If you enjoy perfumes or are interested in finding your signature scent, then you should definitely read Perfumes by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez! Not only was this book incredibly informative, it was a thoroughly entertaining read! I learned so much about perfume that I wished I had this book when I had first decided to pick out my first perfume back in high school. Here are some things that I learned as well as some of my favorite quotes:
#. Perfume will change if you expose it to air and light. As long as we protect them from light, most perfumes won’t expire! This is awesome news because perfumes can get pretty pricey. I still have perfumes that I bought 5 years ago that I haven’t even hit the halfway mark. Not because I haven’t been using them, but because a bottle of perfume can last a long time. So it’s good to know that my perfumes won’t expire anytime soon.
#. We haven’t learned the vocabulary of perfume. This explains why we find it so difficult to describe perfumes. I also found it really difficult to imagine a scent based on the descriptions. It probably goes hand in hand with smelling a lot of different fragrances until you start making connections. Still, I think picking up some of the basics like floral, citrus, fruity, spicy, and woody goes a long way when you start exploring different fragrances or decide to take a trip to the counter!
#. The question that women casually shopping for perfume ask more than any other is this: “What scent drives men wild?” After years of intense research, we know the definitive answer. It is bacon (p. 7).
#. When choosing a perfume you should test 5~10 fragrances on perfume strips then test 1~2 on your skin. Then observe it over time and remember that fragrances tend to change drastically after the first twenty minutes, except for a few clever, sneaky compositions that smell nearly the same from top to bottom. Then there are a very few fragrances, mostly the older ones, that save the best for later, a few hours in, when they drop their earthly raiment to reveal angelic finery (p. 14).
Your turn ♥ How did you choose your first fragrance?
