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Perfume Tip

The legendary designer Coco Chanel was once asked where a woman should wear perfume. It's an age-old question. Traditionalists like to say that perfume should be worn at pulse points, typically behind the ear and at the base of the throat. The pulse point theory led others to point out that there are also prominent pulse points near the ankles and behind the knees. I've heard people endorse dabbing perfume behind the knees, but never on the ankles.

Others maintained that the best use of perfume was in the hair. Opinions on this vary considerably. Some say that perfume in the hair lasts a very long time and is very appealing. Others say the scent dies down quickly. This is apparently a matter of some controversy, so you should formulate your own opinion.

If you wear perfume or eau de parfum, bear in mind that it's strong stuff. You only need to use a little. With lighter scents, you can be a bit more liberal and be aware you'll have to touch up.

Around the 18th century, French aristocrats wore perfumed gloves. Although I'm neither French nor blue-blooded, I find some perfume on the back of the hand or the wrist is quite deligthful because it gives you a chance to do a little on-the-go aromatherapy.

Perfumistas today have the option of using different types of fragrance products. Perfumed soap has been around for centuries, but perfume is now available in shower gels, lotions, and creams.

These body products provide two great advantges. It allows you to apply fragrance all over and since the lotions and creams are usually in an emollient base, they have remarkable staying power although they are quite light. (Perfume lasts longer on oily or well-moisturized skin.)

Shower gel is a body cleansing product that allows you to apply the fragrance all over. Although perfumed bath products exist, today's culture makes the shower gel far more popular.

Body lotions (sometimes called body butters, souffles, and other appealing names) give you a moisturizer plus scent.

Layering fragrance can help give you both depth and longevity to your fragrance. By layering a scent, you apply it in shower gel (or perfumed soap or bath oil) form, then in lotion or body oil form, and finally as a perfume or spray.

Many bath companies offer a wide variety of such products, including alcohol-based sprays. These are very low on the fragrance totem pole in the sense that you don't get much scent. Nevertheless, these products are cheap, fun, and some of them are very appealing particularly to the younger set.

But even perfumes and eau de parfums available today favor the spray form. It's not only convenient, it's probably the most economical way to apply scent.

With spray bottles so popular today, you can spritz all over. But is that the best use of perfume?

So, Ms. Chanel, just where exactly should a woman wear perfume?

Coco Chanel, never at a loss for words, replied simply, "Wherever she would like to be kissed."

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A Fast History of Perfume
Perfume has always been around; we know from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics to Biblical texts that perfume has been a key part of life throughout recorded history. The first perfume was actually incense that women "caught" on their skin by standing over a smoking ember. Later, plants and other natural substances were used to create scents. These first perfumes were so exorbitantly expensive that only royalty could afford them. Marie Antoinette was known to wear a very floral scent. In fact, in her day perfume was believed to have medicinal powers and genteel folks bought perfumed gloves to protect them from the olfactory assaults of life as well as for reputed healing properties. The rise of the middle class made perfume more affordable and the city of Cologne, Germany introduced a very light citrus fragrance (the original cologne) to get fragrance to the masses. Perfume was never out of favor but it came into its own in the 1920s when a brash young French designer commissioned a Russian expatriate to create an "artificial" fragrance. Chanel No. 5 was born using adelhyde, the first but certainly not the last perfume to use synthetic ingredients. Most perfume today is created in "layers" so that there are top frgrances (called notes), middle notes, and base notes. In the 1990s, the first monolithic fragrance was created without this sort of timed-release pattern: It was Tresor by Lancome. In 2007, fragrances are available for more diverse wearers (including gender-vague scents and scents for teens and babies) and have introduced to the world of perfumery lighter, food-oriented notes (fruits, sugar, edible herbs). The two main centers of the perfume universe are New York City (and Union Beach, New Jersey, home of International Flavors and Fragrances) and Paris, France (and nearby Grasse, France, as well).

Fragrance Families

Perfumists have a way of discussing scents among each other that is actually pretty serviceable, but you have to know your basic fragrance groups. Keep in mind that the boundaries between groups can get a little blurry.

Citrus (lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, bergamot)
Green (natural, plant-like)
Flowery or floral (rose, peony, iris, lily of the valley, and so on, often in combination)
Adhehyde (an artificial fragrance molecule, often combined with florals, that is usually described as "sparkling")
Oriental (spices like cinnamon, cardamom, clove, plus vanilla, certain warm woody smells, and even chocolate)
Chypre (from the French word for cypress, this fragrance group involves mosses, woods, cypress, and certain flowers, and may also include leathery scents)

Other types of fragrance groups that you'll hear about include fruits (apples, pears), leathers, woods and musk.

Since fragrance involves a complex symphony of notes, most descriptions of fragrance feature combination terms, such as a fruity floral or a soft oriental (oriental with musk).

Smell of Science

Of all the senses, science knows the least about how we smell. In fact, even today, in 2007, medical science is at a loss to understand how an odorant (a molecule that carries an odor) produces the sensual experience we call fragrance. The prevailing theory is that odorants have a specific shape. When they hit the smell cells in the nose, the odorant can connect with a smell receptor providing it is the right shape. When the right odorant hits the right smell cell, it fits like a key in a lock, and it transmits the signal to the brain.

A lot of scientists like this theory (which is called conformance) because conforming shapes (the key in the lock deal) is how a lot of body messages get transmitted. The only problem is that science knows we have about 300 different shapes of smell receptors, yet the human nose can discern around 10,000 different odors.

Another theory has emerged recently (and been challenged in the scientific community) that vibrations are responsible for odors. In this theory, odorants still hit the smell cells but it's the vibration of the odorant that stimulates the smell cell to release a chemical to tell the brain that a certain odor is being picked up. So far, this theory is unproven. Its biggest drawback is the fact that odorants with very, very similar vibrations can smell radically different. Rotten eggs and vodka produce odorants that should smell the same.

While most of mainstream science favors the conformance theory, vibration is gaining ground and has some passionate advocates.

Types of Fragrance

There are lots of ways to buy liquid scent. Here is a fast rundown for beginners:

Perfume (or parfum) is the strongest and most expensive because it contains the most scent in relation to the stuff the scent is in (vehicle, the base substance)
Eau de parfum is next strongest and is a very popular product in the U.S.
Eau de toilette (unfortunately, also called toilet water) is next in the line.
Cologne is the weakest form of scent.

Pure scent is virtually unwearable because it's just flat out too strong and can be irritating to some. The stronger the scent the less you use, the longer it lasts, and the more it costs.

Note that there is no fixed percentage of scent to vehicle that defines perfume, but rather it tends to be a range. The result is that what one company calls "perfume" another company mght label as "eau de parfum." In the industry, Estee Lauder is noted to be a "strong" perfume (that is, her scents tend to have a lot more scent). This does not mean that her products are better or worse, just stronger. It's sort of like buying clothes: the dress one company labels as size 6 might be size 4 in another line or 8 in yet another.

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How to Try Perfume

If you're at the fragrance counter, here is the best way to get the most reasonable assessment of a new scent.

Start with a clear nose. If you just smelled another scent or drank some orange juice or were otherwise stimulated in an olfactory way, you need to cleanse. The best way is to sniff at a sachet made of coffee beans, which the nice lady at the perfume counter may be able to provide you with. If not, consider shopping elsewhere or making your own.

If possible, smell the scent in the bottle. (This is not very easy with those spritzer bottles.) Now this is not really what the perfume smells like. Most likely, you're getting a big whiff of the "top notes." Top notes tend to fade quickly. Their scent-span is measured in minutes. But they still are the way the perfume will greet you.

Some perfume counters will spray a piece of paper or ribbon and give that to you. This isn't a bad idea, particularly if you are shopping "wide" and want to try a lot. If possible, jot down the name of the scent on the paper. It all starts to get jumbled quickly if you don't.

Smell several scents, as many as you can manage (but not more than a dozen) and narrow it down to no more than two that you like.

Next, put some perfume on your skin. How the perfume smells on you is not necessarily the same way it smells in the bottle. The same perfume can work differently on two different people. So you absolutely need a skin test.

Most reasonable people do not test more than two scents on the skin at one time. (Perfumistas are not always reasonable.)

Spray or dab the perfume on your skin. Wait a moment or two and smell. You're still getting top notes but now it's top notes plus you.

This is the hard part. It will take a few minutes for the middle notes to emerge. You really can't judge a perfume until a few minutes have passed. If you can manage, go and do some other shopping and come back for another sniff.

These middle or heart notes are going to be what you're going to be wearing for an hour or two.Do you like them? They may be similar to the top notes and they ought to be compatible, but don't expect them to the be same. (Some monolithic scents don't change, but most fragrances will.)

A few hours later, smell again. These are the base notes. They are the warm undertones that finally emerge at the end. Base notes are often considerably different than top and heart notes.

If you do your due diligence you will probably find some great perfumes.

But what about perfumistas who shop blind (or rather without smelling the product first)? As crazy as this sounds, many perfume lovers do this periodically.

They may rely on the description of the scent, word of mouth, or a general feeling about a line. The results? Mixed! You can't always pick a winner with that method.