Where are the perfume lovers gone???

[wiltingfast]

Remember our chats??

Our SOTD (scent of the day)?

Is there a thread I've missed

If not, lets take it up here :)

SOTD an unknown sample from my perfume drawer, woodsy and irisy, am baffled but enjoying it!

And Bois de Jasmin on Haute Parfumerie.

Frugal, can I ask why you rate the Place Vendome so much?

It just seems very ordinary, but then I do live in a place where perfume is a way of life, Amouage is made round the corner from my house, and all of the brands found on the website you mentioned are easily available. I think Im asking is there more to the shop than the website makes you think?

Frugal - did you know they make Huile Prodigieux as an EdT now? M&S have it. Gorgeous.

Frugalo, I just followed the link from your last post, its very different to the one I found when I googled Place Vendome after reading a previous posts and I can see the attraction.

Actually, Im confused, the last link was to a blog.

Sorry

Weebirdie, you are lucky. I live close to quite a few really good perfume boutiques: my neighborhood profumeria is a niche heaven and Chanel, Dior, Hermes boutiques are a short walk away, and there are quite a few local perfume houses. But I like Guerlain boutique perfumes and they are really hard to source in Italy. I also love sampling at home undisturbed and uninterrupted - no shop experience is ever the same. So I get the rare stuff from Steven, and he includes lots and lots of extremely thoughtful treats. Perfumes I might not find on my own. So buying from him is a treat. You may not need him, but lots of other people who do not live in a perfume heaven might

I have a few other favorite stores - Campomarzio in Via Vittoria in Rome. That's where I see emerging brands, they arrange really cool cocktail parties and invite niche perfumers to meet their clients. I also quite like Olfattorio, a perfume bar on Via Ripetta - you sniff perfumes from stemmed glasses. Alla Violetta Boutique in Naples is perhaps my favorite online shop. And I also really like the owner of my local profumeria. All these people know a lot and are passionate about perfume, I always learn something when I listen to them. And I love Surrender to Chance and Luckyscent, though ordering from the US is a hassle. Finally, Gerald is the best Crystal Flaconer ever.

Ladies, share your favorite perfume people and shops!

Sorry Weebirdie, we are cross posting. Hope my post was not overkill

Cointreau I like HP EDT as well - a potential summer treat...

Frugal: As for favourite perfume shop.. for me ebay

Frugal, your post was really nice and and not just because I'll be in Rome and Naples in May

I still haven't worked out the Place Vendome. I found it on google but all I can see is that it sells Perfume from about 6 Perfume Houses and that can't be correct according to what you are saying.

Les Senteurs for me, ever since they opened. Although DH bought me a session with Roja Dove in his gorgeous scented haven in Harrods after I'd had DD1 and was feeling fat and frumpy. That was rather wonderful. Sadly he suggested Miss Dior for me just as Dior ruined it.

I just had a look at Roja Dove and there is a store near me and Im going to go and have a sniff.

Wee Campomarzio would be your first stop. They have several shops, the one near Pantheon is run-of-the-mill and not worth your time; the one off Corso is nice and geared toward slick commercial lines (Tom Ford Private Blends and cool stuff like Aedes de Venustas) but the Via Vittoria one is ultra special. Olfattorio is a few steps away and fun as you can rest your feet there and there is Profumum Roma (they have the Malle line too) next door. If you like the heavy handed Italian style in perfume, Santa Maria Novella has a shop in Rome off Piazza Navona and nearly every profumeria carries Villoresis. You can find local talent like Maria Candida Gentile insome profumerie. And there is a shop on via del Babuino that has Byredo etc. Trastevere is ultra touristy these days but there is charming perfumery on the main drag: it's organized like an old library and lovely for a quick browse.

If someone uses Haute Parfumerie, let me know what you think. I won't say more, these are not affiliate links

Toys eBay is great, some of my best finds are from there, particularly eBay.de and eBay.it (discontinued gems).

I like some of Roja's perfumes, should find my vial of puredistance M.

I got new eyeglasses yesterday, Jenna Lyons style strong geeky girl frames, and realized that I have to rethink my makeup. So today is all about clean cat eyes, red lipstick and milky white skin. High maintenance, high drama, so SOTD is Tauer's Miriam.

Sorry about shocking typing...

SirVix what a treat!!! Your DH sounds fantastic too

Thanks, Toomuchtea!

Got your parcel, niminy! Thanks for the extras!!! Enjoying wearing Ambre Nue. Smells like cola sweets.. very similar to Lush Icon. Hope you all get my packets soon..

Just got your parcel, and looking forward to wearing Shem-el-Nessim. But I'm going to wait until I haven't got a cold.

SOTD is Samsara which gets through any level of blocked-up nose

If you like the Nuxe perfume, they have some flash sales on their site: uk.nuxe.com/sets-and-gifts-en-883/perfume-prodigieux-set-saving-4.0-free-candle-a-prodigious-gift
£10 off if spending £35 and free shipping over £25 - not just on the perfume.

I bought some of their products before Christmas and during the sale, and the service was very good.

The Nuxe perfume reminds me of Guerlain Eau Sous Le Vent and Terracotta and Aqua Allegoria Lys Soleia. It's very nice and summery.

SOTD: Hermes Hermessence Vetiver Tonka. It's masculine and sweet and makes my mouth water for some reason.

Reading this thread is such an inspiration. Thanks especially to FrugalFashionista for the advice. I think I might book a session at Roja Dove, it sounds perfect!

Frugal: I bought a couple of discontinued things from ebay.de. There seems to be a bigger selection of the continental brands on there.

If I were to go to Italy any time soon, I think I would like to visit Hilde Soliani's shop. I have liked all the perfumes from her I have tried so far, and I think the asthetic is cool. When I become rich among the first perfumes I buy will be Ciocorosissimo and Fragola Salaataa (not sure if I got the right number of A's there! )..

aesthetic!

Toys skint postgrad: been there... My theory is that continentals hoard more stuff in their attic. I went to Portugal on a work trip a couple of years ago and came across a perfume shop that was full of 1990s flankers in faded boxes - perfumes I had never heard of but that had a clear and credible lineage (Red Door III, Habit Rouge Sport). Eerie and sad.

Carpaccio thanks so much for the tip - I'll check that out.

Username my pleasure - enjoy responsibly

Niminy I love Shem. Didn't Roja help out with that one too? I've met some of the Grossmith people on perfume fairs, buying from them is a good deed as they are really lovely people.

London actually sounds like a perfume heaven to me... Italy is not too bad either, people here love great perfumes and I smell exquisite things on the street every day. A great chypre fleurie on someone on my street today! I'd often love to ask people what they are wearing.

Frugal: That reminds me of the famous Spanish (or Portuguese) Adidas shop with decades full of hoarded stock including classics and special editions (the owner is picky about who he sells to).

It was a great present. Roja was fab. He gave me two different strips to sniff in a process of elimination, each time I had to choose one, and reject the other, but without knowing their names. He would give me one new one for the rejected one, so I was sometimes hanging on to one for a while. Some I knew, lots were unknown, and some i recognised but couldn't remember what they were. In the end I was left with a pre-reformulation pure perfume of Miss Dior, but I wasn't totally in love with it, and as the new one had started coming in anyway and the new one isn't great, I didn't stick with it. Mostly i wear Ormond Woman now, but there are others I like and wear, I am still searching for a scent to get obsessed by...I feel there must be something out there. So a quest for you experts-
I've loved and worn -Diorella, Christalle, Eau D'Hadrien , Diorissimo, Chanel no 5, Chanel no 19, (Brief flirtation with White Linen, Paris, and with 24 Foubourg), Mitsouko, L'Heure Bleu, Molinard de Molinard, Habanita, Narcisse Noir, Nuit de Noel, old school L'air du Temps, L'eau D'Hiver, Mimosa pour Moi, that figgy one from Diptique whose name has gone out of my head- Philosykos? I like Annick Goutal's Eau de ciel and nuit etoilee, but haven't worn them. I rather liked old Ivoire by Balmain. I like Cuir de Russie (the Chanel one). Wear Ormonde Woman.
I HATE Rive Gauche, Madame Rochas, and LouLou to the point of extreme nausea .Never like anything by Creed. Tend to like all old (pre 1980) Dior and Chanel, most old Guerlain but not the newer ones which remind me of Mr Sheen. Like many of the old Caron scents. Don't like many contemporary things at all in fact, find them all a bit brash and not complex enough. Why? Going by that list, what are the common threads and what else might I love?