Best Way to Choose and Use Fragrance

Fragrance has a magical, mystical power: a mere whiff of perfume has driven men crazy with passion and has seduced women into falling madly in love. Fragrance can also lift your spirits and calm your mind.

Marilyn Monroe claimed that Chanel No 5 was the only thing that she wore in bed; she may have been nude, but without her scent she would have been stark naked. Fragrance is de rigueuriorthe modern woman, for not only does it add the finishing touch to your image, but it is also your personal signature and your stamp of identity. Floral and fresh, woody and seductive, oriental and citrusy, there are many wonderful formulations available from the different fragrance families to suit every character, mood and moment. Aim to build up your very own wardrobe of fragrances, while appointing your overall favourite as your signature scent.

Scent isn’t exclusive to perfume, bath and shower products or body lotions: you can bring fragrance into your home with scented candles, potpourri, incense sticks There’s even a linen scent available to give your sheets that freshly-washed, line-dried smell, as well as diet scents – patches that you stick on your body and sniff when you feel hungry to help stave off any food cravings.

Because smells transmit along the olfactory nerve to the brain’s memory centre, fragrance can instantly evoke memories and stir up emotions, which is why we often associate a perfume with a particular person or place. Scent has the power to manipulate your mood. Scientific studies have discovered that stimulating the brain through perfume can awaken the senses, reduce stress and anxiety, ease depression, alleviate fatigue and have an uplifting effect. Fragrance houses were quick to launch calm-inducing scents that enhance both physical and mental well-being, but don’t think that you have to douse yourself in it – it only takes a tiny amount for olfactory stimulation of the brain to occur.

You may have noticed how the smell of your perfume alters throughout the day. These different levels of smell – which take place in three stages – are termed ‘notes’. Not unlike a piece of music, they kick off with the heady rush – caused by the ‘top’ notes – that hit you when you first spray or dab on a fragrance. After a few minutes of exposure to oxygen, the top notes give way to more subtle, ‘heart’ notes. These gradually develop into the underlying, ‘base’ notes, which unfold and linger throughout the fragrance song.

Fragrant facts

• Scent is sold in different forms, which are determined by strength. The most concentrated is parfum, followed by eau de parfum, parfum de toilette, eau de toilette, eau de cologne and eau de fraiche.
• Keep the bottle away from direct sunlight and heat, and help to prolong the life of your scent by storing it in its box.

• A fragrance reaches its ‘best-by’ date after a year/year and a half, so unless you wear the same scent every day and are likely to use it up, you’d be better off buying a small bottle.
• Rather than carrying your perfume bottle in your handbag, decant a small amount into an atomiser. Not only will this lighten your load, but the bulk of your perfume won’t be exposed to varying degrees in temperatures.
• As perfume reacts badly to heat and can cause allergic reactions, don’t wear any while sunbathing (unless it is a sun-proof formulation).

Fragrance layering

Jo Malone developed her own fragrance range a decade ago, which now has a cult following among celebrities and models. An instrumental figure in the revival of fragrance layering (also known as combining), Jo believes that the beauty of it is that it allows you to become a perfumer and create a scent that is unique to you.

Fragrance takes many different shapes and forms, and a number of perfume houses offer a selection of fragranced products within their ranges, including body lotion, bath oil, shower gel, soap, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner. Most of us would assume that the ultimate luxury would be to layer products from the same fragrance range, but according to Jo this could be overdoing it. ‘By combining a shower gel from one fragrance and a perfume from another, you can create your very own scent. For example: follow a grapefruit body lotion with a tuberose cologne. You may want to stick to the same family of fragrances, such as floral, or be really bold and wear more than one actual perfume,’ says Jo, who rarely leaves the house without spraying on at least two.

How to choose a fragrance

The undisputed fragrance guru shares his expertise to help you find a scent that will suit your lifestyle, character and moods.

• Fragrance is a very individual and subjective thing, so when shopping for perfume my advice is always to go alone.
• Never test a fragrance if you are already wearing one.
• You may have several fragrances that you like, but allocate one as your signature fragrance. Don’t worry about smelling like all the other thousands of consumers who have bought the same brand: if you’ve purchased a good-quality fragrance that contains natural raw materials, the perfume will not smell identical on any two people. At Guerlain we have a saying: ‘It’s the woman who perfumes our perfumes, not the perfume who perfumes the woman’.

• Spray the tester all over you, leave the shop and live with it for a day. Remember, a fragrance takes four to six hours to develop, and it’s the base notes that you will have to live with. A perfume is like a lover – you never know what it is like until you’ve slept with it!
• The consumers of sixty per cent of all fragrances sold have been influenced by the brand name or advertising. However, the right fragrance should be chosen not by your conscious mind, but by your subconscious and what the smell conjures up in your imagination.
• Fragrances come in different families, such as floral and oriental. Try a scent from each family rather than picking one that you think is right for a particular season or occasion.