HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT FRAGRANCE | PART I

For some, like me, fragrance is arguably the most important accoutrement.

However, walk into any retail store and one might understandably be intimidated by the abundance of perfume bottles on offer.

So, with so much choice crowding the shelves, how does one select the right perfume?

“First of all, one must understand that fragrance is connected with our olfactory,” says Erica Moore, fragrance evaluator at Fragrances of the World. This is why perfume is so personal for each of us.

Moore adds, “Smell is one of our most subliminal and most evocative senses. Our brain compensates for the lack of vocabularly to explain what we are smelling by linking it to the experience surrounding the smell such as a food, childhood memory or summer holiday.”

But the truth is, when it comes to selecting the right perfume, there is no wrong or right answer. What smells rich and woody on one might smell earthy and soil-like on another.

“Picking a fragrance is completely subjective,” says Moore. No matter what scent you choose, it simply needs to represent who you are. Depending on what you identify with, you need to look to scents that claim to be just that. You might be a signature-scent-wear-Chanel-no-5-until-you-die kind of girl. Or, you might be like me, and love a wide, wide range of scents.

Understandably, adding to a fragrance collection can be costly. “If a fragrance is considerably more expensive, it is safe to assume that the cost of the fragrance itself will be a significant contribution to the overall price,” advises Moore. Essentially, this means that the most expensive raw materials such as osmanthus absolute and French jasmine come at a price. In the fragrance world, more often than not, you get what you pay for.

Here, you’ll find some helpful fragrance shopping tips:

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