buying a perfume
‘Where do I start?’
Some of the customers who visit our shop in Sidmouth know where they are going. They'll have
positive views about the kinds of scents they like, and those they don't. Others, faced
with the choice of hundreds of tester bottles on our shelves are like children
in a sweet shop - keen to experiment and experience as many as they can with an open mind;
happy just to dive straight in and see where serendipity takes them.
A significant majority however ask the inevitable when faced with so much choice -
"where do I start".
If there really was a scientific and foolproof method to choosing a scent, it would of course
very much negate the stated purpose of this website. A scent is chosen from the heart not from
the head. However, scent is the most primitive of our senses, it connects with our
memories and experiences that reside in our soul, so we can at least
approach the task from a knowledge of ourselves. At the very least, a fragrance should be worn
the way we wear our clothes - it should be an expression of who we are, and who we want to be; a
manifestation of our inner selves.
If that sounded too esoteric, let's bring it all back down to earth! Like clothes, fragrances
can and should reflect purpose and occasion. Is the perfume being worn for day wear?
Is it about being casual and relaxed? In that case, you might want to consider a light floral (or for
something very fresh - maybe a scent with a citrus feel). If on the other hand the
scent is being worn
for an evening out then something more seductive might be appropriate - perhaps musk, or an oriental theme,
or a warm and spicy note. Like our clothes, scents for Spring might equally be fresh and
clean; florals in Summer; evocatively spicy in Autumn and rich and warming in Winter. The key point
is to think more about the scents we wear, why we're wearing them, and what mood each style creates for us
and those around us.
A scent should also reflect your personality. In your dress, are you more comfortable
with restrained classic attire or do you look for something more modern, daring or provocative?
For the chic classic, you might want to wear an refined and sophisticated historic scent or a modern
take on a classic style, but for something more provoking there's a wide choice too of scents by perfumers
keen to push against the boundaries of convention.
Read next article buying scent II