Combined Perfumes
Although you will be able to recognise without any problem the five primary categories of perfumes, things get even more complicated if we talk about the combined perfumes, that break the established boundaries.
We are talking here about some sub-categories where two or more basic assortments combine. It may happen to discover a perfume defined as “floriental”, which is a floral perfume with a subtle influence of oriental scent (or the other way around). There are also fruity floral perfumes, fruity green perfumes, wooden green perfumes and so on. As you can see, things are not so complicated.
In fact, they are not hybrids coming from two different categories, nor new species, how they often tend to be. They simply transform the basic category, by adding an important quantity from other category’s features. In these cases, only your nose will show where their fundamental structure is located, and your nose is the most important judge, after all.
Oriental Perfumes
These are the most seducing of all perfumes. They can be strong and mysterious or light, but of a special sensuality. In all cases, it is preferred to be wore in the evening, especially in cool seasons. They are exotic and intense and their faim was created by their subtlety. In this case, young women should avoid their ardent fire. The oriental perfumes are made of impetuous scents of some flowers like jasmine, carnation or gardenia and of charming exotic flavours, such as ylang ylang, orchid, osmanthus. Upon this sensual mixture, the perfumerers add special spices - cinnamon, coriander, pepper, vanilla - resins smelling like balm and amber and fruits, wooden and herbal essences, as well as coconuts, mango, vetiver and sandal wood.
They can be sweet and sensual like the classical Shalimar of Guerlain, or a little lighter, but not less sensual, like the magnificent Samsara, that belongs to the same house. Opium of Yves Saint Laurent is another big success in this domain, because of its sophisticated combination of jasmine, incense and vanilla.
If you are prepared to wear an oriental perfume - and there are many women who are not afraid to use it - you will surely know that an exotic adventure is waiting for you. Only a true woman will have the strength to keep up with it!
Green Perfumes
This is a category of perfumes whose name seems to say almost everything about them, but, in fact, is more complex than the others. Generally speaking, a green perfume reminds you at once of the open-air life and sends your imagination in a sunny place, with warm breeze. Your nose is invaded with the smell of freshly mowed grass, of wild leaves, of fern and moss, of lemon leaves crushed in the palm of the hand. And the one that never misses is the scent of the flowers and the wild herbs. The ABC of these perfumes has a classical formula that comes from French and it is called chypre. This is a strong, ravishing mixture of bergamot peel oil, galbanum (a precious, rare oil to be extracted from a plant from Persia), resins, fern and musk. It is extremely charming and of an adorable green.
It has been used for the first time by the Coty House, after the World War I in the pathfinder formula Chypre. Guerlain has used the same combination, but adding a little peach scent to his incredible creation Mitsouko. Later, after the World War II, Pierre Balmain has astonished the world of the perfumes with his masterpiece Vent Vert. Another perfume that continues the green revolution is Paloma Picasso, that, besides its green base, owns also a Spanish piquant fragrance. Even more piquant is the Coriandre of Jean Couturier, where, besides the coriander and the pelargonium, the perfumerer has put oak moss and angelica.
The green perfumes had an oscilating presence, driven by the fashion waves, but they have never disappeared, because nobody can give up at their freshness and purity. And they can always make you feel younger, from head to toes.
Wooden Perfumes
This kind of perfumes have a special note of wood or bark. This may be a sandal wood, a pine or a rose, or others that have the smell of the deep heart of a forest, such as: moss, fern, leaves or lichen. It is hard to find nowadays a perfume that can be dominated by a woody note, but some of the most extravagant maintain this feature. The most of them are beautified with other green scents and specific spices, some with the smell of shrivelled wood, others with flowers from a grove, a forest or a jungle and most of them having the sweet smell of amber.
They all have in common a breath of warmy wind, that gives them a misterious force and a delicate personality. If you manage to reach it, Montana Parfum de Peau is the modern quintessence of this category, with its fan of rare, precious woody essences, of amber, cinnamon, pepper, vetiver and ylang ylang. The obsessive Feminite du Bois is based almost entirely on the hipnotic effects of the cedar. No. 19 from Chanel reminds of an enchanted wood, because it gatheres in that little special box a bouquet of leaves, moss, sandal and white flowers. Also, the sandal from the indian state Mysore is very ingenious combined by Jean Desprez with the floral scents. The result? The remarkable Bal a Versailles.
This category can praise with the influence that it has upon some classical, well-known perfumes.
Fruity Perfumes
These perfumes that can excite your senses, have as a predominant note a mixture of fruits that may come from far-away lands, from orchards near the Mediterranean Sea, from the romantic France or the exotic jungle of the Orient. The effect of having on this kind of perfume is not to smell like a fruit salad. This is the reason why the perfumerers combine them with certain flowers (usually flowers of specific bushes) and with some spices, herbs and green notes. This crazy combination gives to a fruity perfume the freshness of a flower that has just been taken from a branch. The result can be extremely sophisticated and seducing, as Femme from Rochas, that has a scent of peach and roses. Or, they can be fresh and eccentric as Deci Dela from Nina Ricci, a bunch of raspberries, peaches and fresia. Another good example of fruity perfume is Diorella, an inspired combination of lemon, orange, melon, sweet basil and carnation from Dior House.
What these special perfumes have in common is an incandescent and vibrating warmth that takes your thoughts away to a Toscan sunny beach or to the golden sands of Sicily.
How to choose your perfume
It is a general truth that every person knows himself very well. He knows his good features, but he knows as well his black side. Usually, not all of these personal sides are shown to the world. Everybody chooses how he wants to be seen by the others. And who doesn’t want to appear in strangers’ eyes in a brigth sight? That is why everybody keeps for himself his deepest thoughts, his intimate secrets, maybe some sweet memories from the days he was only a child. All these dear thoughts come to light if you take a glimpse of the things that you buy for yourself - what things do you want and why. The personal things say a lot about you, about your personal taste, about preferences. People usually choose them taking into account the way they fit - colours, clothes, accessories, flowers, interior decorations, make-up and perfumes.
Most of the times, when you are in front of an astonishing number of posibilities, you have the tendancy to get dizzy and commit mistakes. Or, it may happen to leave ourselves under the influence of others, whose taste may be different than ours.
This tendancy verifies especially when it comes to choosing your own perfume. There are many reasons why you would like to buy a perfume. For example, you saw the commercial on TV or in a fashion magazine. Or maybe, your favourite shop has an attractive promotion. Maybe you liked how the perfume smelled on the skin of a friend of yours. These ways will not help you find the perfect perfume for you. Don’t trust any of these ways! When it comes to buying a perfume, you should trust only your own personality, because this special aroma must be compatible with your nature, lifestyle and aspirations.
The scent that you spread around it’s not for the others. In the first place, it belongs to you and is for you. It must be a continuation of your personality and your taste. If you don’t feel in your element wearing a perfume, it means that somewhere it has been commited a mistake. It may happen that the perfume will not fit with you - it can be too strong, too strident, too seducing or sweet. Or maybe is not the right season for it. It can also not fit with the clothes that you are wearing: the jeans will never fit with a sofisticated perfume, as well as an oriental, deep perfume will not complete an outfit made of a cocktail dress.
The change
This is the key-word. The right perfume at the right time, having on the right clothes changes something in the way you look, gives you a drop of mistery and most important, changes the way the others look at you…
Floral Perfumes
The main idea is that these types of perfumes are floral bouquets, which means that they are made from a number of flower scents. These scents form their predominant theme. Only some of them pretend to have only one dominant theme, but that unique floral note must be sustained by other ingredients.
The most ordinary bouquet is the so-called rose and jasmine duet. Most of the perfumes, either famous or not, have in their basis this combination, but for making some difference between them, their creators have added other combinations of flowers, as well as other ingredients, such as moss, fruits, spice and musk. All these can offer to a perfume a certain originality. The most famous classic examples of this duet can be found in Joy from Platou, Arpege from Lanvin and No. 5 from Chanel.
There are also some other floral perfumes whose bouquets don’t contain at all this combination: Anais Anais from Cacharel, which is based on lilies and orange flowers, or Champs-Elysee from Guerlain, a perfect scent that combines the rose with buddleia - flower with the smell closed to the lilac.
Well, at the end, there is only one thing I can say the floral perfumes have in common and this is the intense feminity and the romantic charm, in different grades of freshness and sweetness.
