Women the world over use perfume and have been doing so for eons. When it comes to buying perfume or cosmetics, one of the first things a consumer does is smell the product. Why? Because a pleasing scent can make a woman feel confident, sensual, and happy. With all that, who cares if it helps the skin?
Buying perfume is an entirely sensory experience. Minute drops applied to the “warm” spots on the body—behind the ears, along the cleavage, inside the thigh, and on the pulse points on the wrist, neck, inside elbow, and behind the knee—can provide all the radiating scent you need to attract someone’s attention. Perfume is almost exclusively about love and sex, and not necessarily in that order.
Unless you’ve been visiting another planet for the last 30 years, you won’t be surprised when I say that sex is used as a sales tool for almost every product from shoes to deodorant (if advertisers could figure a way to make the Pillsbury Doughboy into a sex symbol, they would do it to sell more biscuits). Perfume ads almost always feature young, sultry, longlegged, breathless women; half-clothed, hard-bodied men; or both, in couples who can barely keep their hands, lips, or low-lidded eyes off each other.
Most of us throw logic out the window when confronted with the hope of increased desirability, and that’s what sells perfume, because there is nothing utilitarian, professional, or rational about it. In short, perfume is a difficult subject for a consumer reporter because it defies logic, and that’s as it should be. But let me throw in just a little information to help you in making your selection. Other than allergic reactions, there are no risks when it comes to wearing perfume. How much you like a scent and how it affects the people around you, specifically the people who get close to you, are all that count.
Speaking of the people around you, it is a complete mystery to me why some women or men or teenagers (the explosive growth of the Axe products comes to mind) feel a need to saturate themselves with a conspicuous amount of fragrance. The air around men and women who have generously anointed themselves with their favorite perfume or eau de toilette or aftershave can be so thick and pungent that their presence is announced by an overpowering hit of fragrance. This is definitely one of those beauty steps that can be overdone and lose its original purpose, which in this case is to exude a subtle scent for those you want to be close to.
Perfume should not be so pungent an emission that it overwhelms strangers in an elevator or business associates around a conference table. In addition, an overpowering scent can trigger allergic reactions in others. I suspect many women put on extra fragrance in the morning to make it last longer. Yet it is simple enough to touch up fragrance as the day goes by, just as you would makeup. Most women who overdo their perfume would never apply 20 layers of makeup to make sure it stayed on all day!
While we’re on the subject, the endurance of a fragrance has nothing to do with natural ingredients versus synthetic ones or with how many products you apply. If anything, synthetic ingredients create more stable products by taking the unreliability of plant extracts and oils out of the equation. Yet there is no way to know which ingredients are used in any perfume or eau de toilette because this is the sole area where the cosmetics industry doesn’t have to reveal formulas. Consequently, fragrance recipes truly are secrets (Source: www. fda. gov).
Several master perfumers have told me that most fragrances are created from a vast combination of fragrance components that are both natural and synthetic. The art of creating a nuanced, resplendent bouquet involves bringing together varying aromas in a cohesive, unified scent that pleases the olfactory sense. That secrecy and complexity is why fragrance knock-offs and inexpensive imitations just don’t work. Some perfumers have blended hundreds of flower oils, plant extracts, and synthetic scents to create one perfume. How can a formula that complex be duplicated unless you know the exact recipe? It can’t. And that’s why a cheap version of the perfume you like won’t make your nose as happy.
Without ingredient lists to turn to, there are only two ways to determine how long a fragrance will last on your body: product type and testing. In terms of product type, you can count on cologne (which is about 1% to 3% fragrance) and eau de cologne (about 3% to 5% fragrance) lasting two to three hours; eau de toilette (about 5% to 7% fragrance) lasting two to four hours; eau de parfum (about 12% to 18% fragrance) lasting four to six hours; and perfume (about 15% to 30% fragrance) six to eight hours or more. Consider purchasing perfume (which is oil-based) instead of cologne or eau de toilette (which are water – and alcohol-based) if longevity is an issue for you. Perfume is more expensive, but it does have a better potential for lasting the whole day because the oil and the concentration cling better to skin, so it tends not to wear off as easily as alcohol – and water – based fragrances.
Testing is the next step. Body chemistry can greatly affect any fragrance a person applies. How long any fragrance, regardless of type, will last or how well it will retain its scent during the day is anyone’s guess. A fragrance can smell different at the beginning of the day than it does by the end. Trying on a fragrance (only one at a time) is the best way to determine how well it endures and which one you prefer. Do not choose a fragrance based on the way it smells in the bottle or on a card because that is not usually representative of what it will be like on your skin.
Should you buy body products that all have the same fragrance as your perfume? In a word, no. As you already know by now, I would rather you not apply scented skin-care products of any kind all over the body. It is best if your fragrance comes from a perfume or cologne applied to the inside part of your elbow, knee, neck, and cleavage. That’s plenty.
You do not need an additional bath product, dusting powder, body cream, perfume, or cologne to make a fragrance stick around longer; that’s fragrance overkill.
One more point of interest: The most expensive part of any fragrance is the bottle (about 40% of the cost). Then comes the advertising (another 30% of the cost) and the celebrity endorsement or designer insignia (another 10% to 15% of the cost). That leaves about 15% to 20% actual fragrance cost. Now that stinks!