A few weeks ago, my boyfriend asked me if he could buy me a new perfume for Christmas.
"Why?" I replied "I have so many of them already".
Note: I was already freaking out "OMG he doesn't like my smell does it mean he hated smelling my skin for 3 years and a half - TRAGEDY"
He said "Well, you change them constantly and I have the feeling none of them is really you. I was thinking about it when you were away for work last time: if you're away and I smell one of your dresses I would like to feel like you are there, but none of your perfumes now give me that feeling"
Note: that is so horribly cute I melted.
Half an hour later I was dragging him through the cosmetics floor of Tangs frantically looking for a new fragrance (I am sure he was already deeply regretting his proposal).
I went nuts testing all the Byredo, the Diptyque, the Annick Goutal (if he wants to buy it, it might as well be a
We passed to the more mainstream brands and we both liked this version of Chanel Chance: Eau Tendre.
But it still didn't really give me that "this is it!" feeling at that moment so we ended up buying nothing and leaving for our Christmas holidays in Europe empty handed.
On the plane I was wondering (plane trips, especially the long ones, are always an occasion for this very meaningful and profound type of contemplations): what is a signature scent? And, more importantly, how do you choose it?
You know, that type of smell that transcends the mere olfactory dimension and can actually tell something about the person who wears it.
I sometimes remember people and places thanks to their perfume and countless times I've met women whose perfume communicated to me an intimate part of their personality, contributing greatly to my first impression of them.
I've never really had a signature scent, but the idea of it has always intrigued me.
In the end, after a lot of pondering (ahhh all the free time you have on holidays to think about this kind of stuff...) and a fortuitous encounter with a Chanel cosmetics boutique in Florence, I decided to give Chance Eau Tendre a try and purchased the 35 mL version (I'm amazed at how cautious I am with some kind of purchases, considering how easily I spend on other things like make-up, skincare and clothes).
So will this finally be my signature scent? I don't know, but for now I can say that I'm hooked.
So much so that I wanted to draw it (and my tiny 35 mL bottle is already almost half-empty after only 2 weeks).
It has something in common with the perfumes I usually wear, quite fresh and delicate but at the same time it has components that are more unusual for me, more on the sweet and floral side and that makes it interesting for me to wear.
The final test will be next time I leave home on my own: if my boyfriend can smell one of my shirts and finally connect this scent with the memory of me then it means I've found the one... (perfume, not boyfriend :p).
And what about you? Do you have a signature scent and how did you find it?
I'm curious!
With this I leave my computer to end my lunch break with a walk in the green and hopefully some relief to my horrible jet-lag.
(Traveling between Europe and Asia is HELL: when I go to Italy or Belgium I'd like to go out with my friends but jet-lag strikes by 5 PM and when I come back here in Singapore I need to go to work but I'm basically asleep until 3 PM... I hate it...)
I wish you a great week ahead!
xxx Al
