How to Choose a Signature Perfume Scent

A signature scent is one that perfectly embodies your mood and personality. Curating your perfume profile can take time, and being open to different notes and scent types will help you to find a fragrance that speaks to your personal essence.

Scents have the power to uplift moods and make you feel how you want. When picking perfume, some prefer to opt for wardrobe scents over a single fragrance, and others like to have designated scents for each seasons and for day and night.

For the difference between a wardrobe scent and signature scent, read on. This perfume guide shows how to choose perfume so that what you wear perfectly encapsulates you.

Signature scent vs wardrobe scent

When deciding your scent style, there are a few considerations to make. A fragrance interacts with you differently depending on how you wear it. Those who opt for a signature scent tend to use a particular fragrance year-round. This scent informs the memories your close connections have of you, creating a sensorial embodiment of you.

Scent wardrobes on the other hand include multiple fragrances, worn like a range of outfits. Those who prefer to have different choices to suit different moods, times of day or occasions may opt for a scent wardrobe. Though wardrobes may include floral, fruity and woody fragrances, they can also keep a theme of single notes, creating a signature theme.

How to choose a signature scent

When searching for your signature fragrance, follow what captures your attention, and take time to explore different notes. Our range of transformative fragrances are intricately layered, and subtly complex. The experience of looking for a signature scent is a personal and intimate one – allow yourself space to explore a selection and see which notes speak best to you.

The natural pH of our skin interacts with each scent to create a unique perfume, so your decision will also be authentic to you. Read below for our tips on how to pick perfume.

Only try a few scents at a time

When finding a signature perfume, search in groups of three. Too many different profiles will overwhelm and confuse your olfactory bulb – the part of our brain that receives input on odours. To give each fragrance a chance, limit your search to a few, and in-between each one reset your scent intake by smelling coffee beans or the crook of your elbow.

Allow the scent to evolve over time

Scents have three perfume notes, that are each revealed over time. The initial scent you smell is the top note, which begins to transition after around fifteen minutes. Heart notes tend to be warm, and linger for an hour before transforming into a base note – the final and richest stage. To get a full understanding of a fragrance, allow it to develop on your skin over time – around two hours will show the full perfume.

Always start with lighter scents and build up

When trying perfumes, you should do so in order of lightness. Doing so will help each different scent type to best show their depth. Begin with fresh, aqueous scents like the Acqua Di Gio Eau De Toilette or Acqua Di Gioia Eua De Parfum, to allow their clarity to fully shine through. Following on, build up to fruity and floral fragrances, such as the playful Emporio Armani Because It’s You. Finish with deep wood fragrances like the Armani Code For Women Eau De Parfum, which tend to have heavier and richer base notes.

Understand your scent types

A perfume profile includes a combination of intricately formed scents, so it’s important to be able to identify each type. In answering the question ‘what perfume should I buy’, it really comes down to which scent types draw you in. Look through the perfume or cologne guide to see the total profile. Wood fragrances like Acqua Di Gio Absolu Fragrance allude to masculinity, warmth and elegance. An oriental or fruit based fragrance like the Si Eau De Parfum Intense represents feminine confidence and sophistication. If you align with delicate and passionate scents, look for a floral fragrance like the luminous Si Passione Eclat Eau De Parfum.

Consider how you wear perfume

As your signature scent should be unique to you, consider the ways that you wear your perfume. Your lifestyle plays a part in this – think about whether you lean towards fragrances for your personal or professional life more, or if you are looking for an all-encompassing scent. As fragrances transport us to different places and memories from our past, you may also want to use a different perfume across summer and winter, day and night, and for specific occasions. Your signature perfume should be worn as you like, to truly show who you are.

Now that you know how to choose a perfume, discover our range of luxurious perfume gifts sets.