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Holiday gift guide: How to find the perfect fragrance
Tue, 11/30/2010 - 08:42 | Wendy
The Fragrance Foundation just published this press release on how to choose the perfect fragrance for the holiday season. Highlights include the first-ever fragrance app from iPerfumer and a guide to fragrance families.
The Fragrance Foundation "nose" (pun intended) a thing or two about choosing the perfect fragrance and offers the following advice to turn hectic holiday shopping excursions into satisfying moments of pleasure and discovery.
Yes, there's an app for that. Finding the perfect fragrance just got easier. iPerfumer is the first mobile fragrance recommendation tool designed to help you find the perfect fragrance and it's available for free download from the Apple App Store. It offers tailored advice on which perfumes to try, iPerfumer removes the confusion that often surrounds choosing perfume. Revolutionary in its approach, iPerfumer is like having a personal fragrance stylist in your pocket. It provides fragrance recommendations to help make informed choices, or when buying gifts for others.
Or, go online at Sephora or get up close and personal service, knowledge and advice by seeking out a highly-trained fragrance sales specialist proudly wearing a special lapel pin to signify their fragrance expertise.
Know your nose. Perfumes are like musical compositions. The overture is the ‘top" note or the first impression when you try the scent on or open the bottle. The impact is immediate and sets up the next chorus of the fragrance which is the "middle note". This is the very heart of the fragrance that stays with you longest before the final "base note" comes into play signaling the moment when the fragrance has truly developed to its fullest, lingering on the skin for many pleasurable hours.
Next, let's talk fragrance like a pro. According to The Fragrance Foundation, who wrote the book on all things fragranced, perfumed and scented, fragrances are grouped into "families." Florals, Orientals, Chypre (pronounced Sheep-ra), Woody, Fruity, Floriental, Citrus and Green are the most well-known. "It's the magic and alchemy of the perfumer's art to blend and mix the hundreds and thousands of ingredients that can make up an infinite variety of "scentsational" scents. Just like a composer does with music," explains Rochelle Bloom, president of the Fragrance Foundation.
It helps enormously if you know who the wearer is in terms of personality and style. For instance, a girlfriend with an outgoing, bubbly personality might like a bright, citrusy fragrance. Green and fresh might suit a busy mom. A sophisticated fashionista will appreciate a designer fragrance whose name she instantly recognizes and admires for the style vibe.
A final note. Fragrances are available in a variety of concentrations. Perfume is considered top of the top, pure and true. Perfume (parfum) has the highest concentration of pure fragrance and is therefore the most intense. Just a drop or two on pulse points – wrists, behind your knees and in the crooks of your elbows, throat and neck is all it takes. Eau de Parfum is slightly less intense concentration than perfume and can be used a bit more generously.
Eau de Toilette is light but relatively lasting and can be splashed or sprayed on liberally. It's one of the most popular forms of fragrance. Consider too, all the forms a favorite fragrance comes in that can be used so that it lasts that much longer. Think matching soap, shower gels, bath oils or moisturizing body creams before the final spray or splash of the fragrance.
Courtesy of Fragrance Foundation
The Fragrance Foundation "nose" (pun intended) a thing or two about choosing the perfect fragrance and offers the following advice to turn hectic holiday shopping excursions into satisfying moments of pleasure and discovery.
Yes, there's an app for that. Finding the perfect fragrance just got easier. iPerfumer is the first mobile fragrance recommendation tool designed to help you find the perfect fragrance and it's available for free download from the Apple App Store. It offers tailored advice on which perfumes to try, iPerfumer removes the confusion that often surrounds choosing perfume. Revolutionary in its approach, iPerfumer is like having a personal fragrance stylist in your pocket. It provides fragrance recommendations to help make informed choices, or when buying gifts for others.
Or, go online at Sephora or get up close and personal service, knowledge and advice by seeking out a highly-trained fragrance sales specialist proudly wearing a special lapel pin to signify their fragrance expertise.
Know your nose. Perfumes are like musical compositions. The overture is the ‘top" note or the first impression when you try the scent on or open the bottle. The impact is immediate and sets up the next chorus of the fragrance which is the "middle note". This is the very heart of the fragrance that stays with you longest before the final "base note" comes into play signaling the moment when the fragrance has truly developed to its fullest, lingering on the skin for many pleasurable hours.
Next, let's talk fragrance like a pro. According to The Fragrance Foundation, who wrote the book on all things fragranced, perfumed and scented, fragrances are grouped into "families." Florals, Orientals, Chypre (pronounced Sheep-ra), Woody, Fruity, Floriental, Citrus and Green are the most well-known. "It's the magic and alchemy of the perfumer's art to blend and mix the hundreds and thousands of ingredients that can make up an infinite variety of "scentsational" scents. Just like a composer does with music," explains Rochelle Bloom, president of the Fragrance Foundation.
It helps enormously if you know who the wearer is in terms of personality and style. For instance, a girlfriend with an outgoing, bubbly personality might like a bright, citrusy fragrance. Green and fresh might suit a busy mom. A sophisticated fashionista will appreciate a designer fragrance whose name she instantly recognizes and admires for the style vibe.
A final note. Fragrances are available in a variety of concentrations. Perfume is considered top of the top, pure and true. Perfume (parfum) has the highest concentration of pure fragrance and is therefore the most intense. Just a drop or two on pulse points – wrists, behind your knees and in the crooks of your elbows, throat and neck is all it takes. Eau de Parfum is slightly less intense concentration than perfume and can be used a bit more generously.
Eau de Toilette is light but relatively lasting and can be splashed or sprayed on liberally. It's one of the most popular forms of fragrance. Consider too, all the forms a favorite fragrance comes in that can be used so that it lasts that much longer. Think matching soap, shower gels, bath oils or moisturizing body creams before the final spray or splash of the fragrance.
Courtesy of Fragrance Foundation
