The problem with perfume

I don't know if it is just me and the medication I am on, but I have real issues with perfumes. Many of the big name perfumes either bring me up in a  rash or smell like the cat has sprayed me.

So today I thought I would explore this struggle. I personally don't have one particular favourite scent, but instead swap about., I use anything from the Thierry Mulger Angel for important events down to Britney Spears Midnight Fantasy and Avon's Secret Fantasy range. If a person is defined by their choice of fragrance I would have to say I am confused

I was first introduced to perfume when I found an old bottle of 4711 which was my grandmothers. because it had kept in dark cool place it was as fresh as the day she had received it. I loved it and still do, mainly because it a refreshing cologne rather than a heavy perfume, Even now I am prone to keeping a bottle of it in my dresser and a cologne stick. It is that always reliable and will be that fail safe when nothing else works. I then found L'amainte by Coty, via my mother. I used that a lot through my teens and early 20s, but as I have got older I feel out of love with it. I can't really say why, but the older and iller I got the less the perfume seemed to work for me.

As I turned 30 my life took many changes, one being being my flat mate of the time. He was man with taste, and although there was nothing more than a sibling like friendship between us, it was he who introduced me to a different world of perfumes. He was honest in his feed back on everything from DIY to fashion and on one of our many shopping trips where mum was dragged along, he got me to try a handful or rather arm full of perfumes. It was then I instantly fell in love with Angel by Thierry Mugler. It is not a cheap perfume but I fell for it in a big way and still love it now. The scent is heavy with vanilla and honey, yet not overwhelming and it just suited me. The design is unique as well and that caught my eye like a magpie. It isn't overtly girly, but it is ladylike and grown up.Ten years later I am still fond of this and it regularly appears on my Christmas list.. The only thing that  prevents me using it 24/7 is purely the high price of it.

So then we head to the complex world of day to day perfume. I dislike the heavy heady scents of the 80's I grew up with, even now if some one mentions the world Poison I retract off in a big way. I prefer something lighter yet individual., and here cam the world of trouble. Ever since the perfume stores stopped sampling on your arm and instead on a piece of card, I have ended up with bottles that smell gorgeous on my piece of card but on my skin suddenly smell like cat pee. It has taken a good five years to find some lighter scents that agree with me.

Now despite what you may think I am not a big fan of celebrity marketing in the world of fragrances and comesmetics. Just bevcause it has a name on it of the latest wannabe or pop idol doesn't draw me to it. In fact the only reason I have a Britney Spears and a Sugarbabes perfume in my collection is because I liked how they smelt on a work colleague and ask to try them, then and only then did I find out I was about to buy into the market of pop perfume. Fortunatly my horror has been balances out with one Avon range of perfume, so I don't have to rely on just the one market.


I feel the problem with the market as whole is therre is too much choice, it is almost a case of quantiy over quality. A lot of these new perfumes have a clinical hospital smell in the bottle, and when you do find one you like it get discontinued faster than you can buy a spare bottle. Perfume is an incrediably sensative product as it relies on the chemical reaction between skin and fragrance and no perfume will smell the same on two different people. It is because of this I think, people tend to follow a family fondness for scents, as the dna reaction between fragrance and skin is likely to be similar.

In the mean time I am still in hunt for a scent that is like my beloved Angel for the day time. Something purse friendly, that has a hint of vanilla and yet light enough not to dominate. I don't care what the bottle looks like or who makes it, I just hope that the smell in the bottle is the same on my skin. Whilst I seek that out I am finding a use for the 10s of failed choices.. rather expensive air freshners!