Sephora's conspiracy -- CUTE rollerballs!

The tiny sideways writing are fragrance notes I jotted down for my own purposes. Apologies for the distracting chicken-scratch!

Honestly, Sephora seems to have this weird agenda where they seek to divest me of what little disposable income I have.

I found these adorable tokidoki rollerballs on their site. The second row was other rollerball fragrances I wanted to sample, so far I am in love with Vera Wang's Princess. I feel like I can actually smell a whiff of dark chocolate in it and that sends me over the moon! It's how I imagine someone learning about wine feels when they detect a note of cassis or tobacco for the first time.

Ever since I did that visual inventory of my make-up I have really curbed my craving for buying more of the stuff. Unfortunately, fragrances are ephemeral fancies that can't be documented so easily. And if I sprayed the scents into my sketchbook it would create that cacophony of smells that fashion magazines are so well known for. To further complicate matters, fragrances interact with body chemistry and develop further over time!

Lately I've been wanting to become a connoisseur of something. My tastes aren't all that well developed in terms of alcohol (don't much like the taste), cheeses (stinky ones overwhelm me), coffee (makes me jittery and gives me gut rot), or chocolate (not much of a sweet tooth).

To me, fragrances are incredibly accessible -- Walk into just about any mall that has a department store, Sephora, Shoppers Drug Mart, Body Shop, Lush, etc. and you can get away with spraying testers on yourself for free! I make notes on my iPhone of what I've sprayed where (wrist, elbow, forearm) and then when I get home I look up the fragrances on Fragrantica and Makeupalley to see if I can tease apart the different notes. It is weird to me that the boxes for the perfumes never, ever say what the notes are supposed to be. They always say alcohol and fragrance oil. Thanks, guys! Very unhelpful :P.

I love learning about the different fragrance notes. I love how the bottles are designed to reflect their contents, how a smell can inspire the creation of the physical form to house it. I am intrigued by how a precisely calibrated combination of oils, alcohol, and chemicals can excite my brain and challenge my senses.

And as hobbies go, it's a pretty cheap one. Luckily I don't like about 90% of what I test, which means I don't buy much. I only own three full-size bottles. But each one I test is a learning experience! Last week I tested Dior's Dolce Vita (Shoppers Drug Mart) and immediately hated it. I thought it smelled like curry. I love curry, but I do not want a perfume that smells like it. When I got home I found out that one of the notes in it is cardamom, which was a big "aha!" moment for me :).

Can't wait to see those tokidoki rollerballs at my closest Sephora! I have some giftcards :D.