How to : choose your perfume

"Une femme sans parfum est une femme sans avenir!" 
Coco Chanel
A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future

My vanity table covered with miniature perfume and my one and only signature scent, Classique, from JPG

According to Gabrielle Chanel, you are not fully dressed without...a perfume! Ok, I also belive the smile is mandatory, but having your scent is like a signature to your look. Frangrances awaken our senses, our memory and create all sorts of feelings. 

However, you don't pick your perfume randomly. A perfume should suit your personality and "summarize you" in a scent. That is why picking a perfume is not an easy task but you certainly should not escape this step: 

• Take your time : don't rush into picking your perfume. Go to the shop, take your time. Come back again and check if your first impression was right. 

• Tried too many perfume in the shop? Ask for coffee, they usually have some because the scent of coffee can "reset" your nose. 

• Get samplers and try them: test a perfume by wearing it for a couple of day.  

• You should not smell the perfume on you. I mean the first few minutes you will and it's normal. But if the perfume suits you, you will "forget" you wear it. If after some time you still smell it and get disturbed, move on.

• Ask your friends & family what they think, if the perfume suits you. Two outfits can be worn the same, but the same perfume can smell differently depending on people. 

• Perfume is a matter of chemistry, because your own body scent get mixed with the fragrance. Sometimes it smells good, sometimes it JUST does not work. So the same perfume can be amazing on one person, and smell awful in another. 

• If you want to change your perfume because it is not "you" anymore, try to to find perfume in the same family. There are 4 main families of perfume : Citrus, Fougere, Oriental and Chypre. They are themselves divided in sub categories as you can see in the picture.

• People tends to like perfume from the same family or sub family. So if you ever think about changing your perfume, try to know the family of your current perfume (usually you can Google it). Once you know that, you can research other perfume of the same family. I particularly recommend this website called Fragantica, which is basically a perfume encyclopedia. They have a section with all groups of scents so that you can find all perfume from a same group. 

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When you look for perfumes, they are often described with Top, Middle and Base notes. But what is this? 
Top note is the first scent impression we get from the fragrance. Usually, top notes are very light and stay for 5 to 30 minutes. They are followed by Middle notes which are the body of the fragrance. These will determine the classification of the perfume (oriental, floral...). They need 10 to 30 minutes to fully develop. Then, there are base notes which last the longest and act like a fixative in order to give to the fragrance its holding power. Usually they are strong scents, in opposition to top notes, such as patchouli, musk or vanilla. 


Last point is  which one to pick? 
Eau De Toilette, Eau De Parfum, etc... This classification refers to the how much alcohol or water is added to  the fragrance oils:

1. Eau de Cologne: 2% to 5% perfume oil
2. Eau Fraiche : 3% or less perfume oil
   
3. Eau de Toilette : 4% to 10% perfume oil (most common)
4. Eau De Parfum : 15% to 25% perfume oil (it is generally the most concentrated form you can buy)
5. Parfum : 15% to 25% perfume oil (sometimes called "extract" or "extrait". It is also the most expensive form of perfume).

Most common are Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette. I prefer the Eau de Parfum because it lasts longer, but sometimes the fragrance can be slightly different depending on the EDP or EDT...so I recommend trying both ;)