“What next?” That’s the question that naturally occurs after the starting point of having initially explored a few fragrances, and perhaps found a couple you really like. But where then for your nose to go next…?
With such a vast range of scents launched each years – and the hundreds of thousands of perfumes already out there – how do you find your next ‘fragrant foothold’ in your olfactory journey? If you don’t have some sort of framework to follow, it can feel a bit like jumping off the top of a mountain into the wild blue yonder!
Although our theme of the month is ‘endeavour’, we know that can be rather overwhelming not knowing where to tun next for a new (to you) fragrance to try. So, we have a perfumed path for you to follow…
It’s in the form of a clever algorithm that was first introduced by Perfume Society Co-Founder Lorna McKay into Liberty’s fragrance department many years ago as a way to help customers navigate choosing their next fragrance to try. Since those early days (when results would be printed out on a dot matrix printer, if you can believe / remember that far back!) Find a Fragrance has much tweaked and improved, and now lives as a so-clever scent-suggesting algorithm that lives on The Perfume Society Website.
Think of our Find a Fragrance section as your personal perfume sherpa – a one-click guide that simply requires you to type the name of a fragrance you already know you like to immediately suggest six new scents of differing price ranges / from a number of houses and in a variety of styles. This isn’t some random selection, but bases the results on information that the fragrance houses themselves have input, including the inspiration of the perfumer, the ingredients, the character of the fragrance and how the scent will make you feel. This makes it FAR more accurate – and likely to find your next new must-have – than basing it entirely on fragrance notes.
Here’s how to use Find a Fragrance:
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Simply a fragrance you already wear/love – or which you know your friend loves – into the form on the right, via the drop-down menu which appears as you type in the name. Click SEARCH.
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In just a second or two our ‘virtual fragrance advisor’ will make six suggestions for new fragrances to try, across a range of price-points.
It’s as simple as that!
If you want to explore a particular brand in more depth, you could also try searching PERFUME HOUSES in the drop down menu under EXPLORE in the menu bar.
2: Give yourself time
Now clutching your shopping list of scents to try, we cannot urge you strongly enough to allow yourself the time to live with them on your skin a while before making a snap decision either way. First sniff? That’s the top notes – generally something citrus-y and ephemeral – which can disappear within the first few minutes of spraying because the ingredients evaporate more quickly.
We find an hour is enough to give you a proper sense of what the perfume smells like on you.
And if you don’t want to douse yourself head-to-toe then spray on a blotter or ‘spill’ (long paper strip) to get an idea. But remember – it will only be an idea of the final scent. They were made to be warmed and worn on your skin, not paper, so will often smell very different (and better) on you. And your mood/the weather/food can all drastically alter how a scent smells on you, so ideally, come back and try each one a couple of times.
3: Make note(s)
It’s incredible where your mind can take you when sniffing something gorgeous. Perfumes are created to carry us away to somewhere, so where are your six scents taking you? Close your eyes, inhale deeply and then ask yourself questions such as:
- If this scent were a fabric, would it be velvet, suede, leather or linen?
- What colour does the fragrance remind you of?
- If the fragrance were a piece of music, what instrument would be playing?
- How does it make you feel? Happy, excited, relaxed, romantic…?
The more you make yourself think along these lines, the greater connection you’ll have to any fragrance you try.
If you follow these three simple steps, we’re pretty confident you’ll have found a brand new fragrance that gently but assuredly expands your fragrant horizons and helps you to be more adventurous in your fragrance choices. And from there… well, you have a whole new world of scent to explore with even greater courage!
Written by Suzy Nightingale
