Amarige Mariage
How to Choose a New Perfume
There are so many lovely designer fragrances available, it can be overwhelming.
Follow these fun and easy guidelines to help find your next favorite perfume.
- First, take your time and do lots of testing. When you first apply perfume, it may smell differently than it will later. Check to see if you still love that scent after you get home from the mall.
- Remember that a perfume interacts with your body chemistry. Everyone's body is different, so that interaction will also be different. A perfume that smells wonderful on a friend may not smell the same when you wear it.
- The scent of perfume on a slip of paper or in the bottle is not necessarily how it will smell on you (body chemistry again!). Wearing it is the true test of a fragrance.
- Don't get too carried away and try lots of options when testing fragrances. Your sense of smell can be confused by too many different perfumes on the heels of each other. Try to limit each testing session to just 3 or 4 perfumes. Take a twenty minute break between samples. And a favorite trick at designer fragrance counters: sniff some coffee beans to clear and refresh your nose.
- If you love a scent, but the selection doesn't seem to have staying power, find out what form the fragrance is: perfume, eau de perfume, eau de toilette are all popular. The difference is the amount of perfume concentrates in each, where perfume has a higher concentrate content at 20 to 50%, and eau de toilette has a much lower content at 5%. Try a perfume or eau de perfume fora longer lasting fragrance.
- Perfume will retain its fragrance for about 3 years, as a rule. If your perfume is older than that, you probably don't smell the same as you did when it was new.
- When you're looking for a new signature scent, list out your favorite everyday scents and look for designer fragrances that include the same. Love the smell of freshly cut grass? Blue Grass by Elizabeth Arden perfume evokes that summer smell for many people. Do spices like cinnamon appeal? Amarige Mariage by Givenchy has cinnamon tones combined with bergamot for heady aroma. Some designer perfumes even include chocolate!
- Don't get locked in to just one fragrance. You can wear different perfumes for different occasions: lighter floral scents for the work week, exotic oriental fragrances for those romantic weekend dates.
- While testing at the mall is a great convenience, when you are ready to make a purchase, consider the price. Many lovely designer fragrances can be purchased online at a great savings. Online stores don't have the overhead of department stores: no big buildings to heat and light, fewer staff needed, and they sometimes buy direct from the designer so they don't pay the distributor's mark up. You can often find your favorite designer perfume online for much less.
