Today Natalie of Another Pefume Blog has graciously agreed to answer my questions and let us look behind the blog persona.
Natalie is a very well-travelled, cosmopolitan woman, she currently resides in Sydney, but has lived in many parts of the world so far. Hopefully she is making a longer pit stop in Europe sometime.
Let’s see what Nat likes…
A good day starts with… waking up (always good to find one’s self alive), followed by coffee or tea.
I’d never leave the house without… being clothed. Everything else is optional.
I always feel good when… I’ve done something to make someone I love happy. I also love making lists and crossing items off of them, dancing obnoxiously around the house, and eating dessert.
My favorite thing in the world is… I have several favorite physical objects. I’m pretty sentimental, so things like my engagement ring, a paperweight that always sat on my dad’s desk, and cards and letters from friends and family are things that I hope to always keep.
The next thing I want to buy is… nothing.
The place I always come back to is… two places: my mom’s house, and Venice.
My personal style is… Hmmm. I haven’t got the slightest idea, so I asked a friend. She said “daring.”
My favorite perfume… is something I hope to hire someone brilliant to create some day.
When I travel I always… Oh gosh. There are so many things I always do when I travel. Plan ahead obsessively and then fail to follow my plan. Bring an old fashioned film camera. Get lost, happily. Visit the library. Have drinks or tea at the fanciest hotel. Try to go to the theatre. Learn how to say please, thank you, and “Can I have the bill?” Walk until my feet are covered in blisters. Take public transit. Eat a lot. Buy shoes (see “walk until my feet are covered in blisters”).
To relax I need… to be by myself, usually.
When I have a bad day… I am a monster. A MONSTER, I say. Rawrrr.
I like to gift people with… whatever special, thoughtful gift I think they are longing for at that exact moment. That’s why my mom always gets socks and half-price bath salts for Christmas, dontcha know.
I find my inspiration… outside my comfort zone.
Something I would never want to miss… experiences that teach me painful truths.
My last mistake was… I am experimenting with gluten-free bread recipes. Let’s just say it isn’t going well.
In my fridge there is always… I don’t really involve myself with the refridgerator. That is Mr. APB’s domain. I do know that generally it contains milk (for coffee), sparkling water (for drinking), and peanut butter (so I don’t die of starvation when Mr. APB isn’t around to cook).
On my nightstand I keep… a ridiculous stack of books, a lamp, and my eyeglasses.
The perfect weekend starts with… a ballet class.
My role model is… I don’t really have one, which probably shows.
Something I always want to be asked in questionnaires like this is… I actually prefer to ask questions, rather than answer them. So I’ll ask you this: Will you be completing the questionnaire yourself?
To answer Nat’s question: Yes, I will. At the very end of the series The Husband will answer it (Can I hear cheers?) and then I will do so myself.
Now coming to Natalie, I thoroughly enjoyed reading her answers and I feel I know her better now. Nat is a very enigmatic and alluring woman to me, but she has a warm and funny side that makes her approachable despite the mystery surrounding her.
Also I love how she unapologetically says she is not involved with the fridge! 🙂
Are you an Another Perfume Blog reader? What did you love about this interview?
Olfactoria's Travels 
Oh cool! When can I meet her?
xxx
Are you in Sydney?!
Uhm. Not today. Austria. Haha. Maybe 2016, with Tara. ❤
Nice! But maybe I’ll be in Austria before then.
Need cookies?
I am an APB reader and I love Natalie – so I loved (and laughed at) many of the answers. What I do not love – is that she moved away from SF! ” Rawrrr”!
I do not necessarily love that I moved away from SF, either. I don’t understand why all these scientists are working on cures for diseases etc. when they should be devoting their creativity to developing teleportation technology. The time we would save traveling would be *like* adding years to our lives.
I can imagine that you miss her…
Nat sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks to the both of you for the interview.
Thank you, Sandra!
She sounds like a good mix of funny and witty and wise. 🙂
I love socks (nearly made it to my list of 5 favourite things last week) so if I was her mum would much appreciated the gifts :-). One of the interesting things about peanut butter is that it doesn’t need to stay in the fridge. There, that’s about all I know about food. I do explore the fridge but keep well away from the oven.
Nat sounds really nice!
Thank you, Alice! My mom is very gracious about pretending that gifts are great, but I think she legitimately likes getting socks, too. 🙂
Ha, you are better informed when it comes to peanut butter than many of us!
I’m a big fan of APB and Natalie, who I was lucky enough to meet when she was in London. I really would love to visit her in Sydney at some point. She is a gem and you can tell how self-effacng and down to earth she is from her answers even though she is super intelligent and highly creative in many ways (apart from cooking!).
Her answers were all so great but I particularly loved reading about how she travels and how she “dances obnoxiously” around the house.
How admirable is that she doesn’t want to miss experiences that teach her painful truths?
Oh and the thought of Natalie being a MONSTER is too good 🙂
Thanks once again for these fantastic questions, B. They can really bring out the most interesting and insightul answers.
You’re so kind, Tara! As for being a monster: oh yes. I’m awful! 🙂
And I completely agree about B’s questions – they are very good.
I love you describe Nat.
What a wonderful interview with one of my favourite bloggers. I love Natalie’s intelligent wit and style, which this interview is a perfect example of. I agree, Birgit, we need to persuade Mr and Mrs APB to come and stay in Europe.
We would love to stay in Europe for a while! Maybe after Sydney. I actually have been thinking a lot about where to go next …
That sounds wonderful (in every way: that you are possibly coming to Europe and that you have the freedom to think about where to go next.)
YAY!
I’m glad you enjoyed this as much as I did.
I love Natalie’s answer for “I never leave the house without”…Funny and silly 🙂
And true! 😉
😀
Thank you for including me in this series, B. I am very glad (cheers) that you and the husband will be completing the questionnaire. That will be excellent reading. Hugs!
Thank you! The Husband’s answers are excellent reading indeed, he was in good form when filling out the questionnaire. 😉
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Great interview. Natalie seems like a fun person and I bet it would be a blast to go perfume sniffing with her based on her answers and her blog posts.
I often wonder what it would be like to have a man who could cook.
From my own experience I can say that it is very nice when you have a man who can cook, but it is somewhat necessary for him to be home to actually do it, which is a bit of a problem with my husband’s packed schedule… on weekends we have feasts though! 😉
Lovely interview! I love visiting her blog and read all about her perfume (and cosmetics) adventures. I love her answer for the question “Something I would never want to miss…”. Yep, daring. 🙂
Her style and make up posts are among my favorites!
Thank you for your kind words, TM!
Love Natalie, her blog, her travel-savviness (is that a word – it is now!), her style, her effortless elegance and grace, her tumbling or up-piled hair and her ballet dancer’s physique. Not forgetting her eyebrow plucking video demos. And like Birgit, the non-engagement with the fridge appealed, ditto the making of lists (do you also write things you have already done on the list so you can cross them off immediately?), the blisters and the wandering in random fashion around an unfamiliar city. I was lucky enough to meet Natalie last summer and aspire to be more like her in every way! Except that realistically I probably shan’t start dancing or bread making any time soon – not even badly.
I bet you’d be a great dancer though! 🙂
I can imagine you two getting on very well.
I absolutely add things to the list just to cross them off. 🙂 Somehow I’m not surprised you share a love of lists. Looking forward to hopefully seeing you again soon!
Yes indeed, I’m a fan of Natalie and her blog. Like you, Birgit, I think of Natalie as being the very essence of grace and effortless style. Her answers here all show her sense of humor, but I think my favorite is her reply to your question about travel — and her reply to Undina in the comments about the need for scientists to develop teleportation technology. I concur!
Wouldn’t that be nice? I’ll hop into my beamer right away for a cup of tea and some Viennese pastry with you in Pennsylvania!
You are too kind, Suzanne. Thanks so much! And just think what we perfumistas could accomplish if we could teleport, to do sniffas and swaps?
I miss you, Ms. APB!
I mss you, too! Hopefully we can get together soon …
Sydney?! Since when??? I am a longtime APB fan, but have clearly fallen shamefully behind recently.
You haven’t really. 🙂 I just don’t publicize it.
What did I love about this interview? Well, two of my fave girls were involved and I found out that one of them prefers to not cook and is a MONSTER when roused. Good to know.
Can’t wait for the Olfactoria’s family answers.
Portia xx
Now that you are so close to the potential monster, watch out!
I like that you pretend you haven’t seen the dark side. 🙂 You’re so sweet, dear P.
Great interview, I love Natalie’s blog! Looking forward to reading more in this series 🙂
Hello Stefanilaura,
glad you enjoyed it!