Challenging my identity (Perfume)
Perfume. Some people have several on the go and never finish the bottle, others have one and that's it for life.
Me? My plan is to have one high end one mixed with a regular priced one for daily use.
Until then I stick to one designer scent and switch up when I go through another chapter of life.
Now, that might sound like a lot. But in actual fact it's just something that has happened to happen over the last couple of years.
Growing up I went through the standard scents that teens do ie. the infamous Impulse cans and other body sprays that were super cool but drenched your clothes.
Then I began using actual perfumes - although I can't quite remember from what age.
What I do remember is using Estée Lauder's Sensuous for a couple of years and then switching to Elie Saab's Le Parfum around 2013. I think I found a sample in a magazine and decided to switch.
I finished the bottle on the last day I was due to fly back home from my year in Brazil which seemed like the best timing!
From what I remember of these scents they represented who I was at the time. Young, fresh and looking for ways to please people and fit in. A bit more traditional.
Over the summer of 2014 I decided I would branch out a bit.
Back from year away. Time for a (quite literally) fresh look.
I went into Superdrug while they had a sale on, tried a couple and Rihanna's Nude - which had just been released.
I don't normally go for celebrity fragrances but it was an awesome scent! Fresh, breezy and cheeky. Just how I was feeling at the time ;)
I invested in the 100ml and it somehow lasted me that whole year! (And for half the price of regular perfume too).
Graduation and my first job came around and I decided this was a good point to go for another perfume. The transition from student to adult. I wanted something a bit more pricey as well.
Once again a fresh release caught my eye, or nose (?!). Paco Robane's Olympea. I adored this scent because it felt fresh, clean and made a statement. It fit in with the young leader I wanted to be at the time.
I got through a couple of bottles of this over the year and every time I put it on I felt happier and stronger in myself.
Interestingly I might have kept that going because I truly loved it. But now I've moved to London aka transition from student life to adult life, it sort of makes sense to buy another perfume - don't worry I waited until mine had run out.
On the evening of one of my Landmark sessions I bought YSL's Black Opium. It was sassy, it was bold and it was daring.
All the things I now want to be in my life going forward.
Writing this down has been like reflecting on where I've been and where I've got to and it's super fun! Making me smile a bit at who I was when I bought these perfumes and what I've done since.
If you have one perfume you've used all your life and it works for you: awesome! But for me it has been super fun to challenge my identity. Notice how certain aesthetics fit to *you* at the time.
In challenging my identity it is challenging my way of being. If I'm too complacent, it's like an automatic red light in my brain. If it's not challenging me, is it really worth bothering with anymore?
It's funny how we think the past makes up our identity when in actual fact your identity is whatever you want it to be and think it is at any given time in your life.
Soooooo much of what other people thought of me seemed to become my identity as well. So it's almost not surprising that I wanted out of my life back in January, because I didn't even know who I actual was! I was trying to figure it out from other people's opinions when all I should have been doing was figuring out from myself.
Madness!
Anyhoo! What do you think?
Do you like to switch up your signature scent when you begin another chapter?
Let me know!
Han x