Are you open about your perfume hobby?
Do you share your passion with casual acquaintances or are only closest friends in on the secret?
Is your fragrance hobby public knowledge or is it your private indulgence?
My Answer:
As much as I talk about perfume in the virtual world, I tend to keep it under wraps in real life. Mostly it is because I am not a person who generally shares personal stuff easily, but also because I still harbour a little shame about pursuing something so superficial. (Which it is not, I know, but that is my Freudian Super-Ego talking, which, honestly doesn’t know the first thing about perfume. 😉 )
What about you? Are you open about your love for all things scented or do you handle it on a need to know basis?
Olfactoria's Travels 
🙂 I’m not a closet perfumista. And even if I tried to be, enough of my friends and family know about my perfume life so they spread the word when we’re among new people.
I didn’t think you’d be secretive about your perfume life in any case, Ines. It’s great that people can see it as part of you.
I never talk about it, because in my experience people are rather narrow minded and consider having more than one bottle of perfume a waste of money. Pfff….😅
I understand you well, our hobby can be looked down upon or be misunderstood so easily.
I think it’s difficult to keep it private – we smell too good, don’t we 😉
Haha, we do. 🙂
Nah- no secrets here. People who know me – know about my love for perfume. 🙂
And love you anyway! (joking!) 🙂
Well, my friends and closest family know about it, but them don’t know how many bottles I’ve got..😎. My mum thinks it’s “a really cute hobby” and wants to borrow perfume every time she visits.
How lovely that your Mom likes your hobby too!
People from my closest environment know that I’m a perfume lover, that I have hundrets of samples in my drawers and around 20 flacons. They sometimes ask me about what is worth attention lately.
They have a good source on their hands then!
I was in the closet about my perfume obsession for a long time, but finally came out via my blog. So, now there are hundreds of people who think I’m insane, not just a few close friends. 😉
I hope there are thousands who read your funny posts!
The only thing that is secret about it, is the amount I spend.
Ha! 🙂
My family knows. They probably thinks it is a waste of money, even when I give them beautiful scents that suit their tastes. MY friends are all so sensative to scents in a bad way that there is only one friend who ever comes on a sniff with me. But, I seldom drink, never smoke, so it is not a terrible vice in the larger pciture. Luckily there are blogs like NST, Chemist and yours- virtual for most of the sharing.
Exactly! 🙂
I have some very scent-averse friends too.
Mm, I don’t think anyone I know, besides my husband, really grasps the full extent of my perfume interest and knowledge although I’m not shy about it and have shared many samples and bottles with friends. My mom is interested and she enjoys both the perfumes and blogs I’ve introduced her to.
Sounds like the people close to you enjoy your interest too.
My hobby is pretty much private. I tried to share this beautiful obsession by buying fragrances for my family members. I gave it a good deal of thought, hoping that each would appreciate the effort. It didn’t work. I learned the old-fashioned lesson – don’t buy personal products for anybody when
you are guessing what they would like. Once in a while I’ll tell a friend about my collection, but only when I’ve been complimented with the classic “What ARE you wearing?”.
It is a pretty private thing indeed, sorry you had not so great experiences with scented gift giving.
I don’t think it is superficial to enjoy perfume!!!!:)-
Yet my perfume collection is not something I would massively advertise either. So definitely closet for me, I guess. Also, I feel it is a private thing, something so close to the skin – on the skin actually – I would feel strange to talk about it with anyone but very very close friends and then only the ones who also enjoy perfume. May be I am missing out on some great real life conversations though?
Im my experience only those in the know don’t find perfume superficial, because they know how deep it can go.
oh yes, deep in many ways, not only for the bank account:)-
Rampant evangelist, me!
Haha! I’m glad there are people like you spreading the perfume gospel 🙂
I had no idea! 😉
I’m open with close friends, but not with most people. And I even have to be careful about how much I share with close friends. Many of my friends have severe allergies, so they just can’t relate to my love of perfumes. Other friends insist that the only worthwhile perfumes are the ones made out of all-natural ingredients, and they can’t understand why I would tolerate fragrances that include synthetics. So, overall, I guess I would say I’m about half in the closet, and half out.
I think there are many of us on the threshold of this closet. 🙂
Oddly enough, both? I’m naturally a pretty reserved person, but when I get excited about something (which happens a lot with perfume!), I become uncharacteristically open and bubbly. I think as a result my friends don’t realize I don’t actually want everyone to know about my habit (I also worry, probably needlessly, that people will take me less seriously if they knew about my perfume obsession). Thus, I tend to cringe a lot as my friends spread the word amongst people I really don’t know all that well, and it is too late to ask them to do otherwise now. Oh well, there are worse things I suppose!
I know the feeling, this has happened to me too and caused me to “shut down” about perfume. But you are right, there are worse things…. 🙂
I wasn’t in that proverbial closet even when I wasn’t a perfumista (well, I was one but I didn’t know the word or about that world) – and even less since I went down the rabbit hole. So in this I’m with Vanessa – trying to convert one person at a time.
I don’t have many personal friends in my everyday life. My close friends all live far away – and knew me before I went down the rabbit hole. This is why I love blogs!!! 🙂
Blogs are a great place to meet equally crazy, um, like-minded people! 🙂