Find your Signature Scent: a Simple Guide to Shopping for Perfumes

Shopping for a signature scent? There’s a huge (and sometimes overwhelming) selection of perfumes in Singapore. This guide can help you sniff out your top picks and find a scent that captures your personality and preferences.

Find your core notes 

Any perfume review will talk about its notes: top notes (the first you smell), middle notes (which emerge after 10 to 15 minutes), and the end notes that linger on your skin hours after you sprayed.

Before you dive into any review, figure out what your “core notes” or favourite scents are. What perfumes do you already use? List down their notes. If you don’t have any perfume preferences yet, think about the other distinctive smells you enjoy in your routine. Do you like the earthy, fresh scent after it rains? Your coconut body wash? The scent in a particular spa?

Pick a fragrance family

Still haven’t found your favourite notes? You can take a broader approach and work by fragrance family. There are four main kinds of scents:

Gourmand

Mood:  Warm, rich, and —  depending on the blend — can either feel decadent or very comforting.  Modern gourmand scents are more sophisticated than the strawberry cologne you used when you were a kid. Look at Thierry Mugler’s Angel, which was a game-changer. Its vanilla-laced patchouli proved  how sexy and mysterious gourmand notes could be, if properly orchestrated with other scents.  

Studies also show that men are drawn to vanilla and other gourmand scents. Dr. Alan Hirsch, a scientist from the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, discovered that a pumpkin pie and lavender combination increased penile blood flow by 40%. Apparently, men do think that sugar and spice make everything nice!

Examples: vanilla, tonka bean, coffee, honey, caramel, candy, licorice, pumpkin spice  

Fresh

Mood: Clean, zesty. Most sporty fragrances have fresh notes, as well as any perfume that markets itself as “refreshing and light.” There are also perfumes that capture the smell of newly washed laundry, summer lawns, baby powder, soap. The fragrance brand Clean has built an entire reputation around these kinds of scents.  

Examples:  herbs, citrus, green tea, tea leaves, freshly cut grass, marine plants

Oriental / Spicy Oriental

Mood: Deep, spicy, strong, sultry. Many of the spices hail from the Middle East, and bring connotations of exotic places and adventure. Some of the iconic fragrances like YSL’s Opium,  Shalimar by Guerlain and Obsession by Calvin Klein fall in this fragrance family. For a while the rich scent fell out of fashion because it smelled like your mother, but the new modern orientals are bringing sexy back. Think: Tom Ford’s Shanghai Lily and Kilian’s Back to Black.

Examples:  cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, mace, nutmeg, clove

Woody

Mood: Earthy (similar to forests, damp grass, leaves). Before, woody notes were more associated with men’s fragrances. But their deep, smoky notes can smell really sexy (like Estee Lauder’s Sensuous) or add depth to a floral or fresh scent.

When mossy scents are mixed with citrus, it creates another fragrance category: chypre. It was named after the perfume Chypre, created by Francois Coty in 1917. Its game-changing blend of earthy and fresh notes inspired other fragrances and a whole new approach to perfume.

 Another wood scent demands a special shout out: ouds. Its oils are extracted from the Agar tree. It’s rich, intoxicating, and one of the most expensive perfume ingredients in the world. (One pound can cost US5,000.)

Examples: sandalwood, vetiver, moss, bark, pine cones, tree resin tears, cedarwood, patchouli, tobacco   

Floral

Mood: Feminine, romantic. One of the broadest and most popular fragrance categories, since different flowers (and the way their scents are processed) can give very distinct and unique scents. For example, ylang ylang and rose absolute are very deep and opulent, while lavender and orange blossom smell delicate and fresh.

Some perfumes are single floral or soliflore: they play on just one particular flower scent. Others are floral bouquets that blend several floral notes into one unique and harmonious note.

Examples: rose, lilac, magnolia, cherry blossom, orange blossom, jasmine, violets, ylang-ylang

Educate your nose

When you’ve found your favourite notes or perfume categories, go to a perfume counter and ask for some scents that fall under it. Then start sniffing. Paying attention to how a scent can change when it’s mixed with other notes. A floral can smell very sexy if it has oriental notes, or feel very crisp and clean when it’s got earthy or fresh notes. List down which fragrance combos you like the most, or “speak” to your personality.

“Aaah, this is too sweet for me. I don’t think I like vanilla or other candy notes, unless it’s cut by a fresh scent.” “Oh, this perfume is great but it’s too heavy to wear every day. I’ll write down its notes and find something similar.” You may not find your signature scent yet, but at least you have an idea of what you like.

Forage the perfume forums

Once you’ve identified your favourite notes, or made a shortlist of scents that have caught your attention, go to perfume forums like Fragrantica or Basenotes. You can search the site to find scents that include those notes, or read the recommendations of perfume collectors. It’s also the best place to discover niche fragrances, so you can find a rare and unique signature scent that will keep everyone guessing.

Build a scent wardrobe

It’s good to have one signature scent that you use all the time, but Linda G. Levy — president of The Fragrance Foundation – suggests investing in at least 3 or 4 scents to suit different occasions. Crisp and modern scents may be best for office, and muskier and sensual scents for date nights. You may also want to have different scents for different moods or even outfits.  

Levy says that scents are powerful, wonderful ways to reflect your personality and create your personal image. “They work on a subconscious level, affecting mood and perception simply because of the way it can draw up feelings and memories in just a few seconds. Learning about fragrances, and finding your signature scents, is part of discovering the woman you are.”