Day Seventeen: Fragrant

I was lucky enough to purchase this last year with a gift voucher.  It's not as evening-y as it looks, actually very pretty and soft.  Image from Fragrantica.com.

Something I am excited about every single day of the year is smelling good.  I like to smell fresh and clean and floral and maybe a little fruity and sweet.  Mostly I do it for myself and even if I’m at home for the day and won’t be seeing anyone, I always wear perfume.

Sometimes I change it during the day and try out new layering combinations.  I knew Jo Malone layered her perfumes and we are lucky enough to have a Jo Malone store where I live to try out her combinations, but I didn’t think to layer my own, non-Jo Malone fragrances.

Since finding a wonderful perfume website called Fragrantica I’ve discovered a whole group of people who like to smell good as much as I do.  I love looking up my favourite perfumes and finding new ones to try.  I especially love it that this website offers favourites of others based on what you’re looking at, a bit like Amazon does with books and dvds.  My favourite finds are the inexpensive but fabulous (thank you Jessica Simpson), and the low-cost classics from way back (Jovan Musk, I love you).

Of course a day of smelling good doesn’t just start with perfume, it starts in the shower.  A prettily scented soap is my favourite, although I don’t mind shower gel on some scratchy gloves for a bit of exfoliation, and I have a selection of beautiful soaps that I am still working my way through.

It’s a never-ending collection, as people who know I love quality soap give me bars for gifts.  It’s a good problem to have and I never stop to think that soap could be an insulting present, I just say ‘ooh, goodie!’ and of course ‘thank you’.

After my shower I always put on body lotion.  Even though I was at least twice the age of the average customer there, I had such fun at the Bath & Body Works store in Hawaii at Christmas.  Everything smelt so wonderful and I ended up with two big bags of body creams and body butters to bring home.  And three bottles of fragrance.

Even though I dream of being the perfume minimalist with a single bottle of Chanel on my dresser, I am not.  I love to change my aroma day to day and love trying out new ones.

What’s your story?  Are you a perfume minimalist or a perfume maximalist like me?