How to Find Your Signature Scent

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Perfume is definitely one of my favourite beauty items to own, and something that I love to both receive as gifts or splurge on myself if I'm feeling spendy and fancy a treat. Sweet, fruity and light floral combos are pretty fail safe for me and tend to be the fragrances I like the most- although I can often surprise myself and become completely addicted to perfumes that are way different to that. If like me you're a bit of a perfume hoarder, your most used scents will probably change seasonally or even daily; however a signature scent is something that stands the test of time and that you'll always feel good in regardless of the season or occasion. Something that's so classically 'you' that it's instantly recognisable to family and friends, and something that you always gravitate back to. If you're yet to find your signature scent, here are a few ways to go about it!

Discover what you generally like and dislike
Do you like sweet scents or find them sickly? Go crazy for vanilla or find it too artifical smelling? Love rose or find it to be too old fashioned? While there will always be exceptions to the rule (and as I mentioned I've fallen love with loads of scents I never expected to like) working out what you do and don't like right from the beginning will make your search a lot easier. I know for example that  I don't tend to like heavy florals, musk or anything containing civet or animalistic notes, and so know it's probably best to avoid these. This whittles down the search slightly when I'm looking into buying a new perfume.

Get to know what different notes smell like
This is particularly helpful when searching online. While you should always try out a perfume before you buy, when you're searching for scents that you'd like to try out it's helpful to know what some of the main notes smell like. For example, amber smells sweet and similar to vanilla. Bergamot smells like orangey citrus. It will at least give you an idea of whether or not a you're likely to get on with a perfume and give you ideas of what to include on your 'to try' list. I wrote a post explaining what ten common perfume notes smell like here.

Use Fragrantica.com
This is the perfume site of all perfume sites. Once I've found a scent I think I'll like, I always search it on here. Not only can you search thousands of different scents to find out the notes they contain, but you can also find out other people's opinions of them and read mini reviews. This site really helps you to understand what scents smell like in simple terms, and for each scent they summarise what it smells most like according to people's votes. So for example, Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream is described as 'fruity, sweet, fresh, tropical and floral' in that order. Which I think gives it much easier to visualise the scent than simply looking at the notes alone.

Utilise samples
If you've found a scent you think you'll love, see if you're able to get a sample to try first before buying. This means you can test the longevity and how the different notes smell over time, rather than simply testing at a perfume counter and buying based on the opening scent (as this will change as the perfume develops). Perfume samples are usually readily available online, they're almost always included in things like beauty boxes too so if you're friends with a long term subscriber of one you could always ask if they have any they're not going to use. Once you have your samples work your way through them, and from there see which ones you gravitate towards the most. When you have a few that you love you can also look for similar perfumes too. Over time you'll find the one that's the most 'you'.

What's your signature scent?