How did YOU get into fragrances?

[Dil-Inn]

I would love to hear and share everyone's stories of how they got interested in fragrances.

For me, I got into them by coming across a YouTube video, after watching it, I immediately went and blind ordered Burberry London(it was in the middle of fall I believe), and I wore this stuff pretty much everyday as it was my only cologne and I loved it, after getting my first compliment, it really sparked the interest into getting into more scents and knowing what scent is good for what occasion.

So that's how it happened for me, now you guys go ahead and share your stories of how you got into fragrances

[adam090273]

Many years ago I was in the department store and was waiting for someone. While I was waiting I stumbled into the men's fragrance section. I saw a new release called Cool Water, the bottle looked cool so I tried it. Went back a week or so later and purchased it. Wore it for a few years with Polo Sport I think and from there I developed a hobby. There was no YouTube then, no internet at all. Mobile phones were like a briefcase.

[RedRaider430]

Strangely enough, I stumbled upon my fragrance hobby innocently enough and quite unintentionally.

I was looking around Fragrancenet.....literally just clicking on various fragrances and reading the reviews. I clicked on a Creed cologne (I don't remember which one and I had never even heard of "Creed" before) and started reading all the rave reviews from everyone. Some guy's g/f went wild about what he was wearing and asked him what it was. He said, "It's CREED!" So I was led down the Creed path....."What IS this 'Creed,' I thought to myself."

Then I started clicking on all the Creed fragrances and reading the reviews. Eventually, doing searches on Google for all the various colognes led me to Basenotes.....and we all know what happens when you start reading Basenotes. Unintended consequences!

Welcome to Basenotes, Dil-Inn!

[Arij]

My aunt who worked as an SA at a huge department store "downtown" gave me Azzaro Pour Homme for Christmas of 93'.

[Fun Fact]: I recalled the year for this response, by referring to the date of UFC 1: November 12, 1993.

[ClaireV]

I wore Burberry Classic for Women every day for five years. Then one day, I was in Rome airport in January 2012 waiting for a flight and while lolling around the duty free, I saw a line up of beautiful cloudy glass bottles in green and blue, like the bottle and decided to spray some Un Jardin Mediteranee on my wrist (because I live in the Mediterranean and I somehow thought that was the only one I was "supposed" to try). I was blown away. I looked at the price sticker - 70 euros for 50mls, you have GOT to be kidding me, I thought. I was shocked. Back then, I had never considered that you could spend more than 45 euros on a bottle of perfume. But I kept thinking and thinking about the scent and it haunted me until I broke down and took out my wallet. That was my first step into the rabbit hole.

The second and most serious step was when I read one of my favorite beauty writers in the Guardian, Sally Hughes, wax lyrical about this perfume that she always used and how it was so gorgeous and nobody else used it and she got compliments all the time. It was Phylosykos. In the comments section, several people chimed in to say, yes, wasn't it great and that people on Basenotes and Fragrantica thought highly of it.....Basenotes? Fragrantica? I logged in that very hour, and well, that was the start of it all.

My first trip back to Rome, a year later, I made my first niche purchases: Phylosykos and Borneo 1834. That was in January 2013.

[Colin Maillard]

I've always liked scents since my childhood, my mom wore great "mom's" scents (Calèche, Shalimar, n.5), soon I wanted to have mines too, and lucky for me, she helped me in getting some good ones - it was the '90s, I recall a gorgeous Rocco Barocco fougère, Fendi Theorema Uomo, then later M7 when it first came out. I soon learned to dislike crap "sport" "fresh" stuff. Then around my 20s I just explored perfume shops and discovered the "niche", back then I did not even have Internet at home so I just wandered in Milan's niche shops with only my nose and a notebook. When I finally had an Internet connection it was all obviously easier, I got into Luca Turin's stuff and so on, then eBay, forums, Basenotes (which I read since years although I signed up only last year).

[Ken_Russell]

A combination between receiving the first designer fragrance present and buying the first fragrance-related book, both when I was 14.

But I was interested by fragrances way before, passionate about fragrance stores long before I can remember how old I first was and after these two decisive events, it was only a matter of time until I became even more interested by these stores, by testing and eventually buying more and more fragrances. Owning some fragrances already and wanting to know a few "second opinions" about some of my favorites, Google search results brought me to BN about a decade ago.

[Trilby Lark]

Around 2006, a coworker was wearing Jo Malone Blue Agava and Cacao and I fell in love with it. At the time it was extremely hard to find and I ended up getting it at Nieman Marcus while on a trip to Las Vegas. I wore it almost exclusively for years. Later, a friend invited me to a Nordstrom fragrance event where I discovered Annick Goutal and Tom Ford among other, at the time, obscure brands. Finally, I was investigating solifores and stumbled on Basenotes. My first niche purchase was Volutes. The rest, they say, is history.

[UKisGR8]

When I was 16, my high school class took a trip to New York and I went to a Macy's for the very first time with my girlfriend. Somehow we went into the fragrance section and I ran into a bottle of Polo Sport. Being a highschooler at the time, I could only afford the small bottle because I wanted to be able to eat scheduled meals the rest of the trip. I was in love with Polo Sport and she was too. I later bought a bigger bottle when I graduated high school. Then for about 5 years, I really only wore one scent until I bought Tommy Bahama one day on a whim passing through Dillard's. 1 scent became 2, 2 became 5, 5 became 25 and and now that I'm 35 years old, I have around 150 bottles and 50 or so samples.

[magnus611]

Since my adolescent stage, I first experience it through the man in my family and since then have always atleast had a bottle or two of some designer scent since I was like 14yrs of age, but it's been a couple of years since I decided to expand my horizons through friends, basenotes, fragantica , blogs etc etc. since and early age I've always been very aware of scents , their notes etc as my nose has been very detailed at smelling notes be at natural or what not : a canny ability to detect them when some don't even sense them at all, it's so strange sometimes ... for example sweat and other sorts of exuding vapors......

[andym72]

My wife (back then, my fiancé) took me into the smallest Penhaligons store in London, and got me to try everything.

These days she tells me if she'd known taking me in there was creating a monster, she wouldn't have done it :-)


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[hednic]

Many many years ago while living in France from a friend.

[sjg3839]

From my father. R.I.P. Pops

[mixerscent]

I used to like fragrances back in the mid-80's then the interest faded. The interest was somehow ignited after Japanese kitchen knives led to shaving, which led to fragrances. Two years ago I tried Diptyque in Tomorrowland, which led to Basenotes and dare I say it Creed, and then to stuff that just keeps getting more interesting.

[scooptn]

Also many years ago I was drawn to the popular scents. In more recent years, as I developed an interest in higher end grooming products, quality fragrances appealed to me as the finishing note to a daily routine.

[Randall Flagg]

I was always someone who only had 2 or 3 scents at any one time (maximum). These were generally crappy Calvin Klein/Boss scents. The only decent one I'd ever owned was Fahrenheit. At one point I managed to run out of all 3 simultaneously. I then decided to look for something a bit different but didn't know what to try. I googled "fragrance reviews" and found basenotes. The first review I read was Green Irish Tweed and the rest is history.

[Gallagher1985]

I was interested in a beautiful girl and, to try to impress her a little bit during the conversation, I wore a few sprays of 212. As it is incredibly irritating to my nose, I had to find a substitute to this CH´s frag. The rest is obvious: could not stop buying/sampling/sniffing those beatiful frags out there.

[stargarden]

mom was an avon lady

All during the 80s I was touring in bands, and enjoyed smelling nice on stage and in the club, so it was some classic 80s powerhouses and Chanels and funny enough Romeo Gigli Por Uomo - which I miss, need to find a vintage bottle.

It wasn't until recently that I got the newer Hanae Mori HiM and decided to google reviews of it, and found Basenotes.

My wallet has never been the same

[hedonist222]

pretty much the whole world sans north America & parts of Europe use perfume as part of their lifestyle

[jasonx]

I've always wore scents when I was a teenager. First were the deodorants to mainly cover body odor, then CK Truth, and then CKOne which were bought for me by my aunt. After a year wearing CKOne, I wanted a new fragrance so I went out and sample, that's also when the very first youtube reviewers made their videos so instead of just one or two bottle, my journey since then has never stopped.

[bigbz]

I had bought a few bottles here and there when I was in my early 20's,(curve,polo sport,Hugo)but didn't really get bit by the fragrance bug until I went to Dallas to visit a friend in 2008. He had this cologne called "Le Male" in a very strange bottle...and that's all it took, from that moment on I was on the hunt(and still am)for the holy grail of fragrances!lol

[döfä91]

I was working in a warehouse as a security guard in the 80's. The warehouse was the biggest one in my home town with quite a large fragrance department. I saw people testing and buying fragrances. I think that time men uset to wear more fragrances than today and it was usual to have a signature scent. So i was tempted to search mine. I had a good opportunity to test various fragrances during hours

[G.303]

From my father. R.I.P. Pops

This is how I got started also... My Dad passed almost 30 years ago... I'll never forget watching Him shave... Then He would put on His cologne... Avon, Old Spice, British Sterling, English Leather (my fave) and Pierre Cardin... He planted the seed of having a collection of fragrances... I do miss Him to this day!!! And will as long as I live!!!

[SCENTMASTER "OG"]

I remember when I was in 9th grade 14 yrs old,I would wear my dads colognes,my dad use to wear BRUT,OLD SPICE,ENGLISH LEATHER,but he didn't use them that often but when he wore them,they use to smell so good,so I so I got it from my dad.Oh yeah one other thing "GUERLAIN ROCKS"(L'INSTANT #1)

[Ghosst]

My friend, you can find him on this site as Jajuicy. One day when we were chilling in SF, he dragged me to a cologne store and my collection and hobby has taken off ever since

[BRM85282]

I have always been "into" fragrances from as early as I can remember, but I think I can really pin point it to one time when I was a child and my grandfather bought me a bottle of Pierre Cardin.

[CT3]

I got into fragrance from my pops. He let me use his cologne when I was just a kid, and I've been hooked ever since.

[Sniffers]

I guess I always was fascinated by fragrance...as a liitle kid
I would sneak my dads Old Spice and 4711...then I remember
having my own Brut, Hai Karate, and English Leather...
As a teenager I got Drakkar Noir because all the girls that
hung around loved it...I would buy all my girlfriends Tabu
because the smell of it was totally intoxicating and exciting to me...
Then in I think the early 80's I just started collecting...Kouros,
Lapidus, Pasha, Nobile, Tenere,Spazio Krizia, Opium...had
maybe about 30 bottles total...over the years actually used
them all up until about 4 years ago just had a little bit of Opium
and Grey Flannel left... Somehow I ran across Basenotes. and
Fragrantica...Next thing I know I am the proud owner of over
200 fragrances...All hail Basenotes...I am your humble servant...

[SpentaZ]

In high school my mom bought me Bvlgari BLV and said 'Just wear it'. (My BO sucks so bad even I have anti-perspirant on?)

It smells terrible to me(no offense) but my mom force me to do it so I'm like okay, mom.

In the university I pretty much always in the Dorm, never wanted to go home. with no mom around so I don't have to wear that BLV anymore. But the habit of putting fragrances on still lingers.

I go ahead in the fragrance zone of department store, test something, pick L'Homme Libre up and wears it since then.

Now I've got 19 bottles with me. Going to be 20 by the next month. I like fragrances but BLV is just what I really, really hate.

[Francolino]

a couple of presents in my teens..Balafre, Jules..Azzaro Ph..mid 80's late high school years
got me Davidoff 1984..in early 20's
than got off the bus
signature scents with my first steady job..
got off the bus for 5yrs
than back on the wagon with a vengeance!

[Darjeeling]

Always hated fragrance. Got over my allergies and then came across Tam Dao and 2 Man. Realized fragrance didn't have to make you smell like the department store fragrance section or cologne guy and it grew from there, turbocharged by hanging out here.

[yarn]

12 years old, just about to go skiing for the first time and my Mum gave me a bottle of Blue Stratos Sport - cant even remember what it smelled like?

From that moment on I have been into scents

[Souryu]

As a teenager you're bound to be interested in the other gender at some point. You start approaching them and in my case you realize that, if they wear a fragrance, it smells so amazingly good that you want some too. And that's where it all began.

[SCENTMASTER "OG"]

Many years ago I was in the department store and was waiting for someone. While I was waiting I stumbled into the men's fragrance section. I saw a new release called Cool Water, the bottle looked cool so I tried it. Went back a week or so later and purchased it. Wore it for a few years with Polo Sport I think and from there I developed a hobby. There was no YouTube then, no internet at all. Mobile phones were like a briefcase.

Like briefcases,LOL,and so TRUE,how time has changed,smh...And yes I agree,"BRING OUR GIRLS BACK HOME,PLEASE"....

[SCENTMASTER "OG"]

I wore Burberry Classic for Women every day for five years. Then one day, I was in Rome airport in January 2012 waiting for a flight and while lolling around the duty free, I saw a line up of beautiful cloudy glass bottles in green and blue, like the bottle and decided to spray some Un Jardin Mediteranee on my wrist (because I live in the Mediterranean and I somehow thought that was the only one I was "supposed" to try). I was blown away. I looked at the price sticker - 70 euros for 50mls, you have GOT to be kidding me, I thought. I was shocked. Back then, I had never considered that you could spend more than 45 euros on a bottle of perfume. But I kept thinking and thinking about the scent and it haunted me until I broke down and took out my wallet. That was my first step into the rabbit hole.
The second and most serious step was when I read one of my favorite beauty writers in the Guardian, Sally Hughes, wax lyrical about this perfume that she always used and how it was so gorgeous and nobody else used it and she got compliments all the time. It was Phylosykos. In the comments section, several people chimed in to say, yes, wasn't it great and that people on Basenotes and Fragrantica thought highly of it.....Basenotes? Fragrantica? I logged in that very hour, and well, that was the start of it
My first trip back to Rome, a year later, I made my first niche purchases: Phylosykos and Borneo 1834. That was in January 2013.

Great story....

[SCENTMASTER "OG"]

mom was an avon lady

All during the 80s I was touring in bands, and enjoyed smelling nice on stage and in the club, so it was some classic 80s powerhouses and Chanels and funny enough Romeo Gigli Por Uomo - which I miss, need to find a vintage bottle.
It wasn't until recently that I got the newer Hanae Mori HiM and decided to google reviews of it, and found Basenotes.
My wallet has never been the same

I know what you mean about the wallet,but what a GREAT addiction,LOL

[SCENTMASTER "OG"]

This is how I got started also... My Dad passed almost 30 years ago... I'll never forget watching Him shave... Then He would put on His cologne... Avon, Old Spice, British Sterling, English Leather (my fave) and Pierre Cardin... He planted the seed of having a collection of fragrances... I do miss Him to this day!!! And will as long as I live!!!

My condolences G303,just keep those memories and the colognes,he's DEFINETLY watching,ALL THE TIME...

[yarn]

My aunt who worked as an SA at a huge department store "downtown" gave me Azzaro Pour Homme for Christmas of 93'.

[Fun Fact]: I recalled the year for this response, by referring to the date of UFC 1: November 12, 1993.

the same day Art Jimmerson wore one glove.....

[lanvinelle]

A visit to my pen-friend in London got me into perfumes as far as I remember. I admired a *huge* gorgeous Shalimar extrait bottle (probably a factice) on her dresser.
I think she and her mother were perfumistas as her mother gifted me also with a bottle of Sophia by Coty, possibly one of the first celebrity scents.I didn't like the scent too much, a deep chypre à la Private Collection which was too mature for my teenage tastes but I felt very grown-up and luxurious with it.:-) I used up every drop of it.

[Theo]

I was in junior high and high school during the 80's. I used to like sneaking splashes of Jovan Musk and Old Spice from my dad, but I remember buying my first bottle of fragrance which was none other than Drakkar Noir with my paper route money! I was probably 14 or 15 years old at the time. Drakkar had just been released, it was extremely ground breaking, and the girls loved it, haha.

But seriously, at that time it was no longer the cologne that your dad wore, it was something new for the younger generation that was all ours. It was my signature scent until Acqua Di Gio came out which obviously created another legacy. In my 20's I worked at Nordstrom and always enjoyed sampling fragrances and it's really been a continuum ever since.

[JimmyP]

When I was in high school, we kids used to spray colognes on clothes so that our parents would not detect any cigarettes smoke. That was back in the nineties.. Heh, fun times.

At the same time, I think I was kinda drawn to fragrances since like 12 or something. Even before I started smoking. Hard to remember the exact instance.

[salim96]

I grew up with perfumes so i am no stranger to them.
But as a hobby, I was in a shopping mall in 2008 and as I looked to my left, there was Amouage store,
So I told myself what is this amouage everybody is so scared to buy (everybody believed that it was very expensive beyond believe, most people do not even try to go inside and ask!) so I went there, got reflection & oud, and from there Booooooom

[Francolino]

I grew up with perfumes so i am no stranger to them.
But as a hobby, I was in a shopping mall in 2008 and as I looked to my left, there was Amouage store,
So I told myself what is this amouage everybody is so scared to buy (everybody believed that it was very expensive beyond believe, most people do not even try to go inside and ask!) so I went there, got reflection & oud, and from there Booooooom

wow! nice!

[Preston H]

English leather. It came in a plastic bottle with a wooden cap. It was my brothers. I was too young to get my own fragrances so I used to use his after he left for school. Blue jeans, black jeans by Versace. Acqua Di Gio, eternity by Calvin Klein fueled my passion for fragrance. Where I was from, all the cool guys smelled good so that's what I wanted to emulate