A rut?

via

When I go to a restaurant, I have a tendency to order the same dish over and over. When I find a shirt I like -and this is especially true with pants and jeans!- I buy several colors.  I know which beach I like for Summer vacation and I don't want to try new ones, thank you very much.

On the other hand, I'm always up to try a new restaurant,  travel to a new place, or try something new.* I'm not shy, not afraid of strangers or strange places, and not so self-centered as to say that things familiar to me are the only way to do things.

But I do like my comfort. The familiar. When I enjoy something, I like to snuggle into it and revel.

Lately, I've been in a perfume rut. I think the tumbleweeds blowing through this blog are a pretty substantial hint that perhaps I am not feeling inspired. So... I thought I'd write about it!

As a budding perfumista I have ordered aproximately one bajillion perfume samples. One vial often leads to the next, like one web page takes you somewhere new, then another, and another...  The blogs stir my curiousity, too. A rave review, and evocative description, even a flaming rant can all send me off in search of a sniff.

I'm brave. I'm curious. I'm pretty fearless about trying new samples (but haven't had the nerve for Secretions Manifique, yet!).

But then -is it olfactory self-preservation against the onslaught of New?- my need to burrow kicks in. I find one, maybe two new favorites and stick with them. I order them up daily, like a favorite dish at a familiar restaurant.

Most recently, I've been sticking close to these amazing scents:

• Citizen Queen (Juliette Has a Gun)**
• Gold Woman (Amouage)
• Lyric Woman (Amouage)
• Ubar (Amouage)
• Mitsouko (Guerlain)
• Musc Ravageur (Malle)
• Gris Clair (Serge Lutens)

The truth is, these are amazing, stellar scents and I don't feel at all ready to give my impressions on them. Most of them are legitimate masterpieces, in my opinion. I am not worthy!

While I have no desire for "a signature scent", I find this pattern of exploration and monogamy suits both sides of me.

Do you go through exploratory periods? Get in long ruts? Or are you pretty balanced?


*As long as it doesn't involve long (read: painful for me) plane ride,
extreme heights, or spiders and large bugs!
**funny- my early Spring found me running to JHAG's Calamity J.