“They’re like wine; they’re mostly more than 30 years old,” Jamie Lo says. She’s talking about her rare perfumes. Her massive collection of 300 bottles—and counting—includes limited editions and discontinued lines that date as far back as the early 2000s and the 1980s, many years before she was born.
A thirty-year-old fragrance collector, Lo sources the world over to find the rarest. She does so with a little help from her friends, or rather, friends-slash-shoppers who are based in key parts of the globe, such as France, Spain, Korea, Hong Kong, and the U.S. “In Hong Kong and Korea, for example, you can buy some of the perfumes cheaper. A lot of times, there’s a wider selection abroad, like in France. In Japan, you can also ask them to buy you food and tea,” Lo says.
Her friends are happy to give her a nudge in case a covetable bottle comes by. Lo is part of a group called ‘Budol sisters,’ after all. “We support each other’s online shopping,” Lo admits. “It started with fragrance only, and then it grew to shopping for makeup, jewelry, and bags.”
In the middle of the pandemic, locked down in Manila with nowhere to go, Lo was left with travel funds at her disposal. She couldn’t go anywhere then, so she spent them on perfumes. “There was a time when I was opening about three to four bottles a week during the pandemic,” she says. And since then, there has been no looking back.
Meant To Collect
Lo’s mother and grandmother are anosmic, but her late father was what one would call a foodie. “We were both very picky with food or how it’s prepared. Ever since I was young, it’s been like that,” Lo says. “My sense of smell and taste are very sensitive. I cook also, so I’m very familiar with the smell of spices.”
Her fondness for smelling good is thanks in large part to her nanny. “When I was in kindergarten, [she] would put a lot of cologne and baby powder on me so I smell fresh all day. So much that I didn’t feel comfortable going out without cologne, even at a young age,” she says. “It was Johnson’s baby cologne, I think it was Morning Dew. Are you familiar with Nenuco? I have a lot of that,” she says.
In second grade, Lo moved to China to go to boarding school and continued the habit of leaving the house with perfume on. In high school, she used her mom’s fragrances. “Was it Clinique Sunflower? I didn’t like that perfume, though. It’s so overwhelming. But I would overspray that and then I’d go to school. My classmates would know I’ve arrived already… even before seeing me!”
In college, Lo was able to buy her own perfumes using money she’d saved up from her allowance. “It was the DKNY So Delicious. That’s my college perfume,” she says. At that time, online shopping was accessible in China, so Lo had access to fragrance reviews and Taobao (which is like Shoppee or Lazada) to buy what she fancied. “Then I switched to Omnia Amethyste by Bulgari. I still have Bulgari. It smells so good,” she says.
In 2017, Lo returned to Manila and worked in an office that was conveniently within range of a department store. “Every break time, I would go down to just test perfumes. I have to pass by the department store and try a perfume,” she says.
Lo never missed a day bringing a full bottle of perfume with her to work, as she’d need to retouch. She would spray about two, or three times a day, and her colleagues noticed. “They got curious, so eventually, they would also ask to buy from me.”
Back then, Lo, in her own words, “was not that addicted to perfumes.” “I would only buy the Omnia Amethyste and the Crystalline, which are almost very similar scents,” she says. “I think I finished five to six bottles of those.”
It was around 2019 when she created an Instagram page, @les_senteurs.ph, which connected her with fellow fragheads—and this opened up for her a new world of possibilities. “I think the first one I posted was Penhaligon’s Luna. No one was posting about that or I think it might have been just Heart [Evangelista] who had it, or she was the only celebrity known wearing that perfume.”
She gained a huge following in a beat, which puzzled her. The answer came when a bill amounting to almost 7,000 pesos arrived. “Turns out, I forgot to turn off the ads, because it’s a business page. So a lot of collectors found my page and they started asking if I could order perfumes for them,” says Lo. “Then I also got invited to frag groups on Facebook. I started to sell, casually.”
Lo may just be the collector in Manila with the rarest bottle in her stash. “Yes, I’m known for that,” she says. “I’m the source of the discontinued and niche, hard-to-find fragrances, even the ones you’ll only find in Paris.”
COLLECTOR’S CHOICE
What do you like most about collecting?
It’s the joy of opening a new bottle. The excitement. Because usually, I’m blind buying. I don’t like buying discovery sets, because it takes the excitement out of it. So I blind buy by reading reviews online and I guess if I might like it… or maybe not. It gives such joy, especially if you end up liking the perfume. It’s a successful blind buy!
How do you choose what to buy next?
I usually check the fragrance family and birthplace. I usually wear floral or fruity florals. Actually, I’ve graduated from fruity florals, I don’t like them as much anymore. If I check the package and it’s super cute then that’s also plus points and I buy it. I’m not really very choosy, so if it’s within my budget, I go for it.
There are times when I just want to complete the collection. So I just go and buy it. I know it sounds so impulsive. Just like Roja. There are bottles that I don’t like, but it has to be complete.
Which ones are not worth spending on?
Some designer brands are very generic and I feel are overpriced for the quality of the perfume. The materials used aren’t all-natural ingredients. Sometimes they’re synthetic, so they shouldn’t be priced like that, right?
A lot of perfume houses target people who [just want to buy for the brand name] and don’t care about the price tag. They use synthetic materials and when you spray it, you’ll know it’s low quality, but it’s very expensive.
What do you think of fragrance snobs?
I find them quite annoying. In my collection, I have perfumes priced which are only about a hundred dollars. Like The Body Shop, they can also produce perfumes. The longevity may not be that good, but if the perfume makes the person feel good, I think it’s okay to wear not as expensive ones.
I think [the snobbery] applies not only in perfumes but even with bags or jewelry that they see as a status symbol. They think highly of themselves when they use something expensive. Insecure people do that. Maybe it’s to feed their ego. Not just with snobs, but with other collectors or shoppers in general, if you post something expensive, at times they’d see it as bragging. I just ignore them. If that’s their opinion, then let it be.
There are also those who are a bit bossy and feel like they are well-educated. It’s as if they’re the only ones who can know everything. If you describe a scent not according to its fragrance notes, they’ll point it out. They like correcting people, but I think every nose is different so what you smell might smell differently to another person.
What are your thoughts on dupes?
For me, dupes (note: dupes are inspired by original perfumes but are named and packaged differently; while fakes are replicas presented as the original ones) are okay because some perfumes, like the original ones, are really too expensive. There are dupes for other people to enjoy the fragrance that they cannot afford yet.
What’s your biggest lesson learned as a collector?
I don’t recommend people to blind buy, especially if they have other things to pay for. Don’t waste your money on a blind buy. You can order a sample first, choose what you like, and save up for the full bottle.
Budgeting is another thing. On my mom’s side, they tell us to only spend something we can afford ten, or 20 bottles of. And then just buy one. You can only spend five or ten percent of what you earn in a month on luho or luxury buys. But such funds are necessary so you can enjoy your life. Just don’t wipe out all your cash. (laughs).
Your current favorite?
Guerlain Rose Chérie.
What else is on your wishlist?
I think it’s Roja Love.
