A perfumes scent will greatly differ within its surroundings. Your impression of a scent sprayed in a large heavily scented department store can be different than sprayed in your own home. Differences in temperature and humidity can also play a huge part in the smell of the perfume. However the main differences in the olfactory effect of a perfume is the compounds it contains, which will evaporate at relatively different speeds, this will affect all brands of perfume.



The way a perfume is described by the perfumers is by its fragrance composition. Top note, heart note and base note. This explains the way a scent develops and will be completely different in every perfume.

If you are searching for that perfect perfume, don't overdo it by spraying many, many different perfumes all over you as you nose will go "blind" and you will not be able to tell if you like the fragrance or not.

You should only test about four or five different perfumes at any time; you should spray these on an unperfumed part of your body and as far apart from each other as possible. In addition, a perfume will smell different on the individuals skin, what smells good on one person could smell totally different on yourself, this should be taken into consideration before choosing the right perfume.

Perfume is meant for people to enjoy when they are in close quarters with you, not for the people across the other side of the room. Don't apply too much perfume at any one time as this may make your scent appear too strong and you may not achieve that ideal perfumed fragrance.

Perfumes can be divided into several fragrance categories - floral, spice, citrus, marine or woody for example. And while fragrance is used as a very general term, to be more accurate fragrances can be broken down into five types -

Perfume - this is the strongest and purest form of fragrance. It is made of up to 40% of fragrance oils and therefore is the most expensive - but the scent lasts the longest. True perfume is usually dabbed on rather than sprayed onto the skin.

Eau de parfum - is the most common type of perfume and comprises up to 14% of fragrance oils. Most of the scent is lost after a few hours but about a third will remain until the very next day. It's better to apply the scent to spots where the skin is warmest, on the wrists and ankles, on the inside of the elbow, on your inner thighs or between your breasts. But not behind your ears as there are too many glands that can alter the way a fragrance smells.

Eau de toilette - is the weakest of the fragrances with up to approximately 3% of fragrance oils and will only last a couple of hours. One way to make the scent last longer is to rub some into the hair by your temples or run some through your hair with your brush.

Eau de cologne - was the most general fragrance in use about 300 years ago but is very rarely made anymore. The modern day equivalent is eau fraiche and all the major perfume houses like Dior and Elizabeth Arden produce them and they act a little like a concentrated eau de toilette.