THE PERFUME CABINET, THIRTEEN YEARS AGO OR SO

14 responses to “THE PERFUME CABINET, THIRTEEN YEARS AGO OR SO”

1. ginzaintherain

   January 29, 2015 at 12:46 am

   I am doing detective work. It can’t be pre-I998 because that is when Givenchy Pi came out (did I really have the deodorant? I have no recollection, though I am sure I must have enjoyed it).

   I espy a Guerlain Mahora (would love to smell that one again), so it must be after 2000. Could be fifteen years ago, then?

   At any rate, now I have three cabinets, one dresser and one bathroom surface full. I will have to document it (but the dust……must dust it all first)

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2. Clart

   January 29, 2015 at 12:54 am

   I actually can’t wait till you post it. Might even send you some yellow jiffy cloths in the post.

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   • ginzaintherain

     January 29, 2015 at 1:06 am

     It’s true that my lack of house pride won’t show it in its best light, but once in a while Duncan does force me to polish it up a bit. Personally, I like the dusty decadence. It’s more who I am.

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3. Asali

   January 29, 2015 at 12:57 am

   I will happily be of assistance with a bit of mahora, just PM me:-)
   It might be small, but I do love the look of it, and funnily enough I just took new photos of my perfume cupboard and planned to post at some point.

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   • ginzaintherain

     January 29, 2015 at 1:05 am

     I have no Mahora now, but it’s funny: just looking at this tiny bottle I can smell it almost too vividly in my smell brain. Quite the overwhelming smell, but I miss it.

     Would love to see your perfume cupboard. Mine looks nothing like this now (which strikes me as rather adolescent). Fun to reminisce, though.

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     • Asali

       January 29, 2015 at 3:38 am

       I know that feeling, I can do that to quite a number of perfumes to, ghost smell them 🙂 Anyway, just let me know.
       And yes, now I’m very curious to see what your cupboard is like now too. My collection has certainly ‘grown up’, and I will post mine, I thought perhaps even as a cheap way out of Undinas’s excellent idea of ‘perfume portraits’ 🙂
4. Renee Stout

   January 29, 2015 at 1:16 am

   Wow, thanks for sharing those images of your perfume stash from years ago. I love seeing how people display their scents. How many do you think you have now? I stopped counting at 300 (roughly a third are 5 ml minis, but I don’t count anything smaller than that).

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5. Lilybelle

   January 29, 2015 at 2:27 am

   I LOVE that perfume cabinet, plastered with all your favorite images. ❤ It's a shrine. I don't have room for one where we currently live, but I want to make my own perfume cabinet/shrine some time in the future. The cabinet of beauty, mystery, and curiosities.

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6. brielle87

   January 29, 2015 at 3:30 am

   I adore all the prints you have up; Diane de Poitiers, Christina of Denmark…I am an art lover also.
   I also spy some Roger and Gallet soap, love those soaps.
   A little info on Mahora for you. While I was working for Guerlain they were developing Mahora. I was privy to an early rendition of it which was brought to a training seminar and it was amazing. I was so disappointed when it was released commercially because it was so much different than the working formula I had smelt; the one I smelt was much spicier and less sweet. This was around the time that Guerlain was being taken over by LVMH, so I thought they wanted something more commercially friendly/ focus group pleasing.
   But seeing as how it has gone the way of the dodo, I guess they were off the mark on what the public wanted.
   You will have to post photos of the present day collection so we can all ooh and ahh at your treasures.

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7. katiecooke

   January 29, 2015 at 6:03 am

   I have a grid of postcards on the inside of my front door that includes cards of that same Diana, the Bacon painting, and the Holbein…

   (I’m trying to place that Magdalene… so familiar but my brain feels full of holes. Which painting is it a detail of?)

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   • ginzaintherain

     January 29, 2015 at 1:35 pm

     I would have to ask Duncan: he’s much more of the art expert. This was just random postcards pinned on the walls as I liked the colours.

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8. Nelleke Oepkes. Aka Booknose

   January 29, 2015 at 7:38 am

   Don’t clean up your scent altars And treasuries. You know Quentin Crisp said “Dirt never gets dirtier after five years”.
   I was so relieved after hearing that And still seeing him looking quite debonair. I am a hunter/gatherer person myself and I seldom do anything away. Life Laundry stuff, that’s what I’m made of.
   I’m not sure about smell, but you can camouflage quite a lot. Also, as the Roi Soleil period has demonstrated: you can always move to another castle of course.
   I have bought Mahora years ago, when it was launched. It is a heavy weight, not a bantam. I put it on when I dress and to impress!
   I think you must have a cathedral organ in scents. I do hope you have just as many moods to suit them.
   And I love the images, paintings, pousse-memoires,
   Go on, don’t stop!

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   • ginzaintherain

     January 29, 2015 at 1:37 pm

     I have to stop you there before I get self-mythologized into some kind of dusty old scum queen.

     With a person as fastidious as D in the house, things could never get actually dirty (and I wouldn’t be able to stand it either as a smell freak. I loved that Quentin Crisp book, really loved it, but surely he STANK: that I could never tolerate).

     I am a bit lazy that’s all. And can’t be bothered to dust the collection.

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9. Nelleke Oepkes. Aka Booknose

   January 29, 2015 at 9:02 pm

   You are right. It’s just that I love that quote. And I loved his attitude toward mankind or is it menkind. And that Crispic humor, that can put you on the other leg in a polite way.
   But I saw that you keep your collection on the toilet table. Does temperature matter? I’d love to display the perfumes, but can I do that in a little glas armoire?
   And do boxes make a difference? Thanks to your profile I can spot Caron.

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