Image via Wikipedia
Five Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Perfume
Many of us have fond memories of our grandmothers’ soft touches of cologne or the way our mothers smelled as they headed out for a grown-up evening. Leaving a subtle trail of scent can evoke our presence even when we have left the room. Instead of asking yourself what perfume you are going to wear for tonight’s party, be it birthday party or hen party, ask yourself do you really know how to wear it? Some tips will help you wear and use perfume effectively, giving others something that reminds others of you even in your absence.
- Remember the strength of the power of smell. The Sense of Smell Institutes credits the human sense of smell with the ability to distinguish among over 10,000 odors. Scent molecules travel to neurons at the back of the nose and then to the brain, where they are sorted into benevolent or harmful characteristics and trigger memories of the same or similar smells. For purposes of applying perfume, remember that the sense of smell is extremely powerful, and it takes only a small quantity of perfume to convey your personal information. In fact, heavy amounts of perfume get in the way, overwhelming the powerful and sensitive sense of smell. Use the evaporative alcohol base of perfume to communicate effectively with others. Place small quantities of perfume on pulse-points at the wrists and ankles. The warmth generated by normal activity dissipates perfume from warm body areas first.
- Broaden the communicative powers of your perfume by applying it to other warm body areas, at your elbows, behind your ears, and even behind your knees. The only area where this advice may be hard to follow is around the front of the throat. Dabbing perfume at the pulse points on your throat directs perfume molecules directly to your nose, not the noses of others. The short distance between your throat and nose distorts your sense of how much perfume you are wearing, and you can apply too little or too much.
- Monitor and coordinate the scents of other beauty products as part of sending a scent message to others. Heavily-scented body creams, shampoos, hair-sprays, detergents, candles and household cleaners can distort the scent of your perfume. They can also distort each other. Given all the cosmetics and household products available to consumers, holding a periodic home sniff-inventory may prevent the coconut-lavender-peony-seabreeze aura unintentially emitted by all of us from time to time.
- Once you’ve eliminated as many conflicting scents as possible, several strategies can diffuse your signature scent beyond simply applying perfume. Seek out sources of your scent beyond perfume or cologne. Given the welcome disappearance of large scent-themed gift sets, this may involve a little detective work on your part, finding brands of bar soap, body wash and even fabric softener that support a citrusy, woodsy or floral tone from your signature scent. Not everything will smell the same—which would be overwhelming—but clothes and linens will give off scents in the same family. Add dresser-drawer sachets by dabbing a drop or two of your perfume on tissues and tucking them into your lingerie and other garment drawers.
There’s just something about you. Maybe it’s your perfume.
Bio: Yang, Events Organiser at Chillisauce Ltd, who specialise in hen weekends and stag dos.
