The Madness to My Method -- Part Four

4. Indie vs Big Perfume Houses and Celebrity blends

There are several reasons I wear and review perfume from small, independent e-tailers as opposed to say, the latest from Calvin Klein or Aquolina. The first, and sadly most important reason, is money. The small independent e-tailers keep their prices pretty low and are generous about samples and freebies. Also, the active trading culture means that I can buy a sample of a BPAL LE, for example, for $3 or $4.

There's also the matter of variety. While the choices at BPAL in particular can be overwhelming, it's also a lot easier to avoid notes that don't work for you when you have twenty different blends with saffron in them, each just a little different.

And of course, there are a lot of blogs out there reviewing big name-brand perfume. And sure, there are a lot of people writing fan fiction and that hasn't stopped me, but in this case, I think that the Indie perfumeries get short shift. Although, if you're reading this and you know of any blogs that review the indie etailers, I'd love it if you commented with a link.

Finally there's an indie aesthetic/feel/attitude and a sense of community that I like about the small e-tailers. As I said way above, I view perfume as a modern form of alchemy and there's something I like about the idea of someone sitting down in their kitchen/extra bedroom/garage and making something because they like the way it smells and think that other people might like it too. And the sense of being part of the community, of actually being a part of the process, is really wonderful. We talk about Beth at BPAL, Fabienne at Possets, Astrid at Blooddrops and Dave and Brianne at Mythos Mixtures; these are real people who interact with their customers via forums and email.

Having said all that, I've got about five perfumes by perfume houses up on my wishlist at Amazon and next time we hit the mall, I might try some of them at Sephora. I have nothing against the big houses and I'd be happy to review the occasional Big Name Perfume if I could afford it, but my focus will continue to be on the Indie houses.