We just passed an autumn equinox. While the equinox is commonly understood as the point at which day & night are equal, it in fact refers specifically to relative placement of sun to equator. Day/Night equality has not been reached for most, not quite yet. Every point on the globe is now approaching its day in which day and night will be in balance, in equal length.
So here we thought balance had arrived, when it was truly just ahead...
...a story I know all too well.
In terms of perfume, I profess to be the person who would much rather spend time with a scent, inhabit it, let it inhabit me...discover what season, time of day, weather, mood all do to what happens after I put it on. I shall profess and protest it to be true for always. One side of the pendulum...be in the moment, explore the moment, savor the moment, discover the many moments across time.
But I am also a collector and a preserver, and a person who has rudimentary knowledge of how to operate spreadsheet software. Combine that with the desire to learn and discover, and you get the other side of the pendulum...what is out there, how does this one note get expressed in these various formulations, ooh what's that...and the pendulum swings the other way, putting me smack dab in the midst of an orgy of scent and finding the many moments in one spot of time.
Where is the balance? Not sure yet. I think the escape is in the sabbaticals I take...in the realm of perfume, total stoppages of scent. Sometimes, it gets to be all too much, noise of many kinds, and I need a time out. The first time that happened, I freaked out a little bit. I thought that something I had just started to learn about, that I really had taken an interest in, fell off my radar never to emerge again. Lost in a Bermuda Triangle of my brain. Very disorienting, and a bit disconcerting...what about the investment? what about the STUFF?
And then, when guilt panic abated, sadness. What about the joy that the solid hits had brought, time and again? Would I never experience that again?
Then the desire came back. And I realized that my foray into perfume was merely echoing other passions in my life...intense soaking up of all possible input periods, equally intense soaking up of single/unique expressions periods. It would seem that, much as has been true of other creative endeavors like music for me, I would require a period (or periods) of complete hibernation. And I would have to accept that I could not predict when it would return.
So, I'm going to continue to think of myself as capable of a committed relationship to certain perfumes, even as I accept there will be times when I explore the field. There will even be times when I'll be ignoring every one altogether. But I'll always be thinking about our history, and our current moment, and ponder our future.
Therein will be my balance. I think.
10 comments:
I am so with you on this experience! I went through a very experimental phase with scent (mainly when I started reading so many great perfume blogs) and I would sample, sample, sample and wear a new scent each day (sometimes changing it at night). I did so much that I actually burnt out and didn't wear any scent at all for a few weeks. Then resorted to my two favorites (Stella and Narciso Rodriguez for Her) and only wore those for about three months. It was almost like a rebellion- I was being faithful. And now that I discovered Sheer Stella for 2009 I have only dousing myself in it every single day for the past two months. phew! I still love reading about other scents. But right now I am enjoying being monogamous with this one...
I need time off sometimes too. In fact I think I'm just starting to want to sample lots of things again having been off scent for a couple of months. For me this is no doubt partly due to hayfever and not being able to smell. Getting re- interested is great but not so good for my purse.
I think the time off keeps it from turning into A Job. Early on I did the same thing as you, S, minus the spreadsheet:-) if I didn't sample a new scent every day (sometimes 2 each) I felt like I'd FAILED.
Where's the fun in that?
Now it's autumn and with that I retreat back to my regularly scheduled programming - Mitsouko,Femme and JMadame. Some others will sneak in but for now, as I adjust to the shift in seasons I need a bit of grounding.
xoxoA
DC,
I remember your return to Narcisco. May you and Stella Sheer enjoy a beautiful time together. :)
Rose,
Ha! I know what you mean about the purse...I have actually tried to do a little creative budgeting, along the lines of "You had wanted to take a glassblowing course, but are paying for this instead." Sometimes, it actually works. ;)
Musette,
Well, the spreadsheet is spotted with holes...kind of like my brain some days...what I'd like is an assistant to take care of those things I'd like done, and even enjoy starting, but have trouble finishing. Spreadsheets, laundry, planting the bulbs, keeping a tight rein on the finances, painting the bathroom...stuff like that. ;)
I think you've got it right with the grounding...a homebase, a fulcrum for balance. And what would I do without knowing somebody who can rock Femme?
Glassblowing class. Lance Friedman.
'nuff said (except I don't know where he is these days - somewhere around us still, I hope).
Phenom glassartist and teacher.
xo
Well, shoot. There goes my creative budget line entry system.
Off to search up Lance Friedman...
Yeah, this issue has been banging around in my brain for the last couple of days, made worse by the fact that I have not been able to post reliably on the Posse page, due to their technical difficulties. Right now, perfume is very new and fresh to me, after years and years of one drugstore 'fume at a time, and I can't imagine not wanting to smell stuff - or not wanting to write.
I realize that my inexperience (less than a year) is not giving me much perspective here. But I test, oh, maybe three new scents a week? starting in the morning, and they're usually gone by the time I get home from work, so I can put on what I like for afternoon and evening, and I get to spend time with scents I love.
Mals, I know where you're at. :)
A nice thing about using the day for sampling one perfume is you get a chance to experience the full drydown with the one thing. I've done that...but also had days when I've done comparisons (or just plain gluttony), putting a different scent on each wrist, and each inner elbow. And more. It gets for crazy making.
I remember a line from a post that Victoria at Bois de Jasmin had--something about a common statement where she worked being "anyone have any skin?," meaning, does anybody have a non-scented spot I can test something on? When I first read that, I thought wow, such a life...I got how that could happen, but smiled at the thought...and then I my own experience lent empathy to it all. (Not, mind you, that I AT ALL investigate scent with the rigor and knowledge that Victoria and her ilk are. Just speaking to the using up skin aspect.)
However, I've never gotten to the point that some have, wherein they feel naked if they go out without scent. I mean, there are days where I *want* to, and would miss if I couldn't...but it doesn't throw me for a loop, and I frequently welcome it.
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