Too many fragrances? Cutting down.

I usually reach for something from the front of my favourites, where I keep my high rotation scents. I never leave the house, or go a day, without fragrance.

Never. I have 150+ in my wardrobe and they all get rotated at one time or another. I wouldn't want a signature scent - variety is the spice of life.

I don't worry about having a signature scent either. I've got about 90 full bottles and another 100-odd samples. I'm reasonably good at rotating the full bottles. Although there's definitely a top 10 as far as wearings go, if I've shelled out for a full bottle it's a scent I like and will want to wear. If you want to try more but are worried about the cost/other people not liking your choice (although I would say unless your job, etc., demands otherwise wear what you like and don't worry about what others think) then samples are the way to go.

I also tend to gravitate towards the "heavy rotation"-model, with certain peculiarities straying for sure from my regular preferences,
but sometimes I tend to limit my most worn frags to a limited range of favorites: not just for cost reasons, but indeed, it obtains a similar effect by means of few highlights

Unfortunately I am at the polar opposite!

I have given away about 40 bottles over the last week. Almost all of those were 90% or more full. Fragrances were overtaking my life and there are far more important things. I was buying just for the sake of having another slightly different version of something I already had. Funny, I got more enjoyment out of giving them away to friends and colleagues than having them sitting at home gathering dust. The temptation to buy more colgnes has now passed and I appreciate my (still sizeable collection) much more.

I too gave away nearly thirty bottles this summer, mostly mainstream from earlier days. Haven't missed one of them since.

Unfortunately I'm also the opposite. My only thoughts are to the fragrances I have that I don't wear. I'm going to have to find a good home for some of them because I feel it's a waste to have them just sitting there.

My collection was nearing 50 and I've decided to start pairing down, too. I came into the hobby as a deconstructionist - I loved analyzing scents and their compositions and I'd fall for many scents that had great compositions but ultimately were not "me." I bought them and would wear them once in awhile. As the frequency between wearings grew larger, I slowly began to realize why I wasn't wearing some of my "great scents." They just weren't me. I know that sounds like such and obvious observation, but it really did (and still does, sometimes) get lost in the mix when your primary mode of searching and sampling is through analysis and deconstruction, as mine always has been.

I think that same deconstruction is what allows me to not only love, but consider accomplished compositions, some scents that would seem mundane after a cursory sampling, such as Bvlgari Man.Regarding Bvlgari Man, I find the use of pear and lotus to transition into a 'white woods' accord of sandalwood and a clean cedar (and a hint of that steam cleaned aldehyde present in Mugler Cologne), alongside the simultaneous green progression of violet leaf into vetiver, and all of it being supported by a semi-gourmand base with one of the best honey notes I've ever smelled expertly woven in to be a truly genius composition. Yes, it's a bit synthetic, but it's also very smooth and has a ton of layers within its easily likable exterior. Ok, enough rambling!

I too tend to buy great compositions, often weird or intriguing ones that later do not see much use..
SculptureofSoul, I wish I had your nose, experience and dicipline!

Thanks Trax . It's just a matter of time and diligence, really!

Ah, the joys of tangents!I forgot to finish my original thought in the post above. I recently sold C&S Oxford and Cambridge as well as Erolfa, and I still consider both of them to be some of the finest compositions in their genre/classification. I figured, however, how can I miss something I only wear maybe once or twice a year? So far, I have not felt a moment of sellers-remorse, and have used the money to pick up a decant of an odd and intriguing composition that I actually do feel is me (the wonderfully weird M/Mink by Byredo), as well as many samples. I've realized that I really do have what I consider to be the best "me" scents in many categories and that's before I prune my wardrobe. While there is always the chance of finding something that bests my current favorite in a given category, or opens my mind to the idea of a new category (such as H&G's Askew, a scent which made me realize I don't have any overtly masculine spring-oriented scents), I - more or less - feel that I've found the holy grail wardrobe. Or at least, I've managed to find most of the pieces of the grail which have been scattered far and wide, sometimes in the least obvious of places.

What I realized most of all on this journey is that it matters not what anyone thinks of a scent I love or admire. Did Turin slam it in the guide? Is disregarded here at BN or by the YT or blogging community? Who cares? I don't - not any longer. The only opinion that matters is my own and that of those closest to me, and only in the sense that I'd not wear something they hate or are allergic to if they brought such to my attention, it wouldn't change my opinion of the scent itself.

Again, that sounds like another obvious observation but I find that it rarely holds true here - or in any endeavor of aficionados, collectors, or people who are just getting into the nitty-gritty, nerdy depths of any subculture. On a practical level that means one thing: sample as much as you can and truly endeavor to keep an open mind to anything - even the latest Hugo Boss. At the end of the day, as so many are fond of saying, fragrance molecules don't have a gender. They also don't have a brand name. That's all meta-information that while useful in narrowing things down - such as just what do I spend my sampling budget on - has no real bearing on the immediacy of the moment when you are experiencing a composition for the first, or fiftieth time.

M/Mink really is an intriguing oddball ;D
I have a very emotional attachment to all my Lolita Lempicka's as the perfume craze for me, started with them. I rarely use them, but have yet been unable to let them go.
Then there are scents that I really like, but my boyfriend is very allergic to (Opus II for one..) and I keep thinking I will use them when he's not around for a few days. Rarely happens
I dream of one day having 20-30 bottles of only the most loved ones. I read somewhere on this site, I think it was a sales thread, a member said something like "While I do love and still use perfume, it is no longer front and center in my life" and for a second there I felt abit envious.. I want perfume to add scent to my experiences, not to be my experiences alone, as they have been for quite some time now. I am the happiest when so many fun challenging things happen that I barely have time to notice what I'm wearing, so.. I don't know, just thinking out loud.
But I do collect other stuff, fountainpens etc, where the growing number of items do not stress me. SO I can relate to those who want a huge collection too!

I need your nose and especially your discipline!

I'm still in my trying out/purchasing a lot phase, which, from what I've been reading here, is fairly typical. Plus, if one looks around, there are quite a few bargains to be had, which, I have to admit, I find hard to resist at times. I do weed out frags but am quite lenient for now, after all there is no need to rush things. They won't go off (hopefully) and, in my experience, can easily be sold again without much loss (sometimes even a gain).
Choosing what to wear I don't find much of a problem, though sometimes I end up wearing the fragrances I'm on the fence about the more than the ones I enjoy the most because I want to explore them further.

Which adds to the pleasure and satisfaction when buying.

I too bought alot in the start out phaze, but now having worn mostly the same three fragrances for over a month, I feel I could do with less ;D But I do agree about the pleasure and satisfaction of a good bargain! Irresistible..

I wear something different every day but I sometimes feel the same way ... I think I am making up for some type of void in my life, lol. I have a large rollerball collection which I put into a pretty coffee mug and I alternate each day. They are (relatively) inexpensive and don't seem to overpower anyone around me, plus they help me to de-stress.

I just bought a rambling assortment of small, weird bottles at an antique store. After I got them home, I realized, I was buying without thinking on that day. But I did have some gems in there, at least to me. Moontide, by Bourjois, a 1950's vintage, and its sister, On the Wind. Both never opened and even have a little plastic holder for both bottles to nestle inside. As I am new at collecting and flexing my "nose," I have no idea if they are classics or junk. But. I like them.

And that seems to be how I will move forward. For one thing, these little purchases were affordable. But I did buy too many of them without thinking. From now on, I will only buy new or vintage if 1. I LOVE the juice and/or 2. I LOVE the bottle and/or 3. It is a wonderful find.

Which means I need to go through my current mess of a collection and start asking the same questions I used to declutter my life: Keep those things that I use or love. Let other things find new homes. I gave away ten bottles this week to friends who loved the scents. And I started a new diary, an entry for each of the scents I keep. I will note down when/where I got it, why I bought it, what I love. What I feel when I sniff the bottle. How I feel when I have it on my skin. How it feels during that first burst of scent to those final lovely ghosts of the fragrance that linger on.

A long answer....to say: I am going to be more a bit more selective with my collection by knowing, if it comes into my life, I am going to have to care enough about it to write about the fragrance and my experiences of it. That might slow me down a bit! Or not....

Same as me

Like many of you when I first started down this fragrant journey, I purchased a lot of fragrances. I wanted to have a complete collection--all the "5 stars", if you will. And if I found a 4-5 star at a bargain price (at discount retailers) I would snap it up unsniffed. But after a while I found that I did not really love some of them. And that it was wasted money--even at a bargain price. It would have been better to sample these or get small decants. To have been able to experience them would have been enough. So I recently began selling/swapping a lot of stuff. With the money, I invested in bottles I really wanted. In most cases buying one much more expensive fragrance that replaced 5 cheaper ones I did not wear.

Yes, it hurts a bit to shell out $500 on MdO Oud. But I LOVE it much more than the Delrae's, assorted designer and other niche bottles I sold in order to acquire it. So it's all good. My collection is smaller today. But I know what I like now. And would rather spend a couple hundred dollars on one fragrance I love than on several fragrances I kinda like.