Wah!
August 16th, 2006
I’ve been so busy in the last couple days I haven’t given this blog enough time. If you’re wondering what I’ve been doing, I’ll tell you - I got hit by the organization bug. If you’re wondering what that means, I’ll tell you - it’s when everything in my life must be organized or I’m gonna lose it. I get hit by it every once in a while. Does it ever happen to you? Anyways, so far it’s affected pretty much every area of my life: work, finances, bills, closets, filing, and, of course, perfumes. Just tonight I managed to clean out my entire sample collection by categorizing them into vintage, department store, niche non-baggied, niche baggied, and castaways (that will go into swap packages as extras). That’s not all. I also did an inventory of my bottle collection. I mercilessly selected all the ones I don’t need any more for the very reason alone that I barely ever wear them and don’t feel a nagging need to keep them (something I’ll regret later, most likely, but whatever). I cleared out my bathroom shelf from the bottles that’d been sitting there for months and finally dusted (!) it. I then refurbished the shelf with my new picks for the season - I’d like to say randomly, but not really. There’re quite a few fall scents on there now. Wanna know which ones? Here’s a list: Lancome Mille & Une Roses, Annick Goutal Grand Amour, Idole de Lubin, Hermes Parfum des Merveilles, L’Artisan Safran Troublant, L’Artisan Tea For Two, L’Artisan Dzing!, Kolnisch Juchten, Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose, Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur, Chanel Coco parfum, Hermes Terre D’Hermes (for Mr. Aromascope), Caron Parfum Sacre. Anyways, so what else did I do? I also cleared out the top of my dresser that was a camping spot for numerous decants and samples I’d received in the last couple months. Golly, what’s next? I think I’ve pretty much covered all there is to cover when it comes to perfume organization. Must put on the brakes now before I go too far. So, no review today, again, but I have something cooking that should be ready for tomorrow and Friday. Meanwhile, please share, if you feel compelled, how you organize your perfume bottles/samples/decants?
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Entry Filed under: This and That
28 Comments Add your own
1. Cait | August 17th, 2006 at 12:52 am
I want to have a special cabinet but for now its shoe boxes full of decants and samples and bottles I don’t wear as much in their boxes under the bathroom vanity, then lovely gorgeous bottles in use displayed on the vanity top on mirrored trays. This gets out of control every few weeks and then I change it. I need help, really I do, but instead my thoughts turn to acquiring yet more perfume.
2. Vimal Solanki | August 17th, 2006 at 1:08 am
Ina, most of the names on your list of new acquisitions are absolutely foreign to me - Idole de Lubin, L’Artisan Tea For Two, L’Artisan Dzing!, Kolnisch Juchten, Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose.. are these available internationally? Or are these your private labels?
3. chaya ruchama | August 17th, 2006 at 6:20 am
Ina,dear Ina-
YOU ARE NOT ALONE !!!
I have an old chest-on-chest dresser of my grandfather’s, the top of which is fit to burst with bottles and earring boxes.
There are vintage bottles, concretes, and a cache of bottles of stored up Feminite du Bois [from when they decided to stop US distribution]…unopened boutique SL’s from my last trip to France [ 8 years ago !]…
This hidey-hole is cool, dark, and deep.
The other drawers hold perfumes, funnels, glass eyedroppers,samples- all interspersed with brassieres, yoga wear, socks, and sweaters [I’ve plopped cedar sheets and blocks in there, just in case the moths like my perfumes!]…
THEN, I have ziplocked brown bags fro those dears at C O Bigelow’s, bless them, all over the place, with samples, mail envelopes with samples, samples [at least 8 at a time] tucked into my makep bag, samples on my bookshelves, under my pillow, under the bed.
I THINK that covers it- no, wait-
In my closet, my DH assenbled stackable shelving storage for my lotions and potions, and some have escaped there…
And another shelf, below, houses full-size Guet- Apens, Muguet, 1 oz. Vol de Nuit, Mitsouko, L’Heure Bleue parfum.
I’ve never admitted this before…
What I’m trying to say is this..
WE ARE SICK- but ,damn, we smell good….
BTW, my fall favorites include almost al of yours- I’m adding a poopload of Lutens, Black Aoud, Cabochard,some CdG incenses and 2, other Carons [oh, God, no more….]
Have I told you all lately how grateful I am that you exist?
I feel less foolish, and much relieved.
The rest of my life [both by choice, and by divine intervention] is SO intense that this perfume obsession is about the only “superficial” or “frivolous”outlet I’ve got, if you don’t include kissing babies, old men, and any animals I can find…
WHEW !
Loving thoughts, kisses, and wishes for a spectacular day to you, Ina-la-Belle, and everyone !
4. chaya ruchama | August 17th, 2006 at 6:26 am
My DH has just called me out- BTW, he makes better coffee than Starbucks could ever dream of…and that’s what helps fuel my rant this am…
He wishes to add lipstick to my “mea culpa” list…
Personally, I feel that a woman ought to smell amazing AND have lips, so as not to frighten the children and horses…
5. Elle | August 17th, 2006 at 6:49 am
I’ve been bitten by that organizing bug as well. Most of my full bottles are in tons of boxes (from moving) inside a large walk in closet due to a desire to not have to explain my collection (obsession?) to random in-laws (who, being obnoxiously nosy, have found out about it, but at least don’t have to be confronted w/ the visual evidence on their visits). My samples are out of control, though. Completely. I went online and found a clear vinyl 24 pocket hanging shoe bag and have decided to get a couple of these in which to organize my samples by house, notes, newness, etc. Next I have to work on bills and confront the price of my love/obsession.
6. Marina | August 17th, 2006 at 7:26 am
There must be something in the air…Because I’ve been eyeing my perfume cabinet with increasing desire to reorganize…I am scared to even start. Could you please fly here and do it for me?
BTW, love your perfume selection!
7. greeneyes | August 17th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Oh Ina, I’ve been hit by that same bug in the last few weeks! Truly I feel I must rid my life of all unnecessary clutter or I will lose it!
The perfume samples get organized tonight. I don’t have an overwhelming collection because I just started sampling in May, but already it’s starting to get a bit unwieldy…they are just in whatever storage container I had handy, so now I have about four or five containers overflowing…I used to have them organized basically by date and where I got them (or at least, that was just how I knew what was in which box), but now they are scattered everywhere. I’ve got vials all over the house…in my purse, at the office, in the powder room downstairs.
But I don’t have a problem. I control my perfume. My perfume does not control me. Ahem.
8. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Cait, I’ve used plastic storage boxes (still do, for some perfume items). It gets overwhelming the more stuff you acquire!
9. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 9:08 am
Vimal, these are mostly all niche perfumes, not what you can buy in department stores. If you’d like to learn more about them, I highly recommend ordering samples from the sites that carry these lines (I have a list on my New To Perfume page).
10. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Chaya, thanks for a good laugh! I really needed it today.
Wow, you went to Paris 8 yeras ago and got Serge Lutens? I had no idea Serge Lutens existed 8 years ago. I want to come to your house and do the organization/sniffing fest! 
11. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 9:12 am
Elle, that shoe bag idea is brilliant! If I had more closet space, I’d do it myself. Meanwhile, I have to reconcile with my dresser and a bathroom shelf.
12. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 9:13 am
Marina, I’d LOVE to come!
13. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 9:14 am
Greeneyes, ahem indeed!
That’s what I like to think, too. Hence, the need to organize. LOL!
14. Teri | August 17th, 2006 at 11:54 am
What, me organize?? lol
I like your list of fall favorites so much, Ina, that I believe I’ll just stay at your house for the season!
Excellent choices, all of them.
15. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 11:57 am
Teri, I can make you a comfy spot in the bathtub right next to the shelf.
16. violetnoir | August 17th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Yep, I can relate, Ina.
I just cleaned out my perfume closet at the end of May. I had stuff in there that I had not worn in ages!
It felt good! Of course, I have added new fragrances since then, but I guess that’s expected.
Hugs!
17. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Robin, that’s the thing: you get rid of stuff to make room for new stuff.
I do it all the time!
18. Andrea | August 17th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
… says cheerfully… *oh that’s lovely that so many have come to our first meeting… yeah, please take a seat, I arranged the chairs in an oval… oh sure, you can pick the name badges by yourself and thanks Wilma for the nice cookies you,ve made… the first thing i always say on our first meeting is YOU ARE NOT ALONE - DON’T FEEL GUILTY! IT IS OK! Please repeat…*
Oh holy cow… I better stop this, this is silly! I do sound like a… like a what? Like the AA’s? Or Weight Watchers? Or a strange sect?
Like Greeneyes said: everything in control! :-))
Maybe everyone gets nearing September in the “get-steady-get-ready”-mode? I dunno, it,s only a guess?
And Raya, book shelves are a very good choice for perfume samples! I mean… what would you place close to an Irving or Nietzsche or Tolstoy? Or whatever… well… have to give this a second thought. One book shelf in my flat is donated to perfume books (of course!) and decoratively sprinkled samples… Please no comments on that!
And to all of you ladies: good choices and marvellous collections!
Yours,
Andrea
(to some known with the nick “Urania-who-waits-patiently-for-Dzongkha”)
19. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Andrea, I *love* the idea of decoratively sprinkled samples around books! Totally cool. I’m with you on Dzongkha.
Thanks for such a hilarious comment!
20. March | August 17th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
1) I want to come to Chaya’s house with you to arrange her perfumes.
2) I think that hanging jewelry organizer sounds like a GREAT idea!
3) Mine are profoundly disorganized, so no tips from me. They take two shelves and several drawers of a four-foot-tall wooden jewelry dresser in my closet. They are also all over the house. I think eventually Hecate and Buckethead will do something like spray Chypre Rouge everywhere and that’ll cure me of my sloppiness.
21. Tom | August 17th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
I had to organise my scents this week. They were stuck rather willy-nilly on a shelf in a cupboard in my hall. I felt that I was tempting fate and the god of LA earthquakes. They are not packed neatly and tightly in thier boxes, safely in the dark. It’ll take a 7.0 at least to get to them (and I still shudder at the thought…drop the house on me, but not my Serge Lutens!)
22. chaya ruchama | August 17th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Welcome to Stinkers Anonymous, mes amis !
Tom - I, too, fear that something evil will befall my stashes.
And, joking aside, I would happily welcome visitors to the Irish Riviera ,where I reside…
It would give me the opportunity to cook/bake for you, and enjoy your company in real time.
My DH, bless his tolerant soul, has just offered a war cry for us all-
“People, come to your scentses !”
[We call him B, because Bernhard is a mouthful…]
Gots to love that guy-
23. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
March, I second your sentiments.
24. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
Tom, yikes! That’ll motivate you for sure. I hope your Serge Lutens stays intact!
25. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Chaya, how did your perfume hobby start? You got me curious there with your Paris trip 8 years ago for Serge Lutens.
I’d so like to come visit you. 
What a cool DH you have, too!
26. chaya ruchama | August 17th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
Ina, like most, I suppose, I fell in love with perfume since I could talk.
My mother’s bureau held Sortilege, Arpege, Scandal, Jet de Corday,Shalimar… I got into it whenever I could [which is interesting, because I wasn’t an overtly girly type].
My visual acuity was poor, so I developed perfect pitch and excellent taste/smell to compensate.
I was in the habit of reading one periodical/ month/ each in French, German, and Italian in order not to lose facility- and that’s where I learned about SL’s [then] relatively new boutique behind the Louvre…
I think it’s a hoot that everyone refers to their’ Holy Grail’, because we made a photo album of our trip, and the caption I printed under the Rue de Valois photos says” the Holy Grail of Perfumery” !
27. Ina | August 17th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Chaya, how fascinating! You mother had some real gems… I’m yet to visit the Holy Grail of Perfumery. Hopefully, this fall.
28. Andrea | August 18th, 2006 at 6:10 am
… walks away in shame ‘cos she named “chaya ruchama” just Raya… Do you get blind from too much perfumes ‘fumes? It,s the alcolhol, right?
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