What do you want to say?

To wear a fragrance is to make a statement. It says something about you and how you feel. Some fragrances are light, bouncy and energetic (think citrus and floral), perhaps best suited for daytime. Others are deep, mysterious, exotic, sensual (think woody, oriental, musk), the dark evocation of night-time romance. You should wear a fragrance that corresponds to how you feel, and how you want to project yourself. For that reason, everyone should keep several favourites to choose from, to suit their changing moods.

What's that you're wearing?

Everyone has their own taste in perfume: it's your task to find out what suits you best. If someone you know is wearing a fragrance that you really like, ask them what it is. Remember, though, that fragrances do not always smell the same when worn by different people: every individual's body chemistry is unique, and reacts differently to perfume. That is why you should test perfume before you buy it.

Take time to test perfume

When you try out a perfume, you need to give it time. For this reason, airport shops may be the best place to buy perfume, not just because of price: you may well have plenty of time on your hands between check-in and boarding. You need time because perfume changes with exposure to the air and the skin. On immediate application, you will smell the 'top notes', sharper, immediate scents that vanish as the alcohol in the perfume evaporates. If you wait 10 to 20 minutes, the more mellow and lasting 'middle notes' appear. These give a better indication of how the perfume will be like to wear, and how well it suits you. (For more about top notes, middle notes etc, see the separate article on Analysing Perfume.)

How to test perfume

Never try to test more than three (four at the limit) perfumes at a time. Otherwise your nose will only get confused. What you are doing here is seeing how the perfume will react with your skin. The places to try are on the wrist (just above the palm), and on the inner elbow  one perfume sample on each of these positions, of course. See if you like the perfume when first applied, then leave it for 1020 minutes, if you can, and see if you still like it then. Some people test perfume on the base of their palms, then rub their palms together, but this bruises the perfume and distorts the interaction with the skin. If you are in hurry, apply a perfume to the wrist, then gently place the fingers of the other hand over it for a minute or so, to accelerate the warming effect of skin.

How to wear perfume

The usual places to apply perfume are the 'pulse points', on the wrists, the inner elbows, the sides of the lower neck, and behind the ears. But there are no rules. You can apply it to hair, to clothes, or even spray the air and walk through the mist. But remember: with perfume, you can very easily have too much of a good thing. Others are more likely to be offended by an excess of perfume than none at all.