Fun hosting a fragrance party

I recently did a little swap with a BN member who very generously shared an extremely large number of very varied fragrances. Some niche, some designer, some very fancy, some very modest. A true enthusiast selection.

I mentioned to a younger gal at the arts community center I hang out at that I had all these samples and she expressed a desire to try them out. That's what we did this evening.

We actually made it through all the ones I received, including some I brought along that I like. It was a really nice time, and at the end she had six or seven fragrances which she liked and so I gave her the corresponding samples so she could live with them.

It was a long evening, requiring many breaks and resetting our noses, but it was so nice to put my haul to good use, and to see someone have the opportunity to experience niche fragrances that are effectively impossible to try unless you buy samples, stuff like Lutens, Parfumes de Empire, histoires, Penhaligon, discontinued stuff. It was also really nice to hear a new perspective on them, and I ended up smelling things I would not have noticed alone.

What was particularly nice was that the wide variety allowed her to learn about fragrance - I had multiple traditional and non traditional fougeres and chypres, different takes on rose, different takes on modern aquatics. Learning about these things took me months and months, but I wish I had the opportunity to just sit and gorge on fragrance.

Anyway, I'd encourage all of you to continue oversharing about your hobby, and get those samples into the hands of the people around you.

Good job, spreading the olfactory love!

FYI, the stars of the night for me were

• Papillon Dryad
• Immortelle by PdE
• Taur Lonestar
• Drakkar Noir (never tried it!)

For her:

• La Fille en Aiguilles
• CDG Black
• Jicky
• Fleurs d'Oranger
• Lalique White

Oh my gosh, how fun! It’s rare to find someone willing to put in the time and go down that rabbit role with you —

It certainly would be a rewarding experience to bringing in others into the world of fragrances.

I’ve done this several times, it’s lots of fun.

cazaubon said:

I’ve done this several times, it’s lots of fun.

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How do you do it? I had some other people express interest but I'm not sure how you'd structure it.

Sounds like a wonderful time!

To paraphrase an old refrain,

It’s always fair weather
when perfumistas get together!

Thank you for sharing and glad that you experienced such fun, but also wonderfully scented time.

cazaubon said:

I’ve done this several times, it’s lots of fun.

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Me too! Only issue: olfactory fatigue. Best to keep sniffing parties brief, or least spread out the fragrances over a reasonable time, to allow for a proper re-set.

It is fun to find others who are seriously interested in learning more about fragrances. If I’m showing off some fragrances and get the idea that the conversation is about to slip into “I could use this to pick up chicks” or “Do you think he’d like this on me?” the show ends in a hurry.

Two ways I’ve seen it done: a group sniffing party, we all meet up at a coffee shop, public park, etc. and each person brings several bottles they think would interest the others. We sit around and smell stuff, eat, drink, talk, and trade samples. Second way: invite a few people to my house and we raid my collection (which is embarrassingly large), sit around sniffing things, eating, talking and making samples/decants.

Sharing is caring, and that's as true for fragrance as for anything.

I did this with college students (American) in Paris. About 10 young women signed up, and after a super brief presentation on perfumery, they got to just dive into a large lot of mini's and tester strips. Everyone got to bring a couple of their favorites home. We all enjoyed it!
And then recently, while hosting 7 young people on a vacation, I cornered 4 young men at breakfast with 3 perfumes--vintage Dior Dior, Amouage Interlude Homme, and actually I forget now what the third one was. We briefly discussed notes, vintage vs contemporary, gender-marketing, etc. They liked the Dior-Dior best, which was a triumph over marketing logics!