Overkill - too many, too little time

Tell me about it. [smiley=embarassed.gif]

There is never enough time for the good things in life.

Right here. I've been paring down my collection, trying to sell more than acquire. I've not been able to stick to it though, having acquired a couple new ones via swaps instead of outright sales. At some point if I don't get some of them sold, I may just throw the lesser ones I've got away or into packages just to pass them on to someone else.

The worst thing for me is, I love so many scents that just don't feel right (to me) in warmer weather, which living in Georgia, means they get little use most of the year. I'll probably always have too many cold weather scents.

You guys should relocate to the UK where it's winter all year round - except for about two weeks in July, it's struggling to reach 18 degrees here! [smiley=sad.gif]

I performed thi task some time back about a few months ago. I am left with my very favorites and just being left with those is still challenging to get them worn. I try to rotate all my creeds, GIT, SMW, and OV getting worn the most while MI has been neglected which is why I am wearing it today. Kyoto has been getting alot of play as well. The others I have just sit there and will most likely being seing the trash soon to make way for new and exciting fragrances I plan to prchase.

If you have 50, try limiting to just your favs or until a modest collection size is reached, try tossing 2 frags that are vile to you per one that you purchase.

Even not being a Georgian, I find both of these a hard wear, one gone one to go. I reached this point a year ago, topping out around 75 fragrances. I decided to shed at least two for each one I acquired. Sometimes three.

I applaud your objective of 12-15. I'm not sure I'll ever go quite that low. I'm at 58 now and still expect to go below 50 this year. I'm sure there are at least a dozen or so in there I really don't want to wear.

Life is way too short (esp for me since I turned 60) to wear any fragrance just because you have it or spent money for it. Besides, if you've got good fragrances why give the impression that you have no taste wearing those clunkers.

Well, I'm in the other boat.

When I look at my bank account, there are two possibilities:

To watch and smell my hard earned $$ (which is great fun when you're drunk) or to watch and smell my collection of fragrance (which is great fun everytime). Often I have to force myself to buy, buy, buy! But that's a hard thing to do as well! Who wants to buy crap juices for hard earned $$ ??

So I keep on informing myself, sampling and testing, sampling and testing, but I don't see a reason why I shouldn't go beyond 200 bottles from now on (I own about 80 at the moment). Of course I think almost every day as well of selling or swapping this one and that one and I will actually do so if it suits me fine as I've done it before. In the end you don't need one single drop to be honest and it's in fact a lie that the more you have the more satisfied you are. I personally think it's the other way around. [smiley=beer.gif]

Imagine a young man who gets SMW as a present on a birthday. Isn't that impact what it's all about? Isn't it hard as hell to sit there still with the mentioned bottle and pretend there's nothing better out there? Well, maybe there isn't anything better out there, but I want to KNOW by myself. Blessed be the ones who have just their signature scent and love it soo much, that it is a pleasure to wear it everyday for years to come ....

These people at least identify with one single scent. I'm bored each and every day after whatever and I could never wear the same for two ot three days in a row. Blessed be the ones who can. [smiley=beer.gif]

Sounds like a fun project to cut down, Chuck, but as one internet friend to another, let me caution you.

Here we are in the dog days of summer. August. Heat. What's-the-point? asked inside our minds before we do most anything. Every year I decide I need to change something about myself during this period. Come the breezes of autumn, everything looks different.

For the coming weeks I'm going to wish I could burn most of my belongings and history, but I'm going to love them again once jeans weather returns.

I'll understand if you reject my theory, but man, don't flame out. Just don't go burning man on all of us.
--Chirs

Hmmm, I feel like this now and again but I can only really bare to part with the scents that i don't like. Obviously some I LOVE and some I just like. Yes I now have around 380, I used to worry about them going off but I keep em in special cabinets. When I move to a bigger place me thinks I'm going to invest in a fridge for em.

I went on hols for a week and took 10 different scents, not full bottles of course! I missed my collection SO much it was terrible. I use around 3 a day and I am rather generous with my aplication so to be honest I proably go through the equivalent of a large bottle a month!

I can see your point about paring down mind you, I have tried and managed to cut down a bit, and that was me being really brutal!

[smiley=rolleyes.gif]

Fifty to twenty in one fell swoop? Maybe Chris is right here. I'm all for trimming and refining too but I don't quite trust my judgement well enough for that extensive of a revision done at once. Hope you don't have regrets. I peel away one or two at a time.

Chuck, I'm exactely the same boat like you, and stick around a number of 15 bottles, which I use regularly. Owning 300 bottles would make me nervous. Just wanted to let you know. I do enjoy (and admire) people , owning large collections of bottles. Always enjoy watchin at pics of members collections. Love that. And ofcourse I will show them to my wife and tell her that there really ARE men who own more than 10 bottles [smiley=wink.gif]

At 47 now, after getting rid of 15-20 a couple of years ago. When I reach 50 I´ll probably think over the future of the collection. However if my budget increased I could easily name 30-40 ones I´d buy imediately...
[smiley=laugh.gif]

MMM

Man, I know EXACTLY what you mean about paring down. I have a lot of scents (60+, I think), and I'm sure that I could eliminate at least 50-75% if I needed to.

In my case, one thing that keeps me attached to certain scents is their rarity, i.e. if I have a discontinued scent, I'm likely to keep it even if I don't like it a lot. It's silly, but it's a hard habit to break.

One project I've been mulling over is instituting a spending freeze, then using one fragrance at a time until it's gone. This would be hard as hell, but it would save my wallet, and it would allow me to really "get to know" each fragrance that I own. If I implement this plan I'll likely start by eliminating the bottles I own without boxes, just because they're the most "perishable."

I'm also in the same boat as the other hot climate BN'ers. Half my collection is all but unwearable during Miami's "hot season," i.e. spring, summer, & fall. I can't recall the last time I wore my beloved M7, and it's likely to remain unworn until at least December when the weather finally cools down.

I'll also be happy with my 12 or so FB's and handful of samples for several years. I liked this article about the industry in general, not just personal collections, and I agree with it 100%.
http://www.nstperfume.com/2011/07/18...-new-releases/

Although said six years ago per this thread, still rings very true today.

I definitely can understand. I still have a list of about 30 on my "buy" list, after which I hope to pair it down like you did to about 10 that I truly love.

I almost miss the days when I was satisfied with wearing Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male everyday

Chuck, I'm like right here >< with you. It's funny cuz my bottle of Essenza di Zegna does the same exact thing! And when I wear it, I'm like "Damn, I could've worn ___________ instead."

I recently bought a botttle of Invasion Barbare and I love it. It's made me realize I'd rather wear more of the frags I truly love (since I have plenty) and get rid of the ones that I like or just fill shelf space. Sell 'em off and buy one really nice bottle for every 6 or 7 I sell.

Think I'll be doing the same thing.


Wow, I just realized this was a VERY old post.

So...how'd it go, Chuck?

Quality over quantity 24-7-365

If his wardrobe is up-to-date, it looks like it went quite well!



I always have and still do keep my bottle collection under about 25. Just seems more streamlined. Every time I want a bottle of something new, there's something I have no problem culling at about the same time.

More than around 25 and I don't think I'd appreciate all my scents fully, especially considering the number of days when I wear scents from my heap of samples anyway.

Yeah, I gotta get it under 50 at least.

Beginning some major culling today...

If anyone's interested I have some good deals up on EBay.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/davehuntingt...&_trksid=p3686

I always told you that't the reasonable limit Good luck. You may go even below that number as years go by.

I'll put my hand up too. I've got too many decent but not fab designer frags that I just don't get to wearing. Getting through all the samples is tough enough. A purge is definately in order.

Damn. I didn't notice the extremely thick layer of dust on this thread and got all excited when I saw a post from an old friend long removed from this place. Meeting guys like Charles, er, Setamp made the internet in general and basenotes in particular a good thing.

I will be giving most of mine away. Luckily two bottles are still in plastic and unopened. One goes to my barber for christmas. The other goes to the super of my building.

I am disgusted by all the cheap colognes I bought for $40 and under. They are basically junk these days. Giorgio Beverly Hills really through me for a loop. I was so happy it was back but it goes away in 2 hours. I have 3 bottles of that. I am back to vetiver guerlain which I've had since christmas. I actually wear that and it mixes well with my sweat.

The last two I want to buy is coromandel and sycomore. I will ask for those over the holidays and let someone else take the beating for me! If those two don't work out it's sample city for this cat.

THERE SHOULD BE A DISCLAIMER WHEN YOU JOIN THIS WEBSITE.

Anyone in NYC want some Habit Rouge ?

I am feeling like that and i have like 6 bottles,

I know what you're getting at by wanting to pare the collection down a bit, but unless you need the cash, you should hold onto them. My rationale: a) it's a collection. Go ahead - collect. b) they don't really take up that much room. c) you should hold onto the bottles that you don't like. They serve as a strong reminder: "don't do that again." d) maybe most significantly - you can't tell right now which ones are completely disposable versus those that will become valuable collectors items. I have several in my collection that I've considered tossing, and later discovered have high collectibility value. Also: e) you might change your mind later. I've tossed a couple over the years that I now wish were back in my collection. And at this point I either can't find them in their original formulation, or I don't want to lay out the cash to track them down.

I think you brought up some good points here, specifically a, d, and e.

In fact, I just pulled M7 Fresh off my ebay page! I'm deciding to keep it.

Still,there are some I have no problem getting rid of (more commonly available, etc.) and will sell with the idea of buying one really good bottle for every 4 or 5 I sell off.

This is the way to go. I want quality...no false promises from scents that last less than 2 hours. The same goes for everything else I buy....clothes travel food. I am tired of low quality items in general. They wind up going to waste.

I'm not really a collector, As of today I own around 9 full bottles now of my faves, about 500ml which will take years to get through, also now around 100 2.5ml decant spray samples so thats around another 250ml! about 750ml in total, when you add it up at .2ml a day its enough to last 10.2 years. So I'll only buy one or two max FB each year from now on if I can find any worthy, for me 2.5ml decants is the way from here on in, great way to explore fragrance without killing the bank balance and cluttering up the house