How do you find your signature scent?

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

I really want to find a perfume I adore. I have no idea of starting point for this though. I’m assuming there are companies that provide a service where you can sniff a load of samples or something and figure out the notes that you like and go from there. If there are does anyone have any recommendations?

Just go an sniff a load, make a note of the ones you like. There are loads of websites out there that will list the notes of each so you can figure out what it is about each you like then it will point you in the direction of similar scents. Try fragrantica.

I have a perfume... issue so no signature scent but loads I love!

I started with somewhere like selfridges and just sniffed away. Got an idea of the type (gourmand/green/spicy) I liked and the notes they had in common

Sniffed everything! From shower gel to herbs and spices to new scents I saw in Superdrug

Then I browsed Fragrantica

Ordered samples and tried those

I'm at a point now I can buy a perfume without sniffing it and know I will love it

No one needs a ‘signature scent’. It was just a marketing device to lock young women into a lifetime of servitude to a single perfume company!

Two excellent shops that cover a wide range of perfumes and send samples are

Les Senteurs (more traditional perfumes)

Bloom (more experimental - with several different sample subscription options).

Brands like

Celine
Frederic Malle
Perfumer H

and countless others also offer samples - generally in small collections rather than individually.

Have fun!

I think it takes a bit of time to find the perfume.

To me, it is the one that just feels so right, something that not everyone else is also wearing or smells a bit more unique on you, and the one that you also get the most compliments on.

I have two, my main one is an old fragrance, Dune.

The other is Jo Malone Tonka and Myrrh. And I have a rather vast collection of fragrances, and none of the others grasp me like these two do.

When my dc come home and give me a hug (they live a long way away), they always comment how welcoming it is as I smell like "home".

Five step process:

1. You find it as a sample on a magazine cover when you are fourteen and know you’ve met the one
2. You wear it loyally for over a decade even through it is reformulated
3. Then grieve for it when it is discontinued
4. Only to spend the rest of your life buying old bottles of it on eBay
5. You curse that your impression of having a signature scent came from your mum and aunty, Chanel No5 and Opium respectively, as they never had any worries about continuity, and so you shake your futile fists at the fickle perfume gods.

I’m looking at you (Eau de) Gucci. Literally, now of fto check eBay yet again.

My husband bought me a bottle of chanel chance 10yrs ago. And when it ran out he bought me a second bottle!

(I'm not the right person to help here obviously 🙄😁)

Every single time either I, or my mother, find a perfect, lifelong love perfume, the creator dies or production becomes unsustainable … It’s quite ridiculously painful when you’ve thought you would have access to the thing forever.

I had a perfume subscription from Scentful for Christmas, they send you 2 random samples each month, 5mls, so enough to wear for a few days and have a proper idea

I tend to go back to perfumes that remind me of something or a particular time in my life. I’d be very nostalgic though. I’m wearing Clinique happy lately as it just reminds me of a fun time in my late teens. Or I love D&G The One as it reminds me of when one of my babies was born. Would never really have a signature scent.
I could spend hours in Duty Free sniffing and spraying testers.

I don't have, or want, a signature scent. There are just too many I like! I have a huge collection of fragrances, some I wear more than others. On any given day, I choose my scent based on the weather, my mood, and just what I feel like. Sometimes I go to pick up a bottle then find myself grabbing a different one at the last minute. Like a previous poster, at this stage I can blind buy a fragrance based on notes and know pretty much whether I will like it or not.

That sounds exactly the kind of thing I need in my life. I get nose blind when I smell lots of fragrances in a shop, plus I like to wear them for a few days to see how it smells as it wears off.

You have to wear it. Those scent wands they give you just aren't the same. Some fragrances smell very different on other people, so your friend's perfume which smells divine on her may not be the same on you.

Good luck op

I have a signature scent. It's coco Chanel mademoiselle. It's probably a bit of a cliche but I've worn it consistently for about 15 years. Have had other perfumes alongside but always fall back to that one. It's my absolute favourite. No other scent stays quite like it. They all fade too quick.

I’m just like @KatPurrson - except, luckily, mine is still going as a “one for the old ladies” brand, so I can usually find a bottle in a large duty free shop! I agree with her post; find something you like, wear it until it starts to “not smell like you” to wear anything else. (My DH was genuinely quite horrified at the idea of my trying something different as I’ve literally worn the same thing for over 30 years, well before he first met me!)

The other thing you can do if you’ve liked the smell of something in a shop is order a tester/sample size from eBay and then try it for a few days to see if you really do
like it. I’ve bought them for my DD for her to try; it’s often worth spending £5 or so not to make an expensive mistake on a big bottle.

I’m with @DramaAlpaca but I would say Chanel 19 is my “signature scent” despite having about 50 full bottles of others. It just feels like me, and I haven’t been without a bottle in about 15 years.

Strangely, the person on the perfume counter found mine. Annick Goutal's "Eau d'Hadrian" was really popular - a very lemony scent. I went to try it. The perfume counter man looked at me and said, "I think this one is a better match for your personality" and handed me a sample of what became my signature scent. I adore the scent and it is one of the few that doesn't smell lovely on other people and like cat wee on me.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses funnily enough, I've been reaching for Chanel No. 19 a lot recently. It's just perfect for this time of year. Apart from Cristalle, it's the only Chanel I like, it suits me really well and I'd never be without a bottle either.

I'm not wearing it today though, today is Mon Guerlain.

It's taken me years and years. The signature scent is something someone associates with you and that you associate with you. It's a lot of trial and error as even the nicest fragrances may not last on you/work with your body chemistry well.

Unfortunately it's understanding what you like, what you want to portray and then lots of trial and wear tests.

And hope it's not discontinued within a few years!

Your bodies hormones and pheromones change throughout your life. Do does your lifestyle. I dint think one fragrance takes you through all events, scenarios and ages. What I liked and wore at 23 wasn't what I did at 38 and perimenopause changed things again.
What I wear in a night out in summer is completely different ti what I wear on the weekend and in winter.

I don’t have a signature as I like and have far too many perfumes, I like to mix it up depending on the day, where I’m going, working, nights out, time of year etc. plus the last time I fell in love with one perfume they discontinued it (looking at you Gucci flora) that was the closest I came to a signature I suppose

I walked past my signature scent in a shop and absolutely fell in love with it

I don't think it is a case of going out to find a signature scent.

It just happens.