

I am very fussy about perfume and most of them smell awful to me. My sister bought me some a couple of years ago which I really wasn't keen on but I did say that's lovely, thanks, because I was pleased at the thought- and it came with a little bag I could use for nights out. I think I passed it on to a friend.
YANBU to be exasperated. Perfume is such a personal thing- you wouldn't buy for yourself without smelling it so why do it to other people!

By the way what did she buy you?

Sounds a bit ungrateful really - but then I don't get presents from my (otherwise lovely) MIL

Seems like you should get in there early next year before she scores the hattrick and mention a perfume you really love so she knows what to buy.

Perhaps even declare it as your new "signature scent"! She'd have to be quite contrary to buy you anything else then!

I took one back to Boots last year and swapped it without a receipt. Twas fine.

I hate to complain about gifts because it makes you sound so grasping but for all that, why do people buy perfume without being absolutely certain which scent will suit? So no, YANBU. It'd be driving me potty too.

This Xmas mil bought me perfume, told me how it was a lovely bottle, would look nice on the shelf even I don't like the smell etc etc. It was a Kylie perfume, opened it to admire said bottle .....

it was a big, pink, pearlescent bum.

Oh god I have one of those too. Kylie Sweet Darling, repulsive! The smell is very sweet and cloying. Got it for Christmas last year from my mum. Must Freecycle that...

Im with you OP. I wear very little perfume as I hate my children smelling of perfume and rarely go out to warrant wearing it.
this is the third year I have got the exact same perfume from my mil. This year she bought dh the matching aftershave too.
I am contemplating asking dh to drop hints I have enough (I have 2 years worth unopened) and we do not have the space.
She did ask me to think what I wanted and before I got chance to get back to her she told me she had bought my present (more perfume again!)
Not what I wanted, but it is the thought that counts.

101handbags - could you tell her you have developed a rash from the perfume and drop a hint about your normal perfumes!