Friday, February 1, 2013

Geekery - Perfume notebooks

So, on public demand, here are my pretty pretty perfume notebooks! It started with one, because I couldn´t keep all of the indie perfumes in my head... I had to organize them somehow! So I bought myself a beautiful notebook! As of right now this one contains names and notes of interesting perfumes from about 65 indie perfumers... I counted them yesterday! 


 The notebook is quite small, about the lenght of my hand, even a bit shorter, but  my hands are huge! 


I love the pretty, and practical, little clasp that keeps it closed!


Isn´t the gold pattern absolutely sublime!?


Here are, for example, the pages about Midnight Gypsy Alchemy.


And here is the page on Scent by the Sea. Scents that I want to sample are marked with a little red star, just so I can find the really interesting scents easier. I also use some letter codes for certain fragrance types, like G for gourmand... 

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From the beginning I kept my own perfume experients in the notebook above too, but it just got a bit unorganized and crowded... So i used that as an excuse to buy another, equally pretty, notebook as a Christmas present for myself!  This one is devoted to essential oils, and my blending experiments. It is quite empty at the moment, but I´ve only had it for a month. 


This one is the same size as the first one, with the same awesome little clasp! 



I love the pattern of this one too, just as much! I can´t decide which one is more beautiful!


Here are some scents, and ideas for scents! I use little symbols here too, for top, heart and base notes.


At the back of both of them is a little pocket that is perfect for storing paper strips for perfume testing. There is also a little geeky text about the notebooks, what historical book designs they are based on. Apparently they are made by Paperblanks, if you want to get your own pretty notebooks.


These books are dynamic and ever changing, just like my tastes in perfume. That is only possible because I write with my erasable pens. This means that I can change my mind and remove scents that no longer interests me or scents that are discontinued.  Here are the pens I use!


How do you keep track of all the indie perfumers and what scents you want to sample? Do any of you keep perfume notebooks? Or do you generally love notebooks and if so, what do you use them for?

12 comments:

  1. Those books are sooooo pretty! Love the gold embossed pattern on them. And the lock, just perfect :) I like the paper strips hiding there. Actually I sometimes do the opposite, I use the tester strips with sprayed perfume from dept stores as bookmarks :)

    I don't keep a notebook (love your idea) but I do keep a blog ;) I do go back to my posts and drafts for reference for future buys. But I do like notebooks in general. I have a very pretty diary (the one with dates) that I am trying my best to record appts, trips, schedule, etc. But I am too lazy to do it everyday and the phone does everything for me! I should really keep up and write things down. I have one favourite notebook which I bought at the National Gallery in London in 2005. It has Van Gogh's painting 'Wheat field with Cypresses' on it. I have it for keepsakes :) x

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    1. It feels so good to finally be using a notebook! I own several pretty notebooks that I just don´t know whet to do with... But these two have found their use! I´m to lazy to keep a diary, or even a calendar... But I can spend ages on perfume, so not too lazy for that!

      I do use my blog too, I keep drafts for reference and I go back to older posts and see what my impressions were of a scent... But I need my notebooks to be able to plan ahead, to get an overview of the huge amount of perfumes that I am interested in, to choose which ones are most fascinating and so on...

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  2. They are beautiful - I do love stationery! I don't use a notebook for my perfume notes, but I feel like I want to now. I generally just use the notes thing on my phone, as I always have that with me. And my daughter is always stealing my pens so I don't always have one to hand when I want to write something.

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    1. Keeping a perfume notebook (or two) is great! I feel so organized, I know what I want to sample and I can easily compare different perfumers and scents! :)

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  3. I have all the perfumes I've sampled scribbled on a scrap piece of paper. But I don't make all the detailed notes that you do - they're either marked with a check mark if I liked them or an x if I didn't! LOL!

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    1. I keep all my impressions of a scent online, on this blog and on ScentBase... But I need to have this little notebook as a guide to indie perfume... I would get totally lost otherwise! ;)

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  4. Nadja, these are awesome! Thanks for making this post! Your notebooks are absolutely beautiful, and I love this idea! That's cool that you even have a specific notebook for scent experimentation. Also, your handwriting is really neat. I love the way it flows!

    I have a list of "to try" perfumes on my iPhone, and a few on my new ScentBase, but all of it gets really unorganized; so I really think I'm going to try what you're doing with the notebooks! I have a really bright unicorn notebook that I didn't know what I was going to do with, so I'm going to use it for perfume notes and perfume lists ;D Thanks for the lovely idea!!

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    1. You are literally the first person ever to think my handwriting is neat... but thank you!

      Do give it a go, it´s really fun to have a perfume notebook and it makes it much easier for me to choose what to sample!

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  5. Wow these are pretty! I used to love buying blank notebooks but I never really used them because I felt like I had to have something really good to write in them . . . so now I just have a lot of blank ones.

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    1. Yeah, that´s what I usually do too! But these two at least do have a use now! :)

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  6. These notebooks are so awesome! They totally compliment your style too! I have several notebooks about my perfumes and blending experiences but nothing fancy.

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    1. I had been eyeing these notebooks for a while but for the longest time I used whet self diciplin I have and did not buy them, because I had no use for them... I was so happy when I found a need and finally got to buy them! How fun that you have perfume notebooks too! Everyone seems to quite digital nowadays and keep their notes in their phones or online...

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