fragrance

Growing up, the bottles of body sprays, lotions, butters and eau de toilettes that lined my bathroom vanity were far sweeter than a desert-filled episode of The Great British Bake Off. My rotation typically included Britney Spears’s Fantasy (or Curious); a pure-sugar scent that, not surprisingly, was called Pink Sugar; and anything else my collection of glossy magazines was advertising. If it smelled like a frosted cupcake with sprinkles, I was—without a doubt—wearing it.  I’ll always love unapologetically sweet scents, but now my tastes have graduated to fragrance blends that are warm and woody or grounded with spices, leathers or classic florals. That said, signature sweet notes like vanilla are often at the heart of...

Despite being totally obsessed with perfume and owning a frankly obscene number of bottles, there’s no doubt that my favourite perfumes tend to be united by a few key notes: musk, vanilla and patchouli. Not always together, you understand, but it’s these warm and cosy aromas that appeal to my senses time and time again. Whether it’s Byredo Velvet Haze, Maison Margiela Replica Whispers in the Library or Jo Malone Myrrh & Tonka Cologne, warming, woodsy perfumes have undoubtedly become my signature scents. So when summer rolls around and the new perfume launches become lighter, fresher and undeniably citrusy, I tend to give them a quick sniff and pass them on to a home where they will be much more loved than mine. Why? Well, over the years, I hav...

Discovering your signature scent can be a long and arduous path, but it’s one which all beauty aficionados know is worth traversing. Fragrance has the power to unlock memories and define moments, so it certainly pays to find one that you love to wear. Still, the process can be off-putting, to say the least. Seldom can you truly understand how a perfume is going to smell on your skin without having worn it for a prolonged period of time. This is why I always advise getting your hands on a tester if at all possible. It’ll allow you to try it at your leisure and in your everyday life, as opposed to a quick spritz on your arm in a store. However, I acknowledge that obtaining these testers isn’t always easy, especially if you don’t live near a stockist whi...

My perfume collection is extensive. As a beauty journalist, I receive a lot of perfume. As long as any given scent doesn’t make me turn my nose up at first sniff, I’ll usually add it to my shelf. The reason for this being that my job is to try as many products as possible and get a feel for them, even if they’re not to my usual tastes. But when it comes to perfume, this can be tricky business. In order to give each fragrance in my lineup a proper go, I try to mix things up every single day. While one day I might try a head-turning oud, the next I might opt for a light musk or spring-like floral. Not just because variety is, of course, the spice of life, but also because I have found that it is the best way to take others by surprise and gauge reactions. And so, after ma...

Within the span of a few years, everybody who was anybody had a bottle of Santal 33 on their shelf, and you could barely walk down the street without smelling it on at least one cool fashion girl. Fast-forward to now, and the Santal 33 obsession isn’t slowing down. In fact, as a beauty editor, I’m still getting people message me about it almost weekly. More recently, however, the angle of the questions that I’m receiving has changed. Whereas once upon a time people wanted to know everything about it, now people are asking me what sort of perfumes they can wear instead. It seems that, for some, its popularity has all been a little too much. And I totally get it. No one wants to smell like every other person they meet. In fact, I think I’d run out of hands if I were to count on my finge...

There’s a lot of power in a signature scent—it’s another form of personal identity that allows the wearer to be sensed without even speaking. Consider it the beauty counterpart to personal style. And just like my own sartorial approach, I’ve taken care to find a scent that really resonates with me.  As most of you already know, fragrance is a highly personal thing. I would be okay with smelling like Atelier Cologne’s Vanille Insensée for the rest of my life. On the other hand, my mother tends to run across the room anytime she’s within walking distance of it. Each person has their own idiosyncratic preferences that add an extra layer of complexity to the business of fragrance. It’s partly why it’s taken me so long to f...

While there’s something lovely about having a signature scent that you wear year-round, I prefer to think of fragrance in the same way that I would my wardrobe. Sure, I have some staple perfumes that I come back to time and time again—my fragrance basics, if you will—but I like to layer in new scents in the same way that you might try a trending style of shorts or a new dress silhouette when the seasons change. And there’s one season in particular when this concept really comes into its own: summer. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give us...

I need to live my perfume truth and get something off of my chest: I hate smelling like other people. Believe me, I know how ridiculous that sounds. First of all, when someone asks me what fragrance I’m wearing, I am of course undeniably flattered, but that feeling soon evolves into sheer annoyance. With every ask after my perfume, the less of a secret it becomes. And the more popular a perfume gets, the less I want to wear it.  You see, for me, perfume is so much more than just a daily spritz to lift my spirits; it is memories, emotion and a core part of my identity. So when I smell someone else wearing the same perfume as mine or see someone frivolously dousing themselves in one of my go-to scents, I feel as though I’m losing a little part of myself. It might sou...

No one asked, but here’s a fun fact about me: I’m low-key fragrance-obsessed. Spritzing scents has been a steadfast component of my beauty routine since then-iconic body sprays from Victoria’s Secret (two words: Love Spell) entered my world in the early 2000s. My goal back then? To smell as cool as Britney, Christina, and the members of Destiny’s Child. My taste has changed a lot over the last couple of decades, but to this day, I’m still dedicated to cloaking myself in any of the dozens of perfumes in my collection. My fragrance end game now? To smell rich. And I’m talking Oprah-level rich. Let me explain. As a deeply imaginative person who regularly visualises future versions of myself, I often use moments of stillness to ...

I have shelves and shelves full of perfumes that I just can’t let go of. From ouds and musks to citruses and florals, I own a perfume for every occasion. And while I spent the best part of the past year trying to make my strong scents work in my new way of living, it was always niggling away in the back of my brain that there were a bunch of wildly unloved, but beautiful, perfumes collecting dust in my cabinets. And so, a few weeks ago, I finally accepted that my beloved woody scents had served their purpose, and it was time for the lighter, floral perfumes to take centre stage.  But that’s not to say I have totally changed my tune. Sure, I’m ready to embrace the uplifting, lightweight freshness of florals, but my perfumes of choice still need to possess a certain je ne sais quoi. The...

If, this time last year, you’d have asked me to sum up my taste in perfume in three words, I probably would have said something along the lines of: Woody, musky and unisex. I have always liked my scents to enter a room before I do. I lean towards those heavy notes that linger on clothes until the next morning. And while these preferences might not be to everyone’s tastes, I quite like it when my perfumes divide a room. As long as some people found my fragrance distasteful, at least I knew I wasn’t smelling the same as everyone else in the room, who were no doubt doused in the latest, totally inoffensive, crowd-pleasing floral. But then the pandemic hit, and I had no longer had anyone to fluff up my fragrance feathers in front of. Instead, I was confined to the same four walls with not...