I've noticed in the almost year and a half that I've been blogging about perfume that my posts generally have tended to become shorter and more to the point. Part of this is down to necessity and circumstance, as I have been very busy this year and increasingly find less time to post.
However, I do find that particularly with posts where I try to review a perfume, I tend to write in less detail. The way I tend to write about a perfume is to wear it and make short notes as the day progresses, attempting to capture the mood, smell, sensation and progression of the scent. In recent months these notes have become shorter and less detailed. Perhaps it is a matter of practice and training one's nose and perhaps I have become lazy. I don't really know. What I do know is that I find it increasingly difficult to capture the feel of a perfume, as if I lack inspiration. Perhaps it is a form of burnout!
Another thought crossed my mind recently, that being that it takes far more to surprise and move me these days, perfume-wise. I think some of this must be because I have tried so many perfumes in the last three years. I mean, lets face it - after a while a lot of juice out there starts to smell the same as other stuff, no matter whether it is released by a niche house or mainstream conglomerate. Or am I just being a kill joy? One benefit of this slightly jaded outlook is that when I do come across a perfume that wows me, it is doubly fantastic.
I'd be interested to find out what some of you think about this. Am I just too cynical and jaded, or is there some truth in what I am saying?
Michael, I am so with you on this one!
ReplyDeleteI don't think you're cynical or jaded. Maybe there's just only so many 'loves' a person can handle : )
I trade perfume samples with a friend that lives in a different part of the US and she sent some, at my request, a few days ago. I started the wearing and sniffing all excited and soon realised they were all lovely, but I didn't want to own any of them.
That's how I usually judge these days-would I actually buy it? It's fun to sniff new things, you just never know, something might still knock your socks off, but lately I mostly love and keep returning to what I already have.
I think 'discerning' would be a more apt description of your relationship with perfumes-LOL
ReplyDeleteCymbaline, thanks for the comments. Actually your point about returning to what you already have is an apt one. I tend to do that a lot too.
ReplyDeleteI think you're mixing two separate issues: perfume discovery fatigue and bloggers block. These two might be connected or might be not.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that the broader your experience is the less truly novel creations you encounter. But how you react to something that is almost the same but slightly different is another story. Ask any woman who is at least slightly into fashion how many pairs of black pants or black shoes she has and what distinguish one from the other...
As to the blogging, why did you do it in the first place? What was/is the reason you used to find all those words? Was it just to share the excitement from the discovery of something new? Or were there any other goals that haven't panned out?
Undina, to be honest, you've asked me a lot of questions that I am not even sure of the answer! It's something I will need to consider in more detail. I think my blogging started as a journey of perfume discovery and I think that is still certainly the case, but it isn't as simple as that. Along the way I've met people, most in the virtual world but a few in my 'real' world too and that has enriched my experience. My perfume reviews used to be self-educational for me too, as I was training my nose and trying to understand the basics of perfumery. Perhaps that is why my early posts tended to be in more detail and more technical. Once I met people, the human and emotional factors came into play and it became far more about being part of a community of sorts and having a bit more fun I suppose.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you just reached some plateau in you self-education process and your audience either doesn't need or doesn't want technical details in the amount they used to? You mentioned the emotional factors so I just want to speculate that for those people who read your blog and whose blogs you read your emotional presence might be more important than your greatest insight into the latest creation by X...
ReplyDeleteAnd, as I've mentioned earlier, pictures of your cat are greatly appreciated at any time ;)
Undina, I can't really disagree with that!
ReplyDelete