Last year at this time, I was looking at my perfume collection and felt incredibly overwhelmed. I've seen many perfume collections that are considerably larger than mine, but realizing how quickly perfume expires and how infrequently I wore it made me want to undergo a massive "use it up" project throughout the year and really pare down my collection.
My goal was to only have three perfumes at the end of the year, ideal for winter, spring, and summer. There were a lot of challenges throughout this project, including that most of the perfumes were essentially full, but I learned a lot about myself and my preferences, and I am happy to say that I achieved my goal.
Here are the perfumes I used up in 2017:
Taylor Swift Wonderstruck
Status: Will not repurchase
This perfume came as a gift with purchase, and I kept it mainly because I thought the bottle was gorgeous. This perfume has a very strong sweet scent, and while I received several compliments on it, it was too sweet for me. I used up the entire bottle, and out of all of the perfumes, this one took me the longest to go through.
Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb (mini)
Status: Will not repurchase
This was easily the oldest perfume in my collection. I had kept it because I loved the look of the grenade bottle and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had not yet spoiled. I used to love Flowerbomb, but as I have gotten older, I have grown away from the scent.
Marc Jacobs Daisy
Status: Will repurchase
Daisy is easily my favorite perfume of all time. If I was a person to say that I have a "signature scent," this would be it. I'm also fond of the story of how this perfume came into my life, which makes me love it even more. About eight years ago, I was living in the United Kingdom, and a friend and I were shopping in Cardiff. We went into a perfume store, and she tried Daisy and absolutely loved it. I smelled it and didn't like it at all. As the months passed, she never stopped talking about Daisy, and in that time, she became a very dear and close friend of mine. Eventually, my visa expired and I had to return to the US, and the day I left was one of the saddest days of my life because I had to say goodbye to all of my friends. I was in Heathrow airport, my face red and puffy from crying, and I went into a duty-free perfume shop. I spotted Daisy and bought a bottle, just to remind me of my friend. Every time I sprayed it, it reminded me of her and all of my friends, and it brought me a lot of peace and happiness. Eventually, I grew to love the scent, and I have since repurchased bottle after bottle.
I don't ever want to be away from this perfume, and I always want a bottle of it in my collection. The only reason I used up this bottle was that it was getting a little old, and the scent was starting to fade. This perfume was actually the strongest motivator for me to do this project and go through all of my perfumes, because I no longer wanted to have so many perfumes that my all-time favorite could possibly go bad. Now, with less perfumes overall, I can really enjoy the ones I have.
Bond No. 9 The Scent of Peace
Status: Will not repurchase
I bought this perfume when I found out I was accepted into graduate school a few years ago, into my dream program. I had been lusting after this perfume for years, but it was always way too expensive for me to justify. But when I was accepted, I figured that was worth celebrating. At 3.3 ounces, this was the biggest perfume in my collection.
You know how scent is one of the biggest triggers for memory? Unfortunately, this perfume triggers memories that I would rather not think about. I've written before about how my makeup addiction was at its worst while I was in graduate school, and it was largely a very unhappy time for me. It's sad that this perfume that I wanted for so long eventually became associated with this hard time in my life, and it's terribly ironic that it's called the Scent of Peace. I'm glad that I was able to use it up, but in all honesty, I'm happy to have it out of my life.
Elizabeth and James Nirvana White (mini rollerball)
Status: Will not repurchase
I believe I got this perfume as a point perk at Sephora, but I'm not sure. Like the rest of the perfumes in my collection at the beginning of the year, I liked it enough to keep it and use it up, but not enough to ever want to purchase it again. This was the most floral scent within my collection, and I found that it paired nicely with the Scent of Peace. It's a fine scent, just nothing special enough to me to want to buy again.
Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess
Status: Will not repurchase
I quite like the scent of Bronze Goddess, and I think it actually does smell like a perfume version of summer. I thought that this was going to be my perfect summer scent, but I found that I got tired of it rather quickly. As some of you may remember, I had two major surgeries over the summer, so it was generally not a great time for me. Like the Scent of Peace, this perfume is now a scent that is tied to unpleasant memories for me, and I was relieved when I used it up.
Elizabeth and Janes Nirvana Bourbon (rollerball)
Status: May repurchase in the future
This was the last perfume that I used up in the year, and I originally didn't think I wanted to repurchase. When I thought of my ideal perfume collection, I thought it would include Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille. I swear I have memories of spraying that perfume and being lost in the smokiness of it mixed with gorgeous vanilla. I sprayed it again recently with intentions to buy it, but I did not like it at all. It smelled way too strong for me and was nothing like I had remembered. I do want to have a smoky perfume in my collection, and Bourbon just might be the one I choose. On the whole, I'm not a huge ran of rollerballs, so if I buy Bourbon again, I'm excited to have a spray bottle.
So that's it! Those were the perfumes I used up in 2017. I should also add that I decluttered two perfumes from my collection that I just did not want to force myself to use up:
- Bond No. 9 I Love New York
- Lavanila Coconut Vanilla (rollerball)
As of January 2018, this is now what my perfume collection looks like:
It includes:
- Tokyomilk Novacaine (winter)
- Marc Jacobs Daisy (spring)
- Brazilian Crush Body Fragrance Mist (summer)
I am so happy with my current collection. Novacaine and Daisy are absolute staples in my collection, and the Brazilian Crush body spray is something I'm sure I'll really enjoy during the summer. As of now, I don't love the Brazilian Crush body spray as much as Novacaine and Daisy, and I wouldn't be surprised if I decide not to repurchase once it is finished. But as of right now, I'm so happy with my small and entirely manageable perfume collection.
This was my first time ever attempting a yearlong challenge, and I have to say that it really taught me a lot. The main lesson I learned is that even though I didn't have a terribly large perfume collection with dozens of bottles, I had way too many. I also learned that I don't want to have any perfumes in my collection that are "fine" or that I kind of like. I only want perfumes that I love and will want to continually repurchase. With that in mind, I am now very selective with perfume purchases. I feel like I have grown to be a selective makeup shopper since starting this blog, but I am even more strict with perfume. I just don't want to have so much of it hanging around and going bad. I want to have a manageable amount.
The other main thing I learned about myself is that I don't need as much variety with perfume as I like to have with makeup. I would get incredibly bored doing the same makeup look every day for months, and there's no way I would enjoy just using one eyeshadow palette for an entire year. However, I don't need to smell different every day. I don't need to select my perfume to coordinate with my outfit or makeup. That's just not something I need.
I am very happy with the progress I made last year in using up my perfumes, and I am also happy that I took an entire year to learn some lessons about myself and my preferences. I know that I will be perfectly happy and far less stressed only having three perfumes in the coming year.
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