Heya Posse, March and I were chatting in the comments of my Boucheron Serpent Boheme post in August a little about how special Perfume Presents can be. Some things I would normally not even have tried due to perfume snobbery and assumptions have become lasting favorites. They often get the spritz because I really like them or when I need a hug. Amazing how good fragrance is at calling up beloved people, places and memories. So I thought maybe we could have a little look at some of my happy memory perfume presents.
Perfume Presents
Amor Amor by Cacharel: I’m not sure exactly when Anna Maria gave me my 30ml bottle of Amor Amor. It’s a sweet, fruity, vanilla rich amber perfume. Very confectionary and not really what I imagine myself loving. Maybe it’s the connection to someone I love deeply but every spritz is as joyful as an afternoon spent in Anna Maria’s company. This 100ml bottle is a very new acquisition and it’s getting harder to find so I may have to back up if I see one.
Aramis: Still! To this day if I spritz on some Aramis it reminds me of the first grown up perfume my Mum gave me. I’m not sure how old I was but it wa pre-teen. A small spray bottle of Aramis was a Christmas present and I felt like a full grown dude wearing it. Though there were many other fragrant gifts over the years from Mum it’s Aramis that brings back the memories. GAH! I had the bottle out only a couple of weeks ago but seem to have put it away in the wrong place. Nowadays I just keep a 30ml around for those moments when I need to remember Mum and have her present.
September by Milla Milla: Just last year my mates Kerri and Tina got together to buy me September for my birthday, which is in September! Perfect. It was created for a fashion company by our girlfriend Jocelyn Fullerton of Cult of Scent Atelier. A green floral that didn’t need to be a gift for me to come to it, so completely within my fragrant wheelhouse. It was in my gym bag and a perfect apres swim spritz but it’s been swapped out recently because I wanted it in easy reach.
Serpent Boheme by Boucheron: The beginnings of this post start with Serpent Boheme. I suppose it’s a modern iteration of the fruitchouli but done in a sophisticated, joyous way. Also it is a bit of a BWF too, so not really fitting into any box. Buying it with Tara in London, it being a gift from Mum and Dad Smith and that I already loved the scent makes it extra special. I’ve been wearing it quite a bit now that spring has arrived down under.
Silences PdT by Jacomo: Well, this was long a favourite before Scotty gave me a huge bottle. Somewhere he found an old 90ml Silences PdT tester and gave it to me for some celebration. A green floral chypre of the very best time. Fits anywhere and everywhere, feels both relaxed and tightly buttoned up, sometimes even a bit louche. Silences wears to your mood. I know, sounds stupid but it really seems to work with my psyche.
Ubar by Amouage: Another perfume long loved before it was a gift from an amazing friend, Val the Cookie Queen. Many of you know how much I love Ubar. Certainly I’ve written about it often enough. When it was DCd I was lamenting its loss and buying up the last of it in Australia. Val offered me her bottle. WHAT?!? Yeah, what a friend. So on top of this being a unicorn, a perfume that I adore so much and something that smells divine Ubar now has the distinction of being associated with Val.
Now it’s your turn. Tell me a perfume present story, good or bad.
Portia xx
I was gifted a bottle of Ubar from a friend too 🙂 Please tell Val that I say hi
A perfume pal is a regular and I say lucky thrift store shopper and one day she passed along a partial bottle of Dia she’d found. It was my most elegant Office Scent ever.
WOW! What a find AnnieA. Dia is so gorgeous.
My mate Scotty manages StVdeP stores and he keeps an eye out for lovely ties. I’ve scored some stunning vintage brand name ones from him.
Portia xx
Oh this is lovely! I haven’t gotten my spare bottles as gifts for an occasion, but I have definitely been on the receiving end of perfumista generosity if they know I love it and they’re sort of “meh” about it. When I moved across the country I gave a big box of bottles to a couple of perfume friends which I knew included some loves of theirs; they were ecstatic. And I met Carolyn (my now friend/housemate) through the blog when I sent her a bottle, so that worked out well!
OMG! That’s amazing March. Perfume changed your life.
It changed mine too.
This is another amazing topic to dive into. You are seriously my ideas wingwoman,
HUG
Portia xx
My SIL gave me a small bottle of January Scent Project Eiderantler after seeing me comment on it on IG when testing the discovery set. Very thoughtful to notice that I really liked it. My DH helped organize a gift from parents during my second year of being the (unpaid) photographer for our football team. He asked about my wishlist, and I ended up with a large bottle of Ormonde Woman and small bottles of Nicolaï Angelys Pear of 4160 Tuesdays Rhubarb & Custard. It was an incredibly generous gift and the effort and coordination was appreciated. For my part, I gift my SIL whatever she is currently wearing – she tends to be a 1-2 signature scent person.
WOW! You have a finely trained circle MMKinPA! Seems like it’s happened organically too. Nice to know they care enough to notice.
Portia xx
One of my ver first ‘perfumista’ gifts was during the first (and only) ChiCocoa Scentsation – I was sitting at breakfast with March & Tigs – and suddenly Tigs pulls out a whole and entire bottle of Mitsouko (which I had only smelled once!)
And she gave it to me!
and it was the beginning of Much Love!
Beautiful story Musette,
Mitsouko! The bomb.
Portia xx
I think one of the nicest ones was a nearly full bottle of Guerlain Spiriteuse Double Vanille that was given to be my Violetnoir (Robin). She just didn’t care for it herself and it came up that I loved it, so next time I saw her she just handed it to me with best wishes. Which was just the kind of lady she was.
WOW Tom! So cool
My mom gave me No 19 edt for my 30th, and Arpege for my 21st birthdays — two favorites that I wore as signature scents for many years before the start of my perfume hobby. Worst perfume gift: EL Youth Dew from an aunt when I was 13. Way too strong and pungent for a young teen me. My husband has gifted me several scents on my wish list over the years. Most recently 31 Rue Cambon and No 19 Poudre.
I love Silences and need to wear it sometime soon!
I love Silences, too, for all the reasons Portia mentioned! I have a full bottle and everytime I wear it I wonder why I don’t wear it more.
WEAR IT MORE!
Hi, Portia. Now that I am older I love thinking about past fragrances, My grandmother traveled and brought me back my first bottle of Amour Amour which I loved as a teen. Then she brought me back Bal a Versailles when I was older. I have tried newer bottles of Bal and it was just not the same.
AZHHHH! Bal a Versailles! What a fragrance JillS. Fortunately you can find older bottles on the auction sites for very reasonable amounts. I always prefer the old EdC if I can find it. SO GOOD!
Snap! On Amor Amor!
Portia xx
Love reading about your gifts, Portia! My favorite gift was Chanel 19, in 1976. My parents had friends in Chicago and we often visited for a few days during the holidays, to gaze at the decorations in the windows at Marshall Fields other now defunct stores. We were at the perfume counter and I fell in love with No.19; my mom secretly bought me a bottle and gave it to me that Christmas. I was a senior in high school. It remains in my collection and is the fragrance that smells most like “me”.
There was also the older man who gave me my first bottle of Chanel No. 5 but that’s another story.
OOOHHHHHH Rosarita,
You are a CHANEL girl through and through.
Love them both.
Portia xx
Two stories stand out for me. A bottle of Lutens Arabie gifted by a friend when I was just really going mad for it one winter and dithering about investing in a bottle. The other is Cartier L’Heure Fougeuese from Musette which arrived when I was hithering and thithering about finding this without having to fork out a mint. The former only emerges on cold dry days. It doesn’t do well in damp. The latter is autumn/winter — and is one of the most beautiful, tactile bottles in my (smallish) collection.
WOW! That’s a bloody fabulous gift from Musette! I’ve got a bottle of Cartier L’Heure Fougeuese too. Citrus leather! YuMMERS
Do you still wear the Arabie? What a fragrance.
Portia xx
Yes, definitely still wear Arabie. But only in autumn/winter when it’s cold, bright and dry — which doesn’t happen a lot as we continue to have a lot of trouble with flooding.
Have you ever worn Arabie in the heat? It’s exponentially more fabulous.
I was thinking that as well, Portia!
It may have been you that got me onto it Musette.
What wonderful perfumes & memories
Sorry, butterfingers!
Your friends & family are so very generous!
My memory scents are:-
Nicky Verfailles Grain de Sables. A mini was sent by a wonderful & anonymous donor on a now defunct perfume swaps, gifts & splits FB group. It had been my wedding fragrance & was long discontinued. I dab only occasionally but treasure it as both the gift & wedding scent.
EL Ambre Ylang Ylang. Bought by DH when he saw me try it in a store. Apparently my face lit up. When I nipped tithe loo he bought me the biggest bottle. Gorgeous, thick, sweet amber.
Jacomo Silences, brought home by mum from a holiday. I had a toddler & was pregnant again, money was very, very tight. Silences meant I could spritz a little luxury. My current bottle is modern but still has that soul freeing blast of green.
Heya Alityke,
You wrote recently about Grain de Sables and I was interested so went looking. IMPOSSIBLE to find nowadays. Love that you have a reflection bottle.
YAY! We snap on Silences. Yes, the modern is good. They’ve replaced the moss beautifully.
Portia xx
Grain de Sables is similar to Diorella with the ripe melon on the verge of decay dialled way up on a chypre base.
OOOH! Very nice