Introduction

A Brief Introduction

Elegant glass bottles resting on gleaming mirrored trays have held a fascination for me since childhood. My earliest memories of my grandmother are of her elaborate vanity dedicated to expensive French perfumes and drawers full of makeup. Even as a little girl, peering into the glass cases of perfume at the drug or department store held a special thrill for me. My very first perfume was a neon bottle of Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth (yeeesh!) released when I was 6 years old. Though cringeworthy, I have been enamoured by the world of scent since and my collection (problem?) has grown to over 600 different scents, both bottles and decants. I estimate I've only tested about 75% of these. I hope to remedy that in this blog and hopefully encourage and enable a few people along the way.

My collection contains big-name department store perfumes but is mostly made up of smaller, independent retailers. The vast majority is from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab but also consists of Arcana, Conjure Oils and Solstice Scents, to name a few. These scent wizards offer large general catalogues in addition to limited edition themed scents and other special releases. Many of these scents are on the dark or goth-y side, which suit my black little heart just perfectly! 

I have many untested full bottles, partial bottles and sample size vials that I must test and review and decide if I want to keep the oil, keep the oil and BUY MORE, or swap the oil. Swappery is possible thanks to a forum of other like minded fragrant femmes (and hommes!). 

And now, I step into the world of blogging to hopefully cull and organize this stash before I become lost in perfume kudzu.