A woman should wear perfume wherever she wants to be kissed ~ Coco Chanel
I recently came across this quote on twitter by fashion icon Coco Chanel. Now, I’m not a big wearer of perfume…I LOVE fragrance, but I don’t wear it often.
I attribute this to a few reasons…
- I lost my sense of smell for a few years when I became really ill about 8-10 years ago. I have regained a LOT of it back, but had to relearn what a lot of different things smell like
- I have a slight scent sensitivity where strong scents and certain scents make me either sneeze like Sneezy in Snow White, or give me a slight asthma attack
- My mom and aunt also have scent allergies so I am mindful of scent free facilities and when I go visit them.
SO because of all this, fragrances for me are usually in my bath and body products or in the form of candles around my house. (I just bought an essential oil diffuser though, so I am excited about testing that)
This isn’t to say that I never buy fragrances.
I do – I love how the bottles and decanters look on my vanity and for a special special occasion, I’ll do a spritz here and and there. Normally I’ll spray the air, and do a quick walk through so that it’s super light. It’s not the best way to make a fragrance last, I know, but hey, I’m being honest, it’s what I do.
Fragrances are designed specifically with 3 notes – top, middle and base. These notes can be affected by your body chemistry and the evaporation process will affect how you experience the scent.
The top note evaporates the fastest and is often the scent that someone falls in love with which leads to the purchase of the scent. It’s what you first experience, lasting between 5-30 minutes.
The middle note is the “heart” of the fragrance and makes up the majority of the fragrance. They come to life as the top note evaporates and fades and takes between 10-30 minutes to develop on your skin.
The base notes makes its debut after the middle note fades, approximately 30 minutes after application. This is the strongest of the three and lasts the longest.
After reading Coco’s quote, it inspired me to research where the optimal places to apply fragrance would be. I also brought this discussion into my facebook group where, as always we have a grand old time chatting about said topic.. If you haven’t yet, come join in on our conversation! We always have fun in there and I’m constantly learning great tips from everyone in our community. Most popular is to apply where you are the hottest – behind the knee, ear, between your breast.
Some other fragrance tips I found from Vogue.com
- Don’t rub, just spray. The friction from rubbing heats up your skin and can change the “course” of the scent
- Environment plays a important factor. Perfume is extremely sensitive to environmental change. Best way to store is to place your fragrance out of the sun and at room temperature. It was also suggested to store the fragrance in the original box. French-American perfumer, Francis Kurkdjiank, also suggests that some people place their prize fragrance in the refrigerator
- Perfume may not last all day on dry skin. Kurkdjian suggests pairing your fragrance with it companion body lotion or use an unscented moisturizer.
At Avon, we have an impressive collection of scented moisturizer. If you are looking for an unscented one to pair (or not to pair) your favourite fragrance with, I would suggest the Moisture Therapy Intensive Lotion. If you’re looking to blend the MT line with a scented product, I’ve done that before with the hand cream. If I purchase a hand cream that’s too strongly scented or it’s a day where I just want a little more oomph to my hand cream, I would simply mix a scented hand cream with my Moisture Therapy Intensive Hand cream and enjoy.
Leave a comment! Where’s your favourite place to apply your scent?
Until next time, xo’s
