Do you enjoy a perfume no matter what container it comes in?
Is the outer appearance of a perfume important to you?
Are you influenced in your buying decisions by bottle and packaging?
Are you happy with decants?
Do you think the scent is all that matters or is it a Gesamtkunstwerk? (German for a work of art in its entirety, inside and out)
My Answer:
I wrote about how I bought a perfume solely for its bottle last week (Hermès 24 Faubourg Quadrige Edition), so apparently the outer trappings of a scent do count for me. Chandler Burr’s NY MAD exhibition and his Untitled series on OpenSky do away with all the trimmings of a perfume, leaving the scent as is, for us to experience unencumbered by other influences.
I don’t agree with that concept. Of course there are bottles nobody thought much about and that would not win a design prize any time soon, but generally the bottle tries to express visually what it contains. The bottle is very important. The best, the rarest perfume looses so much of its identity once decanted into a soulless little vial. Of course I am happy those vials exist and that decanting and sharing exists, as it is often the only option to experience some perfumes, but when it comes to my collection, I am hardly satisfied with a decant. To fully enjoy my perfume, I need its visual input as well. I have been known not to buy perfumes I like, because I can’t stand the bottle. Shallow, I know, but I can’t help myself, I just lose interest, or if I never smelled it, I don’t develop any interest if the bottle is not enticing to me. I know, I’m awful…
How about you?
Olfactoria's Travels 
Yes, I am with you. To fully enjoy perfume, I need it in a original bottle, even the mini bottle is better than a “soulless” vial…
I’m glad to be in good company, behemot! Minis are a godsend indeed!
I love the original bottle. Even if I like the perfume but not the bottle, I buy the original bottle. Shallow but such a necessity for me!
I know you do! The entire Viennese perfume community (okay, that is you, Lady Jane Grey and I) loves bottles, which is a very bad thing for splitting. 😉
I know what you mean, dearest B. 😦 …
Hi..love your blog and have been a silent reader for a bit now 🙂
The bottle is almost as important as the perfume – just like you said, decanted into a sampler vial, I do feel it’s missing something. As a compromise for my wallet, I look for the miniature versions whenever possible…and save up for a truly special big bottle when possible. 🙂
Hello and welcome! I’m glad you decided to comment, Rads!
Mini bottles are a great invention.
Is it my perception, or do they become less and less with the new releases? I guess they are expensive to make, and perfume companies are not investing anymore (because the new perfume is being discontinued soon anyway. Ah, the cynicism… It’s not my most positive day today apparently, sorry. 😉 )
Uh-ohh..could you please delete my comment here! It shows my full name and I amn’t sure how that got added in there, but I would prefer if it was not 😦
I took the liberty to edit out your name, if that is okay?
Thanks a lot! I didn’t know you could that..the miracles of WordPress 😀
I collect an insane amount of sampler sets which have these miniature bottles – of course, that does mean that I have tons of mainstream/mass-market perfume samplers, but I am very new to perfumes, and I find it a nice way to experience a lot of what’s out there without spending/regretting too much. Something like that fabulous Hermes you reviewed recently, I would most definitely save up and buy the full size bottle!
😀
It is a good way to try many different things without breaking the bank.
A pretty bottle is like icing on a cake. It’s not exactly a dealbreaker for me, especially if the juice makes up for the lack of creativity of the bottle. I usually experience perfumes first through decants so I may have been conditioned to think that way. If I just happened to like what Womanity smells like (just an example), I’d still buy it but keep it stashed away where no one else can see.
That is a very sensible approach, Julie. There are some amazing perfumes out there after all, whose only fault is bad bottle design.
Really interesting question!Some of my most loved perfumes I use only for special occasions,I guess partly because I don’t want to lose that awestruck feeling,that total amazement at such beauty,so a 10ml decant lasts a long time!But lately,when I fall in love with a fragrance I seem to want the bottle as well…I liked Frederic Malle’s idea of ‘only the juice counts’,but Carnal Flower in a gorgeous bottle would be quite something!
Yes, Frederic Malle says only the juice counts, but his bottles are still gorgeous, so that helps. 🙂
I adore my Carnal Flower AND it’s bottle too.
I love having an original bottle of a fragrance but I usually don’t care for the bottle much. I mean I’m aesthetic person and I like pretty bottles but if I liked the perfume but the bottle was meh I would eventually buy this perfume.
When it comes to decants, I have nothing against them but I always make them a label that looks almost the same as the label on original flacon.
That is a great idea, a friend of mine does that too and the labels look great like that. I’m too much of a technical failure to even attempt that though… 😉
Oh, don’t say anything like that! If you tried I’m sure you’d achieve a goal.
It’s not easy to create a master decant or make an exquisite label.
You are so kind, Lukas! 🙂
I’m speaking from my own experience. Finding an efficient way of decanting took me a while and making a label is easier than placing it right on the bottle.
It is really the whole experience that makes a purchase extremely satisfactory for me: when juice and name and packaging are coherent (or coherently dissonant, if that makes sense!) and beautiful. And yet I do make allowances for good juices.
If the bottle is too ugly, though, I might not purchase (Amouage bottles? the early tauers? I recently HAD TO purchase a Montale, but I avoid looking too much at the bottle, when I use it ;)).
In the same way, a wonderful, iconic baccarat bottle with a great piece of fragrance history attached might spring a purchase even if the juice smells just “ok” or “interesting enough”…I’ll talk myself into it… and regret the purchase ever after
(a couple of these regrets have prevented me from buying a perfume just for the bottle -yet ! ;)) (also because I keep my bottles in their boxes, so their beauty should not be a major issue…).
Ha, yes, I didn’t even look at Tauer as long as he had the old bottles (I know!!!).
The whole experience is important after all!
I don’t care in what kind of a bottle a perfume I like a lot comes in. I just want the juice.
But there are bottles out there I want to have no matter the juice. 🙂 One of those being the black Ombre Rose bottle (if anyone knows how to get one, please let me know).
See, so you do like some bottles more than others…
If I see the black Ombre Rose, I’ll let you know.
I have never been dissuaded from a perfume by an ugly bottle (I of course applaud Parfums de Nicolai for the reasonable prices and wonderful scent, but would a new logo and label really break the bank?), but a beautiful bottle certainly adds temptation – Attrape Coeur being the ultimate example (although I have never quite succumbed). And they look so lovely lined up in my bedroom… and a Bee bottle would fit in so well…
I believe the scent is the work of Art, but like any Art its surroundings can enhance it or detract from it. The surrounding doesn’t change the Art in and of itself but it can affect your experience of it. You wouldn’t put a Michelangelo in a cheap plastic frame and hang it on a punk pink wall…
Oh Alexandra you are so right about the PdN bottles. I can’t help but feel a slight twinge of resentment everytime I pick up those cheap and nasty looking bottles…
Totally with you on the Nicolai issue.
And yes, bee bottles fit in fantastically just about anywhere. 😉
I live for beautiful and quirky things, furniture, antiques, clothes, homewares- everything! and perfume is certainly no exception. I know all my lovely bottles should be locked up in a dark and cool place, but the best I can manage is keeping my bedroom dark and rotating my seasonal selection 🙂
I think most perfume companies (well, sometimes) design the bottle to represent the ‘feel’ or ‘colour’/mood of the juice so aside from just loving the art that most bottles exhibit, I often choose a fragrance based on colour or mood or style.
I have many decants but as much as I love what’s in them, I tend to forget them easier.
It’s so nice to know that others find such delight in beautiful things 🙂
It i nice and I feel so much better hearing that others need the bottle as well for a “complete” experience.
I tend to overlook and actually forget my decants as well…
I thought I did not care for the packaging of a perfume, but when purchasing a bottle of Trussardi’s Uomo recently, was very clear that I wanted the bottle with the smart cardboard box, rather than the gift set which came in plastic wrapping. The sales assistant was rather surprised, pointing out the joys of shower gel I would be receiving for the same price, but I’d take the box anytime! Other bottle joys – Le Male, JPG.
I love the Fleur du Male bottle especially, the innocent white makes it even more appealing.
I totally understand you wanting the original box too!
It is one of the best bottles on a commercially available fragrance.
Agreed! 🙂
I did participate in the first OpenSky and purchased S01E01. I enjoyed not knowing what it was and did indeed like the perfume but then after it was revealed I thought to myself that it would have been nice to have the original bottle it is housed in. I did not make any more purchases.
I like samples and decants as an introductory to see if I like the juice (or if something is completely out of my price range but I really adore it) However, a bottle is indeed very important to me. Case in point, since 1994 I have bought EVERY SINGLE limited edition of Escada’s yearly scents because I adore those bottles (the oldest ones being the prettiest). I liked the fragrances from 93-99. However by 2000 they got a bit too fruity yet I still kept buying them for my “bottle collection”. Luckily my two teenage daughters like fruity scents so the juice is not going to waste. Same with Annick Goutals. At one point I had 10 full size empty bottles gracing my bathroom shelf-they looked so elegant! The same can be said if I do not like a bottle I will not buy the fragrance (has anyone seen the bottle from Nikki Minage -not sure if I spellled her name correctly- but the bottle is ghastly!)
The Nicki Minaj bottle is horrible, I can only assume it is meant ironically.
Annick Goutal bottles are very pretty, I’d love to see all ten of yours in a row…
They WERE stunning (note the “were”). At one point I had over 200 empty bottles in a multitude of boxes and hubby (who has no love for perfume) badgered me over and over until I finally acquiesed and threw out SO MANY (including all but two of the AGs-the original rectangular shaped Eau de Ciel, my first perfume purchase in Paris, and a fluted 1.7 oz of Chevrefielle). I have restarted a new collection of empties,hidden in the basement in a safe spot 🙂 unbeknownst to hubby !!
Argh! Men!!! They just don’t understand… 😉
I have to admit, I am a total fragrance bottle whore! There’s nothing like having a bottle of perfume, and admiring it’s beauty. To me it’s half of the experience. Sometimes I find it difficult to part with my empty ones. I won’t totally write off a fragrance because the bottle is hideous, but an unique, intricately designed bottle may influence my decision to purchase. Some fragrances I consider works of art, namely Elixir des Merveilles by Hermes, Fleur du Male by JPG, and the iconic star shaped bottles of my favorite perfume house, Bond No 9.
I totally agree that the Nicki Minaj perfume bottle is a travesty. Who designed that awful looking bottle anyway? It looks like an alien from a sci-fi movie. I wouldn’t want that bottle on my shelf or anyone else’s for that matter. LOL
yes! I love the bond 9 bottles (we have two in our house belonging to my daughters) and as a native New Yorker I like to support Bond No 9!
Good to know I am not alone! 🙂
The Merveilles perfumes are in gorgeous bottles indeed.
I’ll be first to admit that if I like a perfume I want to have it in the full bottle. With these perfumes, there is such an elegance about application and ritual. If you have the juice in a decant, it just doesn’t provide the same level of satisfaction even though you may smell just the same.
Right! Looking at and handling the bottle is part of the ritual that makes perfume so luxurious.
As long as the bottle doesnt have any safety issues. I recently bought angel le gout du perfume and like others from this brand the bottle and lid has sharp edges. I keep reminding myself to handle with care.
Some bottles such as those from le labo though have minimalistic approach, do feel nice and weighty suggesting quality.
However for me the magic that happens after a few sprays is more than the container.
Of course the magic happens upon spraying, the juice is the primary thing we want after all. But. nice (and safe!) bottle doesn’t hurt! 🙂
It is a Gesamtkunstwerk! I love that the German language has a word for everything.
The bottle is all part of it, whether perfume houses make much of an effort with it or not. For me it is also an integral part of the experience. The little ritual which is an oasis in my morning rush around involves taking a gorgeous bottle out of its box before spraying. It’s just not the same with a decant.
We can be awful together, B 🙂
The (lone) beauty of German is the advantage if being able to “make” words for everything (it’s called combined nouns – zusammengesetzte Hauptwörter). They can be very expressive.
I’m glad to be awful together, dear Tara! I couldn’t be in better company! 🙂
Lone? Auf keinen Fall! I love the German language in all its clunky, grammatically arse-about-face glory. And some of the portmanteau words are stellar. : – )
You are right of course, German has many strengths. But strangely, it doesn’t lend itself to perfume writing. On this topic it always remains clunky, clumsy, a bit blunt and inelegant. Maybe it’s me… 🙂
I guess since my budget isn’t very big I’ve got to appreciate fragrances from a decant! 😛 BUT, I do believe that some fragrances are meant to be taken as a whole – the packaging is the body while the fragrance is its soul.
Very beautifully put!
I never feel I ‘own’ a perfume until I have a full original bottle. This is partly because decants always seem worryingly small – my 30ml of Sycomore has lasted me years but I’m continually haunted by the sense that it’s ‘about’ to run out. But the manufacturer’s bottle makes such a huge difference, and the box too. Even more than the aesthetics, I think I’m hooked on some spurious aura of ‘authenticity’: the ‘real’ bottle, box etc somehow making the juice more ‘real’ as well…
That said, some bottles do bother me. Much as I generally love the girly Annick Goutal bottles with their fluting, gold caps & ribbons, the victorian brothel aesthetics of Mon Parfum Cheri (sheer black striped ribbon & deep bordeaux-purple bottle) annoy me because the perfume seems to me the antithesis of artificial femininity, earthy, adult and unaccommodating. I imagine a bottle in the same shade but frosted matte and somewhat in the shape of the Atelier bottles, rectangular with rounded edges and a small round black cap and black label.
I’m the same, a decant doesn’t make me feel like I really “have” this perfume in my collection.
And a very interesting suggestion for the Goutal…
As you mentioned before, I like pretty bottles. It is a shame and I often use the excuse that I’ve been working for the packaging industry for 15 years and it appears to be my occupational disease… On the other hand, just like I cannot put an exquisite painting in an ugly and not matching frame I wouldn’t put a wonderful and refined juice into an ugly and unremarkable bottle – and I know you wouldn’t either 😉
Of course! You are totally justified, as a packaging materials insider it is practically your duty to insist on original packaging! 🙂
I love pretty bottles, though that is not my main concern when buying a perfume. It is about the fragrance. However I do want to look at the pretty bottles that a lot of them come in.
I don’t have many decants, well, I only have one, and It is not at all pretty, but it did serve a purpose, and now I have a full bottle. (Chanel Coromandel) The decant is now in my purse 🙂
I love what Killian does, and how he makes a beautiful and reusable bottle. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to get with his perfumes. For some reason, I have yet to find one that works for me. That, and the prices are really high!!! That mean I would need to be in love with the juice to even consider investing. I do wish more perfumers would follow that lead, and make some beautiful bottles to refill over and over again. That makes sense to me.
I so agree! Kilian is doing it right. The new Hermès perfume also comes in a gorgeous refillable bottle.
The purse is the only place I use my decants too.
I agree the bottle somehow also defines the scent in it. Or at least it should. I’m fan of perfume bottles, so I hardly settle with decant. I’ve learned that I shouldn’t never ever again buy a perfume just by the looks. Unless it is a bargain of course.
Those bargains always lead us into temptation (and trouble…) 😉
Many bottle fans here today, who knew…
I thought I wouldn’t care for the bottle at all but I noticed it’s not true. I really enjoy beautiful packaging. Don’t think it would make me buy sth I don’t like only because of the bottle, but it is more tempting when the flacon is attractive. I love to look at Insolence or that classic Guerlain shape wit the heart stopper one, as well as at the bee bottle of e.g. Chant D’aromes. I adore simplicity of Chanels but like Mugler’s ideas too. Last time I thought of getting Lolita Lempicka without sniffing. That would probably be that fragrance I’d try.
A beautiful bottle catches the eye and the imagination, it is an important part of the whole. Glad you enjoy the packaging too.
I am impressed how many people admit to loving the bottles and letting them influence their decisions on what to buy or not. I have to join the club of people who think that their collection is not the same without the original bottle. And that seems to have extended to outer packaging as well since I just had to buy one of the Frederic Malles with the cool 10th year at Barney’s Anniversary artwork on it despite really only needing a 50 ml since only the 100 ml come in the special box (well, I should really thank my mom for buying it for me!). And I have to add that I love that by Kilian has the refill bottle/travel refills and discovery set along with the beautiful atomizers so I can still feel like I have something gorgeous even when saving some money. And the fun half bottles from Histoires de Parfums are so cool, more companies should make their smaller sizes so creatively.
Special packaging – that is an additional lure that is hard to resist (see 24 FB Quadrige edition). Enjoy your Malle!
Thanks for mentioning the half bottles of Histoires, they are the cutest idea!
I didn’t participate in OpenSky, not because I hated the plain bottles, but because I didn’t want to take a chance of spending hard earned money on something I may not enjoy, no matter how well crafted and beautiful the perfume is. I can appreciate beautiful perfumes, but if they’re not my style I just wouldn’t enjoy it. There are plenty of really beautiful perfumes out there that I just would not buy because they are not me.
As much as I love a beautiful bottle, I will not buy a perfume just for the bottle. I have to love the juice to buy it. I am lusting over the beautiful blue and shimmery bottle for Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight in Paris. But since the juice doesn’t work on my skin, I am trying hard not to waste my money knowing that bottle would just sit unworn in my closet. I love decants and since my bottles reside on a dark, cool shelf in my closet and don’t see the light of day until I apply them, I’m not in a fuss about bottles. An ugly bottle never really turned me away from buying juice. Parfums de Nicolai as an example. Although, I really don’t think her bottles are all that ugly. Simple and plain yes, but ugly no. I’ve seen far worse.
Tatiana, you should find a really inexpensive bottle of it (tester will do) and then just keep it on your dresser/in the bathroom for looks: since you do not care for the juice you won’t be concern with it spoiling 🙂
I like that bottle too but I liked the perfume as well, so I plan to buy it soon. I wouldn’t buy it for the perfume itself though, I like it as a package 😉
Undina, that’s certainly an idea. I wonder what the stores do with tester bottles when they’re empty. I need to ask one of my favorite SAs that question. I’d be happy with an empty shimmery blue bottle to set out and sparkle in the sun.
I used to work at a department store here in Australia, in the security dept, and the worst part of my job by far was taking all the old testers and discontinued lines down to the big bin where I was commanded to smash every bottle, and break every lipstick and other makeup item, so they couldn’t be rescued. It was heartbreaking 😦
OMG! That is so cruel!!!!
Sometimes it is just about the bottle. Undina’s idea is great! I hope you find a display bottle of Midnight in Paris.
A year ago I would have agreed wholeheartedly that I could only truly appreciate a perfume when the whole design (bottle+packaging) is complete, but circumstances have led me to think more about form and function.
In the past year I’ve moved four times. I haven’t seen my perfume collection (or other possessions) since the first move, and have been living out of suitcases. In preparation for that first move, I made a small package of decants to pack in my suitcase. But of course, over the months, I couldn’t resist acquiring a few full bottles…and every time I had to re-pack, I’d regret them. To prevent breakage/leakage, I had to keep the packaging. My enjoyment of those fragrances became marred by the burden of lugging all that beauty around. I began to regard them as tiresome divas: nice for a few arias, but ridiculous in real life.
I’d like to say that this caused me to switch to collecting travel sizes and minis. But it hasn’t, because I find them tacky and mostly not really designed for travel. Now I seek out beautiful purse spray capsules for decants, and leave the big bottles at my parents’. It’s not the same, but it’s workable and still feels somewhat luxurious. I think there is a market for perfume+packaging designed for travellers…I really do.
I love the purse sprays that look like lipstick containers–I wish they came in more colors!
I can imagine the added hassle of caring for your bottles on the go. The diva comparison seems very apt.
Listen up, perfume companies – make travel options available!!!
Although I have a sizable sample and decant collection, I never get the rush of pleasure and luxury that I do from wearing the fragrances that I have in full bottles. Though I wear the scent, I would be lying if I said that the packaging did not contribute to the experience.
Also, I seem to experience a twinge of anxiety every time I dip into a sample vial or a decant: there seems to be so little of it that I feel the need to ration it more. Whereas I can spray with abandon if I have a full bottle.
Sometimes, there is a scent that I would have liked but not have coveted if not for the bottle. For example, I have been lusting after In the City of Sin by Kilian. I like the fragrance but I REALLY LIKE that little white clutch that I can see working its way into my wardrobe with ease. So much ease that sometimes I look in the mirror and think, “You know what would go great with this? That Garden of Good and Evil clutch!!!!”
Goodness, you are too funny! Just played Powerball and if I win I am going to buy you that clutch and FB of perfume 🙂 !!!
I hope you win! I should go downstairs and get a ticket too. Is the powerball huge? And btw, I mourn the loss of your perfume collection!
Being able to spray with abandon is an important part for me too!
That clutch should really be yours! Think how much a regular designer clutch costs, with Kilian you even get a free perfume!!! 😉
You are a good enabler! Not that I need much enabling 🙂 Yes, that perfume is basically free with purchase!
Having neither the funds nor the space to accommodate full bottles of all the perfumes I want to buy (or at least try), I cannot afford to get too hung up on the pretty bottles. I do agree that having nice bottles adds to the experience, but most of my collection resides in the dark in a cabinet or a few wooden cigar boxes. The juice is the main thing for me. However, if an empty Guerlain Coq d’Or found its way into my possession, I would display it proudly! I also like the classic bottle shapes of my Hermes Parfum d’Hermes and Chanel No.5.
I like those classic shapes as well. Coq d’Or – oh my!
For me it is the whole experience of buying a full bottle. Go to that beautiful perfumery, pick out the bottle, take it home, take off that cellophane wrap, open the pristine box for the first time…..it’s just one of life’s little luxuries. Decants are a fun and relatively inexpensive way to enjoy perfume, but for me, full bottle is the way to go for me. The consequence is that my collection will not be growing very fast, but I don’t mind. Whereas my full bottles are safely stashed away from sunlight and other harmful elements, the empty ones are displayed in a glass cabinet so their beauty can be enjoyed.
I can totally relate, Claudia! It’s the whole experience!
I don’t really care about the bottles! I have a ton of decants, and that is the only way I would be able to try lots of stuff and of course, the high end fragrances I couldn’t afford a bottle of. Also, I am not a heavy spritzer and since I have a lot, I feel silly buying a huge bottle I’ll never use up. And, as most of us perfumistas do, mine are not out on display, so the only time I’d see them is before putting it on. That said, I probably do wear my full bottles more than my decants because they mostly look alike and I forgot which ones I have and have a hard time finding them.
That is a huge problem for me too! A bottle also means instant recognizability, and a decant apparently means instant forgetability. 😉 (Not sure if those are real words though!)
I love my decants and appreciate being able to save money and space at the same time. That said, once I decide to invest in a full bottle, I do like it to look nice, even if I keep it tucked away in my perfume closet. Once I bought perfume for the bottle only. It was a vintage bottle of Caron Narcisse Noir with the black flower top. I just had to have it and trolled eBay for months until I finally won one. Truth be told, I don’t even care for the fragrance, but I love looking at that gorgeous bottle!
Sometimes that is enough! 🙂
I wouldn’t buy decants, I get a sample or two and judge it from that. If I want a fragrance, I’ll always buy a full bottle (or a second hand bottle) – I like to have the complete product. It’s not becuase I really care what the bottle looks like or it’s design (although I’d hate to have expensive juice in a cheap plastic atomizer), but if the perfumer has took the time to create the fragrance and market it and all that kind of stuff, I want it as a full piece of the art it is – that’s like buying an expensive original painting and not putting it in a frame.
Right, the perfume is taken out of context and that does have an impact…
I do not have a single answer to your question. I’m in the process of writing a post on a similar topic but since I have no idea when it’s going to be ready, here’s a short version.
Yes, some perfume bottles are very important to me (you’ve probably noticed my recent fascination with blue/navy bottles). I want to own a perfume and a bottle. Sometimes I want a bottle even if I do not care much for a perfume (but, most likely, I won’t buy it just for the bottle). But I want it my collection. And for some perfumes that I love (or even like) I want to own a real bottle and an original box – to know I have enough of it not to think about a number of sprays, to make myself a travel decant and to share with my friends.
No, for many perfumes I do not care for the bottle even if I like the scent. I can’t figure out exactly what makes that difference. Usually when bottles in the line are exactly the same (Serge Lutens, Frederic Malle, Dior La Collection, Chanel Exclusiffs, Guerlain L’Art et La Matière, etc. ) I feel like it’s enough to have just one original bottle in the collection but other scents, especially those that I do not plan on wearing more than a couple of times a year, can come in decanting bottles – though if I had a choice, I’d have preferred travel/smaller size original bottles (I do not like mini bottles – unless they’re for extraits and in bigger bottle would be also for dabbing).
Can’t wait for that post!!!!
I can relate very well to your thoughts here, Undina. I’ve wondered about that often myself. Generally I tend towards a bottle though. Looking forward to your post about the topic.
Adding my voice to the decant lovers! There is no way I could have the collection I do without decants. A full bottle of everything that I love is just out of the question. The ability to purchase samples and decants online is the basis of my perfume obsession. It has transformed my whole experience of fragrance wearing and I’m sure that’s true for many people living outside major cities.
Still, I do have many FBs and there is nothing like the thrill of being able to walk into a shop and buy a full bottle there and then. Take it home, open it, admire it sigh with pleasure. I’m still envious of your 24 Faubourg purchase Birgit, but my envy is moderated a little by the fact that I like but don’t absolutely LOVE the Quadrige edition bottle. The original still strikes me as very beautiful.
I’m sampling Jour d’Hermes today and it is a good thing that I’m so far not yearning a FB or even a decant quite yet. I’m determined to spend no perfume money on anything until I’ve captured that 24 Faubourg!
I hope you capture it soon, Annemarie!
Decants are immensely helpful and I’m glad the option exists.
Glad to see some more bottle lovers here! I’ll buy decants, but you’re right, Olfactoria; the bottle just adds a personal touch to it. Lolita Lempicka, for example, smells great, but the bottle is better than the fragrance.
So true!
The bottles do matter. They stay in your mind, even if they are accidentally lost like my first bottle of Shalimar with the beautiful glass stopper. My favorites have been the small ones for Joy parfum and 1000 parfum. The first was black, the second one a lovely jade green. Each has a little glass applicator. The juice is long gone, the bottles I can’t stand to part with. Even the box that Lolita Lempicka came in was beautiful. Beyond Paradise has a lovely bottle and Dune fits beautifully in the hand.
I’m not a bottle person, but I agree it is a delight when they fit well in your hand – when form and function work well together. The low rectangular Kenzo bottles are a nuisance like that – they are beautiful to look at but hard to hold while you spritz!
Those Patou bottles sound gorgeous. I’m glad you are holding on to them, they hold the memories forever.
Dab samples don’t work that well for me, so spray decants are a godsend when it comes to trying perfumes. I particularly like the purse sprays you can decant into–the ones that look like lipsticks. But, while I am extremely grateful for spray decant bottles, nothing beats a gorgeous original bottle. Vero Kern’s are my favorite–just gorgeous! Even the sumptuous cushioned box it came in is quite a pleasure. I’m afraid it will be a while before I finish any of my bottles can can display them; sometimes it kills me to have to put them back in their boxes!
You and I think alike I see! I hate putting my bottles back in their boxes, especially my Bond No. 9 bottles! They are works of art!
Good to have a “hates putting bottles back in boxes” twin! 😀 I love most of the Bond bottles too–so fun and modern.
I rotate them regularly, but I just need to display my bottles now and again, just to enjoy them for myself not anybody else.
Vero’s bottles are among the prettiest!
Once I built my collection up a bit more I may start displaying a few at a time, too; very good idea! I’ll need to get myself one of those lovely mirrored trays 🙂
A mirrored tray and perfume bottles seem to be made for one another. 😉
For me it is Gesamtkunstwerk! I love the bottles and they are the chalice for the soul of the perfume to live in. Like a Genie bottle of rare beauty. Therefore if the bottle is ugly to my eye … I really don’t want it on my shelf. I am so shallow you can barely see me in full daylight! The ones that strike me as ugly are the Bond bottles. The most beautiful are Shalimar, Chanel No.5, L’Artisan Parfumeur, Guerlain (most of them LOVE Mitsouko) Cinema by Yves Saint Laurent, Samourai by Alain Delon …oh the list goes on and on. Just got Private Affairs by Baldessarini and it is elegant simple and gorgeous! (I am not sure about the perfume yet.) Oh and those beautiful huge bottles by Dior for the privée collection are completely elegant in their simplicity. So move over sweetheart and make room for me at the banquet of beauty as I sit and share with you shallow love of the flacon. I have always loved being surrounded by beautiful things.
Oh, I’m in great company then! 🙂
You are so very sweet and kind.
Hugs from San Francisco!
A big hug back from snowy and icy cold Vienna! xo
Oh I wish the bottle wasn’t important to me! I try to get minis, but even that’s not the same. I have several decants that I really want fbs of, because if I love the scent I have to have the bottle! I do wish some were prettier – Parfums de Nicolai being one. The bottle is definitely part of the experience! My favorite bottles: Guerlain’s Bee (Apres L’Ondee), JPGualtier’s Fragile, SJP’s Lovely, Guerlain’s L’Heure Bleue, Shalimar, Chamade (Parfum), Mugler’s Womanity, Bond No.9’s Chinatown, and yes, L’Ambre d’Merv!
Thanks for reminding me of Fragile! That was one amazing bottle. I’ve often contemplated just buying it for that bottle, despite not knowing the perfume well. Too sad it is discontinued… 😦
I agree with Undina on quite a few points, notably her reluctance to own multiple similar looking bottles from the same house. I have four identical Jo Malones, four Penhaligon’s etc! I would much rather only have one of each bottle type. And some bottles are dull but the scent outweighs my disappointment with the packaging (PG being a prime example there). Then some are so ghastly they put me off the entire line – the Montale thermos flasks, the weird tops on MPG etc. In summary I guess I am somewhat bottle-driven, but the scent matters most, most of the time.
I love multiple similar bottles. Lining them up in a row is a delight. 😉
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