A little in the neck and on the wrist, many British women use perfume every morning. The goal: smell amazing all day long. But perfume is more than just a pleasure for the nose. It brings back memories of people or moments, and it’s part of your personality. Finding a perfume that suits you can be tricky. What one likes to smell may be an unpleasant smell for another. It’s often possible to test fragrances in perfumeries, but what if you buy a scent for someone else or if you’re looking on the internet to find your new perfume? With this handy information, you choose a fragrance that suits you!
How is perfume made
When you want to determine which scent suits you best, it is essential to understand how fragrances are composed. Each scent consists of 3 different notes, and they all have their characteristics. The interpretation of these notes is different for every perfume.
Top notes
The top notes represent the initial scents that lure you in, causing you to make your first impression of the fragrance. This note is released directly after application, is very intense, and disappears after about thirty minutes. Typical top notes include citrus elements, light fruits, and fresh herbs.
Heart or middle notes
Like the name says, the heart note is in the heart of a fragrance. These notes stick for 4 to 6 hours. Heart notes last longer than top notes and have a strong influence on the base notes to come. Heart notes ensure a smooth transition between top notes and base notes. Would you like to test if a perfume really suits you? Don’t judge too quickly! Wait for the top notes to disappear and for the heart notes to come out.
Base notes
Base notes are the final fragrance notes that appear once the top notes have completely evaporated. Base notes stabilise and fixate a scent. They are usually intense fragrance ingredients, like wood and powdery aromas. The base notes can stay on your skin for hours and days on your clothes. It’s not surprising that the base notes provide memories of people or moments in your life.
How to choose fragrance?
To determine which women’s perfume suits you, it’s good to know which scents you really like. Do you love to smell a fresh bunch of herbs? Or are you drawn to the smell of leather? Or a nice bouquet? Based on your preferences and what you look for in a perfume, you can choose your fragrance family. A fragrance family is a group of scents that share the same ingredients. Fragrance families can be combined together.
Floral fragrances
Are you drawn to feminine and sweet scents? Then floral fragrances are the right choice for you. They represent temptation, romance, and passion. There are many differences within the floral fragrance family: one can be sweet and refreshing, the other powdery or fruity. Therefore no single floral fragrance is alike. Keep this in mind when hunting for your floral fragrance.
Woody fragrances
You can recognise a woody fragrance by its warm, pure, and mysterious aromas. Woody fragrances are often composed of wood ingredients. In the base or heart notes, you find woody notes like sandalwood, cedarwood, or musk. Most of the time, they are in conjunction with aromatic and citrus notes.
Oriental fragrances
Oriental flowers and African spices, the scents of oriental fragrances are warm, rich, intense, alluring, and sensual. Mainly sensuality distincts this fragrance family from woody scents. Ingredients like musk, vanilla, and resin are mostly used in oriental fragrances.
Fresh fragrances
Aromatic fragrances are clean, uncomplicated and fresh. These scents often feature blends of herbs such as rosemary and basil with lavender and warm woody notes.
Chypre fragrances
A fragrance family that’s not as well-known as the rest is the Chypre family. This sharp scent is based on oakmoss, labdanum, patchouli and bergamot. This fragrance family was first described by perfumer Francois Coty in 1917. He named this family after the island of Cyprus. (Chypre is French for Cyprus)
Citric scents
Do you love the scent of a peeled mandarin or freshly squeezed orange juice? Then you’ll love citrus perfumes! Notes of lemon, orange, grapefruit, and bergamot are often featured in this fragrance family. Citric perfumes can be described as timeless, exuberant and fresh. You often see a combination of flowery tones and aromatic scents.
Leather fragrances
A leather perfume, also named dry woods, is characterized by the luxurious smell of leather. This family has similarities to the woody fragrances, but differs by its dry and smoky character. Leather fragrances often feature ingredients like cedarwood, tobacco, and burned wood. Leather fragrances are very common for men. For the ladies, a perfume of this family fragrance is rare.
What’s the difference between perfume and eau de toilette?
Eau de Toilette or Eau de Parfum is always shown on the bottle. One may cost you a few pounds, while the other can cost you more than £100,-. But what is, besides the price, the difference between these fragrance versions? We’ll explain it to you so you can choose the perfume that suits you.
Eau de Toilette
Eau de Toilette is one of the most common fragrance versions. Eau de Toilette is known for its sparkling effect. It’s less concentrated, which lowers the price of Eau de Toilette compared to the other versions. The fragrance evaporates relatively quickly. For you to enjoy you perfume all day, we advise you to apply your Eau de Toilette twice daily.
Eau de Parfum
Another well-known fragrance version is Eau de Parfum. This is often a lot more expensive than an Eau de Toilette, but you have to use less of it. Eau de Parfum is concentrated and powerful. You only have to apply it once to fully enjoy your perfume all day long.
Parfum
In popular language, fragrances are called parfum or perfume. If we take a look at the fragrance versions, Parfum is the most concentrated version of all. You only need just a few drops to smell amazing all day. There’s a price tag to this though. A tiny bottle of only a couple of mils costs you lots of money.
Eau de Cologne
A less common fragrance version is Eau de Cologne. This version is characterized by citrus fruit aromas and is used primarily for refreshment. For you to enjoy your refreshing scent, we advise that you use Eau de Cologne multiple times a day.
How to choose perfume based on personality
Finding out which perfume suits you best can be tricky. Finding a bottle of perfume for somebody else can be an impossible thing to do. Based on fragrance families and fragrance versions, it’s often difficult to estimate what your friend loves. Besides that, everybody has a specific body odour which causes perfume to smell different on people. To find a perfume that suits somebody else, you can make a choice based on personality.
Power women
She’s strong, powerful, and sassy: are you giving a true power woman a present? Then perfumes from the herbal fragrance families. Scents with tones of wood, amber, and a spicy touch are loved among power women. They are fragrance notes you often see in men’s fragrances, but the ladies’ version usually has a flowery addition.
Social types
Is the one you’re buying perfume for a real chatterbox, and does she always talk to anyone? Social types are characterised by their colourful personality, social skills, and friendliness. They’re often witty and cheerful. A flowery fragrance with a fruity touch really suits the social types. Think of ingredients like apple, passion fruit, and cherries.
Sexy types
Wild attraction and sultry looks, there is a perfect fragrance for sexy ladies. And preferably, a fragrance that boosts their sexiness. Choose a perfume with tones of roses, patchouli, and musk. Whatever you choose, make sure you go for a heavy fragrance. A light fragrance doesn’t suit the identity of a sexy woman at all.
No-nonsense types
‘Less is more’, that’s the slogan of the no-nonsense types. These girls live life without any fuss and with attention to green. These types are often into sports and love daylight. A casual fragrance suits them best. Choose a flowery, aromatic, or citric fragrance family with a fresh undertone. Just make sure that the scent is not too heavy.
Feminine types
Does the word ‘feminine’ describe her best? Is this happy, cheerful person not afraid to show herself? Then a powdery, flowery scent is what you’re looking for. We prefer a flowery fragrance with notes of jasmine and lilies, maybe together for a fresh touch.
