perfume Nostalgia

Givenchy Hot couture No. 1 is an absolutely gorgeous perfume with notes of magnolia, bergamot, orange, rasberry, blackpepper and musk. I miss it terribly. It used to be one of my go to perfumes for a night out. 

For me,it  was sweet,rich, heavy, sensual woody, warm tenacious. It  was one of those perfumes I could still smell on myself many many hours after spraying it.

I wanted it so badly two years ago and I couldn't find it. 

All I found were flankers, one smells almost like it but the bottle was different. For me, the appeal of this gorgeous perfume was not just the scent but the bottle also. It had a black background, the silvery figure of a woman and a little stand at the base of the bottle.

Choosing the scent for you

Someone asked me recently how I know what scent suits me and how I picked my signature scent I didn't have a simple answer mostly because I don't think I have a signature scent as I consider myself scent adventurous, if there is any such thing, and I usually do the same ting anyone would do in deciding whether a scent suits me or not; I smell it on my skin, see if I like it then I wear it  for a few days in a row to test its longevity and then I consider the number of complements I get from Family, friends and strangers.

I can imagine there are people out there who really want to have that double entrance effect. When they enter a room, you notice them and then their perfumes. For people like that, I believe they would enjoy perfumes with louder scent while someone who likes everything tones down would probably prefer skin scents. What I'm saying is sometimes your personality influences your choice f scents. Unless you're on of those people who are contrary. Like a quite girl with an electric bag, loud make-up and face punching scent.

My advise for choosing a perfume however would be;

1. Think about the kind of scents you like. Is it flowery, woody, earthy, spicy, green, fruity, balsamic, aromatic, boozy, etc. All that depends on you and how you envision to smell.

2. When shopping for perfumes, ask for perfumes in the category determined above. for instance if you like flowery perfume and not just any flower you love the smell of jasmine or my personal favorite,  lily of the valley, ask for perfume with jasmine heart notes.

3. collect as many sample of perfumes in the category 1 and then 2 above and try each on on for at least 3 days each

4. I am guessing by the end of the second week, you would have decided which one of the many samples made you smile the most, lasted longer, got you more compliments and suits your image (loud or toned down)  and any other character you would like your signature scent to have

6. For some people, following fashion trends also  works.

This is my one penny advise for choosing  perfumes that suit you or your signature scent.

The scent for change

  Every time I've had to make a a big decision, I go beside myself, second guessing and worrying about little details. It can be nerve wrecking but in the end that's what life is all about. Funny thing is, in the midst of my panic I always manage to think about the smells around me. The good and the bad. I consider them part of the memory I am creating. Come when I decide to recall the big decision day, I will remember the the sights, the words, the people, the environment and also the smells.

Today is no different. Big decision day for me and here is the list of smells that will remain part of this day;

1. Fresh soapy smell of deodorant; my colleague came unusually close to me today, giving me an involuntary whiff of his deodorant. I guess today is emotional, I have just given notice of my resignation.
2. Rotten smell of a dead mammal; most likely a mouse. The office was fumigated recently and one of the  victims was probably a mouse.The poor thing must have drawn its last breath in a well hidden corner because despite fishing out three bloated bodies of its family members the sense infuriating stench remains, indicating there is still a now well decomposed mouse somewhere in that particular office; the makeshift HR office, in which I was  "debriefed" after my resignation.

3. Oakmoss and Bergamot!!! lovely. The new hand cream bestowed upon me by another colleague. I'll probably make a very long list if I mention them all, it's best to stop here

Unique, individual, niche, Indie

Everyone wants that something different these days, mainstream is not cool enough,  and "designer" is so yesterday, with the globe going green and the people going natural. It's all a mixture of good, bad, lies, truths and everything else in between.  A particularly good and sometimes not so good part of all that in the world of scents is the opportunity  for adventurous scent lovers  to travel the  underworld of   niche perfumes.  You know, any excuse to toot your nose  and feel like you're better that everyone else... not in a bad way of course (if you can pull that off)

Niche perfumes are handcrafted, with  real essential oils and other living stuff( by that i mean not synthetic). They provide that feeling of  wearing a custom made dress or driving a custom made car, they are currently taking on the notion "designer" used to have back then, when only a few people could brag about wearing  a particular designer's craft.

I love them, I make them albeit not always with absolutely living stuff.

I am thinking about inviting a few perfume enthusiasts to my little studio where we can sit, make perfumes and review one another stroke of genius or maybe the next Pandora's box in a tiny bottle. We could name our little beauties and declare ourselves a niche perfume house or studio. We'll have those little taste bud teasers they serve at these kind of things, It'll be great! I'll let you know when it is and how it goes.

Until then, I will still be loving my mainstream and enjoying my special creations. I don't see why I can't have both, do you?