I've rarely worn the same perfume more than two days in a row even before I started blogging. My collection was (much MUCH) smaller, so the rotation was more reasonable and even when sampling and trying on new stuff with fervor, I'd soon return to my regular loved ones and all was well with the world. Of course, I always believed in matching my perfume for every mood and treated scent as one of my accessories, like shoes, handbags and lipstick. Red is and has always been my favorite color, but I don't wear it every day. The same goes for Shalimar or L'Air du Desert Marocain. Some days were made gray cashmere. Some occasions call for Chanel No. 5.
I post four to five perfume reviews every week, which means I spend a lot of my time and skin space on the fragrances I'm testing. Some of them, regardless of my appreciation and enjoyment, don't fit. I don't mind putting on a scented costume here and there. It's fun to wear 31 Rue Cambon (Chanel) and play an Upper East Side blonde. But eventually it gets exhausting, and on days I'm testing new department store offering it's often depressing, because whoever wears Marc Jacobs Whatever, I don't even want to be that person (apologies to MJ fans). Usually sticking my nose into an Uncle Serge bell jar instantly recalibrate it and restores world order. But even within my own collection some perfumes are more the real "me" than others, and they are the ones that when I wear them it smells like coming home and finding myself again. It doesn't necessarily mean they are my all-time top loves, though they may be- I've given up on rating my personal wardrobe. I love them all and they fit me in one way or another. But some perfumes smell like me more than others and these are the ones I'm listing here, in no particular order:
1. Tauer almost anything. There's something about Andy Tauer's work that fits me like a bespoke perfume. It feels like they're made of my personal memories and use bits and pieces from my dreams.
2. CB I Hate Perfumes- Revelation. I love figs, I love fig trees and it's not a rational thing. I just do. This is a fig perfume in 3D, full of connotations, references and personal associations.
3. Shalimar. Why, of course. Also, Shalimar Light.
4. Robert Piguet- Bandit. I have a friend who defines herself as "a good girl who does bad things". Oddly (or not) she's a Chanel No. 5 person through and through, while I, the suburban wife, wear Bandit. Go figure.
5. Serge Lutens- MKK and Miel de Bois. Actually, wearing almost anything Serge feels natural and easy for me. But these two infamous stinkers are as cuddly as my cats.
6. JAR- Ferme tes Yeux. Apparently, deep down I'm an expensive mix of rotting tuberose and civet. Who knew?
What are the perfumes that make you feel most like your true self?
Photo of model Carol McCallson by William Claxton, 1955
