I have 17 boxes in my arms and I’m sure that I can manage one more. I nearly choke before spying a bottle of Versailles pour Homme (yes, Bal a Versailles‘ male counterpart), gasp as I reach for the last bottle of Delon’s Pharos, and then leap towards a bottle of Donna Karan for Men, knocking a small Indian woman out of the way with an under-the-breath shriek of move it bitch! I’m now kneeling on the floor gasping for breath, taking it all in, and yelling for the owner, ∺ basket! I need a basket! Another seductress approaches, Have you tried Caron Rose? Caron!? I exclaim, you have Caron? My eyes roll to the back of my head and I safely manage to take a few steps forward. Let’s check it out.Have you ever heard of such compassion, such love, suchenabling? Oh the horror, the pleasure, the torture, the enchantment.I enter a shop with twice the inventory and immediately notice the Robert Isabell fragrances, wrapped in original aluminum containers with a price tag of $6 US. Her blood sugar must be low because she says We’re here. I shouldaTricia tells me, I think you need to see the other shop. I remember that 2 hours ago she had wanted to eat lunch, but still hasn’t had a bite. But an addict never stops at just one hit. They thank me, offer me a business card and I exit to meet Tricia.

A small gift gets deposited into my bag and I let them know that I had never before spent 2 hours in such a manner of bliss. The owner and her attractive daughter get personal as I explain that I’m actually an English professor with a wicked addiction. I make a final tour around the shop, shove my nose into a can of coffee beans, gather up a bunch of paper strips to throw in the trash (well, I try to clean up after myself), hover over the shelves of Adolfo Dominguez (Oh, Azahar, how you enchant me), sidle up to Alyssa Ashley Musk (oh Lorenzo, how could anyone compare?) and finish at the register where I decide I simply must have the entire collection of roll-on essential oils with names like Hira Musk, Jabal Nur and Gaharu. I then sauntered up to my bottle of Balenciaga – a tester complete with olfactory pyramid sealed to the back of the bottle before chatting it up with the lovely owner of Jasina and her sexy saleswomen who were a bit confused by the fact that I, the man of the couple, should be so wrapped up in the pursuit of scent while my lovely companion now snored to passers by with a map of Singapore sprawled open on her lap.Tricia awakes: Enter Tricia Marlen, did you know there was a second shop? SECOND SHOP? What? Could mine ears deceive me? Could it be that a second Elysian Field awaits? I quickly quiz the salesgirl Second shop? She replies, Mostly non-designer things. I imagine shelves of Adidas, Coty and Jeanne Arthes and shudder as I dismiss this notion. Rabanne’s La Nuit, Diorama, Hermes Amazone (soon to be discontinued) all sang their siren songs until from a dark corner I spotted the triumph of 2005 Sarah Jessica’s Lovely⁒ bottles ended up in the basket, one for me and one for Tricia (who by hour #2 had fallen asleep on a bench outside the shop). Nina Ricci’s Farouche beckoned to me as a 24 k gold hand-painted bottle of original Donna Karan won me over. I imagined no limit on the plastic and quickly moved to a showcase containing – oh lord, give me the strength and power pure parfum. I then spotted Lanvin Homme (original), Worth pour Homme (original) and del Pozo’s Duende (now I know what clouds feel like). I lunged for a basket and began to scoop up boxes of red, green and white glass bottles topped with plastic horse-heads. Neither was Mastercard.Immediately upon entering, I got all choked up at the sight of Pierre Cardin‘s discontinued and completely under-rated Centaure series. I’m glad I visited in person – I wasn’t disappointed. Trying to ship fragrance out of Singapore is no small feat, and heck, I’ll be honest one of my main motivations for actually traveling half way around the world to Singapore was simply to get the chance to spend a small fortune at Jasina.

I pleaded for some Balenciaga pour Homme, a fleeting 90’s wonder-release, short-lived, but miraculous. I clawed my way through the stacks, ran from wall to wall as Tricia, my trusty companion stood by with a camera to document my fall.I was tipped off by a number of Basenotes members If you’re gonna go to Singapore, there’s only one place to score: Jasina, baby. Weeks before the big hit, I started an email romance with Wahida (Jasina’s email seductress).

I ended up puffing on my asthma inhaler at a small showroom jam-packed with the best and discontinued. On December 24th I officially hit rock bottom.

Adidas moves him basenotes