Like any girl, I want to smell nice, but not overpowering. Lately, I have been experimenting with different scents and mixing different them for different occasions. There is no bigger compliment then having a man say you smell nice. That is one of my favorite things to hear.

This got me thinking, how do you determine the right scent? I think it helps to understand the basic choices:

Perfume

Perfume has a 30-40 percent perfume oil concentration which is meant to last for 6-8 hours. This is the most expensive type of fragrance and you want to use it sparingly. You should focus it on your pulse points.

Eau de Parfum

Eau de Parfum contains 15-20 percent perfume oil concentration and lasts about 5 hours. This is a great scent to spray on your hair or clothing.

Eau de Toilette

Eau de Toilette has a 10 percent perfume oil concentration. This only lasts for a few hours.

Eau de Cologne

Eau de Cologne has a 5-7 percent perfume oil concentration which is meant to last 2-3 hours. You can reapply this frequently without being overpowering. This is usually a great body spray.

The strength of the scent determines its price, so that longer it lasts the more expensive it is. Once you know what type of scent to get you then need to figure out what scents you like.

Here is the standard fragrance wheel, created by Michael Edwards. The four main scents are Floral, Oriental, Woody and Fresh. Each of these are divided into sub-groups on the wheel:

The Fragrance Wheel

Floral – Floral fragrances can be from the scent of one particular flower or several flowers.

Oriental – Oriental fragrances include animalistic scents comgined with vanilla, tonka bean, flowers and woods

Woody – These typically include agarwood, sandalwood, cedarwood and patchouli.

Fresh – These include citrus, green and aquatic notes.

Now that we know a little bit more about the different types of scents I thought I would share my favorites with you and my newest purchase.

One of the first fragrances I remember wearing in high school was a Peach Nectar Long Lasting Body Fragrance from Bath & Body Works. They have long discontinued this, but I still have the bottle in my cabinet. I don’t wear it frequently, but when I do the scent takes me back to when I was 16. I love it just for that reason. I love the way different scents can bring back old memories.

Peach Nectar

In college I upgraded to Victoria’s Secret Dream Angels Halo which was launched in 2000. This is a floral fragrance from Ilias Ermenidis. The top notes are poinsettia, fig leaf, freesia and tiare flower. The middle notes are orchid, pepper and vanilla. The base note is sandalwood. One of the reasons I love this scent is because my husband complimented me on it when we first met, before we started dating. I usually save this for a special occasion with my husband.

Dream Angels Halo

This is an Eau de Parfum and has been discontinued from Victoria’s Secret. Sometimes they re-release it into the stores, but I usually find online at Sears or eBay.

After college, I started selling Mary Kay for a while and discovered Embrace Dreams Fragrance Mist. I remember getting so many compliments on this one from my tour groups when I worked at Pewabic Pottery. This is a creamy floral scent containing bamboo, decaffeinated red tea and sandalwood. I still love this scent, it is great to wear every day. It has been discontinued, but I like to get it on eBay periodically.

Mary Kay Embrace Dreams

Once Embrace Dreams was discontinued I went back to Victoria’s Secret and tried Dream Angels Heavenly. This is usually my standby when I can’t get the perfume I want. It is $45-60 depending on the size you get. It was created in 1999 and has notes of quince, cardamom, ivy and mandarin. The heart includes lotus, white peony, freesia, iris and violet. The base contains white musk, sandalwood, orchid and vanilla. This was also created by Ilias Ermenidis and is an Eau de Parfum.

Dream Angels Heavenly

I have also enjoyed the spin off to this, Dream Angels Heavenly Kiss, which was introduced in 2008. They don’t always have this in the stores as it’s a limited edition scent, but you can find it on eBay. This is an Eau de Parfum and has top notes of red currant, red fruit and watermelon. Middle notes include the heart of freesia petals, guava, apricot nectar and jasmine. The bottom notes are soft vanilla, creamy notes of wood, English toffee, marshmallow and sensual musk.

Heavenly Kiss

This brings me to my current scent, Jimmy Choo Eau de Parfum, which debuted in 2011. I am still on my first bottle, so I haven’t decided if this will be my new favorite scent yet. This can be very overpowering, so I have to be careful not to spray too much. This is a floral fruity composition with a deep woody base. It opens with ginger, pear and green accords. The heart includes exotic tiger orchid and is blended with tea rose. This was created by Olivier Polge.

Jimmy Choo

After going back through all of my scents over the years I realized that my signature scent needs to be a floral Eau de Parfum. Now that I know what to look for, I can’t wait try out some new scents.

Let me know if you have any fragrances that you can’t live without, I would love to try them.

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