A new season is the ideal time to revamp our fragrance collections. Ricky Allen chats with some of the leading fragrance experts on how to choose the perfect scent for every season.
Erica Moore
Fragrance evaluator, fragrances of the world
Fragrance preferences are very individual, so personal taste comes into what we start using as the weather cools down. Generally, we associate warmer notes like wood, amber, musk and spices with cooler months, and sometimes the sweeter gourmand notes such as vanilla, caramel and sugar.
The heat of our skin in warmer months can accelerate the development of the fragrance on our skin. The extra surface moisture on the skin from humidity and sweat can also change the way fragrance smells but it does not alter the structure of it. In cooler weather we wear more layers of clothing and fragrance often has to compete with those layers and there is less body heat to diffuse the scent. This is why we naturally tend to choose slightly stronger fragrances. We also have a tendency to apply fragrance more often in the cooler weather.
Ethan Archer
National training manager, libertine parfumerie
Changing fragrances seasonally is like changing food seasonally. It isn’t essential, but embracing the weather makes you feel more connected to the world in a beautiful way – like eating refreshing granita in the sun or decadent chocolate cake by an open fire. So, if your fragrance is discordant with your changing fragrance desires, you may fifind that you tend to stop wearing that fragrance as much or altogether.
Dry woods and iris are some of the best notes to wear as the weather starts to cool down. Amber and gourmand fragrances work well in the heart of winter when the days are the coolest. As well, our skins tend to dry out at that time of the year so they do not hold scent as well as there is not as much natural oil to cling to. You can try to help this problem by using unscented moisturisers which will help our fragrance to stay on and last. CBM
More winter fragrance faves
