Reading this note made me feel so grateful. Also, the replies from the rest of you will give me inspiration. Here's why:
For all of 2024 I lost my sense of smell due to a chronic sinus issue. That also led to difficulties breathing, speaking, singing and rapping. I had surgery in December to get my sinuses operated on, after months of strong medication that didn't help with anything. Following recovery from the surgery, I have worked to regain my sense of smell gradually. Ergo, I paid good money to experience every possible scent. The other day, I was at a pub in Dublin and the gents loo was stinking. My first thought was - "Jeez that stinks so bad!" My second was - "Yay, wow that stinks so bad!" Hari On Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 3:03 PM Thaths via Silklist < [email protected]> wrote: > Smells, more than taste (well, what is taste, but just a weaker way of > smelling?), play the role of bringing memories of madelines past for me. > > What are some scents from the past that you would pay good money to > experience again? > > https://www.ft.com/content/53a3a13b-fe98-4670-9163-be659ccbf4f2 > > > Inside the hot market for discontinued perfume > > > Very few things can be as personal, emotional and sensory triggering as > perfume, which is why some people spend hundreds of pounds to get their > hands on a favourite fragrance that has been discontinued. > > Since 2007 it has been the job of Mathieu Iannarilli, a Paris-based > vintage perfume dealer, to track down rare scents for clients who spend > from €150 to more than €3,000 per bottle. “Some buyers only wear one > perfume. When that is discontinued by a brand, from one day to the next, > they find themselves orphaned of their olfactory identity. These people > then turn to all possible ways to find their perfume again,” he says. > > There is no estimate for the market of vintage and discontinued > fragrances, but demand is high. A simple search for “discontinued > fragrances” on eBay brings up more than 50,000 results. Among the most > expensive listings are Tom Ford Amber Absolute ($4,300, shipped from the > US), Vivienne Westwood Boudoir ($2,784, from Japan) and Giorgio Armani > Prive Myrrhe Impériale ($1,500, from Sweden). The market is partly fuelled > by the craze for “flankers” — short-term spin-offs of brands’ core > fragrances, which are catnip for collectors. Estée Lauder Sensuous Noir, a > 2008 flanker for Estée Lauder Sensuous, goes for £265 on eBay, for example, > while Thierry Mugler A*Men Pure Malt, a version of Thierry Mugler A*Men > from 2009, goes up to more than £600. > > There are a few reasons why a fragrance might be discontinued: it might > not be commercially successful; a long-used ingredient in its composition > might later be banned and prove too difficult to substitute; or the brand > itself might end its license or go into bankruptcy. “The prices of some > fragrances from iconic British brands such as Vivienne Westwood and Stella > McCartney have tripled since these brands ceased their perfumery business,” > explains Iannarilli. Other vintage perfumes from heritage brands such as > Guerlain often reach high prices because they are both sought after by > customers who want to wear them and by collectors who would preserve them. > “[Guerlain] Djedi can exceed €3,000,” says Iannarilli. > > It’s not just high-end fragrances that stoke demand. Since 2019, Alexander > Fury, fashion features editor at Another magazine and the FT’s men’s > fashion critic, has been buying Ultima II Sheer Scent for his mother as a > Christmas gift. The Revlon fragrance from 1990 was and still is her > favourite, but was discontinued at the turn of the millennium. > > “I’m not hunting for it every day, but it is something I look for every > week or so. It has become progressively more difficult and progressively > more expensive,” he says over the phone. When Fury bought it the first time > six years ago, the perfume was already selling on second-hand platforms for > about £500. Today it can be purchased on Etsy for more than £700. > > In some cases, people are hunting for the original formulation of perfumes > that are still on shop floors today. Starting from the early 2000s, > regulations on cosmetics ingredients have become stricter, particularly in > the EU, forcing many brands to recreate best-selling scents using > alternative ingredients. In some cases the results have been less than > satisfactory — at least according to some noses — prompting the hoarding of > older bottles. > > “I have a tiny bottle of Guerlain’s Mitsouko from the 1970s that smells > completely different and so much better than Mitsouko does now,” says Aimee > Majoros, a beauty PR and fragrance collector from upstate New York who has > worked for Guerlain, Givenchy, Acqua di Parma, Tommy Hilfiger and Donna > Karan. Majoros, who learned to love perfumes from her grandmother, had at > some point 300 bottles in her collection. “The best thing I have ever > smelled in my life was a sample of L’Air du Temps by Nina Ricci from the > 1960s,” she continues. “The current formulation smells awful. I know that > in the fragrance community people are upset when things are reformulated.” > > Claire Smith, a cell biologist based in the UK who has a 130-rich > fragrance collection (around half of them are discontinued) became > passionate about perfume in 2019. After reading rave reviews online of > Thierry Mugler Alien Essence Absolue, which had been recently discontinued, > she decided to go on a hunt for it. “It goes for hundreds of pounds, but I > was very, very lucky and found a good deal. For a lot of people it’s about > the find as much as the fragrance itself,” she says. “When I started I > would only buy things that I could afford to lose the money for, until I > learned what I was looking for.” Her self-training included watching online > videos comparing fake and real fragrances to learn how to spot them (colour > is a good giveaway). Smith now has a YouTube channel called > @dr.claire.perfume where she talks about her collection, explains relevant > terminology and tells the back-story for some famous fragrances, such as > Chanel No 5 or Robert Piguet Bandit, to her 13,900 subscribers. > > But for certain perfume collectors, the draw is not the scent but the > bottle. Some even collect factices, the oversized display bottles brands > used for advertising in pharmacies and department stores until the early > 2000s. Simon Martynoff, owner of Galerie Martynoff in Paris, both sells and > collects factices. Among his treasures currently on sale he lists a > 30cm-tall Nina Ricci L’air du Temps bottle for €5,200 and an even taller > (39.5cm) decorative bottle by Baccarat of Guerlain Shalimar for €4,100. > “There are two different consumers: one is a collector who wants an example > of each bottle, and the other is an [interior] decorator,” he says. > Martynoff sources them from auctions or shops that still have them, but > says they are becoming increasingly hard to find as the number of > collectors increases. “The interest has gone up and you can see it from the > prices. In the 1990s you could find some at a very good price, now some > bottles are 30 to 50 per cent more expensive.” > > Antoine Poujol is the founder of the Perfume Art Museum in Paris, which > houses a collection of almost 8,000 bottles, factices, press kits and shop > catalogues. He says interest in collecting perfume bottles started in the > 1980s, when many of the bottles designed by artists such as Leonor Fini > (Shocking by Schiaparelli, 1937), Raoul Dufy (Rosine by Paul Poiret, c1925) > and René Lalique (for Lucien Lelong, 1929) started to hit the 50-year mark. > His goal is to “keep track of everything that was and is made by the key > brands, because the idea is to trace their evolution from the start to > today,” he says, adding that his expertise has been tapped by some of the > largest brands who want to build their own collections and retrace their > histories. > > Poujol’s collection includes rare examples such as Lancôme Révolte, > designed by Georges Delhomme in 1936, which is a block of raw rock crystal > shaped like the Parisian cobblestones thrown during the French Revolution > (currently valued between €1,000 and €2,000), but also mass-produced > bottles that can be purchased for €50. “We are in a universe where you have > very expensive bottles, but you also have very nice stuff from €50 to €200, > which can make a nice collection. You also have collectors of miniatures > which go for €5, €10 and €15,” he says. “There are bottles for everyone.” > > After speaking to Poujol, I took out my own collection of perfume minis, > which I used to hoard as a kid in the 1990s. I used to spend an unusual > amount of time admiring the small bottles and smelling them and they are > still kept in a wicker box in a bathroom cabinet in my childhood home. I > have at least 40 of them, an assorted selection that includes Miss Dior, > Gianfranco Ferré Gieffeffe, Fiorucci Vanilla Scent, 4711 Cologne and La > Perla Body Silk. While I’m quite sure there is nothing particularly rare in > there, even if there were, I’m not sure I could part with it. It’s hard to > put a price on something with the power to trigger such personal memories. > -- > Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? > Carl: Nuthin'. > Homer: D'oh! > Carl: Unless you're crooked. > Homer: Woo-hoo! > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist >
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