Saturday Question: What Fragrance Do You Want To Be Buried In?

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

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Portia

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

I have had an idea. Well, actually I’m copying an idea from Olfactoria’s Travels. Once a week there used to be a Question. Everyone would chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it would be a generally fun events each week. Taking sides never meant taking offence and everyone kept it respectful and light.

I’d like to carry on that tradition, maybe you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them.

If we get over 200 responses I will draw a $20 Surrender To Chance Gift Card. Every comment will get a place in the draw, so if you comment purposefully on your own or another comment you’ll have a chance, random.org will draw the winner on Friday and the winner will be announced in next Saturdays question.

Last Weeks Winner: 

Send me an eMail to portia _ turbo at yahoo dawt com dawt au

Saturday Question:

What Fragrance Do You Want To Be Buried In?

You’re dead and gone. Everyone is grieving, even the people you hate. You’ve been primped and powdered and set up in a casket on full display. The family has dressed you in your favourite going out for dinner or a wedding outfit, except the shoes which someone in the family wanted so you’re wearing an expensive but uncomfortable pair. Doesn’t matter, you can’t feel a thing now.

What do you want your family to spritz you with while you lay in state. It will be their last glimpse of you before your earthly body is disposed of in whatever manner you’ve chosen. Is it a showcase fragrance, a signature, something weird and wonderful? Do you go niche, department store, indie or designer? Is it a fave or something for best? Will they put the bottle in the casket with you? Will they spritz your clothes or your casket lid?

My answer:

So I have two wishes. Both of which will probably be ignored but still let’s get it out there.

The Memorial Service:

Like a wedding I’d like there to be flowers on the end of each row. Green carnations and elephants ears, very simple in a white fabric bow. I would like the bows to be soaked in Guerlain Shalimar, the casket and myself also drenched in it. When mourners walk into the church they should smell Shalimar, not headache levels but fully fragrant. Shalimar has been my on and off constant companion for decades, from my Mum and her mates to me and mine. By the time I die I’m hoping that my blood will run thick with it anyway.

 

The Interment:

I’m going to be cremated so there won’t be a burial as such. I’ve got a plot but would be just as happy shovelled into my Mum’s plot. If they inter me in a box then I’d like a Guerlain Shalimar parfum bottle in with me and the box linings to be spritzed lavishly with Neela Vermeire Creations Mohur. What better way to go on to the next adventure than smelling like a gazillion dollars?

 

So, my question to you is:

What Fragrance Do You Want To Be Buried In?

63 thoughts on “Saturday Question: What Fragrance Do You Want To Be Buried In?”

  1. Holy, that’s one hell of a question. I will not be laid out or buried. I will have no family left when I pass. Some strangers will take care of me. No one will put perfume on me. But, I will go out burning like I love to smell in life. Smoke. Boadicea Complex. Powerful and Satan and all the demons in hell having sex. So powerful, they smell me in heaven. So, everyone will be celebrating my life!

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  2. Portia when I read the question title on the email notification my mind jumped straight to Admiral Horatio Nelson being preserved in a brandy barrel with myrrh and and spices…so I’m thinking a big vat of Bel Respiro EdP might be my choice.

    Or maybe a perfumista style cremation where they place me on top of a mound of my fragrance bottle leftovers and stand way (waaaaay) back before lighting it….

    Lil Xx

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    • HA HA HA! I often joke that if this place catches fire it will go up like a fuel dump.
      What a way to go.
      Apparently having Nelson in there didn’t stop the crew stealing some of the booze. ACK!
      Portia xx

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  3. I am not sure what I will be wearing, but there had better be a whole LOT of it. None of this ‘I don’t want to offend anyone’ rubbish!
    When they turn on the oven I will be a big incense stick!
    I love your fragrance combination actually, Shalimar amped up with rose pastry. Mmm

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    • Hey JackieB,
      Yeah, in death as in life.
      A big incense stick sounds absolutely gorgeous.
      Portia xx

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  5. I’ll probably have to make this someday. Myrrh, dried roses, dragon’s blood, clove and mahogany. I want to smell like a curio.

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    • And what a fabulous smelling curio you’ll be. Have you tried Amouage Opus X? The bloody violin? I think it might be exactly the one you’re after.
      Portia xx

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    • Hey Mary,
      Wonderful choice. I can imagine you going up like the Opium smoke in a long forgotten Chinese den. How fabulous.
      Portia xx

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  7. Just replace the embalming fluid with vintage L’Heure Bleue Extrait and I am good to go! Oh wait….I’m already gone. Ugh, semantics! I’m SO confused. Xoxo

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    • HA! Hey Robert, I have often wondered if perfume could embalm. Imagine! Even when exhumed hundreds or thousands of years later the corpse would still smell of aldehydes, roses, vanilla and incense. Heaven.
      Portia xx

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    • It will herald your triumphal entry through the pearly gates, or whatever good place you believe in Ceil.
      Portia xx

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  11. How I love your mind, Portia! Lucky Jin must have the most intellectually stimulating time with you.

    I have chosen a blind buy, so to speak. I have never tried this scent, but the uproar it created has me determined this is for me. Secretions Magnifique by ELdO. Having been a good girl all my life, I’d like to finally live life to the max. I’m guessing I might actually let go upon death, and unconstrain myself enough to be wild.

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    • Kate,
      You overestimate our conversations by about 100%. We keep it very down to earth around the house. Our friends though, WE talk about the most fabulously esoteric ideas often. Only so rarified because the talk can be linked to preceding conversations had over years. It’s also where a lot of our laughter comes from.

      How extraordinary to wait until you’ve left this world to finally roam unfettered. I admit to finding the next jump pretty exciting. Not that I want to make it anytime soon.
      Portia xx

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      • Portia, autism tends to have its down sides too. 😉

        I have an image of your laugh being an all encompassing belly laugh and loud. A veritable bear hug of a laugh.

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  12. For me, it is a tough battle between original Lang Cuiron and vintage Eau Sauvage. I remember being blown away by both fragrances at the very first sniff. I will admit Eau Sauvage is far better fragrance than Cuiron, both technically and historically. I know Cuiron is rather simplistic but Cuiron is one of those cases where you feel something represents you so well. Even if I were to opt for a custom-made fragrance, I don’t think the end product would move me as much as Cuiron. I may also end up with Cuiron because Eau Sauvage is a classic while Cuiron is relatively obscure outside the world of hardcore perfumistas like us. So Cuiron will be a little more unique choice for me. Moreover, some who know me personally and are aware of my love for perfume, they have heard me raving about Cuiron a lot more than Eau Sauvage 😉

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    • Interesting Fazal,
      I love that you’re caught in a conundrum that can keep you occupied till the final moment.
      Portia xx

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  13. I also want to be cremated but before I go into the furnace I’d like to be spitzed with with one of my favorite vintages, Sikkim, Cabochard or Bandit, or all three of them but not too much of it. While I’d like to go with a bang I don’t want the crematorium to explode.
    If I’d get buried I’d need an extra wide casket to accommodate my collection. If I live for another 20 years or more it would have to be a mausoleum or a crypt. It would smell so beautiful that I’d get lots of visitors.

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    • Ingrid, I love the idea of having a fragrant mausoleum. People could come and spritz your sarcophagus with different scent each day. Not much different to incense really, just a little more ephemeral.
      Portia xx

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  15. I should like to be cremated as well. I am an extremely private person in everyday life and do not wish to be gawked at and criticised as I lay helpless in a casket. I have already stated that my belongings should be shared by those I love, including my small fragrance collection. Perhaps one of my children would be so good as to scent my ashes with Farmacia SSA Cara before the lid goes on.

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  16. I would ideally just buried under a big old oak, but with modern regulations it’d probably end up being one of those “green” pods that decompose readily. Making my own perfumes is something I would like to do, and I already have a burial scent in mind built around myrrh. Actual myrrh resin would interfere with the whole “green burial” thing, but perfume should be fine. 😉

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    • Hey Morrigan,
      Wouldn’t Myrrh Resin be extremely green? It comes directly from trees after all. It would also take a while to decompose so you’d be fragrant for longer.
      Portia xx

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      • The whole idea of the biodegradable pods is to decompose faster. The resin would hinder that if used traditionally, so the two wouldn’t really go together.

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        • Aha, that makes sense.
          I like the idea of decomposing quickly and becoming a eucalyptus tree.
          Portia xx

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    • yes! that’s perfect. I love lilies, their scent is haunting. It is tender and piercing at the same time.

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    • Isn’t it fantastic to get all these views on such a topic? To even ask the question!! I relish these weekly questions.

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      • Thanks Kate,
        I do too. Some of the most interesting ideas and fragrances come out of our APJ family. Reminders and newbies, so good.
        Portia xx

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  18. ooh, great question. I choose Eau des Merveilles, water of wonders. Water is life. We are born from water. We are made of water. And EdM brings joy to my life each time I breathe it in.

    It’s selfish but I also like to imagine that all my perfume samples and bottles could go in my burial container with me so that it would radiate the same fragrant melange I inhale each time I open the closet where I store my perfumes.

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    • Hey Tiffanie,
      Eau des Merveilles is a wonderful choice.

      Yeah, I love walking in my frag room. Some days it’s VERY fragrant.
      Portia xx

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    • Hey Greg,
      Yeah Avignon is a wonderful choice and I’m surprised we have not had more incense type frags mentioned.
      Portia xx

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  20. Vintage Miss Dior! I want all my bottles poured on my body and clothes!

    Miss Dior while alive and even in death! 😀

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    • WOW! Excellent MichelleU,
      Vintage Miss Dior is so perfect in every way. Hmmmm, I’m a bit jealous of your idea.
      Portia xx

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  21. Have not considered this topic. I might like to ce cremated in a cedarwood box but that’s about it for scent and death.

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  22. What a crazy/funny/weird question! I’ve never thought about it but right now I’m going to have a serious talk with my daughter about it. Immediately. I’ll give her instructions in case she’d forget to scent me one day. No way, now I’m going to say it to her loud and clear – don’t forget to take the perfume that reminds you of me most (I don’t want to make it harder for her and make her go through drawers and boxes in search for one specific perfume) and spill the bottle on my clothes and hair! I bet she’s going to like it.

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    • Hey Neva,
      That’s an excellent way to do it. Please come back and tell us how she reacted.
      Portia x

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  23. Last year I put into my Grandma’s coffin a handkerchief scented with her favorite perfume, love for which I inherited from her, – Lancome Climat. And since it still is my most favorite perfume, I would probably want to leave this World wearing it. Though I’m not sure that I have enough supplies of it to last for the next 100 years while I’m alive… 😉

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    • That’s beautiful Undina. We need to get you a couple of litres for the next hundred years.
      Portia xx

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