Start!

Where do you start looking for a new perfume?  Start by thinking about what you already use or what you think you may like.  It is almost impossible to just walk into the perfume department of a big store and find something worthwhile.  So here is how I do it, using two current perfumes as examples.

For men there are three main classes of scents (generally).  These are Fougère, Oriental and Chypre.  The feminine fragrances can broadly be classed as Floral, Oriental and Chypre.  Marine, Green, Citrus and even Savoury do exist, but often these are difficult to place initially.

Masculine fragrances can be woody, leathery, spicy (pepper, cloves), citrus and often amber (resin, incense).  Modern fragrances include aldehydes that can mimmic marine smells, like sea breezes etc.  Sounds a bit esoteric, but yes, chemistry is amazing.  You have to decide which of the main classes you like more: Oriental smells (like musk, spice, amber) or Fougère (ferns, lavender) or Chypre (sandalwood, oak, moss).  I like woody smells, so the dry-down must have wood as a base note for me.  Having chosen the Chypre class, the next step is to decide if it must have leathery notes, or if it must be fresh (mint) or citrus, or combinations.  And here is the problem: Modern perfumers tend to mix lots of weird things together because they know most people will buy something that triggers an immediate recognisable ‘nice’ smell.  But remember, this becomes part of your dress routine and lives with you for a day.  So nice may not be good at all.

The people at the perfume counter (if they have a bit of training) will give you ideas of good perfumes if you can tell them that you like a woody, and fresh (but not too lemony) perfume.  Well known fragrances in this group that I have described now include Fahrenheit by Dior, CK One by Calvin Klein (with a wee bit too much lemon for me), Declaration by Cartier (citrus, but not lemony) and perhaps even Armani Pour Homme.  

One of my all time favourites for dark, cold nights is Grey Flannel by Geoffrey Beene of New York.  This is a fresh Chypre with a powdery dry down over cedar.  It is distinctive and some would even say it has some amber notes.  And finally, one of the discoveries for me some time ago, I love Guerlain Homme.  It starts with a mint and lime note, changing into a soft floral and aromatic mid tone on a long lasting wood base.  It works well for me here in New Zealand, especially in Dunedin where the wind is chilly and clean.  It just fits.

As is to be expected, the feminine fragrances are way more complex.  Again, you can start by deciding if you want Floral ( with key notes of green, fruity, fresh aldehydic or sweet), or Oriental (amber and spice) or Chypre (fruity, animalic, woody, fresh, or green).  

Floral scents with a green and fruity tone include Chanel No. 19.  A floral scent with a fresh fruity mid tone is Laura by Laura Biagiotti, similarly the original Escada, Tommy Girl, with Anaïs Anaïs (Cacharel) being green, with floral tones and some spiciness.  Coty added vanilla to the powdery and fruity notes over a musky and woody base to create Ex’cla’ma’tion.  24 Fauburg by Hermes is a Floral scent with an aldehyde content to generate a old world powdery note, accentuated by a very faint vanilla and perhaps sandalwood dry down.  A more pronounced floral aldehyde is Chanel No 5, with woody notes, powdery white flower mid section and an amber, almost sweet resin dry down.  This one works on your skin or it is a dog!

The Oriental spicy group includes Lauder’s Youth Dew (very spicy, with only singular notes of wood and even incense in the dry down.  Opium, by Yves St Laurent, is a similar scent (pepper, coriander, cloves, jasmine, carnations, incense and cinnamon, in a sweet powdery mix), and it is one you love or hate.   Other scents include Coco by Chanel, Dioressence and Angel by Thierry Mugler (I pick up chocolate on this one, combined with spices).

A success story in the Oriental amber group is Shalimar by Geurlain (1925).  It has resiny notes over powdery jasmine mid notes, incense and leather, nicely balanced with mandarin citrus notes.  The dry down is filled with cedar wood and even musk.  Joop! and I guess Obsession by Calvin Klein may fit into this bracket, having had a smell of them recently..  

Chypre fruity would include Miss Dior that utilises aldehydes to generate a green woody top note with a floral note that is difficult to place (gardenia, roses?), while the woody focus is best demonstrated by Aromatics by Clinique.  The Chypre green perfumes (woody, with juniper, rosemary, ylang-ylang) include Lauder’s Private Collection and believe it or not, 4711 (and I say this on the strength of a few books I am consulting, because I have not seen it in a shop here and have never looked for it in South Africa).  

Some of the perfumes I’ll describe in future are ones that I have brought for Chrissie over the years, based on her preferences and how they changed.  That will demonstrate the evolution of a signature.  What is your favourite perfume at present and what does it smell like to you?  Can you describe it in terms of the Cheat Sheet in my first posting?  What do you like about it and if you could change a thing, what would it be?  Let me know and I can blog about that in future too.

Happy perfume hunting.

Choosing a signature

In the first piece on the topic of perfume I explored the language and descriptions used in the world of scents.  In this piece I think I want to talk about choosing a signature scent.  The lucky situation is that as you move through life you can change this signature.  Just as we change emotionally and physically, so our preferences in perfume will evolve.

I am writing this flying at 33 000 ft and sitting in the cool dry air of the Boeing 737 that carries me to Auckland.  I am aware of the smells coming from the passengers around me.  It is the end of a rather humid day in Dunedin and some passengers are 'fresh' off a flight from Australia, so not all is well in the state of Denmark.  

Some have obviously decided against using antiperspirants, or they have used badly designed stuff.  It has all gone a bit south.  Some of the cheap and cheerful scents have gone stale, and now  closely resemble the sweet smell of candy floss that has been sitting in the sun on the front of a baby's vest.  Barf and Fanta Orange.

This is the signature of inconsiderate types.  I am not convinced by the hippy and naturalist stance on these things.  This is not 1243, in the midst of a battle in southern Spain.  As the cowboy said in the movie:  "Shmellin' good aint noone of my business!"  I know, but it is my business trying to sip a glass of wine here next to you.

So some have the smell signature of old boots in a trench.  Some women wear the signature that resembles cheap gin mixed with rose petal toilet spray. And this is the thing, one must consider what the signature will look like when the ink started running, when someone served the dog a breakfast on it.  Will it still win through?  Or will it collude with the dog food to conjure up the second coming of the living dead?

As my lovely soul mate and wife, Chrissie, so eloquently puts it:  Do not wear a scent you have not spent a night with.  Literally, sleep on it.  The eight hours or so in bed will take the perfume through its paces.  From warm moments to cool deep sleep and temperature changes and chemistry shuffles of your skin, to getting ready for the morning shower and rushing around feeding  the dog, the cat and the kids, that time will give you the space to consider the fresh tones, the middle and dry down of the perfume.  If it is too sweet, you will know by morning.  If it has turned rancid by the time you raid the fridge during the long dark tea time of the soil you will be in a position to make an informed choice.  If you partners sneezes and asks about the smell, you know.  

Or perhaps you wake up during the night and you feel special.  And in the morning you still stop to sniff the soft scent that lingers on your arm.  Your partner smiles, the kids look happy, the dog leaves the cat alone and the cat walks away from war with the fern, then you know.  You have a winner.  Then someone may remark on your wonderful perfume during the day.  People like myself will walk past you, smile and try to place the perfume.  I will see you in a room, and take notice of you.  You are a considerate individual, thoughtful and calculated.  I like your signature, it gives me  confidence that I am dealing with a complete person.  

Yes, the signature is personal.  You cannot please everybody.  But chosen well it will not agitate people around you.  It will make you agreeable to those around you and build your confidence.  You may have to kiss a few frogs before you find that signature, but it is well worth it.

Personally I choose my scents from a range of carefully selected perfumes.  I care less for the idea that some are for males and some for females.  If I need a feminine day and emotions, I'll layer some base scent with something from Chrissie's selection.  Some days I'll go clean, wearing no scent, just a complete odourless antiperspirant.  Why not, our senses need a rest too.

Perfume - The Introduction

A very short introduction to the world of perfumes

"Perfume is the unseen but unforgettable and ultimate fashion accessory.  It heralds a woman's arrival and prolongs her departure" - Coco Chanel

Let me start with some important principles (for me at least): perfumes and scents are personal - they change to reflect the skin they end up on and reflect your total body chemistry.  They reflect the period in history when they were created and like wine, some will stand the test of time, others are to be consumed now and perhaps only remembered in a fleeting moment in later years and some should remain on the shelf (or as my father in law said, one could use it to clean the engine of his Jaguar).

With the age of science came a revolution in chemistry and subsequently in the development of perfumes.  With the social revolution after the second World War came more expendable money and perfumes were suddenly accessible to the masses and it became part of fashion and the ritual of dressing.   These days the shops are filled with a bewildering array of seasonal scents and fragrances, made to be here today and gone tomorrow.  Like iTunes songs they represent moments, not crafted wholeness.  That is part of who we are at this time in history, no denying that.  Open to debate whether it is good or bad, I guess.  It is not the intention of this blog to go down that path.

I want to talk about perfumes from a perspective of love and care.  How do we decide what works, how do we find replacements when some go off the shelf and how do we find new ones that could work for us when we feel a bit adventurous.  I know that many who read this know more than I do.  That is what the comments section is for.  This is how we learn.

All disciplines have a language to describe the things peculiar to that field.  It is similar with perfumes.  All we need to know is the basics so that we can start to make notes of the perfumes and scents we love.  I developed a simple sheet that I use for this, updated for this blog post.

When you spray some cologne/scent/perfume (we do not worry about those definitions for now) onto your skin (say the inside of your arm), there is an initial aroma that fills the air and settles as you take a sniff.  This will last for only a short time, perhaps not even a minute.  This is the top note.  After this, the molecules will react with your skin, the sweat, the other substances there and it will also react to the heat of your skin, the air and the humidity.   Slowly a middle note, or heart will develop.  If the perfume is made well, there will be a smooth transition of smells and after a few minutes (perhaps 20 minutes or so), the base note will start to develop.  This is the scent you, and those around you, will live with for the next few hours.  This is the longevity of the perfume.

The base note depends heavily on the quality of the fixing agents and the extracts used.  This is where a good perfume will set itself apart from the rest.  After a while, hopefully several hours later, the base note will slowly dissipate and eventually disappear without leaving you smelling like a trash can on a hot midday in Hong Kong.  I'll talk a bit later about the whole buying experience and the rush through duty free disasters that we all know about.  And I'll talk about buying for yourself and other people.

Let's get to an example.  How does it all come together at the personal level.  Perhaps I should use one of my all-time favourites as an example (although, I have to say, choosing one was hell).

Dior introduced Dune pour Homme in 1997.  It was a spin on their 1992 version for women.  Dune is described by Dior as a green woody perfume.  It starts with a top note of fig leaf and fig twigs imparting a watery odour, similar to what a fig tree smells like in the heat of a summer day when you rub the leaves or perhaps break a branch and smell it.  This almost harsh top evokes a feeling of warmth, and dry, desert air and the presence of cool water.

The heart develops on a testing strip within a few minutes, with the harsh fig turning soft and powdery jasmine and with slight citrus note.  Some describe this as clean and soapy.  The heart develops slowly over time on the base of cedar wood.  Some pick up sandalwood.  On my skin the scent develops rapidly into a powdery smooth aroma of wood and flowers.  It is not sweet and it lasts for a full day in warm conditions.   I have checked and it seems to linger within about an arm's length of me.  It is not overpowering and sensitive people have never complained that my fragrance causes headaches or sneezes.

Dune is my go-to when I am in a hurry.  I know it works and I feel confident that I have a unique fragrance and that I project a difference wearing it.  It works during the day and the hotter it is the better.  I also use it on long overseas trips.

In the next delivery I'll pick one of the perfumes you mentioned and talk about it a bit more.  Knowing that I like Dune, the next question is, what else will work for me?  We'll look into that as well a bit later.