“More than 300 perfumes are released each month,” says scents wizard Pierre-Constantin Guéros. How does he know? “I try to smell each one.” As one of a trio of Tribeca-based noses for Drom, a multinational to-the-trade fragrance house, Guéros and fellow French natives Valérie Garnuch-Mentzel and Delphine Jelk keep tabs on their competition.
— From Smelling Points, an article in Time Out New York about how to pick a signature scent. Thanks to Jessica for the link!
Wait: 300 perfumes a month, that's 10 perfume tests a day!! Isn't this a bit much? Just saying…..
It just can't be true!
I'm not saying that the article was overly fascinating, but interesting that they actually annul half of my “wisdom” about perfume! Don't rub it in (destroys long molecule chains), scents smell different on different people, apply it on warm spots like pulse, smell at coffee beans if you can't smell anymore… all this they say are myths. Never again will I throw my look of contempt at people who – after applying some J'Lo – rub their pulse as if to light a fire.
I never believed a word of the “crushing the molecules” statement. However, rubbing can make the top notes evaporate faster. In case you care. I don't.
Also never subscribed to the “pulse points” — I wear most fragrance on my outer arms or the tops of my hands.
But — scents do smell different on different people. If you take 5 friends to the store and all spray on the same tester, you will notice a difference. I've done this. But it isn't as huge as you might imagine, and I don't think it has a huge effect on what we like. In other words, people are always talking about “personal chemistry”, I think it is mostly just personal taste.
“In other words, people are always talking about “personal chemistry”, I think it is mostly just personal taste.”
AMEN!!!
Well, it's a bit embarrassing, but I actually do care
I am so fussy and sometimes for me the (consciously) imagined reality is as real as the real reality. And I like to apply to the pulse because it's easy to get it under my nose and it's also somehow an intimate spot, an “inner” part of my body. I feel the scents is orientated towards myself instead of outwards.
OK, I learned to ignore advice by perfume salespersons. I still do believe that scents seem different on different people, if not because they change then simply because they overlay with someone's own body scent. I know for sure that scents that cause me nausea (e.g. Davidoff Cool Water) I can like when I smell them on friends.
I hope I don't annoy you with thoughts you've long thought before…
Interesting to read that drugstore chains occasionally invest more into the development of a perfume than fragrance brands…
Gosh, no need to be embarrassed — we all care about different things, no? Sorry if I sounded flippant. I do think rubbing makes a difference in that sense — if you want to preserve the top notes and smell what the perfumer intended, best not to rub perhaps. But I am so contrary that if an SA told me not to rub, I'd rub all the more
I find the back of my hand easier to sniff — don't have to twist my arm to get to the inside wrist (wow, am I lazy or what??) and I also do much of my testing while typing, so the fragrance seems to waft upwards while I'm at the computer.
My own experience, coupled with what I have read here and elsewhere, leads me to believe that personal chemistry has a real effect on how a scent behaves when worn. As en example, I had an exchange with Angela earlier this year about some Estee Lauder scents which she (and others) found worked well for her, but on me smell quite bad. I have also noticed (and apologies to any men reading this) that at certain times of the month, perfumes take on a different character on me. I'd be curious to see if anyone else has observed this. I realize that all this is anecdotal, but I think it rests on reason. The geek in me wants to see some clinical trials, though.
And thanks for the idea of scenting the backs of the hands – brilliant. I sit in a cubicle all day typing, plus I wear a lot of turtlenecks in cold weather, so there aren't that many places to spray that remain exposed!
Don't apologize…! I find it perfectly logical that, if hormone content, acidity or whatever changes in the skin, a scent reacts to this… well, I'm not chemist.
Oh, yes, actually, seen from a practicality perspective, the pulse in not the easiest part to bring to your nose, especially when you're wearing glasses. I'm also typing most of the time… so yes, I'll try that, too. It's just this psychological factor of wanting to somehow hide it a little from my colleagues sitting in the same room. I know that I'm a bit paranoid…
What if you spray it into your hair? Then it shouldn't change in “those certain months”. Again the question, does it develop differently on hair (=dead material) compared to on skin? Now this is getting a bit too hair-splitting…
Spraying scent into one's hair sounds decadent in a very nice way (image of someone with long, luxurious hair tossing it around and making everyone swoon from the fragrance he/she sprayed into it), and you're right, hair, being dead, should be immune to any bodily changes, at least in the short term. Again, clinical trials are needed here! Any volunteers?
Of course, spraying into one's hair would defeat the purpose of being secretive with your fragrances, which I can understand. I think it is Tom on Perfume-Smellin' Things who uses the great phrase “olfactory freak flag”, which some days I feel like flying, and some days I just want to slide under the radar.
Haha! I just imagine a man with “long, luxurious hair tossing it around”, probably wearing something like Opium – that could only be a symphonic orchestra conductor.
My mother sometimes wears scents on her hair because of her severe skin problems; it's a good option if you're allergic to something. The hair doesn't have to be long & luxurious
Existentialist, I'm not saying chemistry doesn't contribute. I just personally think it contributes less than taste. I mean, Angela might just like those aromas more than you do. But yes, we need clinical trials, no doubt!
The other bonus about the back of the hands: if it turns out you hate it, at least it isn't on your clothing.
And of course you are right that taste is a very important factor. Perhaps the more interesting one, as well, since it has a psychological component, while skin chemistry does not.
*I have also noticed (and apologies to any men reading this) that at certain times of the month, perfumes take on a different character on me. I'd be curious to see if anyone else has observed this. I realize that all this is anecdotal, but I think it rests on reason.*
Existentialist, I think there may be an excellent reason that your fragrance seems to smell different on you at different times of the month. For me, at least, it's not that I smell different, i.e., that a given fragrance actually smells different on me, but that I detect scents differently, if you follow. I'm hormonal and moody and that changing my sensitivities and therefore my perceptions — just the way that when I'm not PMSing I'm pretty live-and-let-live, but at That Time of the Month I can FREAK at missing my bus AND curse all bus drivers. You know?!
It seems likely to me that “skin chemistry” could make a noticeable difference in the way scents wear on different people. Your diet (vegetarian, heavy meat-eater, heavy garlic-eater, and such) can have a dramatic impact on your natural body odour, and that, coupled with the oiliness/dryness of your skin and possibly even the melanin content, will certainly change how fragrances smell on you compared to how they smell on people with a different set of factors.
I'm sure a lot of it is personal taste, too, but I expect most of us have had that experience: something smells REALLY different on someone else than it does on us.
I have always thought that the idea of “bruising” a scent by rubbing it was silly, though. The scent has been manufacted, decanted into bottles, transported over very long distances, and then sloshed around every time you pick up the bottle: you can't possibly damage it by rubbing skin against skin. As Robin says, you'll heat it up and drive off the volatile top notes more quickly, but that's it.
Count me in as a back-of-the-hand enthusiast. It's how I've always worn scent. You bring you hands up to your face all the time, and there's a lot of surface area with blood vessels right under the skin–perfect for disseminating potent scents or providing you with a furtive whiff of subtle ones. Although I must disagree with something Robin said; wearing fragrance that way that does in fact get it on your clothing. Last year I had a winter jacket with close-fitting knit cuffs, and they smelled like Ambre Precieux for weeks after I put it on one day. It was glorious.
The personal chemistry thing, I find, is like religion: people believe it or they don't, and so it isn't something that it makes sense to argue about. In fact, vaguely remember reading an argument on another blog on this subject, maybe not so recently. Will have to see if I can remember where it was…
Those “scents wizards” actually indirectly admit people's skin DOES make a difference: “That’s a bit of a myth—you’d have to have a trained nose to be able to distinguish how a scent smells differently on two people.”
Maybe they just underestimate the capabilities of untrained noses? We might not be able to explain the changes properly but we might be able to detect them.
Just seems to me that I always recognize scents — when I DO recognize them — no matter who's wearing them. Perhaps there are subtle differences between my wrist (or back of the hand! My fave place) and yours, but to my nose, Mitsouko smells like Mitsouko smells like Mitsouko, a garlic-laced evening, hormones or genetics notwithstanding. . .I like Robin's comment about the debate being a you-believe-it-or-you-don't kind of thing. I guess I'm an *atheist*!!
I do follow, and that does make sense. Obviously our clinical trials will have to take that into account!
Oh, I agree it makes a difference, and don't think it always takes a trained nose to tell. I just don't think it is a big difference. In other words, when someone says “X smells awesome on me” and someone else says “X smells like plastic on me”, I don't think that is automatically an issue of skin chemistry.
I think somebody coined a new term (not atheist or agnostic) for you just don't think the question matters. Can't remember the term, of course!
Oh yes of course, I totally agree… I meant – e.g. – if I try Davidoff CW it makes me want to through up (really does cause me physical nausea) while I knew someone on whom it smelled quite sexy. I think it must be someone's body odour “supplementing” a fragrance. It was maybe a very light “shade” of difference resulting in a completely different effect of the scent for me. So I'm NOT speaking about the different judgements by 2 people about a scent on their own skin, but the perception of 1 person about a scent on 2 skins…
How about “apathist”?
That's it, thanks!! That is my position on almost everything
LOL!
Or, as the kids say: “Like, Mum, whatEVER”. . .
And/or, this analogy, perhaps? I adore a fake-fur leopard print shorty jacket, plaid mini, ripped fishnets and Doc Martens and turquoise eyeshadow on my beloved, beautiful, tall and rake-thin niece, but not on me, except maybe to an early Eighties costume party. . .?