Perfume - what is my "scent" and how can I find new suggestions?

[Thisismynewname123]

I'm looking for a new perfume. Without being able to go to department stores and try them, like I did in the past, I now need to figure out what it is that I like. Is there a website that will tell me, based on my liking this, I will like that, or that? Some of my faves are Ellie Saab - Girl of Now, Lancome - La Vie est Belle, Chanel - Madamoiselle. Would these examples all fall into the same bracket, and help with me understanding my scent preferences? I love perfumes. I used to wear them most days, but since lockdown and not having gone back to the office, I haven't worn perfume in months. Went out for my anniversary last week and put my Ellie Saab one on, and DH commented that I smelled like me again. I miss smelling nice!

If you look at Fragrantica, it gives the notes for individual perfumes then you can search for something with similar notes. I'm not familiar with those you like except for Mademoiselle, so it's no use telling you the names of the 200+ perfumes I have lol.

You could also Google search the names and often bloggers will give the names of what they remind them of.

Your favourite three are also mine, so I'll follow this with interest.

Just emerged from the rabbit hole that is fragantica . Thank you!

I love La Vie Est Belle and tend to like a lot of other perfumes that contain both vanilla and some kind of orangey citrus fruit. Have you tested Black Opium? That's another one that seems to suit me and the notes are officially:

Top: Pear Accord & Mandarin Essence
Heart: Vanilla, Orange Blossom & White Flowers
Base: Black Coffee Accord, Cedarwood Essence, White Musk & Patchouli

I feel that it is slightly more of a "going out" perfume whereas LVEB is gentle enough to be an "everyday" perfume. If I could only have two, I would have those two.

Boots had their testers back out today

Thanks all. I've been looking at Fragrantica. That's what i was looking for.

@foxtiger I have tested Black Opium back when dept stores were open, and yes, I liked that.

@OhTheRoses - good to know. Trip to Boots :)

Following! One of the things I like to do is order teeny samples from ebay when I think I've found something I'll like. I also have a scent-mad brother who brings me little decants of unisex stuff in exchange for cake!! I find it hard to test perfumes in stores as my nose is overwhelmed quickly, but I'm dying to get back into a department store and have a good sniff about when I can. I just can't find anything I like right now, the current scent profiles don't hit the spot for me and I don't know how to find ones that do. I quite like Mademoiselle but it's not quite there. I used to love tobacco flower from the body shop, I wish they still did it. I had a friend who would run away from me if I was wearing it because it smelled too good 😆

Oh yes! Samples.
I may be guilty of having a shoebox with about 300 in

Just remembered, there is a website called Nose (it's French so node.fr) which will send you iirc 6 fragrance samples for quite a reasonable price (sth like £10 last time I did it) based on the perfumes you tell them you like.

I found one of my all time favourites (Keiko Mecheri Cuir Cordoba- smells like the inside of your gran's scarf and glove drawer in a beautiful soft leathery way) from one of their samples. I'll never afford a full bottle though!

If you search "discovery sets" you often find samples too. There is a Dutch site called Skins that used to do a huge range of samples all in different categories but I don't think they do it now. You'd get 'green" boxes or "white flowers" boxes etc.

Mashing- Feuilles de Tabac Miller Harris is a lovely tobacco perfume. Perfume Parlour do an amazing dupe for about a fiver.

Mon Guerlain is really similar to Girl of now, but slightly more sophisticated (imho!).

I share your taste in perfumes, so I'd also recommend trying Armani Diamonds and Givenchy Very Irresistible

I like the idea of getting sample sets. I'm going to look into those

gillybobs Very Irresistible is another one of my favourites - the only downside, if you can call it that, is that it seems to last for ever on me. Like two days and two showers. On the plus side I think it is the only perfume anyone has ever stopped me in the street to ask about!