What Your Perfume Says About You

There’s nothing more personal than choosing a fragrance or perfume and there’s nothing that sets you apart as a woman quite like the scents that you wear. Whether you have a signature scent or a wardrobe of scents, whether you wear a perfume every day or just for special occasions, the people around you will notice and your choice could set you apart. Smell is our strongest sense (who hasn’t smelt a skunk) so it’s important to understand how perfumes react to our body and how to make smart choices.

Perfume Counter

The subject of perfume is more complex that you might think. Which scent you choose will depend on your personality, age,  skin type and the situation (haven’t we all had that experience smelling a perfume on someone else and thinking it divine, then trying it on ourselves and it smelling not so great). Light florals generally suit younger women, whilst as we age we will want to mature into a more complex scent.

On the technical side, there are different categories of perfumes, and fragrances are different than perfumes. Do you know the difference when we talk about perfume, parfum, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, or eau de cologne, The word fragrance is often used interchangeably with perfume, but they’re not quite the same thing:

• Fragrance is the scent of the perfume; perfume is the product itself. Fragrances are categorized by the concentration of essential oils in the composition of the product. In women’s fragrances perfume is traditionally the strongest followed by eau de parfum, eau de toilette and cologne, which is the weakest. In men’s fragrances eau de toilette is slightly stronger, followed by eau de cologne, or cologne, while aftershave is the weakest.

Scents are broken down into 4 types at the most basic level. (These can of course be subdivided into many more categories!)

1. Floral
2. Oriental
3. Woody
4. Citrus

And determining the scent strength of the fragrance you are looking for is a very important factor when considering perfumes and colognes:

• Do you want to choose a powerful fragrance scent that will be noticed from morning to night?
• Or, Are you looking for something light and airy that will give you a touch of a scent without being overpowering?

There are different strengths of perfume:

• Eau de cologne (most commonly worn by men): 3 — 5%
• Eau de toilette: 5 — 10% — this is a great option if you want to wear a different fragrance during the day and change it up for the evening without showering in between.  Better for those with drier skins.
• Eau de parfum: 10 — 20% — a stronger perfume that has more of the essential perfume oils in it.  Longer lasting and  more intense in smell. Will last the day through. Better for those with more acidic skins.
• Parfum: 20 — 40%

Some of us like to have a signature scent, whilst others are more keen on developing a scent wardrobe for our different moods and activities (the perfume you wear to seduce is not the one to wear to the office!).

Perfume, Cologne And Your Skin

Typically, a fragrance will last six to eight hours. However, that can differ from person to person based on the condition of his/her skin:

• Fragrances tend to last longer on oily skin because oily skin has more natural moisture to hold in the scent, as small amounts are released throughout the day.
• Blondes or people with light skin have a tendency towards dry skin, and fragrances are basically oils that will be absorbed by the skin like moisturizers.
• For very dry skin, you may want to use a fragrance-free moisturizer prior to applying perfume or cologne to extend the life of the fragrance.

PH levels, or amount of acidity in our skin, also vary from person to person. Individual PH levels will determine how each ingredient in a fragrance will react with your body chemistry. That’s why it is so important to find your signature scent.

What To Buy

Your decision can be based on how long you’d like your fragrance to last, how powerful you want it to be or how inexpensive you’re looking to buy. Never buy a perfume without trying it on for at least 30 minutes — it takes that long for the base notes to become apparent, and this is the lasting scent that you’ll be wafting, you want to ensure that it smells great and you love it!

If you’re trying scents and your nose has become fatigued, just sniff the crook of your elbow (as long as you haven’t got perfume on it) and it will reset your olfactory nerves to start sniffing again!

So, how do you find the right scent?

Department stores are a great place to browse for perfumes — browse, but not purchase! Take your so that you can try them out for a few days. It is important to test perfumes before purchasing because, while a fragrance scent may smell great in the store or on another person, it may not react well with your natural scent or last as long as you would like.

Once you’ve determined which fragrance works best with your body chemistry and is most appealing to you, you can either pay the exorbitant prices at the department store or go home and purchase your designer scent online at a much more reasonable cost. Two reasonably priced online sources for scents are  Fragrantica and Scentiments.  Oh, and about those little sample fragrances on paper: the paper is missing your chemistry, so you’ll never be able to know whether the fragrance will actually smell great on you.

Another way people often attempt to find their signature scent is buying a perfume scent that they have noticed someone else wearing. Just beware because like an outfit may look great on a friend and not so wonderful on you, a certain scent may not smell the same on you — different body chemistry. Still my mother and my wife, for instance, both love Chanel No 5 and so do I. I’ve received many compliments over the years on its scent. Coco Chanel had a special genius in her scents as well as her clothes. Christian Dior said it well in this picture.

Perfume And Cologne Scents Tips

Accessible and affordable has not been traditionally related to perfume and cologne. However, that has changed. You can now afford to create your own fragrance wardrobe: a collection of perfume or cologne scents to match your lifestyle, events and moods.

Match your scent selection with the time of day, time of year and purpose. Day and summer fragrances should be lighter than evening and winter fragrances. You may have your favorite work fragrances and your very effective dating fragrances. All of these perfume tips are combined with the fact that you have to consider your mood. So many decisions… Isn’t it great that you can have a collection of perfumes or colognes to choose from

Etiquette Tips

One of the secrets of having proper perfume etiquette is learning where to apply the perfume or cologne so it interacts with your body chemistry without disrupting the environment around you. Your fragrance scent should be subtle enough that only people close to you can get a hint. If you make people sneeze, that probably means you applied way too much perfume.

Be very careful when applying perfume or cologne on your clothes. Even though your garments will hold on to your perfume scent, they can also get stained. Also, keep in mind that your piece of clothing does not have the chemicals that come out through your skin to interact with your fragrance; so you’ll smell like the perfume, but not your unique version of it. Sometimes we may want to use a different perfume or cologne and wear an item of clothing that smells differently – that could be a bummer when you have your heart set on wearing a certain outfit

How To Apply Perfume

Many women may be curious as to how to properly apply perfume. For many women, this can be a mystery, but it is often not as difficult as many women may think. For those women that favor a bottle of perfume that has to be applied with the fingers will often find that a little bit of their favorite scent can go a long way. This means that it just takes a mere dab of perfume on the finger to apply it to the skin. It is best for women to only use a small amount of perfume as to not drown out others that may be present with perfume. Keeping the perfume in small amounts and on the pressure points of the upper body will work best.

There are several pressure points that women can use when they are applying their favorite fragrance. Placing the perfume on places such as behind the ears, the wrists and the inside of the elbows are all great pressure points on the body to place perfume. Many women will wear their heavier perfumes in the cold winter months, as they do not smell as heavy or are not too overwhelming. The summer months are better for lighter and airy fragrances, and this will compliment and react well to many women’s pheromones. The young lady in this short video helps explain what we talk about here.

Some of the best ways to keep a scent smelling great is to wear them in a layered effect. Many businesses that sell perfumes also sell kits with matching shower gels and lotions. The first step is to take a shower with the shower gel, then to apply lotion. This is to ensure that all areas of the body will be covered with the scent. Applying the perfume last will be a great way of capping off the scent, and captivating anyone’s senses. Remembering to not spray or apply perfume to hair and clothes is an important step so that it does not stain clothing or ruin the hair from too many oils. Above all, just knowing which scents work best and wearing them well is the grandest way to apply any perfume for maximum effect.

I hope this article is useful to you. There are many articles on the internet to aid in your research, but hopefully we have boiled that information down to just a core sauce. Resources for this article came from Imogen at Insideoutstyle blog and the company websites of Fragrantica and Sentiments – their links are above.

Tasi may be contacted at tasidevil@yahoo.com. She has a new yahoo group at thetgwoman@yahoogroups.com

Tags: featured, parfum, perfume, scent

Category: Transgender Fashion