The first rule of fragrance club is that you cannot talk about fragrance club. I’m kidding, I’m kidding! After all, we’d be kinda stumped here at Escentual if we weren’t able to talk about fragrance, let’s be real. The truth is that, when it comes to perfume, there are no rules and you, Dear Reader, can do whatever the hell you want with it. Literally anything. Seriously, short of spraying the stuff into an open wound (from that fight club you’re not supposed to be talking about – shhhh), you are good my friend.
So we don’t want to set you rules when it comes to fragrance, ever, but we do want to offer you guidance because, whilst we are being real, perfume can be pretty confusing at times. There is so much on offer from so many different brands, all in different concentrations and formats – it can be a nightmare to navigate but we are here to help. In this week’s column I’m going to give you my four top tips on how to get the most out of your fragrance, from making it last longer to building a collection that gives you all you need – consider these the second, third, fourth, and fifth rules of fragrance club.
Store it Properly
First things first, if you’re going to get serious about perfume and drop some impressive dollar on it, you’ve got to know how to store it. Treated properly and with the utmost respect, perfume can last a decent amount of time – a good few years if you’re lucky and the great thing is, that storing it away properly is super easy. Perfume has two enemies; heat and light. These villains will quickly break down a composition, changing the way it smells, so the best thing one can do is keep it out of direct sunlight and away from intense heat (ie. don’t put it in your bathroom directly under a window with all that steam and light). My advice? Keep your fragrance in its box, tucked away somewhere special and if you really, really want to display one of those pretty bottles, make sure it’s in a cool, dark place, like a basement or a shady forest – just kidding, a darkish corner of your bedroom will be fine.
Layer it Up
What do we want? Long lasting fragrance! When do we want it? All of the time! If you love a fragrance, you want it to stick around, that’s just simple mathematics, science and TRUTH. It can be frustrating when a beloved scent doesn’t quite have the lasting power one wants and this isn’t necessarily a sign of a badly made scent, it’s most likely down to the style and the materials used. For example, citrus notes are more volatile and will evaporate from the skin more quickly, so it isn’t possible to have a citrus heavy fragrance that lasts forever and a day. Sometimes scents do stick around but we want them to project more – to be bigger so that when we walk into a room, we destroy everybody with our wake of awesomeness. I know you’re with me on this.
So, to give your favourite fragrance an added boost so that it; a) outlasts those things that would survive a nuclear winter (FYI those things are: Cher, scorpions and Happy Meal toys); and b) casts a shadow over all lands, my advice is to layer up and to layer up good. Your favourite fragrance is likely to come with a veritable assortment of body products that you can spritz, slather and shake all over your, well, over your body I guess. Take Alien by MUGLER for example – if you love this gloriously radioactive jasmine (which you should because it’s heavenly), you can shower in it, coat yourself in the body cream, freshen up with the deodorant and even spritz some in your hair. All of that before you’ve even sprayed on the Eau de Parfum! Finally, if you’re super extra like me, why not light the candle too and have a competition with your house to see who can smell most Alien-esque!
Switch it Up
The rules of Fight Club may stipulate that there are only two guys to a fight (yes I’m totally aware that I’m overdoing it with these Fight Club references), but this does not apply to a fragrance, which follows a ‘the more the merrier’ ethos. Life is too short to wear one fragrance. Heck, one day is too short to wear one fragrance – so you need to switch it up, people! Variety is the spice of life as they say and I’m a big believer that everybody should have a fragrance wardrobe with a finely curated selection of scents for each and every occasion. This doesn’t mean that you have to amass an entire museum’s worth of perfume, you can actually do it with as few as two or three scents so there is absolutely no excuse not to switch things up every now and then. You can even go for two scents that compliment each other – take Scherzo and Le Jasmine, both from Miller Harris, for example – the former is a candy floss floral tempered by oud smoke, perfect for dramatic evenings and winter nights, whilst the latter is a sunny, green jasmine that lends itself well to casual clothes and sunny days. Together they make the perfect micro-wardrobe, or maybe just the starting points for a bigger, walk-in, Carrie Bradshaw type of situation, if you feel me…
Wear it For You
Finally, and this is the most important piece of fragrance guidance you will ever hear, so pull up a seat and take note, folks – perfume is for you and not for anyone else. You should wear a fragrance because you love the way it smells and because you enjoy the way it makes you feel. Perfume is like a magic cloak – we spritz it on and it lets us be whoever we want to be, whether that’s a fabulous glamazon in nine inch heels, or a dapper introvert with a sensitive soul. It’s a personal accessory and it should be worn, not to gain compliments (however nice they are), but to bring pleasure to the person who wears it. So with that in mind, I leave you with one piece of advice: wear whatever the heck you want and don’t worry about who it was created for – if you like it – wear it. After all, perfume is made to be worn!
