Sharing my Perfume Passion

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

.

Sandra

.

Hiya wonderful smelling APJers! How is everyone doing?

As many know, I have had a love affair with perfume since I was a child. I have other passions as well, such as travel, photography, sketching and music. I am not sure if it is the language or age, but I am obviously more comfortable in my skin now and where I would normally keep mum about my loves, I find myself expressing myself more freely. This is a great opportunity for me because it takes me to new places and I am meeting so many wonderful people.

A friend of mine approached me a few weeks ago to speak at an expat morning meeting at the school. About perfume! I was skeptical at first but decided to go ahead and it was a pleasant revelation for me of how open and curious people were.

Sharing my Perfume Passion

I decided to share my love of Neela Vermeire Creations. Big question was how to go about doing so. I adore Neela’s perfumes as they use some of my favorite notes and spices. The Netherlands is the place to live if you love flowers so my first stop was the florist where I discussed what kinds of flowers are readily available in November and they did a marvelous job. I chose to include fragrant flowers and not all are used in the NVC perfumes. We had lily, tuberose, freesia, ‘Yvette Piagaitte’ rose, ‘Free Spirit’ rose, a third rose which they could not name and finally stock also known as matthiola incana which is clove-like in scent.

I included fresh mango, cinnamon bark, cardamom pods, vanilla bean paste, essential oils of frankincense, sandalwood and jasmine and a leather clutch for its scent.

We kicked off the meeting by starting to sniff the various flowers. Many of the participants were astonished at how different each of the roses smelled.

There was the obvious love/hate reaction with tuberose. Interestingly though those from tropical climates loved the tuberose. We moved through the spices, oils and finally the fresh cut mango. Once that was done I sprayed Bombay Bling onto a tester paper and all were amazed that they could easily identify the mango and also the lychee. A friend of mine loved Trayee not for the incense but for the ganja which she could identify (I cannot). Several participants could identify cardamom or cinnamon.

In attendance was a man who did not know exactly what to expect but enthusiastically sniffed the flowers, spices and oils. When it came to testing the perfumes he was under the impression that a man could not possibly wear any of these perfumes. I convinced him to try Mohur as I find men can really rock its spicy rose with glorious sandalwood. He loved it and went away with the knowledge that perfume can be unisex and that it will smell differently on each and every one of us!

Each of the participants had a clear favorite so at the end of the talk I gave the participants samples of the perfumes they were interested in and a flower of their choosing. It was a lovely morning and I would like to thank the expat group for giving me this opportunity.

Neela Vermeire Creations Discovery Sample Set €55 

Do you have any inhibitions when it comes to talking about your perfume passion? What would you talk about?

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to December.

Oodles of fragrant kisses,
Sandra xo

 

(ED: All photos supplied by Sandra. Thank you. XXX)

18 thoughts on “Sharing my Perfume Passion”

  2. Hey Sandra,
    What an excellent post. I love having sniffy days and we often sit around thew table here, or out, and smell oodles of fragrances. Such a fun way to hang out with people.
    Portia xx

    Like

    • Hi Portia, sniffy days with you sound absolutely wonderful and relaxing. Hopefully I will meet more perfume fans.
      Sandra xoxo

      Like

  3. What a genius presentation, bringing elements of each perfume to the group to smell.
    Are you a teacher by profession?
    I can bash the ear of anyone in close proximity when it comes to perfume and essential oils but cannot remember ever being invited to do so!

    Like

    • Thanks Jackie B! No, not a teacher – just passionate. I would love to learn more about essential oils! I am sure people would be lucky to hear you talk.
      Sandra xoxo

      Like

  4. I gave a session on perfume at our staff development day a while ago and shamelessly called it Sniffapalooza. People had a fun time sniffing up a storm.

    Like

  5. Sandra, you did such an excellent job! You made it really fun and interesting and managed to open people’s minds. Well done you. I would have felt very nervous about doing something similar so I greatly admire you for going for it.

    Like

    • Hi Tara, Truth be told, I was nervous. It ended up being such a great experience and I would do it again. You would be surprised of how you would be able to talk about something you are passionate about! You’d be great.
      Sandra xoxo

      Like

  6. What a positive and wonderful experience! Sharing the joy of perfume really allows people to appreciate this sense, the wonderful gift of smell, and to better appreciate other aesthetic experiences such as cooking, painting, music, literature — the arts cross over in so many ways. I think perfume also encourages to appreciate the natural world. What a great teaching/sharing opportunity. I love how you tied in the flowers, spices, fruit with NV creations.

    Like

    • Hi shiva-Woman. It really was surprisingly enjoyable. I couldn’t agree with you more about the arts crossing over into many aspects of our lives.
      Sandra xoxo

      Like

  8. This was an interesting experience. You should have taken some to shock and awe them, for eg. secretions magnifique 😀 hahahha

    Like

Comments are closed.