Saturday Question: What Do You Have Backups Of?

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

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Portia

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

Every Saturday we have a Question, an idea purloined from Olfactoria’s Travels. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it is a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

The idea is 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.

Over 100 responses I will draw a Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)
This week:

  1. Niki de Saint Phalle
  2. Miss Dior vintage EdC
  3. Miss Dior vintage EdT
  4. Miss Dior vintage Extrait
  5. Guerlain Mitsouko

Last Weeks Winner: Ingrid

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with your address please

Saturday Question: What Do You Have Backups Of?

Backups! Whenever there’s a rumour of discontinuation or reformulation it’s like I’m galvanised into action. Even if I start to see a scarcity of my faves on the discounters I feel the need to grab a backup, just in case. This has led to some alarming hoarding on my part. In fact I think at least a quarter of my collection is backups. Terrifying.

Instead of going through my litany of shame I thought I’d tell you the fragrances that I have the MOST backups of, my Top 3.

My Answer:

Niki de Saint Phalle: Yes, you’ve heard me bang on about this beautiful chypre again and again. Well, that’s because I love it so much and can’t imagine life without its dry green furry parchedness. No matter how I’m feeling, or the weather or the occasion Niki de Saint Phalle is perfect.

Miss Dior vintage: Extrait, EdT or EdC I love them all. A softer, furrier chypre, prettier yet raunchier than Niki de Saint Phalle. The opening has warmth and welcome, as friendly as a cheerleader yet as aloof as a society dame. Legend has it that when Christian Dior went to the perfumers to create Miss Dior he asked to make the scent of young love.

Guerlain Mitsouko: Yet another chypre. It seems to be my MO to collect them. This time we have a luscious overripe fruity zing amongst the dry oakmoss and floral bouquet. While Shalimar is my great Guerlain love I find myself reaching much more often for the flamboyant younger sister Mitsouko. It seems infinitely more wearable and fun.

My Saturday Question to you is:

What Do You Have Backups Of?

 

142 thoughts on “Saturday Question: What Do You Have Backups Of?”

  1. Generally speaking, my budget doesn’t allow me to stock up as much as I’d like to.
    I believe that my top 3 of stock ups in my collection is: Ungaro Diva, Vol de Nuit and Shalimar.
    I’d absolutely LOVE to have the Miss Dior vintage samples, and the other 2 lovely ones for my birthday next week,thank you!

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  2. I have three bottles of Dior Eau Svelte. It has become impossible to find and horribly expensive. It is “my” scent, and I can’t imagine me without it. There are others of course, but this is the one that causes me the most torment.

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    • Oh. My. Goodness. Monica, I just read the reviews on Fragrantica and I’m sure I would love this. This is the first I have heard on it. It sounded good in reviews, then someone said, ‘it has a drydown reminiscent of Tendre Poison’ … Sold!

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  3. Fleurs d’Oranger. Chergui. Yes, I go through bottles of them.
    Usually replace Hugo Woman (I once told my son the story of my mum giving me the perfume and he now insists on me having it. He’s 7.)

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  4. Firstly, congratulations Ingrid, on your win.

    I don’t have a lot of backups. Burberry Weekend, because I heard that it had been reformulated when the bottle was changed. This fragrance made me realise that I love powder and hyacinth; so I have a little backup of Love, Chloe, too – discontinued, of course.
    I have a backup of Atlas Mountain Rose from The Body Shop (discontinued).
    All a bit basic, I guess.
    But I do have a little hoard of my precious Tendre Poison, which I refuse to believe I can ever be without, and a backup of Gucci EDP, which I fell in love with after purchasing a bottle from Portia.
    I went through my spreadsheet to check this and it makes me realise how many fragrances I have that have been unsniffed or insufficiently tested!

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    • Hey Sue,
      Glad you’re loving the Gucci.
      I have a GF that loves Tendre Poison. Every time I see a reasonably priced bottle I grab it for her. She is so grateful.
      Portia x

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      • I do love that Gucci, Portia!
        Very good of you to look out for your friend with Tendre Poison. Some of the online prices are really getting up there!

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  5. Please don’t enter me in the drawing!
    I have back ups of almost everything so I’m going to follow in your footsteps Portia and just name the top three or four. For the majority of my fragrances, and definitely for all of my most loved I have both extraits and a lighter form generally to spray (or two or three..) so I have to have backups of all the concentrations I need for a full wearing. But a lot of my bottles are parfums and they are small so there’s that. Oh hell, I’m a hoarder. I’ve lived through reformulations pre-internet and now I’m like Scarlett O’Hara clutching my green curtains and a bottle of Shalimar saying “I’ll never be hungry again!”
    So my very most backed ups:
    Vintage Opium
    Vintage Cinnabar/Soft Youth Dew
    Vintage Chant d’Aromes
    Vintage Rive Gauche
    Le Galion Sortilege
    Balenciaga Michelle and Le Dix
    Vintage Coty L’Origan parfum
    Shalimar & Samsara
    This is harder than I thought
    All the Lanvins – My Sin, Arpege, Pretexte, Crescendo
    Madame Rochas and Femme
    No. 22 and No 5
    Vintage Azuree & Estee
    Vintage Miss Dior
    And a bunch of other things. Geez.

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  6. Well done ,Ingrid,on winning.
    I own back ups of 4 scents;
    1. Il Bacio…. my Wedding Scent
    2.Sensuous Noir….. my ‘go to’ winter scent
    3 Estee Lauder’s Estee;
    4.Stash by SJP

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  7. I have back ups of Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguille because of future availability issues. I have a back up of Rance Eau de Noblesse as I never want to be without it. I have a back up of Sahara Noir and Chinatown also, but I think that’s all at this stage 🙂

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    • Hey Jo,
      I too have a couple of Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles backups. I was worried it would go bell jar.
      Portia x

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  8. I may be developing a little dragon’s hoard of vintage Miss Dior, but otherwise I’m not too bad on back ups. I’ve got an extra Fleurs de Sel (because I pounced on a bottle in tk maxx and I’m still grumpy that Miller Harris discontinued it). Um, that’s it. The back up of Mitsouko is now the bottle in use, so is the CDG 2 man.

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      • Oh it’s a very good thing, and gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to wear it generously, rather than having to count out precious, rationed drops.

        p.s. please DNEM. Share the miss dior love around!

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  9. So far only Ambre Fetiche, Shalimar and Clive Christian X just because it was on special!
    Have bought repeat decants of a few, like Apres L’Ondee and Cuir Cannage. Practically free.

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  10. Portia, I’ll sit this one out seeing that Miss Dior and Mitsouko are the ones I have in backups already (no extrait, though but I’m quite happy with my eaux de cologne et de toilette 🙂 )

    Other backups include: Shalimar (vintage cologne and edt), a couple of Chant d’Aromes (not vintage enough), two Eau de Joy, Safari for women, Angel, Chanel #5, Parfum Sacre, La fille de Berlin and a couple of vintage L’Air du Temps. Right now I’m contemplating adding a backup of Cuir de Lancome 🙂

    I almost forgot: Ingrid, congratulations!

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      • Saffy, hi! Yes, it has been reformulated a few times. I own eau de parfum of the early batches (a big roundish bottle with golden bees on the cap), which I find to be the strongest of them all, and two from the noughties (a glass bottle covered in dots and a leather-covered one), love them all. However, I haven’t tried neither the Intense version nor the newer ones in rectangular bottles.

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    • Nice ones Diana,
      We snap on a few of these, actually Safari is the only one I don’t have two or more of. SHHHH
      Portia xx

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    • I wish I bought a back-up bottle of Angel many-many years ago: not to wear but to be sure that I have the original new bottle. The remaining juice in the one I have (it’s probably 15 years old) is not blue any more.

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  11. I hang my head in shame and say I have no backups. I do have two bottles of fragrances, though, that I refuse to drain for sentimental reasons ( GAP Heaven…wore it on the first date with my hubs, wore it on our wedding day and it is the only perfume he has ever complimented me on) and vintage Nocturnes de Caron (have had a bottle in rotation since 1983). I am now on the flip side of hoarding and am trying to simplify things a bit and do less collecting and more enjoying (if that makes any sense 🙂 )

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  12. Oh and forgot to say no need to enter me in the draw…I am very familiar with the lovelies and would love for someone else to experience them.

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  13. No need to enter me in the draw, lovely Portia, but I am happy to answer your Sutarday question either way. I don’t have any backups of the fragrances I own because I will probably not run out of perfume for the next 15-20 years.
    Once I really “get” a scent, I am able to smell it for most of the day with just 2-3 sprays which is why even 10 ml decants, not to mention 100 ml bottles, last for a very long time. Years, to be precise 😛

    Have a nice weekend, everybody!

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  14. Just a few, and they’re mostly discontinued, so an occasional bout of panic buying. JPG Fragile, I’ve got four of these, as well as two each of the matching body lotion and shimmering body oil. Donna Karan Gold, three of those with the body lotions as well. Miss Dior parfum, only two so far but I’m still keeping an eye out. Stash, because it is bloody fabulous, three. Ralph Lauren Style, only two, because I’m not paying silly prices for any more. Cartier Baiser Volé, scored one backup because the price was too good to ignore. I think that’s about it.

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  16. Hanging head in shame. The only perfume I have a backup of is SJP Covet. While I do love its oddness and my husband has actually complimented me on it, the only reason I have a backup is that I found a pretty gift box at TJMaxx and it was super cheap. (I use the box for my “no” samples until I give them away.) Otherwise I have enough perfume to last to the end of time so I expect that if anything ever gets low, I’ll just hoard the last few mls. Of course when we retire and I can start spraying lavishly every day I may change my tune!

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  17. Hi Portia,
    I was just pondering this question – not so much what I have backed up but why???? I have only run out of three fragrances in my life. One was the first version of Royal Secret, another Fidji and the third was a sample of an impossible to find old Coty. Now, of course, I have numerous backups of just about everything in my vast collection. I even back up frags I never use. At one point I justified this habit as prepping for the Perfume Apocalypse, but since I believe that event has already come and gone I can only attribute this behavior to “collecting” (it is not hoarding!). Please do not include me in the draw as I am now trying to organize my samples. I have finally come up with a good plan for that. 😀
    Azar xxx

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    • Hey Azar,
      What a lovely surprise. Great to see you.
      We are so similar in our collecting ways. It’s a happy illness I reckon
      Portia xx

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  18. Backups. You have named one of my biggest embarrassments (along with vintage minis on eBay, canNOT resist them). 🙂 DNEM in the draw, please.

    All of my backups are fragrances that are discontinued or have been reformulated into versions I don’t like — either way, they’re mostly no longer available new in the usual purchase locations.

    L’Arte di Gucci (1 backup)
    Coty Emeraude parfum de toilette (2 backups)
    Balmain Jolie Madame extrait (I only like the extrait, which hasn’t been made for decades now, and if I see a lonely one going for cheap on eBay that sucka is MIIIIINE, so now I have 5 little bottles, none larger than 7.5ml)
    PdN Le Temps d’une Fete (current stash is 4 bottles #notsorry)
    Cuir de Lancome (1 backup)
    Silences parfum de toilette (1 backup)

    And my backup bottle of SSS Tabac Aurea just arrived yesterday. As soon as I heard the Laurie was retiring and selling off her in-stock fragrances, I JUMPED on ordering a backup. Can’t imagine being without that one.

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    • Hi there Mals86,
      I recently sold my Cuir de Lancomes. When I want that style of fragrance I would always reach for Daim Blond, Cuir d’Ange or Bottega Veneta. CdLs had been sitting unloved for over a year. It was hard but I felt good afterwards.
      I too have a PdN Le Temps d’une Fete backup, thanks for introducing me to it.
      Portia xx

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    • Mals86, now I know why I can’t find a bottle of Le Temps d’une Fete anywhere 😀 You’ve bought all the available quantities on the market…

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  19. I have no backups, but I will in a few months – I got a vintage No 19 parfum last year and loved it so much, I asked the seller if he had more he’d be willing to sell. (Hoarders FTW!) He does, but he’s traveling, and will sell me another (I don’t know if it’s parfum or EDT, but I love them both) when he gets back.

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  20. I have very few BUB, but really love the ones I have.

    Indult Tihota was my 1st. I had snagged a PB , and immediately knew I could never be without this.

    Ava Luxe’s Vanilla Musk and Morrocan Mint are cheap and cheerful for those days when you just want to smell good! I discovered the brand through you Portia!

    BPAL’s Snake Oil – I have a 5 year bottle and one slowly aging. Our dear Erica is responsible for this addiction.

    My last one is 4160’s Dirty Honey. Again, I had a PB, and knew I needed more. I actually gifted my PB to a friend, so this one is no longer technically a back up.

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    • Hey Tena,
      I can’t believe how beautiful and affordable the Ava Luxe range is. She does beautiful stuff.
      So glad we introduced you to her.
      Portia xx

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  21. Shalimar! I have so many bottles of Shalimar that it’s hoarding. Several vintage extraits, vintage EdC, modern extrait and EdP, and flankers galore!
    I have two bottles of Chanel Coromandel (one partial EdT and a small EdP).
    I also have many bottles of BPAL Snake Oil from various vintages, and many bottles of eNVie saphir.
    Oh and I have two bottles of Alahine from Teo Cabanel.

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    • My Shalimar collection is varied too, but no two are the same – vintage, EDT. flankers, so I didn’t count them

      I think Snake Oil may be my SOTD

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    • Hey Erica,
      SHALIMAR! It’s so easy to become a hoarder because EVERY bottle from every vintage and concentration is slightly different. I love it and have the most ridiculous stockpile. When I die it will drop world prices if Jin puts them all on the market at once.
      Portia xx

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  22. Can you believe this chypre lover has never smelled Miss Dior?! I do have backups of Opium, Y, Mitsouko, Safari and Lauren. Funny how we all seem to be hoarding those chypres.

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    • Without sounding rude, I’d suggest that the majority here are aged in our Late 40s to early 60s… hence the fragrances released {majority anyway}in the late 1960s to the 1990s are those we ‘grew up with’ and we gravitate to them…..UNLIKE the Fashion of those eras.

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      • Saffy, I agree, we all do tend to gravitate towards the things that we’ve known and loved for years, especially when we have great memories of those times. I just wanted to mention that I’ll be 33 in a month, and that the beauty of these gorgeous vintage perfumes we’ve been naming in this thread, is undeniable, no matter how old its wearer is.

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  23. I have several with multiple backups. They include vintage eau sauvage, vintage dior homme, vintage kouros, vintage givenchy gentleman, vintage knize ten, vintage cuiron, original cuir ottoman, chanel 5 in different concentrations, nombre noire, vintage feminite du bois, vintage murasaki, vintage chanel cuir de russie, vintage opium, vintage poison in different concentrations, vintage acqua di gio and so on 🙂

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      • vintage Opium is awesome. I may not say it is the only perfume I would keep if I am forced to keep one but if I try to strike a balance being objective an subjective (personal taste and the artistic aspect of perfume), I consider not chanel 5, shalimar, or Joy etc but vintage Opium to be the best feminine perfume ever made. It is just as YSL proclaimed that it will be the best perfume in the world and we will call it Opium. I think he did succeed 🙂

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      • They are all awesome and all wowed me the very first time I smelled them. Vintage Givenchy Gentleman is responsible for starting my fascination with perfumes. I still remember when I first smelled it as a teenager in late 1990s, I thought to myself the name is so befitting of the perfume in the bottle. I first smelled kouros about 6-7 years ago (at the time the formula was still good) and I immed. felt this is one of a kind perfume that could only be the creation of a very creative mind. And I smelled vintage opium around the same time as Kouros and immed. recognized the richness of it. The perfume really justified its status.

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        • I have memories of these perfumes from the eighties. We used to wear them and Kouros was the first masculine fragrance that I bought for myself. Back then it was marketed strictly for men. Some boyfriends wore Givenchy Gentleman and Opium was so common that girls wore it to school. Oh, I miss those days…I’m afraid to even try the current formulations. Thank you for reminding me of these beauties.

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      • I wish I could time travel back to 80s and smell these perfumes on people. I am not originally from US and came to the country in 2001. I would have loved to see the culture of 80s and 90s in the US. Crime was high in some cities but other than that, 80s and 90s culture was awesome.

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        • Oh, I adore the eighties, not only the perfume but also the music, the fashion…I live in Europe,Croatia (former Yugoslavia). We had access to and wore perfumes from Italian designers (Armani, Valentino, Cerrutti, Versace…). Those times were really exciting and easy going. But maybe it was just because we were young back then…?

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  24. I must be the odd one out. I have a couple of back ups, but basic stuff that I don’t really like to be without. Arpege, Paloma Picasso, Youth Dew. I cannot justify the prices these vintages ask, but then I count myself fortunate to have tried and loved many of the ones you have mentioned. I began my journey very early with a bottle of very vintage Miss Dior (late 50s bottle) and a full bottle of Bal a Versaille at 14.

    Saying that, there are some I do need to back up: 24 Faubourg, Jicky and First.

    And I think there is an enormous world of new scents to discover!

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    • Heya Kate,
      Youth Dew! Even after they did the big reformulation it still smells fabulous. what a fragrance. I’m going to put the bath oil in my bath today if I can find the bottle. In your honour.
      Portia xx

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  26. Good question and so many lovely fragrances mentioned already. I’m not much into back ups, but more buying favourites at good prices due to budget and space constraints.
    I do a have a back up bottle Florabotanica and Bottega Veneta. BV now discontinued I think. Have 2nd bottle Bond9 Chinatown coming as due to a typo/photo error on a website I’ve scored 100ml at 50ml price. I think now as I’m totally fallen for the decant/sample world by the time I finish one bottle of something, I will have probably found another favourite. Having said that, maybe I just haven’t found my all time favourite perfume love just yet that needs backing up.

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  27. I don’t really have “backups” in the sense that I don’t want to run out. I do have duplicates of some scents because I want to compare vintage to modern versions: Miss Dior, Chanel Pour Monsieur, and Van Cleef & Arpels Pour Homme are among them. I do have a few that I have travel versions of for convenience, such as Tauer’s Lonestar Memories.

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  28. I forgot to mention I own 3 bottles of Jessica Simpson’s Fancy…sadly now discontinued.
    For the lovers of layering, might I suggest…Stash and Fancy…they work beautifully on me.

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  29. My top 3 back-ups are easy because they are my only back-ups:

    1. My first and eternal perfume love – Lancome Climat: I have it in several different concentrations and vintages, some in multiples.

    2. My all-time favorite – Miss Dior: I have a couple of parfum bottles and a splash bottle. But I probably need more… 🙂

    3. I thought the line might have been discontinued when I saw it on HauterLook’s sale, and my bottle was less than half fool – so I bought a back-up bottle of Yosh Ginger Ciao.

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    • YAY We snap on Miss Dior Undina.
      Whenever I see anything to do with Climat the first thing I think of is you.
      Portia xx

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  30. My FB back-ups include:
    1. Atelier Cologne Sous le Toit de Paris
    2. Burberry Brit Sheer (I don’t wear this anymore so I really should give this away
    3. Bvlgari Black
    4. Chanel 28 La Pausa EDT
    5. Chanel Coromandel EDT
    6. Chanel No. 19 EDP
    7. Guerlain Cuir Beluga
    8. Hermes Kelly Caleche EDP
    9. Indult Tihota
    10. L’AP Safran Troublant
    11. L’AP Tea for Two

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  31. No back-ups here. I would buy a back-up of AA Pamplelune if Guerlain discontinued it, it was very close to a signature scent for me for many year.Many other citrus scents don’t age terribly well, so that’s one reason for not getting back-ups.

    I have never started collecting vintage perfumes, even if I would have loved a bottle of whatever French extrait my mother wore during the 70s for night out, a floriental. I also miss Le Dix, original Quartz and original Fidji. I bought samples a few years ago of the latter, and it must have been reformulated at some point.

    I guess I could do with back-ups of Atelier Cologne Sous le Toit de Paris and SL Five o’clock au gingembre, but there’s such a lot of other favourites out there and what I crave varies over time.

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  32. Hello APJ’s, I love this question Portia! This week on fragrance hoarders…😂. I have stocked up on vintage Chanel no 5 parfum, Cosmair formula of Paloma Picasso Mon Parfum, Vintage Ma Griffe, Vintage Jolie Madame, Vintage Chanel no 19, Coeur de Joie. That’s all. Thanks for taking my confession. Oh no. My husband just piped in… He’s reminding me that I have five vintages of First, two of Rive Gauche, four or five vintage minis of Van Cleef and Arpels pour Homme (Shout out to Denyse Beaulieu for turning me on to that one.) Vintage Eau Sauvage, Caron Pour Un Homme, Vintage Diorissimo. I think I need an intervention. 😲 Peace!
    Alanna

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  34. Hmmm…I don’t have many backups. The only ones I have are for Gucci Envy and Mary greenwell Plum which was also discontinued…

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  36. Kenzo Flower Oriental
    Guerlain Vetiver Pour Elle
    Cuir de Lancôme
    VA Midnight in Paris
    Orange Sanguine
    Anais Anais
    Ferre
    No. 19
    4160 Tuesday’s Who Knew ?

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  37. I have a list of FBs that never seems to go down much or goes right back up again so I concentrate on that and my sampling. But this post was timely because I recently did get backups. I really loved the discontinued Gilly Hicks La Perouse. Lately I have seen comments that say Cali Vibes is La Perouse. I doubted it but finally decided it was worth a try – even if close, it could be worth it. It IS La Perouse!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  38. Wow, there are many perfume unicorns in this discussion. We, the people of perfume, are fascinating. 😉

    I have given away the few back up bottles I accumulated. They were taking up space and needed to be loved and used. I use perfume slowly. Usually 1 or 2 spritzes is enough, so a single 100 ml bottle is going to last. I am trying to be more lavish when spritzing fragrance. That’s my fun and easy resolution for the new year.

    But I do have one sentimental back up bottle of Terracotta Le Parfum. It was an instant love for me. When Terracotta was first released as a limited edition I decided that if it came back the next year I would get another.

    Oh! And I have two bottles of 4711 cologne, one in the refrigerator and one on the perfume shelf.

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  39. I really try to keep my perfume collection under control so I have only backups of my dearest long discontinued Giorgio Armani, his first perfume, of Clinique Wrappings (new and vintage) and of Gucci Rush which is my most complimented perfume.

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  40. I just have a couple, sparked by fear of reformulation: Chanel Misia EDT and SL Fille de Berlin. But I am new to this game – and also haven’t gone down the vintage route yet.

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  41. Far too many! You know all too well my liberal spritzing habits, still don’t think I will get through them all somehow 🙂
    Bal A Versailles – edc, edt, pdt, parfum
    Rive Gauche – edt, edp, edc, parfum
    Magie Noire, Givenchy Gentleman, Gucci Envy for Men, Eau de Gucci, Gucci Pour Homme 1
    Eau de Givenchy, Madam Rochas – edc, edt, edp, pdt, parfum, Azuree, Knowing, Youth Dew,
    Opium, Y, Kouros, Chanel #5 edc, Joy….and maybe a few others 🙂

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    • We do seem to have a lot in common Scott. I see 6 that I included in my “and some other stuff” category (which on reflection over the past couple days I have to admit is a ridiculously dishonest tag for 200 – 300 more bottles). I am beyond sure I won’t use all of mine up, especially as close to the finish line as I am, but I’m going to get as much joy from these flacons as I possibly can while I’m around. =)

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  43. So, I do have a plastic bin of backups in the basement: lots of F. malle, L’Artisan, Amouage, plus the Goutal orientalistes, Natori and Chopard Wish. However, since I spend half the year in San Diego and half the year in Montreal, I have duplicates of many, many bottles in both places. Including 2 big honker bottles of Mitzah! But I’m happy. My perfumes will outlast me, I will never run out. 🙂

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