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| I was lucky enough to purchase this last year with a gift voucher. It's not as evening-y as it looks, actually very pretty and soft. Image from Fragrantica.com. |
Something I am excited about every single day of the year is smelling good. I like to smell fresh and clean and floral and maybe a little fruity and sweet. Mostly I do it for myself and even if I’m at home for the day and won’t be seeing anyone, I always wear perfume.
Sometimes I change it during the day and try out new layering combinations. I knew Jo Malone layered her perfumes and we are lucky enough to have a Jo Malone store where I live to try out her combinations, but I didn’t think to layer my own, non-Jo Malone fragrances.
Since finding a wonderful perfume website called Fragrantica I’ve discovered a whole group of people who like to smell good as much as I do. I love looking up my favourite perfumes and finding new ones to try. I especially love it that this website offers favourites of others based on what you’re looking at, a bit like Amazon does with books and dvds. My favourite finds are the inexpensive but fabulous (thank you Jessica Simpson), and the low-cost classics from way back (Jovan Musk, I love you).
Of course a day of smelling good doesn’t just start with perfume, it starts in the shower. A prettily scented soap is my favourite, although I don’t mind shower gel on some scratchy gloves for a bit of exfoliation, and I have a selection of beautiful soaps that I am still working my way through.
It’s a never-ending collection, as people who know I love quality soap give me bars for gifts. It’s a good problem to have and I never stop to think that soap could be an insulting present, I just say ‘ooh, goodie!’ and of course ‘thank you’.
After my shower I always put on body lotion. Even though I was at least twice the age of the average customer there, I had such fun at the Bath & Body Works store in Hawaii at Christmas. Everything smelt so wonderful and I ended up with two big bags of body creams and body butters to bring home. And three bottles of fragrance.
Even though I dream of being the perfume minimalist with a single bottle of Chanel on my dresser, I am not. I love to change my aroma day to day and love trying out new ones.
What’s your story? Are you a perfume minimalist or a perfume maximalist like me?