I have always worn a fragrance, but most of my life I’ve only owned one to maybe 5 at the most fragrances at one particular time, and they were always designers. I got heavy into this hobby starting last winter so I’ve pretty much gone through all the season except fall. I’m finding that things I use to like I no longer gravitate towards and in some instances down right dislike them. I’m also discovering that things I didn’t like are becoming some of my favorite fragrances. Two examples, I loved metallic musk when I first bought it, it’s been sitting in my shelf for about 3 months and I went to wear it the other day and I literally took a shower to get the smell off of me as it smelled like curry food. In contrast, I didn’t initially like Zaharoff Seraphim Blue but have been putting that in a weekly rotation this summer. I almost sold it. I just bought Day Three Frost and I got a sample of Edge of Eden which I actually returned before opening when it first dropped, based on my opinion of the sample but today I am thoroughly enjoying it. Super sweet fragrances like Prada Paradigm, and most of the JPG line are way to cloying now. I’m just wondering if others have experienced this as they grew. I’m not trying to be a snob by any means and not necessarily saying it’s a Nieche vs designer thing or even a price thing, but I notice most of the fragrances I gravitate towards are smoother and well blended and probably designed for people more my age.

Well boys, your favorite lover boy just pulled a huge risk… he caught feelings for someone in the fragrance world. 😭 I don’t want to go into too much identifying detail, because this involves another person and I don’t want to put her business out there. But I could use some advice from the older gentlemen here. I met this woman through fragrance and over several conversations, we ended up talking for hours. We had a surprising amount in common, shared interests, similar ways of looking at things, and honestly just had really good chemistry. It was one of the most natural connections I’d had with someone in a long time. Naturally, I caught a crush. The problem was that I couldn’t figure out what the relationship actually was. In person, it was warm, genuine, and incredibly easy. Outside of those interactions, communication was basically nonexistent. I’d invited her to do something outside the usual setting, she seemed receptive, but nothing ever materialized. I tried not to push because I didn’t want to make myself too much of a priority in someone’s life. Then I’d see her again and we’d immediately fall back into these long, meaningful conversations. She’d say things that made me think she genuinely enjoyed having me around and would encourage me to visit more. So I was stuck asking myself: How much do I invest in this? I wasn’t demanding romance. I wasn’t expecting her to owe me anything. I just wanted enough clarity to know whether I should treat this as a friendship, a casual acquaintance, or something that might eventually develop. Eventually I tried reaching out again, and after getting very little response, I tried to catch her in person because I thought an honest conversation would be better than trying to interpret everything through texts. That didn’t really happen. When I finally saw her again, at an event, the warmth I’d become accustomed to wasn’t really there. She was still polite, but the interaction felt much more distant. I was already exhausted and anxious, and unfortunately I handled the moment less smoothly than I’d have liked.