Scent of a Woman

If you haven't seen it - watch it! (Al Pacino is great and Chris O'donnell is cute and was still making movies....)

But this post isn't about the movie...its about me and my scent. And another trend that I'm keeping in mind for the wedding. Those of you that stalk wedding blogs might have noticed that some photographers are making a point to snag a pic of the perfume their bride is wearing for her big day. That's because brides today are picking a new perfume, special for the wedding day (and maybe honeymoon), to help associate a memory with the scent. That way when they wear it later on - it will make both them and the hubby think about their wedding :) - maybe brides have been doing this forever, but the Internet and blogs have advertised it so that brides like me who would have never thought about it - see it and steal the idea!

Now, I don't wear perfume at all - so following this trend would mean picking out any perfume that I like to wear for the day of. So when I didn't have an errand to run on my lunch (typically what I do during my lunch) the other day I decided to head over to the mall to smell some scents!

Alexa kindly offered to go with me and off to Sephora we went. I knew that I wanted something smelling more fresh than sweet. So when Tiffany (heavily makeuped Sephora employee) asked what we were looking for - I told her. She suggested their fancy shmancy 'Finding the Perfect Perfume for You' machine! (Okay that's not really what its called, but that's what its supposed to do!) Tiffany showed us how it works: you answer a series of 10 questions - selecting your favorite of the choices they provide and at the end it tells you what kind of scent might match your personality. Here is Alexa selecting her favorite flower.

The machine must have been on a roll that day b/c it confirmed for me that a fresh scent would fit my t-shirt and jeans, champagne drinking and daisy loving self. Then below the machine - Sephora provided a sample of perfumes for each category. (I know the picture isn't perfect but starting on the left there is Citrus, Fresh, Floral, Oriental, & Woody labels) You could also scroll through the Fresh options on the screen that they had available throughout the store. Tiffany also pointed out a line of perfumes called 'Clean' that I might like if I was looking for something on the fresh side. So Alexa and I dug in and started spraying little strips of paper with each of the perfumes.

I should preface my next comments, by saying that every nose is different and everyone's preferred smell is probably waaaay different. In addition, Alexa intelligently pointed out that scents often change when you actually put them on your body (because of pheromones and stuff) so in other words - if you like one of the perfumes that I didn't like, we can still be friends!

I did not like the Clean perfumes. They were oddly....unclean? They were a pretty intense smell certainly associated to their name (apparently I think clean/fresh means light) but slightly overdone. 'Warm Cotton' - for example - smelled like a Bounce sheet prior to being dried. You know, it has that really intense clean laundry smell that works so much better once its been heated up and dispersed equally through your load of laundry. Yeah, it was the too intense version of a Bounce. And the 'Summer Escape' (which I accidentally sprayed all over my hand and therefore smelled like for the rest of the day) - smelled like that mango filled, tropic you'd associate with a summer escape, but more of the Runts version of it. (You know, how Runts have that true banana smell, but one that is way over exaggerated and sweetened up just a hair too much) - that was Summer Escape.

What I did like was one of the first perfumes I smelled. (And that might have something to do with it...I'm sure my sense of smell was affected by the overdose of scents I provided it in a short 10 minute span) = Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue. It was exactly what I think 'fresh' should smell like. Alexa agreed that Light Blue was the right name for a perfume that smelled like this. So Tiffany kindly hooked me up with a sample of Light Blue so that I could try it out (and see how it mixes with my own pheromones). Today I smell like Light Blue and think that I still really like it. I'm a little worried its not subtly enough - but we'll see how it wears throughout the day.

Happy smelling friends! (as in - enjoy smelling, not that you guys smell or anything...you know cause I said 'smelling friends'....you get it...)