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How old were you when you started to get interest in fragrances?

post #1 of 51
2/14/13 at 1:33pm
Thread Starter 
I've always loved fragrances, ever since I was a little kid. I remember rushing into every fragrance store available when going shopping with my parents. They always thought I was crazy

But it all started for real when I was 16 years old. The fragrance that got me into this was Ck One Shock for Him. I remember smelling it in a store and went home to search for it online to see what others had to say about it. I noticed different fragrances sites, reviewers on youtube. It was like opening a door to a new world. I knew that fragrances was going to be my thing. I was hooked, and I still am.

My collection is small, 15 bottles as of yet, all of them are sweet sugary gourmands!
I'm 18 years old, and I know that fragrances is what I want to spend the rest of my life working with!

So, how old were you when your interest in fragrances started?
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post #2 of 51
2/14/13 at 1:34pm
Interested - 18 years or so.

Obsessed - mid 30's.
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post #3 of 51
2/14/13 at 1:38pm
Around 14 I started to have a full-scale fragrance hobby: just received my first designer fragrance and it made me passionate for more.

Moderately interested: even when I was 6, 7 or 8 (except one headache caused by bad fragrances around the same age), I was genuinely fascinated by the finer, smoother, more complex colognes grownups were wearing and even at that I age I must have known/though (even subconsciously) "this is what I will do, what I will use and I will smell like someday".
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post #4 of 51
2/14/13 at 1:44pm
Around 13. My pops used a few frags, and I would take a few sprays of one of his often before going to school.
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post #5 of 51
2/14/13 at 1:53pm
Around 12 year old I used to secretly wear my brothers CK One and fathers Obsession to school. Later on I stuck to one fragrance, Boss Bottled throughout my adulthood. Totally oblivious there was this wonderful world of fragrances till a year ago.
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post #6 of 51
2/14/13 at 1:55pm
Always asked for cologne for Christmas since I was a small child. Got serious about it when I discovered BN in 2002/2003 (in my early 20's).
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post #7 of 51
2/14/13 at 1:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sjg3839 View Post

My pops used a few frags, and I would take a few sprays of one of his often before going to school.

That makes us two then!
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post #8 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:11pm
20 years old.
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post #9 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:14pm
Er, I got into it about 3 months ago. I'm 32 and a self confessed late bloomer!
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post #10 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:26pm
18 years old.
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post #11 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:34pm
20.
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post #12 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:37pm
19. I'm 21 now.
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post #13 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:46pm
Oh, I'd say about 11 to start (was given a bottle of Aqua Velva and a bottle of Jade East by my older brother), but took on an interest of my own at about age 14. This was the late '80's, really a great time for scents. Not tons of nameplates, but the department stores were filled with brands that had tons of history. Everything back then had backbone and was potentially polarizing. Flankers were just about nonexistant. It was an amazing time.
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post #14 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:49pm
15 years old (now I am 32)

It was in 1995 when my parents bought me Hugo by Hugo Boss.
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post #15 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:54pm
About 14 or 15 and I was only interested in the older more well developed girls we hung out with who were not at all shy about telling me that 14 or 15 sprays was not at all attractive. Took me a year or two to calm down.
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post #16 of 51
2/14/13 at 2:59pm
when i first smelled allure homme about 8 years ago. at that time i had under 10 scents. now i am approaching 300 not including samples and decants!!!
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post #17 of 51
2/14/13 at 3:08pm
was probably like 6 years old, i allways had good sense of smell...and remember my favourite teacher...was 80s wore some perfume...it was soo classy ...then later i started stealing perfumes from my mum...
i remember she used to get Anais anais as a present...and allways that same frag, so i wore it a lot ...then i remember Angel ...then Naomi Campble 1st scent i bought myself, jeez thats good!...
then i went into one empty phase...where i liked more "non scented perfumes"...something light...then ......i figured out all perfumes are the same and its the waste of money....i visited only mainstream perfume shops....then i bought Dior cherie after searching for months for something that will justify spending money on it ....and then nothing again becasue llast search was too exhausting....

and then 1 year ago, discovered niche shop with Amouages, i bought like 18 frags in less then a year!!, before i felt bad if i had 3 of them at one time ...and i blame it on perfume forums! i would not get that idea to own so many myself hehe
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post #18 of 51
2/14/13 at 3:13pm
Since my teens I've always had around a dozen or so bottles of various designer colognes (mainly received as gifts). But now I've almost tripled my collection in the span of 3-4 months thanks to this forum.
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post #19 of 51
2/14/13 at 3:47pm
Parents wore Fragrance (still do )

I remember dad's Brut, i was six. Mom had Miss Dior, and a little amber bottle of patchouli. When dad left he left behind a bottle of Monsieur Rochas. I wore it to a party when I was eleven, and it didn't lasted. By the time we got there it was already gone. Later I found out it was an Aftershave, and learned the difference with the other concentrations.

Got some Avons (the classic Corvette shaped green glass bottle and Ginseng, I believe it was called and had a red dragon painted around the bottle).....
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post #20 of 51
2/14/13 at 4:22pm
I've always been fascinated with fragrances as my relatives had a lot around. I would guess that I started at the age of 3-4.

Opium, Poison, Antaeus, Pour Monsieur, No. 5, Polo, Drakkar Noir...etc. All the heavy hitters. I remember they would go on trips and bring back sets of perfume miniatures just to give to the kids to play with. Growing up, in the back of my head I've always wanted to go searching for my Holy Grail. It wasn't until 2 weeks ago (I'm 24 now) that I actually started on my scent journey and I am having the most fun in the world!
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post #21 of 51
2/14/13 at 6:24pm
1 year. Almost to the day. Went out to replace my used up bottle of Hugo Element last February. Never heard of Creed, 1 Million, or Acqua di Gio. Now one yer later I have over 130 bottles, dozens of splits, few hundred samples... Yes, I did pick up that Hugo Element also. Not sure what triggered what in my brain...
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post #22 of 51
2/14/13 at 6:41pm
13 - That was in 1964 - you do the math......
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post #23 of 51
2/14/13 at 8:09pm
5-6 I think - my grandfather's friend used to make ether based parfum's in my city back in India (it actually wasn't a city at that stage in my life).
21 - Collection started from day 1 of my 1st job.
34 / Now - thinking of getting a 2nd job to keep up the expenses on parfums
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post #24 of 51
2/15/13 at 12:40am
Thread Starter 
Great stories guys! Thank you for sharing them, keep 'em up!
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post #25 of 51
2/15/13 at 1:49am
I can remember my father using CK Eternity - I can't have been more than three years old at the time. I distinctly remember him because of that smell, and I could tell where he had been in the house, when he was in and when he was out traveling. That stuck with me, and I've always liked fragrances, BUT I didn't really start it as a hobby until two years ago. Up to then I'd just this and that, mostly the odd Boss or Calvin Klein (and Kouros when I was 13-14, what the hell ...). I also remember my dad starting to use Aqua Di Parma Colonia and Creed Original Vetiver a long time ago. I had no idea what they were all about at that time, but I do remember them smelling fantastic. No surprise I have them in my collection now, I guess.

Anyways, a very good friend of mine entered the fragrance hobby about two and a half years ago, and I got to smell Aventus because of him, and I was basically sold - this at the age of 28. I'd never experienced such a fragrance with such a depth and broad specter of AWESOME. That experience really hit home, and I purchased my first niches not many weeks after, in addition to receiving my own Aventus as a Christmas present. From there on it's just been a rush of great fragrances, and I'm happy I've been fortunate enough to pick up many of the perfumes I have in my collection today.
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post #26 of 51
2/15/13 at 2:16am
I really didn't like fragrances until around 40! Now I have around 40 bottles!
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post #27 of 51
2/15/13 at 3:54am
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Can't remember exactly, but it was pre-teens-ish. 11 or 12 maybe even 13.
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post #28 of 51
2/15/13 at 4:35am
I was at kinder. Weird, I know.
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post #29 of 51
2/15/13 at 4:44am
About 15 when I began taking an interest, but I did not really zero in on actively looking for new fragrances until I was in my early thirties.
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post #30 of 51
2/15/13 at 4:48am
My umbilical cord was perfumed.
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post #31 of 51
2/15/13 at 5:42am
Started at the age of 12(circa 1994).
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post #32 of 51
2/15/13 at 6:11am
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Intrested 16 years. First was more into fashion. Now I'm in my 30ies and I can say that collecting fragrances still is less pricy than being a fashion adict!

So I'm very happy now!
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post #33 of 51
2/15/13 at 7:03am
I'm 29 now, and I was about 19 when it all started. I would smell Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male on many of the guys at my school, and I loved the smell, but I had no idea what the cologne was. One day, I sat next to a guy who I thought was wearing the unknown cologne, so I asked him what it was. Joop Pour Homme. So I bought it. Before I finished that bottle, I got a little tired of it and wanted to replace it with something else, so I started searching online for other fragrances. That's when I came across perfumeemporium, which had many user reviews on many different colognes. I would spend a lot of time reading about these fragrances, and then going to the Macy's to try them. Eventually, I came across Basenotes, and the rest is history. So that was how I first got into fragrances. So really, we have Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male to thank. :-)
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post #34 of 51
2/15/13 at 7:12am
I developed a small interest last year at the age of 23. My dad always uses powerhouse fragrances like Quorum, Drakkar Noir and Aramis. I tried out Drakkar Noir, loved it and bought a 30ml bottle. When it ran out, I wanted to try something different, so I went to a department store and as soon as I smelled D&G The One, I just HAD to have it. I had no idea whatsoever about projection and longetivity at the time, all I knew was that it smelled great. After buying it, I started reading up on it and it lead me to BN. Had I read up on it earlier, I probably wouldn't have bought it lol.

That is when my obsession started and now I've got about 10 different bottles, plenty of decants, and many more samples .
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post #35 of 51
2/15/13 at 7:51am
Well it started in high school I guess around 14yrs old. Started getting into it more by the age of 25!
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post #36 of 51
2/15/13 at 8:27am
12 or so.
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post #37 of 51
2/15/13 at 10:30am
I started to wear fragrances when i was 10 but before, when i was a younger child, i used to "prepare" sort of brutal botanic concoctions mixing flowers and plants from the garden of my mum (really angry for that).
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post #38 of 51
2/15/13 at 10:48am
A kind old lady, perfume shop owner, used to give me Guerlain samples and miniatures when I was more or less 8.. It all began then!

I started getting into niche perfumery about 16 years ago, but I've been seriously expanding my collection only in the past two years.
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post #39 of 51
2/15/13 at 11:22am
Interested - 17.

Obsessed - 25.
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post #40 of 51
2/15/13 at 11:43am
By age 12 I had a signature scent - Dante Original. I’d spend my allowance/paper route/odd job money on it. One day at the mall I had just bought a new bottle and was excitedly taking it out of the bag to show my best friend when it slipped out of my hands and smashed on the sidewalk. I looked down in shock and disbelief. The universe contracted and focused on that stain on the concrete, the glass shards, the severed label. It was an existential moment. “That’s the best-smelling sidewalk I’ve ever smelled,” my friend said.
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post #41 of 51
2/15/13 at 11:46am
Interested - 17.

Obsessed - 25.
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post #42 of 51
2/15/13 at 11:49am
Started to like frags when I was about 10. Brut, Jovan Musk, Mandate, Yardley Gold, Hallmark by Lentheric, Tabac! Hi Karate, Blue Stratos. Have always had 2 or 3 bottles, but wasn't until Sep 2012 at 36, that I started to collect. Now have 30 bottles,which is about the perfect number for me.
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post #43 of 51
2/15/13 at 11:54am
I remember my mother kissing me goodnight from forever before she went to supper. Her hair was all pinned up and her long soft gloves caressed my face, her necklaces tickling my nose as she bent to my bedside. She always had a cloud of scent around her and it was left with me as she left. She was so glamorous and so beautiful. Long elegant evening dresses and long sparkly earrings.

I used to always make rose petal perfume in a jam jar as a child. My grandmother gave me my own very tiny bottle of Je Reviens by Worth when I was fairly young. I remember it had a tiny pouch it slipped into and it was blue and round and flat. It was my prize possession and I would open it and sniff and never use much. My mother later gave me Blue Grass by Elizabeth Arden. When I was a teenager my fathers business was cosmetics. I dabbled in aromatherapy, I collected vintage frags and eventually became a trainee perfumer by default. I still make tinctures all the time and brew my own ingredients, so nothing has really changed from the beginning. Perfume is just always there in everything I have ever done and probably ever will do.

My oldest son since about the age of five could and can recognise the right people from items of clothing left in our house, even relative strangers who have only been once or twice but had scent on. His nose is quite extraordinary and he can smell the tiniest of scent trails and then know what the smell is.
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post #44 of 51
2/15/13 at 12:09pm
15 yr old. My mom bought me my first "real" fragrance, which was CD Eau de Sauvage. (What a coincidence, i just received this week a bottle of Paco Rabanne vintage; the scent my mom's man friend used to wear that time in the 80's)
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post #45 of 51
2/15/13 at 2:21pm
I was like 8 or 9 I think when my mother became an Avon sales representative , I was smelling all the stuff people bought from her.
Now I'm 20 .
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post #46 of 51
2/15/13 at 3:03pm
Early. As a kid, I would get doused with Pinaud Clubman at the barber shop and always got a squirt of Old Spice from my grandfather. Also liked my dad's Canoe.
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post #47 of 51
3/8/13 at 6:53pm
Interested - 14

Obsessed - 32
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post #48 of 51
3/8/13 at 6:57pm
When I was 14 I bought a bottle of Eddie Bauer cologne and wore Brut, and I absolutely loved them. It only took 15 years for me to come full circle and get into frags. But I guess now that I think about it the best memories of my youth are scent memories. Mom cooking roast dinner etc. The sense of smell has always moved me more than any other.
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post #49 of 51
3/8/13 at 6:58pm
39.
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post #50 of 51
3/8/13 at 7:03pm
I've been interested in fragrance since as a 6yr old I first saw the opening few minutes of Disney movie 'The Rescuers' when the classy lady mouse 'Miss Bianca' takes out an old bulb style bottle of perfume and spray it on herself, thereby announcing to the room that she is the classiest, most beautiful lady mouse in the room! ^_^ I know it sounds silly, but it was seriously at that moment that a love for the idea of perfume was born. When I was 14 I purchased my first bottle (a $10 rip off of angel at a showground!) which reminded me of my earlier interest and sparked some serious reading of perfume blogs and sites such as fragrantica and nowsmellthis.com. I begun doing trips to department store specifically for perfume smelling. Then, a few months ago, my boyfriend and I got talking about my interest in perfume, and he resolved to make me one! This first perfume (which he successfully gifted me a few weeks later) had lead to a full blown perfume making hobby/.obsession for both of us, and we now aim to make a range of perfumes to take to markets!
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post #51 of 51
3/8/13 at 8:19pm
when I was 18 I asked for something "different" at a Macy's perfume counter. I hated the "barbershop" smell, and the "woody ambers" that my father wore. The sales associate suggested Aramis 900. I just about did a back flip. LOL
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