Okay, so I’m glad the move is basically done. All of our stuff is in our house, most even in the correct room, though of course most of is still in boxes.
But a couple days ago, I discovered something that was lost during the move that has me deeply upset. I collect perfumes from a rather unconventional perfumerie. I’ve always had a bit of trouble with conventional perfumes – some give me trouble breathing, and most give me a headache. So I was very excited when a friend introduced me to BPAL about a decade ago. Over the last decade, I’ve built up a collection that at a guess was worth at least $600; it quite easily could have been more, as I don’t have a catalogue so I can’t tell you exactly what I had. I had something like 25 bottles (though as I remember ones I had, it seems like it may have been closer to 30!) and about 200 small vials.
I had packed that, my essential oils, my shea butter, and other heat-sensitive things that would be a pain to get through airport security in a basket. My fiance was supposed to take the basket in the car with him. Unfortunately, the last couple days there (after I left) were extremely hectic. My fiance worked all day, but he couldn’t get everything out of the apartment – there simply wasn’t room for it in our shipping Pods. In the end, he forgot the basket. Now, we might have been able to fix this error…but he emailed the landlord an apology and permission to get rid of the things he left in the apartment. So my collection was thrown in the trash.
It’s funny the way scents evoke emotions and memories for us. Besides that, it’s one of the few ways I can really feel ‘pretty’ now. My disabilities and the medications I’m on have made me gain a lot of weight. I can’t wear high heels (they are very painful, even if I’m not standing on them). My perfume collection has been part of how I feel good about myself. And now…my whole collection is gone. I’m just gutted.
I’ve tried to make a list of at least the bottles I had. Here’s a partial list – it is by no means complete!
Hunger Moon (probably ’07)
Enraged Orangutan Musk
Xiuhtecuhtli
Mouse’s Long and Sad Tale (Mad Tea Party LE)
Dance of Death
Ostara (not sure what year, maybe ’06? Label was bright primary colors)
Milk Moon (probably ’07)
Beaver Moon (don’t know the year, but I think I bought it from someone along with Hunger Moon, so ’06 or ’07)
Katarina
The Unicorn
Swank
Les Bijoux
Midnight Mass ’10
Haloa ’10
Butterflies and Plovers
Klara (Nutcracker Suite ’10)
The Last of the Spirits (Christmas Carol ’10)
Changing the Shadows (Christmas Carol ’10)
Pomegranate I
Pomegranate II
Pomegranate V
There are some I’m not certain of – I think I may have also had The Butterfly, from The Last Unicorn set. I know I had other bottles I can’t remember right now, and then there were the 200ish small vials.
I’m so sorry you’ve lost your collection! I can understand why they were so important. I’m not familiar with them, Are any still being made?
My family & I moved all over Europe from when I was 6 months old until I was 13 & them a lot more here on the East Coast until I was out of HS.
It was hard enough moving but losing so much of my stuff – each time – made it much worse.
Some of them are ‘general catalogue’ scents, which means they are still being made, but over half of the ones I remember are limited edition scents, which means I have to try to track them down. The company is called Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs, and they make amazing scents. You can find them at http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com. Their scents are just amazing – I wasn’t a perfume person until I found these. (Admittedly, that’s partly because I don’t do well with most mainstream perfumes – I get headaches and asthma attacks from a number of them, and just flat-out don’t like a lot more)
What has helped a bit is that I’ve had a few lovely people come out of the woodwork and offer to replace some of my scents, or send me some things they have that they think I would like. The kindness of people astonishes me sometimes.
I’ve made some moves where I left stuff behind, but it was always deliberate. I could be okay with leaving behind my couch, my futon, and my kitchen table when I left Santa Barbara many years ago (though I had little twinges about the kitchen table and chairs – it was the one my family had used when I was a little girl, which my parents saved after they bought their current table because they figured that my sister or I would end up needing one). But this move, losing this collection I’d slowly built up over the course of 10 years…that was really upsetting.
I can only imagine how upsetting it was to lose a lot of your things at 13 – that’s a hard age for anything, and I can only imagine how much harder it was to have a major transition like that. I’m guessing your family was military? I was lucky in having a very stable and honestly pretty idyllic childhood.