It is strange how perfumes only really use smells such as spice, fruit and flowered smells to create the scents we love to wear day in and day out, however when you ask people what their favourite smells are you will get answers like ‘the smell of freshly cut grass’, ‘he smell of bread baking’, ‘seaside smell of fresh salty air’ and ‘freshly washed clothes’. It’s really odd that because of this there are not those specific smells out there in perfume or aftershave! However I guess you can get air fresheners and room sprays that contain those smells so somehow the fragrance companies have worked out that as much as we enjoy those smells, no-one would like to smell like them!

A friend at work told me today that the aftershave he was wearing cost £200 for the bottle. I almost fell off my seat. He looked smug about it for a while and then admitted that his version of the Tom Ford aftershave was in fact the high street version which was £50 for the bottle. Still a hefty amount admittedly, and to be honest it does smell really good. Understated but powerful and masculine. There are a few perfumes and aftershaves that do high quality ‘high street versions’ of their ‘top quality perfumes’ which is really good because you get the same designer fragrance for a lower price but you still have a designer bottle sat on your shelf at home. The Tom Ford man perfume he was wearing you can only get at Selfridges and the £200 version apparently is very rare to find in the UK.

Yesterday I bumped into a friend who was wearing some lovely smelling perfume. After asking what it was, she told me that she was wearing her boyfriend’s aftershave (or man-perfume as I call it)! I was shocked as it suited her so well. It turns out that he sprayed her with it as a joke a few days ago but she really enjoyed the smell and continued to use it! That backfired on him in a way he couldn’t have imagined! So I wonder if this happens often. The only times I have sprayed myself or an item of my clothing with man-perfume is so I can be reminded of the man in question when I am not with him, which is a really good way of keeping him close to you when you are apart. However to wear it as your own personal scent seems strange to me. Perhaps this is because I suit floral perfumes and my friend suits more spicy ones.

When you find a perfume that suits you, you just know it. I had a moment a few months ago where I was mooching around Selfridges, pretending to be posh and loaded, and accidentally got addicted to the smell of one of the most expensive perfumes I have ever come across. Now there are only so many times you can go into Selfridges and spray a tester on your scarves and coats before they get a little bit annoyed and therefore I decided to try and forget about it. The perfume in question is Viktor and Rolf’s Flowerbomb. I love it more than any other perfume I have ever smelled however it is £66 for a small bottle and unfortunately I do not have a tree that grows golden apples in the garden. My most expensive perfume was about £40 and I used it sparingly due to this fact. A few weeks ago I was in Superdrug looking for some perfume to buy my little sister for Christmas and we were smelling the samples when lo and behold, I discovered a budget version of Flowerbomb! It turns out that Kate Moss’ Velvet Hour smells very much like Flowerbomb when on me! And it was a snip at about £15 so I bought some and it has become my new everyday perfume. Excellent work Kate! Why not try this when you have a similar predicament?

The search for the perfect perfume is like searching for the perfect partner. You may try loads on and like them, perhaps hate some, and perhaps fall out of love with others after time has passed. However when you do find the one for you, you just know it. People tell you that you smell nice, even when you can’t smell the perfume on yourself and think it has worn off, that’s just the sign that it suits you. When the person you are interested in makes a comment about how you are wearing ‘that perfume again’ it is safe to say you don’t think you’ll ever change it! I have a few different perfumes that I have worn over the years that I keep for different occasions; however I have a staple one which I would be horrified if anyone else wore after knowing it was mine. Is that strange? There was a strange moment when the new girl at work with the same name as me got Cacharel’s Amor Amor out of her bag, it was a funny coincidence.