#(paraphrase)

This is like the third time I've done this. I like updating it when more and more AUs exist.

So one of the things I've been quietly chomping away at in the background is doing my own little version of 'project pan' with some of the perfumes I have since I've gathered quite a collection. Essentially I'll only be replacing the ones that I really like and not buying something that I'm not fully in love with to cut down on my own spending and to save space on my shelves.

If there's anything I have to say is I really had too much at one point but I am slowly getting through what I can. Some of the bottles I had I actually gave away to some friends and family (I still have 4-5 I need to rehome). Some of them I've been very liberal with how much I've been using to get through them, the top picture is actually what I'm currently focusing on at the moment - hopefully I'll have finished within the next 6 months or so in between using the rest of my collection regularly. The other photos are some of the bottles I've gotten through already, what I really liked I replaced with a small bottle or in the exception of Lord of Misrule, I bought the large bottle - it is a favourite of mine and definitely a daily driver for sure.

I've had to get creative with what I have, namely using some as bathroom spray or as an added scent for dryer sheets for the ones that I wasn't fussy on or had fallen out of love with. It's nice that the perfumes I do have don't go off for a long time so I have no worries about them expiring, but I am focusing on the older bottles I have. Confetti was the oldest in my collection and I managed to get through it although some of the notes did dim over time, there was a more heavy wood note by the time I finished her on the dry down compared to when she was new.

Others I find don't hardly change with age. Fresh As was one such scent, the new bottle smells just like the old one I just finished although it was just over 4 years old. I've learned that some ingredients take longer to break down than others in my learning curve about fragrances, some even smell better over time as they age. I think patchouli is one such scent, it becomes almost jammy/sweet over time from it's usual herbal earthiness.

Setting up myself to focus on using what I have is great, I find it's really helped cut down on my over consumption of items that aren't really something I want in the long run. Giving myself ample to time to sit on the purchases I make and not giving into FOMO (fear of missing out) has been quite the relief on the pocket book. I think this method has also helped me use up what I have instead of hoarding it too, today is a special enough occasion for me to use whatever really. I don't have to wait for the right moment, if I did that there'd be things that would never get to see the light of day in my collection.

Finding that I'm someone who loves variety depending on the season and my mood, I've got a wide selection of choices to pick from when it comes to many things not just my fragrance collection. I have a collection of different outfits to wear or music records to listen to. I think my taste varies for many things that I enjoy including entertainment, I can't really say I hate 'x' genre because there's always going to be something or another that I like from there.

With fragrance, I feel like a whole world has opened up. I'm not really a person for designer perfumes as a general rule of thumb, I don't want to fill the room with my scent nor do I enjoy the synthetic or screechy scent a lot of them carry. I think my favourites so far have been the more photorealistic scents - something that carries me to a different place or even a different time. I also don't always like crowd pleasing scents, I'm not struck on most vanillas or gourmand scents. I much rather smell like a handful of fresh dirt than a cookie or danish.

Probably one of my favourite fragrances I've come across is Grasslands by Paraphrase - it's a golden late afternoon in the dog days of summer basking in a golden field of hay or inside a dusty cottage in said field. Absolutely gorgeous, but that's the kind of scents I'm looking for. Something different, something off the beating track just like myself. I know I won't find that in popular mass produced scents; just like style or how you carry yourself, fragrance is a form of self expression - it's something to define yourself with in the memories of others. I like being the only person in the room with the presence I have, what I wear reflects that.

And just how fragrance is a personal thing, depending on the person depends on how what the scent is interpreted too - some of it is even chalked up to genetics. Blackcurrant is a fun fragrance for that, to some it smells like cat pee or just urine in general, to me it almost holds a sickly syrupy gasoline/plastic note. It's pretty fascinating to see the discrepancies between people and their olfactory senses, kind of reminds me of colour and our interpretation of that - what one person sees might not be the same as yourself.

It's definitely been a fun journey to see what I like, and to see what sticks. I'm sure I'll find more fragrances in the future that I'll love, but for now, I'm okay with what I have.

Cheers!

STEAMTORUN DELTAPHRASE

Working on this AU, I think Its pretty peak but check for yourself!!