In your (long-gone) days of normal perfume behaviour, did you have a signature scent?
Was there one perfume you have been loyal to for years?
Which perfume was part of you for a significant amount of time?
If you never had a signature, why is that? Would you like to have one? Are you looking for one?
My Answer:
I guess I had a kind of signature scent, or rather a series of monogamist relationships with perfume. I wore Prada, the original for many years, then Chanel Coco Mademoiselle and then Narciso Rodriguez For Her. At least those are the perfumes that I re-bought when they were gone (finishing an entire bottle of perfume, what a strange concept!).
Despite appearances (meaning my incessant testing and blogging), I am still very fascinated and enticed by the concept of a signature. I am drawn to the idea of having a scented identity. Something my beloved ones could identify me with, a perfume that represented me, that enhanced and underscored facets of me.
Apparently I have too many facets that need underscoring on different days.
I ask myself: Will the search ever end? Am I even on a search or is it a journey where the collecting of many, many perfumes is the focus? Am I looking for perfume or am I only enjoying the hunting and gathering part so much?
I’m sorry that I’m answering my MQ with more questions today, but sometimes questions only bring forth more of the same…
How about you?
Olfactoria's Travels 
Hey Birgit,
I have had 4 major Signature scents through my life. Shalimar by Guerlain, Jazz by YSL, Le Male by JPG, Fendi Donna. There has always been Shalimar in my cupboard but I gave myself completely to the other 3 at different times in my life and have come back to them again and again ever after. They are still in my collection and are easy, no fuss, spritz and forget frags that feel like old, comfy jeans.
Portia xx
It is good that you still have them, Portia. Sometimes it’s all you want to just wear a pair of comfortable old jeans.
you are SOOO right. I also forgot to put Dreamer by Versace there.
I loved this Monday Question.
Portia x
Before I became a perfume freak, I didn’t wear perfume at all. Well, once in a while I bought or was gifted with a bottle of something cheap, I wore it two or three times, and that was it for the bottle. But I was effectively a non-perfume-wearer.
Interesting. How did you stumble down the rabbit hole, CF?
That’s a good question. I suspect that the answer may be the answer to the un-asked question, “What made you stop resisting perfume?” Because I always liked perfume, I just did nothing about it – just as I did nothing about makeup, or hair, or fashion, or any of those other girly-self-care things. Without burbling on about my relationship with my mother (got a couch?), I think that I generally avoided emulating her, and that meant avoiding girly stuff.
But I like geeky things. And I identified with caring about food, and food reviews. And Mom very rarely wore perfume. So I vaguely recall sniffing a tester of Fresh Lemon Sugar while wandering through the store on some other errand, looking up reviews of it, and stumbling into Now Smell This. That gave me a geeky, detail-obsessed, food-review-like look at perfume, and that was that.
Thank you for answering. I’m glad you found a way to get into perfume without those emotional entanglements hindering you.
I used to wear two fragrances and they were with me for years. Diva by Ungaro and Chanel No. 5. I have fond memories of the years I wore them and sometimes I want a spritz or two to transport me back to the first few years with my husband. A signature scent is out of the question now that I own so many and I love having a choice depending on my mood. But oh how I love my Chanel No. 5.
Very ladylike, Sandra! Chanel N°5 belongs in every collection, I like to go back to it from time to time as well.
I like the expression monogamist relationships! My longest one was certainly with Christalle, in EdT version mostly, later EdP as well. Others were Silver Mountain Water and long before that Obsession.
Cheers
Safran
Cristalle is great, I really learned to love it this summer.
Cristalle and Dioressimo were mine. How sad I can no longer buy them since they have been so changed…
It’s sad indeed. Mito by Vero Profumo is an excellent choice to try, if you like that style of scent.
I wore Chanel no 5 almost every day for 20 years, starting at 16…Those first few years I wore other perfumes as well – Poison, Paris, Loulou, D&G , Fendi, Oscar – the usual suspects from the mid-eigthies. But at one point my entire collection was stolen, and Chanel no 5 was the only one I replaced. Only when I approached 40 did I start to think that perhaps no5 is a bit too much for work, besides I couldn’t actually smell it myself anymore, so I started looking around for some alternatives. Discovered perfume blogs and decant services and the whole slippery slope. I still wear no5 more than any other of my perfumes, but I cherish it more now.
It is wonderful that you cherish it more these days, even though your choices have (dramatically) increased. 🙂
Oh yes, back then (some 15-20 years ago…) I had few monogamous relationships wirth parfum: with Very Valentino, with Allure, with Calyx – and in fact, they were very happy, content times. I’ve became scent-promiscuous ca. the last 7 yeas only. And I’m afraid, I’ll never find THE ONE anymore. It’s simply not possible, since I wear parfum as clothes – depending on the weather, on my mood, on the occasion…
Ah Very Valentino, I wore this too once upon a time…
It seems impossible to go back to monogamy, doesn’t it?
I had two signature perfumes till today. I used to wear Dior homme since it came out and I wore it for 3 years never cheating on it! Then my passion for perfume started and I fell in love, which is my signature scent now (at least, it is what my friends tell me) in 8 88 by Comme des Garçons. I have a lot of perfume, which I use when I am in a particular mood or for a particular event, but if I have nothing in mind I just go for 8 88. I feel comfortable in it and I wear it even if I stay home doing nothing in particular.
Then, I ask myself the same question: will this research ever end? I don’t fall in love with perfumes very often and I think at least for a couple of weeks before buying, but sometimes I just feel the crave of buying it. Especially before start buying a lot, I had my 3 perfumes and they would be perfect for every occasion: 8 88, APOM pour homme and En Passant. I think the next buys show other facets of my personality, that want to come out in particular days.
It is nice when other people associate a fragrance with you, which is why I’m still attracted to the concept.
The likes of us are just too complex to be summed up by only one perfume, B!
Those I wore for a fair amount of time in the Dark Ages were Aromatics Elixir, Gucci Envy and Kenzo Parfume d’Ete.
Fun question! It’s like seeing what everyone was like in a past life.
Ha, yes, we are! 😉
You always had excellent taste.
I’ve had a few signatures. Ysatis, Angel, Chanel No.22, and Poison. I went through more than one bottle of each so they must have been signatures. Oddly enough even though I still like them I only have a partial bottle of Poison and just a sample of Angel. Ysatis has bad memories attached to it. I love the idea of a signature scent but I love searching for one more I guess. I think a signature was easier to have back in the day because you were limited on what you could buy either by cost or choices. There was no Internet, I went to the mall and bought my favorite of the bunch available. I could see myself having a signature again, or a few of them. Just not anytime soon.
You make a very valid point, poodle! Access has increased dramatically though the internet, so of course availability influences our perfume behaviour as well.
I think my signature scents probably reflect my age: I started secondary school in 1997, so naturally my signature scents were Tommy Girl and then Burberry Weekend. After university I branched out a little and wore Burberry London (which got trashed in The Guide but I liked it and hey, it got a lot of compliments) and then switched to Pure DKNY. It was at that point that I saw a three part perfume series on BBC4 and fell right down the old rabbit hole :o)
I do sometimes miss having a signature scent though, especially as they timestamped certain periods of my life, to the point that now I could never wear them again. I bought a bottle of Burberry Weekend on sale and had to scrub it after a couple of hours as the smell literally made me feel like I was 14 again and I much prefer being an adult! The plus side was when I offered to give the bottle to my mum, she insisted on giving me an unwanted bottle of Chanel No. 5 epd in return. 30ml of that for effectively £12 was the best deal I’ve ever got!
Congratulations on that Chanel N°5!
I think I once had a bottle of Burberry London, I remember it rather fondly, although I don’t recall how it smelled.
Burberry London was a favorite of mine too, I finished a bottle! Interestingly, I find that London, Gualtier’s Fragile (edt), and Juicy Couture are all strikingly similar.
I wore Dunhill Edition for about six years, and then Davidoff Zino for about fifteen, except for stretches when I couldn’t find it anywhere. It was while researching a replacement for Zino when I heard it was being discontinued that started my current obsession, Although I can’t imagine wearing the same thing every day now, and though I only wear it occasionally, I guess I might still consider Zino my signature scent. It’s how I imagine I smell when I wear no fragrance (I know — that sounds kind of batty!). I just wore it for so many years.
I love that last sentence. Zino seems to be very much “you”, and that is what I want as well, I think.
You are so right about too many facets that need underscoring on different days! On my student days I used to have a signature scent, that was Sotto Voce by LB. I’ve emptied six or seven 75ml bottles of it! Now I can’t even imagine myself buying such big full bottles. But I still think I do have my signature scents. One of them is La Joyeuse by Parfums et Senteurs du Pays Basque and the others are by Neil Morris: Posh, Spirit of Water and Vapor, just adore them all and can wear them weeks running.
Times have definitely changed when it comes to finishing big bottles, haven’t they? 🙂
Sure they have 🙂
I am attracted by the idea of a scented identity, an olfactory representation of me that lingers after I am gone. The closest I have come is Shalimar, I have always had at least a bottle in my possession for the past 20 years but it is not my exclusive scent. I think it would be more accurate to say I have a signature ‘type’ as I gravitate towards orientals, woods, incenses and ambers. An example would be when I cuddling the newborn baby of a friend that I had not seen in years and when I handed the baby back my friend said ‘ She smells just like you always smell’. I said it wasn’t the same fragrance as when she last saw me and she said ‘ It doesn’t matter you always smell like you- good! ‘
Beautifully put, FragrantWitch. Apparently your friends recognize the familiar style of your perfumes as “you” and that is great.
I suppose that my earliest signature scent was Versace Blonde (my husband thought the name befitting of me and I wore it for a long time) I then had a fairly long affair with allure in both parfum and EDP versions, it was whilst trying to replace allure with something ‘different’ that not everyone wore that I fell down the rabbit hole and have been perfume promiscuous ever since, I am now one of lifes ‘flitters’ falling in out and out of love in a blink of an eye. 🙂
You took to Perfumeland like a fish to water. How did we ever get by without you? 🙂
Sure! For the first three years of my perfumstahood Prada amber Pour Homme was the only scent I had and the only scent I wore those times. I still love this fragrance and have it in my collection but it’s not the only one nowadays.
That is a great signature scent, Lukas!
Thank you! I love it too!
As a teenager I lived in The Body Shop Dewberry and this, despite my best efforts, is still the scent my family associate with me (in fact my Mum became quite misty eyed recently when she sniffed LAP Mure et Musc, there is definitely a similarity). University was Issey Miyake and then I wore Noa for years.
I do miss having a signature, a scent that the people I love associate with me but I couldn’t now because the way I think about and wear perfume has changed forever and there isn’t any going back. Perfume used to be about continuity, it (subconsciously) projected a part of me to the world and I smelled nice. Now I would no sooner wear the same perfume every day than wear the same clothes.
That is what I ask myself – is the way we think about perfume changed irrevocably or are there Perfumistas who eventually go back to one, the one?
P.S.: It was so lovely seeing you the other day!
I wore Reve Indian (I think that’s the name) by Fragonard for many years. Then Eau d’Hadrien, then lots of stuff, for short periods of time. Now I lik eRousse, from SL, and Danes tes Bras from FM. I have a bottle of Sharif that I tend to save a bit.
There is always one very special bottle in the bunch. Sharif sounds so intriguing.
Sharif is transportingly gorgeous!
Hmmmm…
Interesting question. 🙂
Now I think about it, I never had a signature scent nor did I have monogamous relationships – I was always on the lookout for something new and better smelling. It took me a while to find out the world I was looking for as I didn’t even know it existed outside the usual mainstream shops around here.
You are the original Perfumista, Ines. 🙂
I have always had a good relationship with Chanel. It started with #19 in high school ( in the 70s) which I still wear and love. I flirted with #5 in college (it was a gift). But when Coco was released, I fell head over heels in love. I met my husband the same night that I bought my first bottle and I’ve worn it ever since, but it was my signature for just a few years before I needed some variety; I always subscribed to that woman’s magazine standard concept of the necessary perfume wardrobe, so perfume monogamy isn’t in my nature.
Chanel is a good partner for long-term relationships.
It is not in my nature either. (At least that has been true for the last few years, I feel a change coming on though…)
In high school, I wore Chanel 19, I loved that perfume!!! I need to visit it again. Then I started wearing these wonderful oils that my dad would bring my sisters and me, from his trips, via the Air force.
In college I wore Aarige by Givenchy, then Magie Noire (which I want to visit again).
Then I discovered essential oils, and have been playing with them ever since.
I still want just a handful of perfumes that represent the many facets of me, but I feel far from complete. I only have a few, and I am nowhere near perfumista status.
I cant remember the magazine, but I just saw it on saturday. This guy, an “expert” (whatever), said, that you should own no more than 5 scents at a time. His logic had something to do with the connection of scent and memory. I immediately thought of all my perfumista friends, and just laughed.
Amarige by Givenchy, not aariage (I cannt type this morning)
It’s still early! 😉
There probably are people who are content with five perfumes, we are not those people… 😉
Magie Noire has changed a lot, be prepared!
I think about having a signature scent all the time. I do sometimes fantasize about being known by my rare and sophisticated niche scent, my friends and family knowing me by my waft. My children would know that’s how mama smells. My husband would gift me by replenishing “my scent,” perhaps surprising me with the matching soaps and lotions.
I too have had several monogamous relationships with some scents; among them are Dior’s Pure Poison (3 bottles), Narciso Rodriguez for her, Chanel Gardenia, Calvin Klein Truth (3 bottles), JPG Fragile, and even Dolce and Gabbana (the red one). More recently, the scents I reach for the most is SSS Jour Ensolielle and L’Heure Bleue.
I have that same fantasy!
Your two recent favorites are gorgeous.
I used to be a serial monogamist with my perfumes. Starting with L’Air du Temps in high school. But every time I broke up with a boyfriend, I switched fragrances. There was Youth Dew and No.19. Then I discovered the newly created Calyx. When I first started dating my husband he bought me a bottle of Opium extrait. (Ah the memories in that almost empty bottle!) Then on special occasions he bought me Armani Sensi and Chanel Allure. As time went by, there was no leaving this man, so my collection slowly started to grow. It was my quest to find more bottles of the discontinued Sensi that lead me down this rabbit hole. I didn’t find a replacement bottle of Sensi, but I did find NST, then Osmoz and Fragrantica, and then all the other perfume blogs that I now subscribe to. And while I no longer feel the need to have a signature scent, my daughter and husband would agree I have a signature style of fragrance. Well, sort of. Sometimes when shopping for perfume with my daughter, I will try on something very beautiful, that smells lovely on me, but she will look at me and say, “Don’t take this the wrong way Mom, but that perfume is just not you.” Usually she is right, because when I ignore her advice and buy one of those fragrances anyway it usually sits unworn in my closet. What’s my signature? Something that was once classified as oriental or chypre, woody or green or spicy or patchouli. I’m not a zesty, citrusy or white floral kind of person. So while I don’t have just one singular signature scent, I do know that if my daughter or husband goes perfume shopping without me they will select something that is definitely “me”.
That is a practical thing to have a certain style, as you say, gifts are less of a gamble then.
A perfume-gifting man is surely the one to marry! Well done! 😉
Tatiana, have you tried YSL Cinema? Not exactly the same, but it reminds me quite a bit of Sensi.
Elisa, no I have not tried YSL Cinema. But thank you for pointing it out. I will be sure to seek a sample out and give it a try. I love my fellow perfumistas for just this reason.
Long, long ago I used to have signature scents. Coco took that place for a few years, in my late teens. Later came Spellbound and Angel. Now there are days I wish I had a signature scent, a scent that people would identify with me, but when it comes to fragrance I am just too promiscuous…I can crave light citrus, opulent white florals and dark incense all in the same day.
BTW, I am waiting to read everything about your trip to London.
Have a wonderful week,
Caro
Oh, I have those multiple perfume-craving days as well… but I enjoyed wearing just one for days on end lately too (starting with Carnal Flower in summer, Unspoken and Amytis now that it is colder).
I have a pretty bad cold, so the London write up is going a bit slower than I would like, my brain is on minimum functionality mode. 😉
I am sure Carnal Flower will help you feel better soon.
I forgot to tell you I sniffed it in Milan and found it beautiful.
xoxo
It will! 🙂
Hello everyone. I used to have and still have some beloved fragrances that always have to present in my olfactory wardrobe. I kind of never wore only one and only fragrance, apart from when I was in primary and secondary school. But these times I could only dream of real fragrance and used to wear some perfumed body sprays and no expensive colognes. However I would like to mention about what I used to love and that was Impulse body spray, does any of you remember those colourful cans with pictures of ladies in a circle? Very long lasting and really good quality. There was one amazing among these and it was called Python. It was very sweet but trust me it was gorgeous, nothing like these hideous cheap smelling sugary candies available everywhere. A few years ago I tried to fing something that would remind me of it and I came across City Glam by Armani. But still, I remember that old fragrance and will never forget.
Anyway now I have a few to which I’m really faithful to and these are JPG Classique EDP, Insolence Guerlain, Samsara, No 5, Angel, Womanity and… Sth very special and very nostalgic for exclusive special occasions ( that reminds me of all jazz concerts and festivals I used to go and still go) this is Addict by Dior.
There are way too many beautiful pieces of art … it would be a waste to stick to only one for lifetime.
I remember seeing those Impulse sprays in the drugstore all the time when I was a child.
It’s true what you say, with so much to experience, it might be a waste to only stick with one.
Fragrance has fascinated me since I was a child. Both my mother and my grandmother had many lovely scents – all of which I “borrowed” as soon as I could reach them. Arpege was the one that I wore when I was about five. In high school I wore “L’Air de Temps”. In college the parfum of “Chloe”. That small bottle I can’t even find anymore. My husband traveled for NASA and brought me “Caleche” that I wore about about twenty years. Since my first trip to France, I’ve worn “L’Heure Bleue” and “Jicky”. I guess I’m a Guerlain girl – I like wearing “Jicky” during the day and then morphing into Shalimar or “L’Heure Bleue” later in the evening. Because the Guerlain scents have a base that is similar they are a type of signature. When I was a teacher, my students complained when I DIDN’T wear Shalimar. Now I’m crazy in love with “Cuir de Lancome” and it’s starting to feel like a signature. It surely gets lots of compliments, which is always nice for a perfume lover.
Such beautiful perfumes have accompanied your life, Anita!
I think I got started on the perfumista path when I was searching for something that I could wear regularly (a summer and a winter fragrance…just one, period, I could never abide), and fell in love with so many I knew I couldn’t limit myself, ever. My first fragrance, in middle school (scents have always ruled my life, I think) was DVF Tatiana, and in high school I moved to Cabochard Gres and L’Air du Temps. Cannot for the life of me remember what I wore in college, but as it was the 80s, I suspect it was Coco. Afterwards, there was a flirt with Casmir, Safari, and Annick Goutal Passion. I will always have a special affinity for big, here-I-am scents, like the Guerlains, white florals, orientals and ambers, but I am also now discovering chypres and such. I wish I liked the citrusy scents, but I simply cannot stomach them. As it is, I believe I’m up to over 2 dozen full bottles. Once I find something I like, I simply cannot help myself!
I think many here can understand how it feels not being able to help themselves! 😉
Oh! As for the whole “signature scent,” i will relate what I said on another blog…when picking up an item of my clothes, or walking by the dog after I’ve given him a hug, they comment that they can smell me..when I say, but I don’t remember what fragrance I had on when I wore that, they say it doesn’t matter, it all blends into a very Mom scent. So much nicer to have a truly signature scent, blended from all sorts of smells, than smelling a waft of Perfume X on someone else and associating it with me. I much prefer being unique!
How lovely! Thank you for that, Gretchen.
When I was very young, I wore the original Chloe, had a couple of years with Obsession, and flirted with various other perfumes, but then wore mostly nothing until I became obsessed with perfume around 2008. I started a blog and accumulated around 80 bottles, and I wore something different almost every day. But then sometime this summer the strangest thing happened… I bought a new bottle of perfume and didn’t want to wear anything else. It’s Chanel No. 22. It’s been 3 months now and I still don’t want to wear anything else. The weather has gone from hot and sticky to freezing cold and No.22 is still perfect every time I put it on. I occasionally pull something else from the shelf, but end up applying No. 22 again after a few hours. I don’t want to write in the blog anymore because I don’t have any interest in smelling or collecting other perfume. It may be temporary, but I seem to have had a bit of a life change. A beloved pet died, and I developed a new obsession with fitness and the gym. Did these things have anything to do with my sudden un-perfumista status? Maybe perfume will sign a siren song again one day, but for now, it seems I have a signature scent.
I was wondering where you went, Christa! I totally understand you, I’m flirting with the idea of staying faithful to one or two perfumes as well… but what will happen to my blog then, I love to write it after all…
No22 is great, it makes me happy to hear you found something that is so totally you.
I’m very sorry about your pet!
For about fifteen years I wore Sung by Alfred Sung about 6 months out of the year – during the colder weather. One of daughters told me it was “what Mom smelled like”. A few years ago, after not wearing Sung, I bought a small bottle and ended up throwing it away. The difference in the smell was disasterous. Refomulation hit my signature scent. I still miss it and consider it my standard for big white florals.
That is how many become Perfumistas – the signature scent became distorted beyond recognition.
Thankfully the niche world offers many gorgeous alternatives, but it is still sad that what we are used to has to vanish or morph into a shadow of its former self.
I was pretty loyal to Gucci Rush in college — used up a bottle and later bought a second one (which I still have!). But I occasionally strayed and wore other things. In graduate school, I had flings with Ralph Lauren Hot and Gap Crushed Peony. Now I don’t think I could ever go back to signature-scent-hood. There’s too much to love!
Agreed, there is a lot to love! 🙂
I always fear answering this question because my signature scent, years and years ago, is a perfume that most perfumistas feel a certain contempt for. It was Elizabeth Arden Red Door. Then my sister fell in love with it and started wearing it and getting compliments from what seemed like everyone in town, and I began having my Frank Costanza moment. “That’s my move! She stole my move!” kind of feeling. But now I’m glad I have no signature scent. As Elisa says, there’s too much to love.
Ha, thanks for reminding me of Frank Costanza (“You want a piece of me?”), I love him! 😀
Is it blasphemy never having smelled Red Door? Now that I know it was your signature, I will smell it asap!
No, not blasphemy at all. In fact, I wouldn’t even suggest you sniffing it if you come across it, as you might question my sanity. 😀
I strongly doubt that! 🙂
LOL at “That’s my move!” One of my best friends wears SSS scents (mostly Champagne de Bois but a couple of others too) after I introduced her to them and I feel a tad jealous when she gets compliments on them.
In short: No, I never had just one perfume. I did for a long time wear Le Feu d’Issey A LOT, now I have it for nostalgic reasons, but I don’t need it really, and never wear it, I’ll always be able to recall what it smells like. The best I can do is, that in my pre-perfumista-years, I wore almost only orientals.
I think I know what my signature scent would be or at least my 2-3 signature scents, but why? That would be like being on a diet, and all I’d be able to think of is chocolate;-) No, I’m happy with a fragrance wardrobe, instead of signature. Very happy!
Le Feu d’Issey, ah I love it so! At least we never had to endure its reformulation!
That’s very true, Birgit.
In 1972 my best friend in college took me to a small perfume shop in Dallas. They specialized in custom blending personal fragrances. For 25 years I wore my signature scent of Valencia orange oil mixed with a 100% concentation of Galaxolide musk oil. When the couple, who owned the shop, decided to close the shop and retire, I was able buy their remaininng stock of oils that composed my beloved fragrance. It never occured to me at that time to ask them who manufactured their oils. I have spent the last 14 years hunting for a galaxolide oil that smelled like my original formula.You could say that the hunt for my beloved musk oil led me down the rabbit hole of fragrances. I have yet to find another signature scent I could use manogamously. I would sacrafice my large collection of perfumes to be able to wear my private scent again. I will never stop my search for that perfect musk oil or for another perfect signature scent. You could say that is my perfume fantasy.
Oh what a story! I’m sorry you haven’t been able to find a suitable replacement.
Have you tried contacting indie perfumers like Laurie Erickson or Ellen Covey, who have lots of experience and contacts when it comes to sourcing raw materials? Maybe they can turn you onto the right trail. Just a thought.
In the late eighties, early nineties I wore (only) Romeo di Romeo Gigli. It is the only perfume I ever got compliments for. When I wear it now, I really can’t understand why. Perhaps it’s reformulated or more likely, my taste has changed (quite dramatically). It bugs me however that now I have evolved in fragrance, no-one ever seems to notice how georgeous I smell 🙂 . Oh, well….. It pleases me well enough!
Strangely I too got lots more compliments on Coco Mademoiselle or NR then, than on anything I wear now. People! 😉
Oh my, that used to be one of my scents, too. And I do remember loving it at the time. Haven’t smelled it recently, so I can’t say it’s whether it’s been reformulated. And it’s rare these days if anyone other than my husband or daughter compliments my perfume.
For most of my life, my signature fragrance was Gres Cabochard. I had periods where I wore Magie Noire and then Chanel Coco, but I kept returning to Cabochard. Now I can’t imagine limiting myself to a single fragrance–and my collection is growing–but I suspect for my family members and old friends, the smell of Cabochard will always bring back the young version of me, the early days of my relationship with my husband (who loves the fragrance) and my early years as a mother. Now that I stop to consider it, that’s a pretty nice outcome. (I was lucky enough to obtain a mint 1/2 ounce of extrait from the sixties, so no fears about the reformulation issue.)
That did turn out pretty well indeed! It’s lovely that your kids have a recognizable mom-scent.
Safari is still my signature scent as it seems to fit my personality. I am still faithful to Shali@mar and Byzance, otherwise I’m total split personality, maybe even multifaceted ;-). I couldn’t commit just to one. First three excluded, of course.
You seem to have found a good balance between staying faithful and still having fun with the new and exciting.
My first signiture scent was the original Moschino for about 3 years with lot’s of sidetracks, followed by a long phase of complete monogamy:Halston (10 years) and Cristalle EDP -sometimes EDT- (about 5 years).
Another serial monogamist. 🙂
in the past- I think I now rather work with sets of fragrances
My signature scent was Prada’s Infusion d’iris, but when I discovered niche perfumery I forgot about that concept. There are just so many good fragrances …
Once we go down this road, it’s hard to go back to even think about only one perfume.
Exactly. If I had only one perfume at disposal, I’d feel something was missing, incomplete so to say.
Birgit, for years my signature scent was Bel Ami by Hermes. I think I went through 5 bottles. I have been without a bottle for the last year, but may have to indulge in another purchase soon. I miss my old friend.
Oh great! What a wonderful signature! I can understand that you miss it!
I’d have to say Kingdom, it’s the closest I’ve ever come to a signature scent.
(How was London btw? I was so annoyed that I couldn’t make it on Friday :-()
I think of Kingdom as your perfume too (and Honour Woman).
(London was great, apart from the fact that I didn’t get to see you!!!)
Oh yes, I do like me some Honour Woman!
(Glad you had a good time! I shall have to convince Nigel that we need to go to Austria)
My signature scent for years was Mitsouko. My brother told me it bothered him when he smelled a fellow student wearing it, because that scent was me!
That must be wonderful to hear!
I fell in love with Gucci Rush right after it came out, when I was starting high school. I still have that bottle somewhere…unlike my next two ‘signature’ perfumes (Ralph Lauren Romance and….*gasp* Chanel Chance), I still enjoy it quite a lot. Perhaps randomly, at least in retrospect, my main signature perfume from 2006 until the end of last year (when I had my own tumble down the rabbit hole) was Iris Silver Mist. I stumbled on Lutens’ Palais Royale shop during a college summer in Paris, and I was torn between Tubereuse Criminelle and Iris Silver Mist and ended up choosing what I thought was the softer perfume 🙂 Reading everyone’s reviews of ISL online now have shown me what an odd perfume this shy, bookish literature grad. student chose for herself for over five years…And now I can’t wear the same perfume twice from one day to the next!
Wow, ISM was an amazing start into the niche world, what great taste you have!
I don’t think I ever had or have a signature scent to be honest…
When I first fell in love with perfume, my quest was to search for “the one” that could most represent myself. But I guess I soon came to the realization that there really isn’t any out there. Perhaps it’s the fact that I can’t stand smelling the same everyday (I guess having 7-9 different shower gels, 12-15 lip balms currently on rotation shows something :P).
However, the scents that I use the most all have one thing in common: Gourmand. So I guess that is my answer. Signature fragrance genre!
(Closest signature is: Prada Candy and PG Musc Maori)
The shower gel/lip balm situation could be a giveaway… 😉
Gourmand is a very nice genre when well done and your two faves are excellent!
I think I started out on L’Air du Temps and then Issey Miyake. To be honest I still like them both, like you said they’re like comfortable jeans. I’m more of a Chanel 22 kind of girl. I’ve never gone in for Guerlain I don’t know why. Now I’m all over the place. I like to wear something different everyday! Great topic, really loved reading all of the comments (comme d’hab!)
It is great when you can still appreciate the perfumes you wore year ago.
I’m just starting out on the perfume journey. Of course I’ve worn perfumes in the past that I loved, even one that I can no longer find – Eau de Givenchy – so long ago I wonder was it any good. And for many years I’ve relied on essential oils purchased in India – sandalwood, jasmine, vetiver (intense headache), black pepper, and a formulation which the seller described accurately to me as mud after rain. I’m enjoying the idea that this niche world I’ve just entered will send many sophisticated perfume loves my way and that eventually I will find the love of my life and marry and settle with my signature love, a perfume that will change with me and reveal new facets of itself as the years go by.
Hi Mridula,
That is a lovely idea, and I’m sure many of us have /had similar fantasies. I’m not sure the one is out there, but I still hope it might be… 😉
It feels like I keep repeating the same perfume name again and again but it’s true for many answers. For many-many years the only perfume I considered a perfume for me was Lancome Climat. Still love it.
It is wonderful to have one that is above all others, and that surely bears repeating! There is a Climat as part of an exclusive collection available at some Lancome counters now. Did you try it? Is it heavily reformulated?
Is it available now??? They did re-issue Climat and 5 more older perfumes several years ago but they all are gone now (at least in the US). Climat isn’t that bad in that itteration: I have both and like both. If it’s actually available where you live I’d send you money and beg to buy me a bottle!
I saw it at Selfridges, so I’d have to refer you to our British friends, but I’m sure somebody will be able to get it for you.
I wore Brit EDT for around two years, in high school and my first year of college… and then I wore Theme Love Letter for a while, and then Harajuku Lovers Baby for a few months, and then I sort of fell down the rabbit hole again soon after starting grad school. 🙂
Brit has the cutest bottle!
I wore Thierry Mugler’s Angel for 10 years (it started long before Angel and the smell-alikes were worn by everyone). Before that, it was Venezia and a couple others. I was very faithful to Angel. At that time there were no others like it on the market. However, once it got more mainstream and I started smelling it on other people, I started disliking it. And not necessarily because it was bad, but their chemistry brought out the worst in it and I started smelling those notes on myself. So I ditched it and turned to variety of white florals and a few quirky spicy scents. I’ve never been able to go back to Angel or having a signature (the closest have been Serge Lutens Un Lys, maybe Child perfume oil, now the latest L’Artisan). But Angel and I did have some good years together!
It is nice to look back isn’t it?
I’m sorry that your signature has been ruined for you through overexposure on others. Angel was really ubiquituous fir a while.
Yes, it was everywhere! But, it was really for the best because it opened up a whole world of new and different fragrances to enjoy!
That’s true. Think of everything you would have missed had you stuck with Angel.
Wow, going down memory lane, I was such a serial monogamist for such a long time, it all started out in the seventies with Fidji, then Anaïs anaïs, Ysatis, Trésor, Bulgari eau au thé vert, followed by Blv, Cerrutti 1881, and those are the more memorable ones! All changed when I discovered my first niche scents (Diptyque and Dzing!). I’ll never go back to one scent at a time, the best part in waking up in the morning is thinking about which scent to wear.
That part of the morning really is the best! 🙂
Before I connected with the fragrance blogging community, I primarily wore one fragrance at a time. Old Spice was my very first fragrance. I started wearing it when I began shaving. I wore RL Polo exclusively for a couple of years. Then I wore Geoffrey Beene’s Grey Flannel. Since then I’ve had a wardrobe to choose from.
Polo was my first boyfriends scent as well. Ah, memories… 😉
Nice. I haven’t worn it in years. This would be a good time of year to revisit that one.
At one time I was also a serial monogamist – some of the fragrances I wore were Aliage, Jontue, Beautiful, and Lauren. Then came a long dry period when I didn’t wear perfume. I think I kept picking scents that didn’t go well on my skin, and my continual disappointment made me believe I didn’t like perfume at all. Then came my perfumista days, and I learned a lot about my likes and dislikes. Now I can’t imagine wearing just one perfume, even for a short period of time. I’m a fickle butterfly, flitting to a different fragrance every day!
How much we evolve over time… once the door to Perfumista-dom has opened, it is well nigh impossible to go back to just one. 🙂
I used to be a serial monogamist with fragrances too! Kiehl’s Original Musk. I went through several bottles of that. And a couple bottles of Acqua di Parma and Molecule 01. The last fragrance I was faithful too was Les Nuits d’Hadrian. It’s been all bets off since!
All bets off – that is a great way to put it. I know the feeling. 😉