Just curious here. I lined up all mine today, and there were 36. All of the Mitsoukos, for example, whether they be EDT, parfum, vintage, shaken or stirred counted as 1. I did not count samples, whether solicited or unsolicited. If I had decants, I would count them.

I've been here at POL for only a month or two, but I've enjoyed perfume in an active sort of way for 20 years. The last 6 months have been especially active, just ask my Mastercard.

(I don't mean this to be a contest of any sort - I hope no one takes it that way. I'm just curious.)

If I were around my collection I could give a more accurate number, but right now I'm at roughly twenty bottles not counting samples. I've been interested in perfumes for most of my life, probably between twenty and twenty five years and I'm in my early thirties. As with you, Isabella, my collection has done a lot of expanding in the last six months or so.

I haven't kept track of how long I've been on POL or how many bottles I have. I'll never tell!

I date my active perfumista status to 2001 when I innocently posted on the original LLP Chat looking for Oleg Cassini for Women (the Jovan fragrance, not "Cassini"). Since then I've learned an awful lot about fragrance and managed to accumulate 368 different scents (bottles and decants...count 'um in my Basenotes wardrobe!) I have to restrain myself now to prevent that number from getting bigger.

Well, that depends... Does life begins at conception or at birth? ;-p

Since I was about 7 years old and my mother sold Avon. Starting at around 9, I spent my babysitting money on perfume.

I have more than 50 but less than 100 full bottles and a drawer full of decants and samples.

Hi, my name is Altodiva and I am a Perfumista. ("Hi, Alto. You're special.")

I've always been fragrance preoccupied, but serious interest in perfume began about 15 years ago. I realized around that time that I would never willingly go scentless. It's been all downhill since then. I've been on POL.....hmmmm...about 4 years? 5 by now? I've lost count.

My collection remains unnumbered, but is very definitely over 200 bottles. I also have a freakish number of duplicates of favorites in reserve.

How funny you should ask this- my daughter counted my full size bottles last night out of curiosity- I have 129 full bottles - this does not include minis, decants and samples. I have always loved makeup and perfume since the time I was a young teen. As I grew older , I usually had 4 or 5 fragrances on my dresser. Since discovering POL about 5 years ago, I have become seriously addicted. I am sure I will never use all of what I have but contiually can not resist new temptations.

Smelling fragrances was always part of my makeup but I made my first commercial perfume purchase at the age of eight, with the help of my dad, and haven't looked back since. (It was a gift of Helena Rubinstein's Heaven Sent for my mom, which I chose myself after smelling a number of scents.) I've never attempted to count the supply, but it contains about 15 bottles of Les Nuits d'Hadrien alone, so we could extrapolate from there.

I have loved perfume ever since I can remember. I got many little bottles of Radio Girl, Evening in Paris and Ben Hur at the 5 and dime when I was a kid. Into my mother's Chanel no. 5 when her back was turned.

I counted bottles last over a year ago and had 97. I have added to that since then. I don't think I want to know for sure. At times I feel guilty and silly for having so many scents.

Even as a child, I was always interested in perfume (and anything beaty-related). In my teens I still believed in finding a holy grail, but at 20 or 21 I started collecting and haven't stopped since, which putsat 16 or 17 years as an active perfumista.

A month or so ago, prompted by a post on Now Smell This, I thought I counted all my bottles and ended up at 40-something. Then I discovered I had another stash at a bottom drawer. And a few days later another bunch hidden in one of the closets and three more bottles in a desk drawer (why??? when did I get these?), and several full minis in a jewelry box...

I sold and gave away about 20 in the last month, but it didn't put a dent in my collection, and since then I bought more than I care to admit. I'm not even going to think of decants and samples that seem to multiply when I'm not looking. My only saving grace is still having way way way more books (a couple thousands) and CDs (around 500, give or take a dozen) than perfume bottles.

Just went and counted -- I have 26 full bottles and a shoebox about half-full of samples. This is much more than I would have guessed. I've been interested in perfume since my late teens/early twenties, but was on a twenty-year hiatus from all perfumes because my husband reacts badly to most. I've been slowly acclimating him and easing back into perfumes for about three years now approx., since joining POL.

My first time was back when I was a little girl and was gifted with little bottles of lily of the valley or lavender and then when I was around 12 or 14 I bought myself some Tweed.

This was an early age to begin on chypres and it could be the reason why they speak to me so well now. By then I was beginning to experiment and it wasn’t long before I realised that I was not like other people, I was not normal really and I began to use it every day and to wander around with my wrist to my nose.
This went on for many years during the sixties and onwards into my married life when we lived in other countries and cities and where I had the chance to try whatever I liked at any time.

Soon enough my three daughters began showing signs of a similar trait and I fearfully realised that it was more than heredity and was my own behaviour which brought this affliction out in them, just like their Mother.

At last though, almost 12 months ago I joined POL and soon felt so happy to come out properly.

I have embraced it and continually flaunt it and in fact I religiously endeavour to bring normals into the habit. Not a day goes by now where I do not read about perfume or when I do not speak about it at least three times – now not silently to myself – but to anyone who listens ,,,, or doesn’t.

My strangeness, my obsessive habit of smelling and scenting, is now my gift and the only thing that holds me back is the size of my bank balance.

Been fascinated by perfume since I was about 5 or 6, when I began experimenting with mixing some perfume oils that my father bought for my mother (she never really took to them.) Discovered aromatherapy about 14 years ago. Found POL when it was still LLP- some 6/7 years ago.

Do have some duplicates of favorites that are discontinued. As far as different fragrances, it seems I keep them under a roaring 100 (not purposefully, it just seems to happen that way) usually in the 80's or 90's. At present it's about 91 I think.

I enjoy keeping track of what I'm wearing daily. I tend to wear things seasonally and usually have a little over 1/2 my collection in rotation at any given time. If I find I'm not wearing something much anymore I'll pass it on.

Perfume is just so much fun for me- it's like total "play time." A grown-up sandbox for me. I can't bring myself to feel guilty over any of it. I especially love when I can get someone to play with me. I feel fortunate to have a couple, live perfume friends.

I've owned perfume since I was 13, but I'm going through a 'perfume renaissance' right now. Having not bought any scent since 2003, I am making up for lost time by bringing up my collection from 0 to 19 in just 2 months. It's the most number of bottles I have ever had at any one time - the most I've had in the past was maybe 5 or 6.

So to answer the question: not long, not long at all! :)

My nose has always been sensitive to smelling anything in a room. I went around smelling leather, money, flowers, people - I had a natural curiosity about the magnificence of the sense of smell as long as I have been alive.

Re perfume? As soon as I could toddle and manage to reach the perfume on my Grandmother's vanity unit, she who wore Jicky, Nohiba, 4711, Apple Blossom.

My perfume interests started around the age of 7, I believe. I convinced an older friend that we should make our own perfume from rose petals one day....and in the manner of PERFUME the movie, we picked the deepest, reddest roses from my grandmothers garden (for which I was invariably punished 2 days later - prize rose bushes stripped bare from their blooms....) and simmered the petals in water. We then sealed the sorry concoction in glass jars and 'put them away' in a dark place. Of course I forgot about them until mother found them weeks later - jars of festering organic matter under the bed.
To say the least my days as an amateur child perfumier ended there...
That Christmas I recieved Hartnell 'In love', a teeny tiny bottle - this was my first real scent. I still have it, as well as a chemistry set - with which I created all manner of unstable concoctions using iron filings, potassium permanganate (for its purple colour) and copper sulphate crystals (for its blue colour). This kept me happy untill I started 'real' chemistry in school.

Have never looked back since and STILL have the strong urge to make my own perfume.....
MB


My perfume interests started around the age of 7, I believe. I convinced an older friend that we should make our own perfume from rose petals one day....and in the manner of PERFUME the movie, we picked the deepest, reddest roses from my grandmothers garden (for which I was invariably punished 2 days later - prize rose bushes stripped bare from their blooms....) and simmered the petals in water. We then sealed the sorry concoction in glass jars and 'put them away' in a dark place. Of course I forgot about them until mother found them weeks later - jars of festering organic matter under the bed.
To say the least my days as an amateur child perfumier ended there...
That Christmas I recieved Hartnell 'In love', a teeny tiny bottle - this was my first real scent. I still have it, as well as a chemistry set - with which I created all manner of unstable concoctions using iron filings, potassium permanganate (for its purple colour) and copper sulphate crystals (for its blue colour). This kept me happy untill I started 'real' chemistry in school.

Have never looked back since and STILL have the strong urge to make my own perfume.....
MB

I now have around 40 bottles of perfume, a large proportion of which is vintage.

I don't think I can locate them all.
I THINK I have as many bottles as musical scores, which is terrifying.
[Alto will know what I mean, I think !]
And close to books-
Bear in mind, Meisters have floor -to-ceiling books.
[Gaia, I feel your pain]
Over 40 years of collecting, and I love them all...

A beloved friend asked me recently, the old question :
"Which is your favorite ?'
To which I naturally replied, in shocked tones-
"THAT'S like asking me which of my children I love best !"

Oh, girrrrrrrrrllll........... We're normal. Really. Other people who don't have hundreds of bottles of perfume, over 700 CD's, and so much music that it needs its own room are the abnormal ones. Truly. ;-)

I've always had an affinity with scent, but only became a practicing perfumista about three years ago. I was inducted into the realm of the olfactory by Makeupalley. Two things I discovered through MUA:
1) instead of just an accessory, perfume can be an event, an experience, a hallucinatory or memory drug, a sublime kick, a solace and a refuge; like all the other arts.
2) The most interesting, intense, imaginative, personal and wacky texts were written about perfumes, by perfumista's. It was a most appealing crowd - decided to join them.

I've got some 150 full bottles.

Started with a huge bottle of Wind Song at age 12. Worn all the little minis out of my Mom's Monteil Holdiay gift sets. They were pure parfum of Royal Secret, Galore and others. At sixteen, I spent some hard earned cash on three purse sprays of Estee's newly released Celadon, White Linen and Pavilion. Moved on to Fidji and Tatiana which I carried to college. Freshman year discovered #22 edc, followed by #19 edt the next year. Then I slowed down for about 15 years. I started collection old perfume bottles when my son was small. It soon became clear that perfume bottle collecting could get really expensive really quick. So, I switched to perfume collecting, and if it were pure parfum in a pretty bottle, all the better. Two years ago, I had two large rubber tubs, one holds the really rare items, all extraits, and the other holds things like Chaos and my Creeds. That was two years ago. The oakmoss-reformulation thing sent me into a tail-spin. Now I have two file cabinets full. The fragrances are sorted in gallon sized zip-lock baggies. Then there is one more tub of just Guerlains. I plan to sell some stuff on ebay eventually, but never seem to get around to it.

I always had a secret attraction to scent. But as a little girl, my mom only wore scent (Arpege or Aphrodisia) on rare evenings out, and no one ever made me a gift of scent in my whole life. I found one (my Holy Grail) that I loved as a teen, but it soon disappeared from circulation, leaving me stranded scentless.

So I mostly didn't wear scent. As an adult, I kept wanting to find a scent to love, and would make periodic forays to various department stores where I'd go from counter to counter sniffing. I invariably hated almost all of it. I remember liking and buying Adrienne Vittadini AV, Estee Lauder Pleasures, and Jessica McClintock's Jess at different times. But they were all 'like', and none were 'love'. Not a one of them spoke to me. I did also find Chanel #19, and loved that one.

One day, it occurred to me that I could use the power of the internet to search out my original teenage Holy Grail. I tried it, and it brought me to an earlier incarnation of POL. I joined and asked about the fragrance, swapped some messages and information, and was intrigued by the group. I realized there were a LOT more perfumes out there than my local Macy's was letting on. ;-)

Then I got pregnant and fragrances made me ill. I had my hands full with all sorts of stuff and stopped visiting POL. I don't think I came back, rejoined and fully participated until late 2004 or early 2005.

I couldn't possibly tell you how many scents I have. If you're counting decants and minis, the number is well into the hundreds. My world is richer and more beautiful than it was before I found POL.

Oh, baby !
Ruby, that's my girl !
NOW...THAT'S what I'm talkin' about !!!
YEAH.

Easy stats to provide:
<> Age: 52
<> Perfumista: 2-1/2 years
<> # of frags: 20
<> # of frags sampled in that 2-1/2 years: Over 600

Can you say late bloomer?

I've loved great scents all my life. While growing up, everyone in the household wore Guerlain's Eau Imperiale. I can remember my Mom always splashing a little behind our ears before we left the house. When I turned fourteen, my father gave me a bottle of L'Heure Bleue, and I still use that scent. I'm 52 now. He also gave me a bottle of Fiamma (Borghese), when I turned seventeen, and I loved it. Unfortunately it's been discontinued for many years. I also wore L'Interdit in high school. In college I began wearing Y(YSL), which I still use. My friends and family consider me their own personal fragance consultant, and usually have me accompany them when they're fragrance shopping for themselves or for others. I love helping them out in this area. I also purchase a lot of fragrance gifts for those I love, but I prefer my husband not use anything but very lightly scented soap, because I love his natural scent so much.

I've been into fragrance since I can remember--probably since I was about 5. I remember my mother smelling sooooo good, and asking her about her perfume. She was wearing L'aimant, and that is the first olfactory memory I have of her.
Before I found POL,then LLP, I had more fragrance than the average Joe...probably about 30 bottles. Maybe a few more. I now have more fragrance than I could wear in a lifetime. Even without decants (and I have TONS of those), I have more fragrance than I care to count. And although my field of interest is narrowed right now (since I have so many that I would normally be buying if I didn't have them), I will continue to acquire new scents. I've embraced this affliction, or addiction or whatever it is.

I own an even dozen... I'm such a loser. ;) I only buy after testing 3-4 times - and if I'm paying full price, I have to really be blown away by the scent.

I have loved fragrance for as long as I can remember. When I was 6 or 7 years old, I would beg my mom for her Avon sample foils. My mother only used Avon's Perfumed Skin Softener and solid perfume sticks (remember those?). I used to sneak into my grandma's bathroom and use her Bird of Paradise (also Avon) hand cream. My other grandma used nothing but soap. She is the one, however, who had the grape arbor and fruit trees that inspired my love for the smells of apple, grapes, peaches and pears. When I was 12, my older sister bought me a bottle of Love's Baby Soft. I wore it daily until it was gone and asked for more for Christmas. When I was 13, I babysat for my next door neighbors. After putting the children to bed, I would go across the hall and sniff the scents their mother had on her dresser. There were three opaque, tall, square but rounded bottles. Each had a double C on the top. One was black, the middle silver and the last was white. That's right! Chanel No. 5, No. 19 and No. 22. I remember describing these to my father and asking for all three for my 14th birthday. I had no idea what I was asking. I just knew I loved all three for different reasons. I received No. 5. I have been a collector ever since.

When in my teens and twenties, I always used a full bottle completely before buying more. I would patiently wait for holidays to be gifted with perfumes. I wore what I received without complaint. Then in my mid thirties, I began working in a department store. It was something I'd always wanted to do. I relished being close to the fragances that I loved. I worked with a genuine perfumista at that time. She readily shared her passion and opened up a whole new world to me. Around the same time, I discovered I could learn even more via boards and blogs online. I lurked for years before speaking up. The fragrance department at my local Macy's no longer held the appeal it once did. Now the world of fragrance is wide open and I enjoy if very, very much.

Emma

Sorry you asked to mention how many - the list in my bio sort of sums it up.

I have loved scent since my teenage years, but only really became obsessed
two years ago when I joined POL.
I now own about 30 full bottles and around 25 samples.

I've always loved perfume, wore Giorgio when it first came out, and Jean Nate before I was allowed to wear "real" perfume. But I was always a 3-4 bottle person, using one up before buying a new one. That all changed when I found POL in 2003. Since then I've gone from 4 bottles to 400. And I love them all!

Same, I've always loved perfume. I probably have several dozen bottles of scent (don't really know, haven't counted).

Oh, bless your little perfumed heart. I love a teenager with sophisticated tastes. (!)

I went to my local Marshall Fields turned Macy's with the intention of doing some sniffing. I felt like I was at a rudely managed garage sale. The SA was reluctant to help me, half of the shelves were bare-ish and the tester bottles were tacky beyond belief - they were covered with these icky anti-theft stickers. I couldn't tell what anything was, these stickers were plastered all over the place. (FYI- I was dressed very nicely and this Macy's was in a solid, middle class neighborhood - not a crime ridden slum).

I became a perfumaniac around age seven or eight, smelling my mother's and grandmother's bottles on their dressers and vanity tables.

When my grandmother died, I "inherited" her square little bottle of Chanel No EDT. I also remember getting a bottle of Tigress or Woodhue as a Christmas present around then (mid-sixties). I, too, later spent babysitting money on fragrance, beginning at age thirteen or so.

I've been on POL off and on for six or seven years, I think. I have about fifteen bottles now, along with a bucket (literally) of samples under the sink in the powder room. I also have a perfume bottle collection of twenty or so items.

I have a pet theory that it might be good for our brain development to use and refine our sense of smell the way we (perfumistas) do over a lifetime. Educators, neurologists, geriatric psychiatrists? What do you think? Has any research been done on this? This board would be the perfect place to troll, I mean advertise, for subjects!

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, everybody wears perfumes. Been around scent forever; Mom and Aunts were perfume obsessed. Been around POL for 7 years, have 49 full bottles and wanna get something special on Xmas to make it 50.

I have 39 full bottles. I have about 5 decants and maybe 5 little bags of samples. I keep my samples and decants small so I don't get overwhelmed. I'm quite please and satisfied with my collection. Right now my only 'new' purchases are vintage fragrances b/c they are new to me and I find it fun to explore that arena of fragrance, but I haven't bought a contemporary bottle in a while.

I have always loved perfume and have worn it since I was a little girl, but I became a serious lover and user of perfume in my mid teens. I have always had more than a few bottles at hand. When I was 17 I remember I counted 21 bottles and thought that was alot!

I don't want my collection to get any bigger. This is a manageable number for me. Whenever I find i'm no longer using or enjoying something, I pass it on to keep the # of my collection under the 50 mark.

I got my first bottle of perfume as a gift from a Hawaiian uncle when I was maybe 9 or 10. It was White Ginger. I thought it was divine. I remember sniffing my mom's fragrances (Emeraude, Je Reviens) whenever I could, and I loved my dad's Old Spice.

Bought Farouche for myself in junior high school, mainly because of the name. Then, in college I picked up Lauren and Pavlova. Didn't love either one.

Toward the end of college, I discovered oils and started mixing my own concoctions (clover, patchouli, sandalwood, myrrh, frankincense). Did that for a while.

Discovered the Laura Ashleys after that -- No. 1, No. 2, Emma. LOVED No. 2.

And then ... I just seemed to stop wearing perfume for a while. Didn't like anything in the department stores, so I thought I didn't like perfume. I always loved smells; loved to sniff everything. Then I discovered the bath shops and fell in love with stuff like Origins Ginger Essence.

It wasn't until I came here a few years ago that I discovered a whole world beyond the local department stores and bath stores.

I would guess I've got about 40 bottles or so, plus some decants and samples. I pare down now and then and give away ones I'm not wearing; I don't want to have an overwhelming number.

I'm at 12 bottles right now, but make that an even 30 if you count decants and minis. Two full bottles are down to the last half-inch, and I'm going scent-shopping this Thursday or Friday.

I wore fragrance for special occasions when I was young (mostly samples that my mom got for me when passing by the cosmetics counter-- Jardins de Bagatelle, Vanderbilt, Emeraude-- but occasionally a spritz of herAvon Honeysuckle or Alyssa Ashley musk). During college I wore TBS Oceanus lotion.

I think I've been on POL since spring of 2004 when I noticed a link on Now Smell This. By the time I arrived here, I had amassed a shoebox full of essential oils and a little practice making bath products for family, but had just started sampling composed fragrances (what I could find in the malls of Iowa). I came to POL looking for an introduction to the classics and principles of composition, hoping to understand what Mindy Green meant when she referred to "chypres" and "orientals," and I guess I just really never left.