It might be unbelievable...but don't get me wrong.

I counted today. In three months, I have acquired:

85 samples, 12 bottles, 2 books, and a startling love for perfume. And a little bit of debt, if I'm honest.

I cannot imagine myself winging away to Sniffa until I have a real job and am finished with school/the bar/getting settled into a new place, but I would say that I am deep in the throes of a developing perfume habit. It haunts me in the night. "More juice!" a voice whispers in my ear. "Must have more juice!"

I have also realized that I have very different sampling habits than the grand dames of net.perfumista-ing. I tend not to sample more than one thing at a time unless I'm comparing things within the same scent 'family' (which mostly exist in my head, but consist of trying two or three roses or irises side by side until I figure out which one I will actually buy). I tend to sample something across an entire day, usually giving it an afternoon reapply as I would anything else. Unless I have multiple events of *very* different sorts on the same day, I tend to stick with one thing throughout, though I might try something else at night as I sleep. I will drive home at lunch if I forget to scent in the morning. It has gotten so bad I have samples stashed in my desk at work -- at all three jobs!

And lastly, but perhaps most important to me, is that I wear the things I have bottles of. Not all the time. Not as a signature scent. But more often than I sample. I think I sample three days a week and wear somerthing I genuinely like the other four. And my comfort scent, the scent I really go to when I feel nervous or scared, is L'Artisan Dzing! Not exactly uncomplicated, but in sync with me on those days when I feel nervous or intimidated by life. I smell it on myself throughout the day, and it makes me smile, and then I feel better. Like hearing a favorite song or walking down the street wearing headphones. It's like a secret language you speak only to yourself.

I think tomorrow is going to be a Chanel day. I finally received my bottle of Chanel No. 5 EDT. It is my first "classic" acquisition. If I don't wake up with a case of the Mondays, I will probably try it out with my aqua button down. If, however, tomorrow morning comes as fast as my currently tired bones anticipated, I think I will need something *far* crankier...maybe CB's Memory of Fire or INeKE's Derring-do? It would go well with my cranky morning blouse. On bad days at work, sometimes I calculate how many samples I can get for an hour of work. If I tell myself "every 12 minutes is another new olfactory adventure" sometimes those long afternoons aren't so bad.

Don't get me wrong,
ff I come and go like fashion.
I might be great tomorrow
but hopeless yesterday...
Don't get me wrong.