Do You Smell Me?

By: Sam

I have a confession: I hate my body chemistry. It seems like a weird thing to nitpick but this has caused me some major problems in the fragrance department. Recently, I read an interesting article on the relationship between body chemistry & fragrance. However, it’s not so much that I can’t find a scent that I like (trust me there are many) but it smells seems like nothing actually stays on my skin. How do I fix this? I can’t buy a perfume based on a scent I like for 5 minutes when my main concern is how it’s going to smell (if at all) in the next hour. Even so, nowadays it is a little daunting to tackle the issue of fragrances with so many options: parfum, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, eau fraiche, perfume oils, and solid perfumes. Then once you jump that hurdle, you have to decide whether you want a scent that’s “fresh and clean”, “feminine and floral”, “spicy” and the list goes on… eau de oh no!

Before we get overwhelmed, let’s B R E A K D O W N these fragrance choices! Shall we?

• Parfum: Contains 15 to 30 percent of the essential fragrance and is the most expensive kind of perfume. It is also called “extrait perfume”. Joy Baccarat Pure Perfume by Jean Patou retails for a whopping $1000!
• Eau de Parfum: Contains 8 to 15 percent of essential fragrance and is less costly than parfums. Dot ($89) by Marc Jacobs is an Eau de Parfum and smells lovely don’t you think?
• Eau de Toilette: Can cost equal or less than Eau de Parfum but contains 5 to 8 percent of essential fragrance. Eau de Toilette is not meant to stay on the skin for long periods so make note of that ladies! One of the newest Eau de Toilette fragrances is Anna Sui La Vie De Boheme ($78).
• Eau Fraiche: Lighter than Eau de Toilette containing about 3 percent or less of the essential fragrance. Chanel’s Chance ($90) has an Eau Fraiche version of the fragrance.
• Perfume Oil: Is applied by massaging fragrance onto the skin and contains a stronger scent than alcohol based perfumes. Perfume oils contain 15 to 30 percent of essential fragrance. Perfume oils can be pricey such as Creed Acqua Fiorentina Perfume Oil ($160) or there are less expensive options from The Body Shop and LUSH.
• Solid Perfume: Made with beeswax or petroleum jelly . It needs a carrier oil as a base and essential oils. Designer perfumes have made solid perfume versions of their fragrances such as Oscar de la Renta’s Espirit Doscar Solid Perfume ring($65) (how cute!). I also found a DIY recipe for solid perfume.

After you decide how potent you want your fragrance to be, the rest is up to your personal taste. 😉

Since I’m starting from scratch with perfumes, it doesn’t make sense (right now) to break bank on a light scent that will subside once I break a sweat. I’ve started using Devil’s Nightcap Perfume Oil ($59.95-139.95) by LUSH. It contains bitter oak wood, oak moss, clary sage & ylang ylang, which gives me a dark, mysterious, and earthy scent I’m looking for. I took the time to test out the scent at the store and browse their beauty products while the scent settled onto my skin. I love how they literally let you smell the coffee (they have coffee beans!) to refresh your sense of smell while trying out their various perfumes. I’m diggin’ it so far and have already received compliments :).

Tell us! What’s your favorite perfume?