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Tip 1:

Perfume never has the exactly same fragrance on different people. Don’t choose a perfume just because you like the fragrance on someone else. Perfume will interact differently with each individual’s body chemistry.

Tip 2:

Fragrance is a combination of the perfume’s scent and your body’s chemistry. Don’t try to tell what a perfume is like by sniffing the bottle. Apply the perfume to your wrist and allow the fragrance to develop, and blend with your skins unique features, before testing. Allow up to 10 minutes for fragrance development after applying the perfume sample.

Tip 3:

Limiting sampling to 3 or 4 perfumes at a time will avoid confusing and overwhelming your sense of smell. Sniffing coffee beans between samples can help clear and refresh your sense of smell.

Tip 4:

When sampling consider developing a perfume wardrobe. A perfume wardrobe is like a clothing wardrobe, with perfumes for different seasons, occasions, and moods. A perfume for each of, casual, evening and romantic wear will cover most requirements.

Tip 5:

It is perfume oils that give perfumes their fragrance. Check the category of the perfume when selecting your perfume. The higher the concentration of perfume oil the longer the perfume will last.

Perfume Category Typical Perfume Oil Content

After Shave 0.5% - 2.0%
Eau de Cologne 3.0% - 5.0%
Eau de Toilette 5.0% - 8.0%
Eau de Parfum 8.0% - 15.0%
Parfum 15.0% - 30.0%

Donna is a trained makeup artist with her own beauty business. As both a business women and a mom with 2 children Donna understands the time pressures on women today and through this, and other articles, has endeavored to take the complexity out of looking great with some “busy women friendly” beauty tips and advice. If you would like to read more of Donna’s articles check out her website: http://www.coloursandscents.co.nz

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The word perfume is from a Latin phrase meaning “through smoke” and was thought to have been invented by the ancient Egyptians who burned fragrant woods and plants for their pleasant odors. Over the years perfume has been used, refined and enhanced by every major civilization and today perfume as we know it is a very big business.

Today’s modern perfume has three main components:

The scent - Virtually anything natural or synthetic that has an odor can be used in the making of perfume. Typically scents are made from flowers, citrus, spices, woods and sometimes even leather.

The fixative - These ingredients act to stabilize the aromatic compound and help to make the scent last longer.

The solvent - This is usually alcohol and keeps bacteria from forming and helps maintain an even consistency so it can be easily applied.

The category a fragrance belongs to is defined by how much of the scent (or aromatic compound) is used in the product. This also plays a factor in determining the price as the higher the concentration of scent the more expensive the fragrance will be:

Lotions and aftershaves generally have a 1 to 2% scent base

Eau de Cologne products are generally 2 to 3% pure scent

Eau de Toilettes run between 5 to 20% scent

Eau de Parfums will have from 10 to 30% aromatic compound in them

Perfume Extract or Parfum has the greatest concentration of scent, between 20 and 40%

Women’s products are usually categorized as perfume, eau de parfum, toilet water, and cologne and for men’s products are sold as perfume, cologne, and aftershave.

Surprisingly fragrances and music share a common term, notes. Perfumes are often described by the different “notes” that make up the scent. These notes are designed to emerge at different times during the scent span of a fragrance just as an orchestra will have different instruments playing throughout a musical composition.

Top Notes are the strongest scents but do not last very long. This is the initial burst of smell you get when you first take a sniff of your favorite perfume or cologne. The top notes are often spice or citrus based.

Middle (or heart notes) makes up the main part of the scent that emerges after the top notes start to fade away and are usually softer and mellower than the initial scent. These scents are usually floral in nature.

Bass notes form the foundation of the scent and are usually deep and musky in nature and emerge to blend with the middle notes not to replace them.

Fragrances are very complex products that go through many stages of development before reaching the consumer. There are tens of thousands of different perfumes and colognes available today, each one having its own unique scent signature and what once was reserved for the wealthy and privileged is now available to everyone.

Visit us for great tips and advice on buying, wearing and storing your
Perfume and Cologne

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Fragrances can often reflect our mood and personality. A certain scent on a good friend may smell quite differently on you as each fragrance reacts differently according to our own chemical makeup.

When testing a perfume in a store, be sure to wait about 10 minutes to allow the fragrance to react to your body chemistry before buying it. Smell it after the first application and then smell it again after waiting. This allow you to sample both the top and middle notes of the scent and give you a good sense of how the fragrance will linger throughout the day.

Be sure to limit how many fragrances you try at one time at the store - stick to just 3 or 4 at a time. Otherwise your olfactory senses may become overwhelmed and you may not be able to tell one perfume from the other!

If you are concerned about an allergic reaction, wait about an hour or so after sampling the perfume. If no reaction occurs by that time, it is probably safe to go ahead and splurge on that new perfume!

Always apply fragrances directly to your skin or hair, as some fragrances (especially parfums and eau de parfums which have a higher concentration of oils) may cause discoloration on certain fabrics. Never spray fragrances directly on silk - it will damage it!

If you like to spritz a bit on your clothing, be sure to test it first on hidden area such as an inner lining before spraying it all over yourself! This is especially true for delicate fabrics and “dry clean only” clothing.

I suggest changing your fragrance depending upon the season. In other words, go for lighter scents during the hotter weather and keep the stronger scents for the drier, cool weather. Heat intensifies the scent, so there is no need to douse yourself in a heavy scent during the summer. And if you are outdoors, be aware that bees, wasps, hornets, and other flying bugs are attracted to flowery fragrances (which is another good reason to stick to light, clean scents!)

Speaking of heat, if you want to keep that favorite perfume as fresh as the day you bought it, keep the bottle in a cool, dark place. Keep the bottle in it’s original box, if possible. You may even want to keep it in the fridge, so you can have a refreshingly cool spritz of your perfume before heading out for the day!

Denise Hayes owns http://www.drhFineGifts.com, an online perfume store featuring discount designer perfumes, colognes, and other designer fragrance items at over 80% off retail prices.

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