You may forget how she looked, what she was saying, what she was wearing... but you never forget the way she made you feel and the way she smelled...
I have always had a "love/hate" relationship with my fragrances. Sometimes I pick the perfume and think that it's the best thing in the world, but in a few hours, I can end up taking a shower, scrubbing myself from head to toes, trying to get rid of the aroma that gave me a headache and made me feel sick.
And I can't really explain it, but even my favorite "Eau de Parfum" I can't tolerate in the airplanes. Any mild to strong scents just make me feel sick and dizzy.
I never forget my flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong. In Pudong Airport, I tested a new fragrance from Tom Ford and fall in love. I decided to give it a few hours to see if I still like it when we land in HK to buy it there. Well, needless to say, those were the longest 3 hours of my life. I got a headache, I felt like I couldn't breathe, and all I could smell was that perfume.
Long story short, with my very picky nose, I only have a few scents that I like and repeatedly buy, which is the best compliment I can give to the perfumer.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon
Things to know before picking a perfume:
Apply your new perfume on your wrist, as the pulse helps a fragrance to unfold better) and wait for a while. The aroma composition will open up gradually. It takes more time to work on cold skin and less time on hot skin.
Forget about coffee beans. They don't really help you fighting the tiredness from smelling. It will be more useful to drink cold water or breathe in the fresh air.
Any scent tends to go upward while evaporating. That's why it's better to apply it to the folds of the knees, elbows, wrists, and ankles.
To make the scent stay longer, it's better to moisturize your skin before applying the perfume (any odorless lotion will work)
If you apply the perfume to your wrists, never rub them; as your skin's temperature increases, so does the perfume's evaporation.
One of the things affecting the long-lasting effect of the perfume composition is the concentration of aromatic compounds. The higher it is, the richer the perfume is, and the longer it will stay on your skin.
Eau fraîche: concentration - 1%–3%, lasts for less than 2 hours
Eau de Cologne: concentration - 2%–4%, lasts up to 2 hours
Eau de Toilette: concentration - 5%–15%, lasts up to 4 hours
Eau de Parfum: concentration - 15%–20%, lasts up to 5–6 hours
Parfum: concentration - 20%–30%, lasts up to 10 hours
7. And last but not least, a larger amount of applied perfume doesn't prolong your aroma's life. All it can do is repel others.
My favorite perfumes at the moment are:
CHANEL ALLURE Eau de Parfum.
I am on my second bottle now.
Comes from a floral fragrance family, for me, it's very wintery scent, it warming and hugging type of perfume. The key notes are Peony accord, Passion Fruit and Vanilla.
It lasts for so long, and the clothes smell wonderful for days after application.
ARMANI PRIVE Pivoine Suzhou
I do like roses, I am thrilled when I get a bouquet of fresh roses now and then, but I really don't like any rose-based smells. So, when I picked this one and actually loved it till the last drop, I was stunned.
The packaging is so beautiful and luxurious. It comes in a hardcore box, the bottle is simple, but the lid is gorgeous and if you are lucky to put your hands on the limited edition... a luminous version of the original fragrance, infused with irresistible silky nacre flakes. In my opinion, it doesn't last that long, but it's just so soft, seductive, gentle... Will put on my wishlist for upcoming holidays.
BOTTEGA VENETA Eau de Parfum
This fragrance is from 2011. The bottle itself is a beautiful masterpiece, it is made from special Murano glass with a stripe of the famous Bottega Veneta leather. Very elegant, very strong, I only use it in cold months; otherwise, it's too overpowering for me.
And the last but definitely not the least. My current obsession. If to be completely honest, I would buy all the fragrances from Ben Gorham, the Stockholm-based Byredo perfumer, but for now, I only have one.
BYREDO GYPSY WATER Eau De Parfum Spray.
It's indescribable, it's like love itself. It smells gooooooood, delicious, delicate, cozy. It smells like any season appropriate, like a burst of sunshine, like a light breeze, like raindrops, like snowflakes falling on your face. It's an art in the bottle and the most complimented perfume I have ever owned.
Photo by Charisse Kenion
As a piece of advice, I can give to all perfume owners. Try not to use all of your immense collection at the same time. I mean that the perfumes tend to mix, so if you have it on your clothes or accessories, you have to either use the same scent the next time you wear it or wash the piece first before applying a new aroma.
What I am trying to do now is to buy the shower gel or body lotion, hand cream, hair mist with the same fragrance, to intensify the existing one instead of mixing all the smells up.
I hope this article was helpful, thank you so much for reading, and we'll meet in my next one.
XX
#perfume #pieceofadvice #bottegaveneta #georgioarmani #chanel #byredo #eaudeparfum #smell #aroma #fragrance
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