Do you collect or savor? These are far from identical. In fact, there’s generally an inverse relation between the two. The more fragrances you collect, the more difficult it is to savor. If you’re looking for the next quick fragrance fix, you have little time to spend wearing and savoring a great fragrance, say, an entire week, or even an entire month. You’re collecting or, to switch metaphors, dabbling in a huge buffet rather than enjoying a savory gourmet dinner. This is not to say you can’t enjoy collecting. As the character in the movie Heat once declared, for some people, “The action is the juice.” It’s the collecting itself they enjoy, and not the fragrances as such. If you spend many years collecting fragrances as I have you might discover collecting isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. A few weeks ago Antonio posted a video declaring he’s reducing his collection from about 1000 to about 15 fragrances. Of the myriad of “decluttering” videos I’ve observed from the “influencers,” his was by far the most impressive. Why? Because he gave thoughtful, principaled, permanent reasons for retaining his 15 fragrances. He has reasons to savor, and not collect. I intentionally keep my collection at about 100 (though I actually own more fragrances than are in what I deem my collection). I suspect in 5 to 10 years that number will reduce to 25–50 and in 15 to 20 years (if I’m still alive) that number will diminish to 4 or 5. As one grows older he generally enjoys fewer things, but he enjoys those fewer things more than he enjoyed the many things when he was younger. This is true of fragrances. It is possible to both collect and savor, but the more aggressively one collects, the less one can enjoy savoring. Collect or savor. Pick one.

There have several interesting threads recently about collecting fragrances and philosophies behind collections. I'm only about two years into my own journey and have been buying new bottles regularly. (I think I have 42 or 43 bottles now.) And I've been thinking about trying to design an ideal (for me) fragrance wardrobe of 28 bottles: seven for each season. So just a quick poll: what's the ideal collection size for you? And if you'd like to explain in the comments, even better. Thanks, gentlemen.

Merakái Bliss from the under-the-radar niche house Patek Maison is an elegant and complex citrus that also includes woods and florals and green notes. This plays in the same ballpark as Roja Elisium but outperforms it. The ingredients are obviously of high quality and the smell is almost entirely natural. There is an obvious sophistication about Bliss that would probably keep it from becoming an everyday fragrance. Don’t misunderstand. It’s not to be limited to formal or semi-formal warm-weather events but it’s not quite a dress-down fragrance either. There is a semi-casual elegance here that announces old money, which is actually the name of a Naughton and Wilson fragrance.

I first sampled the niche house Villa Erbatium at the San Francisco ScentFest back in June, and Green Grape Beer impressed me instantaneously. That bottle was sold out, so I subsequently ordered it. I’m confident I never owned a fragrance whose name more precisely describes its scent. This smells exactly like a waitress spilled a pint of green grape beer all over you and you didn’t change your shirt the rest of the day. The beer keeps the grape from becoming gourmond, and the grape keeps the beer from becoming bitter. This is surprisingly beautiful, and as you can notice, this house has some of the most gorgeous bottles of any I’ve ever encountered.

https://boadiceaperfume.com/products/blue-sapphire-supercharged I’m all for high end luxury frags but seriously????