A nose for summer

By Aditi Roy

New Delhi, March 27  The iconic Coco Chanel once said, “A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future”. A signature perfume is every elegant woman’s identity.

Be it your personality, cultural identity, seasons, or simply your mood, you can experiment, mix and match to create your own fragrance that will create a personal aura one whiff at a time.

While choosing a perfume, seasons play a major role. “It’s very important to change scents depending on the season since fragrances are greatly influenced by the temperature and summer is the best season to experiment with fragrances that are refreshing and airy, like fresh citrus, aqueous, marine, green and florals like Jasmine, tuberose, lily of the valley and gardenia,” says Abdullah Ajmal, consulting perfumer at Ajmal and Sons.

Your perfect summer picks can be lighter fragrances to capture warmer climate vibes and invigorate the mood. Also, there is no hard and fast rule to choose any particular scent. You can be bold and adventurous. “Having said that, if one wants to wear a heavier perfume in the evening, it’s fine but should be used in moderation,” Ajmal suggests.

If you prefer bold scents and find the musky accord sensuous, then the sweet accords of vanilla are an ideal mix of sensuality and femininity. For a perfect summer, punch try mixing notes of fresh vanilla, Oudh and nutmeg to add even more depth to this musky scent, making it somewhat sweet, yet not at all overpowering, suggests Sania Arora Jain, Product and Technical Head, Fabindia Personal Care.

Why remain restricted to inter traditional perfumes only? After all, in the hot, humid Indian summers, why not look into our ancient Ayurveda for some invigorating and intense scents? Coming in a plethora of exotic variants of Nargis, Parijat, natural perfumes can be your perfect answer to that.

Derived from classic single flower scents, they can be the most powerful and emotional trigger of the senses, it has the ability to reconnect to memories almost instantaneously, says Neha Rawla, Head of Brand Communications, Forest Essentials. Such formulation uses the traditional steam distillation technique that draws intense fragrances from pure essential oils and floral waters of the core flower, with a base of pure grain alcohol, Rawla adds.

There is also no need to restrict yourself to liquid variants when it comes to perfumes? Choose solid perfumes that last longer than that of liquid perfumes after each application, as they do not evaporate as swiftly as their liquid counterparts.

Besides being eco-friendly, solid perfumes, with their rich creamy base, offer a highly aromatic experience. Added bonus, they are ergonomic too as you can fit them into the smallest of bags!

Thinking of more innovative ways you can have your signature perfume? Try your favorite perfume in various formats like body oils, lotions, hand/body creme, etc. The layering of perfume with multiple products from the same range will give long-lasting olfactory experience for the entire day.

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(Aditi Roy can be contacted at aditi.r@ians.in)