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10 Things I Have Learned on My Scented Journey

Perfume Genius - Learning

10 Things I have Learned on my Journey to Becoming a ‘Perfume Genius’*

‘Learning’ is a phrase that I never seem to be too far away from. I work in Human Resources but I have a lot of input, experience and training in ‘Learning and Development’. As part of my studies I am required to record my development within a ‘Learning Log’ and I do very much believe in the old idiom ‘you learn something new every day. So yes, it seems that I cannot escape the word learning, but I’m not complaining, I love to learn.

Obviously my favourite thing to learn about is perfume. and my scented journey through the world of perfume has so far been an excellent experience. I have learned so much about scent, but still feel that I’ve barely touched the surface, there really is so much to learn after all.

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The Pattern of My Life – Scented Memories and Favourite Smells

Rupert & Paddington

My Boys – Rupert and Paddington.

Smell is the least understood of the five senses, but it is probably one of the most important. We respond to smell not only a physical level but also on an emotional one. It is an integral part of our beings and whilst it may not be as immediately vital as our sight or our hearing, it has a huge affect on how we view the world.

I believe that throughout our lives we become attached to certain smells, perhaps because they are familiar to us or because we have a strong and positive emotional reaction to them. Our brains keep these smells and their corresponding in a hidden part of our brain to only be released when we come across them in the real world. This bank of scented memories forms a massive part of who we are.

Have you ever come across a smell and been instantly taken back to a specific time, person or place? 

It always surprises me just how vivid smells are in our memory, sometimes I struggle to remember the exact details of a particular time, I can’t remember the entirety of events or the small details but I can always remember the smells. In this post I would like to share those smells that have a particular resonance with me and hold a particular sentiment within my heart.

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My Very Own Narnia – The Capsule Wardrobe

Wardrobe

Last weekend, after much nagging from my long-suffering partner, I decided to have a tidy of my perfume collection and samples box. Now, anyone who knows me well will be fully aware that tidying is not really something I do very often, in fact, it is something that I avoid at all costs.

Anyway, during my tidy up, I totalled up the number of perfume bottles in my collection and I was genuinely shocked when I came to the nice round number of 120. “How can I have so much perfume, I never feel like I have enough choice” I thought, “Do I really need so much?” and “Do I feel like I don’t know what to wear because I have too much choice?”

This led me to think in depth about my collection of fragrances, what would I choose if I were to reduce its size considerably?

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