Have been away and am now enjoying myself catching up on this very active thread! Loved all the perfume journeys.
My own journey starts with early memories of my mother's dressing table with a bottle of Tweed (nothing like today's version). She rarely used it but I used to help myself sometimes. My aunt's signature scent was Elizabeth Arden's Blue Grass and she would always give me a squirt when visiting. As a teenager in the 60s/70s I had several different perfumes: Le Galion's Sortilege; Jean D'Albret's Ecusson and Casaque, Houbigant's Quelque Fleurs and several of the Yardleys. All of these were mid-range because I couldn't afford anything pricier. Then I worked as a PA to a lovely boss who, when he travelled abroad on business, came back with two bottles, one for his wife and one for me! That sounds a bit dodgy nowadays, but was completely acceptable then. Thus I acquired Chanel No 5, Hermes Caleche and Gres Cabochard. I saved up and bought for myself a very small bottle of Diorissimo, probably more age-appropriate looking back on it.
Then came marriage and babies. I went right off perfume, partly because I was enjoying the natural smells (is there anything nicer than the smell of a baby's head?) but mainly because there was no spare money in the budget at all for quite a few years. I always enjoyed the Yardley's scented soaps that MIL used to buy me for birthdays and Christmas throughout this time.
When more funds were available, over the years I bought more of my beloved Diorissimo and also other "forever keepers" including YSL In Love Again and Annick Goutal's Songes, as well as others which I enjoyed while using them but didn't replace. Later on I discovered Paloma Picasso (asked a lady on a bus what she was wearing, it smelt so good!). During all this time I never investigated the notes. For instance, to me, the Paloma smelt expensively floral and that was it!
My interest in recent years has arisen through reading perfume sites, blogs and forums. I now appreciate how much pleasure there is to be had in exploring notes and layers. I love getting recommendations from enablers! Newly discovered revelations include:
(1) buying samples or decants keeps the cost (and storage problems) down
(2) perfumes can smell different on different skins
(3) perfumes can last anything between one hour and eighteen hours upwards, and this is not cost-related
(4) the descriptions of perfumes as male or female-oriented can often be ignored
(5) there are some wonderful low cost perfumes out there, including dupes
(6) there's more to enjoy about perfume than a variety of florals
(7) people can have entirely different tastes in perfume