A great perfume or cologne can be as much a part of your personal style as your favorite jeans, an accessory you just can’t go without. Your signature scent speaks volumes about your personality and influences how people think of you. It’s why it can be so important to choose the right fragrance for yourself.
But how is perfume made? It might come as a surprise that it’s more complicated than you might imagine. Perfume starts with a mix of essential oils, but to get a particular scent, the perfumer may also add a variety of other natural and synthetic chemicals. Often, the process of creating perfume involves several years and hundreds of different ingredients.
Many of the earliest perfumes were created using a wide variety of natural products, including animal materials such as musk (which comes from musk deer glands) and ambergris (petrified sperm whale vomit). But it wasn’t until modern synthetic chemicals became available in the late 19th century that perfume production began to take off. The development of these new materials enabled perfume makers to create fragrances with more sophisticated and long-lasting notes.
While some people may be allergic to certain scents, the majority of people can wear perfume and enjoy it without a problem. Scents can affect your mood, boosting your confidence or even helping you forget about a stressful event or bad day. In fact, one study found that pleasant smells can help to reduce stress, anxiety and depression and increase cognitive function and memory.
When choosing a perfume or cologne, the best place to start is by thinking about what kind of personality you want to project. Do you prefer to smell like a fresh floral blend, a woody forest or an island getaway? Your scent should subtly convey that.
Once you’ve chosen the perfect scent for yourself, it’s a good idea to wear it sparingly to keep your perfume lasting longer. The scent will dissipate faster on dry skin, so if you’re going out after a shower, spritz on some body lotion or petroleum jelly to give the perfume oils something to hold onto.
Perfume can also be affected by changes in temperature. Leaving it in the steamy bathroom or in direct sunlight can cause some of the chemicals to react and change the scent, so be sure to store your perfume somewhere that’s cool and dark.
If you’re looking for a great gift for someone special, consider a perfume or cologne gift set. Most fragrance brands have a range of concentrations, so you can choose a lighter or stronger fragrance based on the recipient’s preferences. To apply a fragrance properly, spritz it on your pulse points (inside wrists, outer elbows, behind your ears and the back of your knees). These warm spots release extra body heat that helps diffuse the perfume and make it last all day.