When months pass and our favourites are cleared off the shelves (and we go searching for hugely marked-up specimens online,) we have officially reached the 'anger' stage.
'How dare they discontinue this olfactory masterpiece? Don't they know how fantastic it is? Don't they know how much joy it has brought me? Don't they know how damn good it makes me smell?'
The third stage is 'bargaining', and for those of us who routinely scour online shops/antique markets/wiki pages for our beloved, it's a stage that we're quite familiar with. Sometimes we luck out and vendors have no idea what they're giving up. Other times, we're forced to pay the 500% markup, just to have that coveted backup.
'Depression' inevitably kicks in when we realize that the scent that we've loved for years has been replaced by something completely unremarkable. (One example that comes to mind is Cacharel's Gloria (Beautiful SDV dupe)...discontinued and replaced by the tooth-achingly fruity concoction that is Scarlett. (Its only redeeming feature: Gorgeous bottle. I have seen this one on discount shelves recently, assuming now that its fate has also been relegated to the discontinued. I can't say that I'm not a little smug in this realization!)
And finally, after months of scouring various retailers, swap lists and the like, those of us who have lost a beloved fragrance can finally accept the fact that it's gone. If we've received some notice and have been fortunate enough to prepare, we can gradually stockpile....then move onto a new favourite.
Unless, of course, your love transcends space, time and anything else that might get in your way. Unless your favourite is something that isn't even close to resembling anything else. Unless of course, you are my mother.
Back in the 70s, the Love's franchise came out with 'Love's Deep Earthy Musk'.
It was about $3.00 a bottle and shared the shelves with the ubiquitous 'Love's Baby Soft' and various others (including Love's Fresh Lemon and Love's Soft Jasmine). My mom fell head over heels for this beauty and it remained a part of her rather extensive perfume collection until it was discontinued in the early 80s. I remember how upset she was about it. Since English isn't her first language, she enlisted my older sisters to help her write a letter to the Dana fragrance company, imploring them to sell her any leftover bottles.
Their response? They sent her a catalogue of their current scents (I remember how glossy this publication was, very high budget for back then. Unfortunately it didn't contain the information that mom wanted most!) She was in mourning, and has been for almost 30 years.
Most of my shopping for the last several years (fragrance and otherwise) has been done online. It has been my personal mission to find a bottle of this. I'd do weekly searches, google the name of this fragrance over and over again. Nothing. Until a couple of months ago.
I found an untouched bottle of Love's Deep Earthy Musk via online auction. After much hoop-jumping, email correspondence between myself and the vendor to make sure my purchase wasn't going to end up part of the Canadian Customs graveyard, I was triumphant. Mom was going to have her biggest perfume wish come true! It was well worth the fact that I spent 10 times the 1974 retail price (Let's face it, I would have spent much more). I could barely wait to see the look on her face when she opened this long-awaited package.
And dear readers, she didn't disappoint! My mom was rendered speechless after being reunited with her long-lost fragrant love. (Of course, after grilling me about how much I spent on this gem).
It's hard to describe how it made me feel to make that wish of hers come true. That feeling of satisfaction in finding something so rare was multiplied by the fact that I knew this was the one she wanted most.
How have you dealt with recent fragrance discontinuations? What lengths have you gone to, to find a much-loved, no-longer-produced fragrance?
I know that mom and I aren't the only ones who would go to any length...
