Lately, I've been doing the rounds on my "get to know the classics" kick, and have been trying to figure out how best to indulge my desire to have some of these classic scents around as references. I'd like to know, how many of you keep full bottles of some of these classics (e.g. classic Guerlain, Caron, Chanel, Dior, etc.) around? Or do you do decants? I think it's not just that I want to have them to sniff once in a while, but I want to have enough to play with wearing them (either in the privacy of my own home, or out onto the street).

Lately, I have been trying to restrain myself from buying full bottles of things that I am unlikely to be able to wear widely. For example, today, I was thinking about whether or not to buy bottles of Diorella and Diorissimo.

What do you in terms of having some of these classic fragrances in your collection?

OK. The Pefumed Court sells sample packs of various fragrances, mostly niche but also great classics. They have them grouped in a way that reminds me of college courses, like Niche for Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, etc. They are expensive but it would be a place to start.

Perhaps you have much more experience of perfume than me. I'm a very new perfume lover and I do like this. No full bottle if I don't like the fragrance, it might be a classic and highly recommended but if I don't like it I don't buy a full bottle. Thats now, after a year. Samples if I can get. But it's a problem with those fragrances that it's difficult to get samples from. Even those that I can test here in my home town. (I test the reformulated ones, I don't hunt for vintage) I mean you can't test for example Miss Dior EDT under your blouse at the shop, and I have found that I can't experience the real character of the scent just by one or two spritzes on my arms. Now in summer it's a bit more easy, you can spritz a bit on the back of your knees if you wear a skirt. I don't know if people out in shops think I'm weard if I do that? Now I'm not building a library of fragrances, I take it easy. For example I haven't smelled Joy yet. Perhaps I do that when I visit a bigger city this summer, it isn't available here. But then it will be one spritz on the arm because it's the first time, and then I'm back here and can't test any more. So if I like this single spritz very much, will I then buy a bottle?

I don't know if this is any help. Just my thoughts.

jtc, this is a very interesting idea, and you're not alone. There are definitely scents that I keep around because they are what I call "museum pieces" or reference samples. Just recently, I bought a set of decants of the Lutens non-export line perfumes to have both to try and as a reference library. My curiosity had been eating at me for some time, and I finally just bit the bullet. I'm glad I did. (Thanks, Cazaubon!)

Others I have: a tiny bottle of Chanel's Bois des Isles parfum--I chiefly keep it around to remind myself why I don't need to buy more when people start rhapsodizing about how wonderful it is; and a bottle of Coty Chypre, my true museum piece--I'm not an oakmoss person, but it's nice to smell and dab a bit from time to time.

JTC, I definitely built a (too-large) reference library when I got hot and heavy into fragrance. I have since begun to let go. I do keep most of the classics. The ones I like and wear, I have bottles, but there are many others that I keep a sample. I've simply given up on this practice for most "non-classics," as I found myself drowning in perfume samples -- I have HUNDREDS. Now I try really hard to smell them and pass them along if I'm not going to actively wear them.

I prefer to have a large sample vial or small glass decant -- Somewhere between 1.5 ml and 3 mls. Since I keep these for long term reference, I do not buy or use plastic decant or sample vials. The scent doesn't hold up as well over the long haul in plastic.

The Perfumed Court is a great source. You'll also find, if you're active and participating here, that if you post some scents you want to try, someone will usually step up and volunteer a sample.

Well, I just had the shock of my life when I added up what I've spent on my wild full bottle binge these last couple of months. (28 full bottles, eek!)

So, yes, I'll be sticking to what I can get from decants for the next 100 years.

Never add it all up. Nevah. That's the first rule. Didn't anyone tell you?

My sentiments exactly.

About a scent library - my MO has been to buy what interests me, try it, and move it along if it's not for me. I've kept a few decants where I think they might have more appeal down the road, but really - if it's in my drawer, I wear it.

Since I love chypres (most of the time I wear Mitsouko), I have some interesting chypre perfumes in my collection: Bandit (Robert Piguet), Cabochard (Grès), Jean-Louis Scherrer, Y (YSL) and Paloma Picasso. I don't really wear them, I only play with them from time to time.

Decants or samples are the way to go. I tell myself this. Do I always follow this advice? No. But I recognize it as good advice nonetheless.

AltoDiva said:"Others I have: a tiny bottle of Chanel's Bois des Isles parfum--I chiefly keep it around to remind myself why I don't need to buy more when people start rhapsodizing about how wonderful it is; and a bottle of Coty Chypre, my true museum piece--I'm not an oakmoss person, but it's nice to smell and dab a bit from time to time."

That's a good idea, AltoDiva.

JTC, what's your hurry? Well, there are worse forms of binging involving bottles, iykwim.

My dream library would be a tin cannister , square with many levels housing hundreds of teensy vials of various genre , from classic old school , to modern classic , all neat and ready for me to have the reverent reference sniff now and again.

If only someone could market this ...

I must admit I have a very sizeable classics library, including lots of vintage scents that are either long-gone, or so disfigured I needed to smell the original version, even at the risk of finding it altered. The greater rarities (Ernest Beaux proto-Chanel N°5, Rallet N°1, or Jacques Fath Iris Gris, for instance) I seldom wear when I don't have the time to fully concentrate on them. But I needed the actual sealed original bottles to be sure of what I got.
I'm not counting how many I own: let's say that on a couple of hundred bottles, about 40% are reference scents, to be worn only on occasion. I do find it incredibly instructive though, especially because the ingredients are different (real musk and civet, actual Grasse jasmine and rose, etc.).

Wow, carmencanada. Is there any chance I could move into your closet?

I like to have samples of as many classics as I can, but only spring for full bottles of the classics I love. I do my best to get the parfum/extrait too. Mitsouko, Bal a Versailles, No. 19, etc. With other like Arpege, various Carons, I'm happy to just have a few drops for reference.

Buy and store properly and never do the math...you have to re-visit the classics at some point, you can do it with samples, decants, swaps or full bottle purchases but you have to do it.

Jtc, agewise I'm pretty 'classic' myself and as a result have smelled and worn many of the greats through the decades when they were still in their fairly original state on the market. Had that not been the case, I'd probably be going crazy today to know what all those perfumes smell(ed) like. I feel for you as a person new to the discipline. Lots of good advice has been given on acquiring small amounts unless it's one you absolutely love and want to wear frequently. I hope you and others here newer to perfume get to smell all the fine perfumes that pique your fancy!

Hey, JTC - I'd love to help you, if there is anything in my wardrobe that you've been jonesing for. My collection isn't huge, but maybe we could arrange a sample swap or something. You can look up my wardrobe on Basenote (It isn't fully up-to-date because of the recent basenotes updates).

Let's talk and see if anything looks interesting!

Teddius

Thanks for all the advice, and thanks, Teddius, for the kind offer. I'll go look you up on basenotes. :-)

I got a small sample of Après L'Ondée in a swap yesterday, and it's everything I could have hoped for and more...

My reference library of samples is in a fishing tacklebox; I prefer to have full bottles only of things I love and wear.

Not unless you find me a new apartment! It's overflowing as it is, competing with the shoe department and the vintage dresses department.

[quote name='jtcInBoston' date='Jul 1 2008, 10:28 PM' post='382309']
Lately, I've been doing the rounds on my "get to know the classics" kick, and have been trying to figure out how best to indulge my desire to have some of these classic scents around as references. I'd like to know, how many of you keep full bottles of some of these classics (e.g. classic Guerlain, Caron, Chanel, Dior, etc.) around? Or do you do decants? I think it's not just that I want to have them to sniff once in a while, but I want to have enough to play with wearing them (either in the privacy of my own home, or out onto the street).

Lately, I have been trying to restrain myself from buying full bottles of things that I am unlikely to be able to wear widely. For example, today, I was thinking about whether or not to buy bottles of Diorella and Diorissimo.

What do you in terms of having some of these classic fragrances in your collection?


I do feel that there are some "must-haves" out there for any serious perfumista, budding or otherwise! Check some of the perfume blogs for links to sites that offer samples.

Now, I search E-bay and flea markets for the vintage fragrances that are the old formulas. Many times people are just trying to sell bottles , which still have perfume in them that the sellers don't know or care about. Sealed and/or boxed are best; last week I found a sealed, boxed vintage bottle of Balmain Jolie Madame at a flea market for $16!

Knowing the classics will ground you -- in anything.

Samples and decants are fine for most purposes. Perfumed Court has them, and there are other sites which have them too.

Hi jtcInBoston, do let us know how you decide to build your classics library!

An excellent idea! I've long wanted to build a collection of reference decants, ground-breaking scents and enduring benchmarks, examples from eras, reference scents of different families, sub-groups, prominent notes. For
various reasons this has not happened ... I'd say my actual classics library consists of a couple of Guerlains purchased as much because of their importance as my liking of them upon initial testing, and Youth Dew. At this point I would not do an encyclopedic classics library but get scents, be it in decant or full bottle form, in a more scatter-shot fashion as they individually become important in context (ex. like the vetiver note in X, go and research more).

Hello, éprise:

I would say that I have proceeded very much as you describe above, in terms of the scatter-shot approach. Most of my "classics" are in decant form, and unfortunately, I only have two vintage samples. The other thing I have done is to think about pursuing these references in terms of the work of particular perfumers. For example, I became very interested in Edmond Roudnitska's work after sniffing FM Parfum de Thérèse, Diorella, and Eau Sauvage, and ended up with a bottle of Eau d'Hermès (which I really like). At the same time, my taste in fragrances for my personal use tends more towards the niche (e.g. some of the L'Artisans, Frédéric Malles, CdGs).

My two prized reference samples are tiny decants of vintage Guerlain Derby (pre-reformulation) and Djedi in extrait de parfum (just a few precious drops).

In addition, I have accumulated (mostly decants) of:

Guerlain: Après L'Ondée (extrait), Mitsouko (extrait), Jicky (extrait), Attrape-Coeur
Caron: Narcisse Noir (extrait), Tabac Blond (extrait), Or et Noir (extrait)
Dior: Diorella (EdT, unfortunately not vintage), Eau Sauvage (fb), Jules
Chanel: Cuir de Russie (extrait), Bois des Îles (extrait), No. 5 (extrait), No. 19 (EdT)

I think this also brings up some interesting questions about what is a classic.

I find myself trying to add more classics to my collection. Of course, I have to like the ones I choose, but my bar is a little lower in terms of how much I expect I will wear them. They all bring something unique, even if it isn't something I want to experience every day. Maybe it is a bit of a hoarding complex for me. I figure these must be classic for a reason and should I find five years from now that Youth Dew has become a favorite, I do not want to have to search for it or risk discontinuation. Though I am a big fan of samples, I do tend to get full bottles because the bottles embody so much of the classic image. Plus, sometimes classics are less expensive than the current fragrances, as many classics end up discounted as consumers favor new releases.

I like The Perfumed Court idea. You may find like myself (get ready to hear gasps) that a great many of the classic...Guerlains, old Diors, etc ...do not really give you that much joy. So all the better to sample it, know what it's about, then spend on things that you like better.