this week's been rough

or

last week was

this week i am determined to make good

I am here for you b

which perfume which perfume

i treated myself to a bunch of black phoenix alchemy lab samples

so every day i'm trying a handful out

I've still never smelled a single whiff of their stuff. Did you try Snake Oil yet? People seem to like that one.

I did, and it's....... okay? I think my issues with Snake Oil stem from me not caring for two of the main notes in it, which seem to be almonds and patchouli.

I can see how people would be into it, though.

Their stuff is very hit and miss with me, but the ones that are hits are good enough that I'm not discouraged

But I have gotten some samples from them that have been teeeerrible

My favorite one is a limited edition i impulse bought that has roses and dead leaves

I understand that a big problem is that they spread themselves so thin with theming and ideas

that a lot of their lesser-known scents have almost no staying power.

I mean, catalog scents, but there are supposedly a lot that are nice but just kind of "blink and you miss them."

yeah, they definitely spend as much time marketing as they do actually making scents.

he staying power thing is more of a general gamble you're going to get with perfume oils in general, unfortunately. my biggest complaint about the massive catalogue is that it just becomes so messy

and so hard to find what you like

*the staying

and there are a lot of scents that work better as ideas than real perfumes

i just play it really safe when i'm ordering anything, and try not to let myself order cool ideas instead of wearable perfume

Yeah, that was exactly why I've never ordered from them. That, and there was a while years ago (like 2006ish) when the fanbase was soooo defensive

that you could not just tell them what you like and ask for similar things.

Yikes.

Super defensive about the catalogue layout, too, iirc.

It seems like they're better now, but admittedly i've only used the forum for signing up for sample splits of limited edition bottles so I'm not dumping $25 on something I've never sniffed

the fanbase is still intense though

people collect bottles like they're pokemon

NOW I LOVE MY PERFUMES and i own... a lot more than i care to admit, whether they're BPAL or not

but there comes a point where you own so many you can't possibly appreciate them all, as accessories or artwork

haha yeah, i haven't bought any perfume in a while but I've always been a bit of a collector.

I dumped something earlier this year and I really regretted it.

Well, I regretted it because my bedroom smelled like it for three days after I dumped it down the bathroom sink

but I also regretted it because it turned out I really liked the thing I dumped. and it was right after I was reading Luca Turin's A-Z guide, too, so I could recognize the notes.

As they floated out of my drain.

The whole "I should get rid of all my old bottles" plan died there.

i ordered from them around 2006 and i knew nothing about perfume and basically just chose the ones with the cutest names, but i've had a better experience by choosing ones that have a few notes i love

and not straying

I think I would do well with amber/patchouli, and I also generally like incense notes.

YEAH i have a bunch of bottles i've fallen out of love with but

My favorite current perfume is still Midnight Poison, which flopped so badly you can't buy it in the US anymore.

i've just put them in a wooden box and decided i'll forget about them for a year and then see how i feel

it's basically amber/patchouli/mandarin/rose.

ooh that sounds gorgeous

I keep meaning to hunt down something similar.

i love rose, resins, spices and woods

and also keep meaning to order sample sizes of Mitsouko and some of the other Guerlains.

sadly patchouli just doesn't gel with me even though it logically should

Have you ever tried Aromatics Elixir?

my mom used to wear it. it's crazy strong but really interesting. clinique makes it. it has cult popularity.

It used to have so much sillage that when she bought it, she was told not to apply it to her skin, but to spray it in the air and walk through it quickly.

Ooh, I haven't, but it sounds awesome. i love all the things in it they list.

i'll look for it next time i'm in sephora's neighborhood