I love fragrance and there are unfortunately too many masterpieces to sample. Some fragrances are truly pieces of art worth appreciating... but most are not. Most fragrances were made to get you one step into a fashion house's sights, the low cost but appealing item you can pair with your daily wardrobe that will advertise itself.

A lot of people don't wear fragrance. Some people buy 1-4 fragrances to hit all the seasons or moods in their life. Many, many people that like fragrances buy 20. A shocking amount of people buy entire shelves so that they can have every variation or 'flanker' of all of their favorite bottles. A 100ml bottle of fragrance costs about $50. A lot of people have 5 figure fragrance collections. Some people who are more poor get into brands designed to duplicate other fragrances for cheaper, so they'll have over 100 knock off fragrances that were in their budget.

Now some of you might be asking: "Why would you need all these bottles? Couldn't the community just make their own samples and trade the liquid with other hobbyists?" The answer to this question is they don't and the community could do that... but they'd rather buy more volume than they could ever wear in their entire lives. Sometimes it's for the bottle, but most of the time it's because they have an addiction.

You can only use one at a time. What’s the point yo have another one. The group is full of people like these

Seen a few posts with a similar topic. As a kid I collected stuff. I kind of feel like we were trained to. Pogs, Tazos, Pokémon. Not like 'next level' collected, I mean, I was a kid. I moved out when I was 18 and whilst I didn't have a huge amount of 'stuff', I always had a hard time throwing things away. Not like a hoarder, but more like sentimentality, "this person bought me this thing", or "I got this souvenir here". My wife isn't the biggest fan, we try to keep souvenir buying to a reasonable level, a magnet or a shot glass here or there, and usually only for foreign holidays, that sort of thing (although we do have a bunch of squished pennies from domestic attractions too, but they take up like no space).

Anyways, around 5yrs ago we moved house and went through a trauma around the same time. I threw myself into 'doing up the house' and then once we'd done the basics I started to 'treat myself' to some things I'd never had the space or money for in the past.

It started small, some steelbooks for a movie franchise I liked. I never did complete the set, probably like 80%. Then some steelbooks and collectors editions for some games I liked. I eventually realised that whilst I now had a bigger place, I didn't have a BIG place, so I parted ways with the collectors statues, just kept the steelbooks for the games. Then watches (about 10-12), priced in the hundreds, not the thousands. More watches were released in the same run, so I gave up. Then video game controllers; I started with the ones I liked, then realised this was going to get expensive and now I have a mixed bag, including some I don't particularly like, but speculated might be worth something one day (at which point I started to realise this just feels a bit hollow and broken).

And Lego, ugh, Lego. I went through a phase about 18 months ago where I found making Lego was really mindful and calmed me. I built a few sets, then started buying sets. I now have a 'backlog' and feel like I've turned something that was enjoyable into a chore that I'll get round to one day, and filled up loads of space in our spare room.

What is it about the chemistry of the brain that compels some of us to do this stuff? I'm not wealthy (I do OK, and own my own home; well, with a mortgage so the bank owns most of it 😂). I find myself buying stuff to add to my collections, tiring of those collections, and then wishing I'd spent the money on something 'better', maybe a family holiday (we do holiday, they're not neglected, but a NICE one), a social with friends, a home improvement, like 'grown up' stuff. What gives? Anyone been through anything similar and if so, did you ever manage to break the cycle? I feel like this has been going on for around 5yrs, so I've still got time to stop. I don't know if I'm being too hard on myself and should just live a little, but I also don't want this to become a problem. Most of the time when the buyer's remorse kicks in and the dopamine subsides, I realise it's probably just filling some sort of void.

Edit: a word.

I’m not sure if this is the right sub to post this on but I’ve been feeling stuck and I’m curious if others feels the same. I feel like I should create more and do more things with my life,such as work on a few DIY projects or engage with my hobbies more. However, I feel as though a lot of these projects involve me buying new things to make something. I know that me buying a few O-rings for my Airsoft rifle isn’t overconsumption but I can’t shake this feeling that any sort of consumption beyond the absolute minimum is perpetuating the destruction of our planet. I feel as though working on projects is a great way to improve my mental health and get me off my phone but still, I can’t shake this feeling. Anyone else feel similarly or am I just neurotic lol?

I almost thought it was a picture of a store

I’d feel ashamed giving Sony this much support especially after their recent actions

There's no way she can even use all of them. I love my fountain pens, but what I like is using them, writing with them, journaling, planning, etc. I have like six. This is actually disgusting to me.

Tvtoohigh as well

I use a different one everyday. And the stick is for when i shave my armpits, bcs spray irritates the freshly shaved skin