Perfume Roulette

I'm talking about mail order perfume. I love shopping online, mainly because it's the only way to get actual merchandise without having to deal with a brain-dead sales person. That includes for perfume, and there are a couple of great sites out there.

Plus, if you end up wanting something that's too boutiquey, it's very easy to just zip off to a new store by Googling a new perfumery. So now I can shop exclusive New York niche perfumeries without having to submit to the indignities involved in modern air travel.

But there's always a little bit of perfume roulette involved. I've bought a few scents unsmelled. There is great drama in that sort of endeavor, and not a little bit of fun, too, but it's a sort of risk. Even in cases where I have smelled the fragrance before, making the purchase always makes me a bit uneasy since my olfactory memory is no more reliable than the rest of my memory any more.

Fortunately, I have a pretty expansive view of perfume. I like almost everything, at least in some distant, idealized way. And since I tend to be eclectic in all things, I can't imagine anything that smelled at least halfway reasonable that I would not wear at least occasionally.

Even Youth Dew. The first time I smelled this (the original, not the remake called Youth Dew Amber Nude) I thought it was horrible. But for some reason I was attracted to it. So I sampled it off and on and finally took the plunge and bought a bottle. I wore it a few times and now I really love it. Sort of like sushi. The first time I tried it I found it a little disconcerting. Now, don't get between me a a tuna roll.