When I first started straying away from body mists and experimenting with real perfumes, my best friend at the time had explained to me that her mother had found her signature scent in her 20’s and had never strayed from its path. She had told me about how whenever people would smell that specific smell it would always remind them of her. She always spoke incredibly fond of her mother and said that this smell has always been so comforting to her so when she was away from her mom and feeling a little homesick or anxious all she had to do was make a trip to Sephora, find that perfume, spray it and vwala! A state of instant comfort would wash over her, as if her mother were standing right next to her telling her everything was ok.
Ever since this conversation I fell head over heels in love with this notion of having a ‘signature’ scent so to speak and thus this is what started my deep obsession with finding my very own signature scent. The thought of having that one scent that would leave an impression on everyone who encountered my presence has always been so captivating to me. It also felt a little anxiety inducing at the same time because it feels like an enormous responsibility and decision to make.
Maybe it’s just me but I think your scent is incredibly important. It tells people a snippet about who you are before you even have the opportunity to even introduce yourself. Basically, I have always thought about it as it being everyone’s first impression of you. Anyways, I have been in this deep rabbit hole of trying to figure out how I want to smell, for well, basically what feels like my whole life.
If the thought of finding your own signature scent has caught your attention, I am going to walk you through how to find your perfect scent to match your preferences and also help you to know which types of scents will match your body the best!
Step One
Pick the fragrance family that best suits your scent preferences.
Fragrance Families
Knowing your fragrance families is the key ingredient to finding your signature scent because it is going to help you to narrow down the amount of perfumes you are going to have to smell! There are four different fragrance families that also have their own subcategories within them.
Woody
The wood family smells like you would imagine – campfire BUT made with vanilla woods. This scent is the perfect mixture of sweet and smoky. I think woody smells are good fit for high class people who like to live in luxury.
Amber
The amber family can be described as sensual, warm, and musty. This scent is the perfect mixture of lust & mystery. I think it’s is a good fit for girls who don’t like the idea of smelling super sweet but also doesn’t appeal to the woodsy scents either.
Florals
This one is pretty self explanatory – fresh cut flowers with notes of powder. This scent is perfect for the dainty, soft girls who like to be viewed as innocent, ballerinaesque i fyou will.
Fresh
The fresh fragrance family is best described clean – not so much like laundry detergent clean but more like you just spent all day at the beach and now you’re coated with the scent of fresh air. This one may be obvious but this one is for the girls who lean towards the clean girl aesthetic.
step two
Have a firm understanding of your PH levels & skin type.
Has your bestie ever sprayed their perfume on themselves around you and caught your attention so you tried it on yourself and it smelled like complete sh*t or not how you expected? Well, that’s because your skin type and PH levels have an affect on how perfumes smell once they’re sprayed onto your skin (aka why your besties perfume smells different on her than on you).
PH LEVELS
Your PH levels play a role in what notes of your perfume become more prominent. Most perfumes have multiple different notes so when you and your bestie put on the same perfume the vanilla note may be more prominent in her and the woody note may be more prominent on you. The only way to really know what note your skin is going to pull more of is to simply sample perfume. What your PH levels can specifically tell you is how strong your perfume will be on you.
Acidic: scents will be more subdued so you will want to pick a stronger smelling fragrance.
Alkaline: scents will be more sharp and prominent, learn towards lighter scents or spray less spritz of perfume.
But how do I figure out what my PH levels are? With some urine and test strips. It’s best to test right away in the morning after sleeping for at least 6 hours without getting up to pee. Urinate either on the test strip or into a cup and dip the strip into the cup. Using the chart that comes with the test, match the color your strip changes to to the color on the chart and vwala! If you’re interested in testing your PH levels click HERE for a $6 amazon kit.
SKIN TYPE
DRY
Skin feels tight, dry, or scaly.
I apologize in advance my dear dry girls. Since your skin does not retain moisture, your perfumes scent will fade quicker than they are supposed to. Keep an eye out in the Tips & Tricks section below, I have a little something to help you out! Lucky for you, you do no have to shy away from a strong scent or family such as the wood family.
NORMAL
Skin feels hydrated but doesn’t look it.
Smack dab in the middle! Perfumes will last and have a scent of their normal state on a normal skin type. You are lucky because really any fragrance family will be compatible with your skin type!
OILY
Overall skin appears to be shiny/moist.
You, my friends, are the lucky ones! Since your skin is more moist, your perfumes scent will last longer and smell more intense.
Small tip.. since perfumes will smell stronger on you, you might want to lean more towards the clean/amber fragrance families.
step three
Pick up a discovery set aka a sample set!
Taking all of this information into consideration and knowing how expensive perfumes are, you don’t want to be buying full sized bottles not knowing 100% certain if you or your skin are going to actually like it or react to it in the way that you’d hope. I LOVE a good discovery set for so many reasons. 1. Even though you may think you’re a floral girl, one of the other fragrance families could take you by surprise and steal the show. 2. It’s like a wine tasting but with scents, who doesn’t love a plethora of options? Plus, it makes you step outside of the box and try scents you normally wouldn’t pick. 3. When you’re done, you can put the minis in your purse and have a cute little gallery of perfume on the go to spritz on yourself whenever you need. 4. Most discovery sets come with a free full size coupon for your favorite of the scents to redeem after you’re done running your tests.;))
I may be stating what is obvious here but I would STRONGLY advise you not to try multiple perfumes at a time or apply more than one in a day. Spraying one on top of the other is going to change which notes are brought out of each perfume. If you don’t think I am psychopath already for going this in depth on picking out a perfume, then you might want to phone the looney bin after this next bit.
When I bought my first sampler pack I created a chart to help pick out which perfume I wanted to get in the full size with my coupon. I took into consideration my initial thoughts, longevity of the perfume, how many compliments I received throughout the day and my overall rating of the perfume at the end of the day. I folded my chart up and just kept it in the pouch my sample set came in for safe keeping. Obviously purchase the one with the highest rating. Think of this like The Bachelor but for perfume.
Gatekeeping is not now nor has ever been fresh, so I am going to put it below for you to screenshot and print or download & print if this interests you. This is catered to the one I purchased so if your sampler doesn’t have this many options simply don’t use them and if your sampler has more, print 2 pages!
You can find a discovery set in really any shape and size. By that I mean as many samples as you’d like for whatever price point you desire. Sephora always pops off with sampler sets, especially around holiday season, but I have heard Ulta has great ones too! Here is the one I used that I loved!
Although they have altered the fragrances & amount of samples in the bag, the free full size coupon still remains!
Tips & Tricks
If you fall on the more acidic side of the PH levels or have a perfume that doesn’t feel like it lasts very long this tip is for you! Perfume sticks best and its notes are brought out best on moisturized skin. I typically shower, moisturize with a non-scented lotion and then apply my perfume. For the most part it lasts basically all day! I have also heard of people rubbing Vasaline on their spray spots (neck, wrist) and then spraying the perfume over it and apparently it not only makes it more prominent but it also helps with the longevity as well.
Now, even though I am in LOVE with the idea of having a signature scent, I also love the idea of having occasion scents as well: vacation scents, date night scents, I even had a specific wedding perfume. Basically, occasions that are special and important all have their own significant scent to help to add to the excitement, emotion, and memory of the experience. Just like my friend would spray her moms perfume when she would feel homesick, well I can spray my perfume when I want to reminisce on my wedding night or day dream about the next my vacation. So, if you’re someone who loves a variety of fragrances don’t feel like you have to throw them all out except for one. Maybe place them with specific occasions like date nights, vacations, or even have seasonal scents!
In summary, each and every perfume is going to have a different smell, longevity, and strength level on everybody. The best way to find your perfume is simply by sampling until you find which one is going to suit your skin & preferences the best.
