The fashion designer Jean Patou, the main competitor of Coco Chanel, called his perfume "invisible couture". Here's what he meant: A few fragrant drops can change your attitude - like a glass of champagne or an evening dress that fits well. During the Great Depression, when customers at home could no longer afford expensive outfits, the brand survived thanks to the same "invisible couture" - a perfume business founded by the visionary Pat in the mid-1920s.
Jean Patou fragrances were indeed high fashion from perfumery - centipeal, redundant, like gold embroidery during the war. But that same feeling of an extra, invisible layer of clothing, or rather a filter, can give any scent that resonates with your mood. Thus, authors of perfumery texts often compare amber aromas with cashmere, and strict irises with a starched white shirt. The last comparison is especially greasy, since, as is commonly believed, the basis of any perfumery wardrobe is perfumes for everyday work.
Office fragrance, they like to write in magazines, should be “delicate” so that none of the colleagues suffocate, unless you are sitting in your own corner office and there is only ficus from the living next door. But “delicate” is not the most exhaustive word in our case. There are no ready-made solutions that everyone likes: even “old-school colognes with only citrus fruits and rosemary” - an option proposed by perfumer Anna Zvorykina - can be annoying.
Once a clever man with great taste spoke to me about Lime Basil & Mandarin, Jo Malone - a citrus scent close to perfection - as follows: "It smells like a floor cleaner." Therefore, the only honest advice is to use, as Anna calls them, "polite doses" of perfume and not wear too diffuse options to work. Diffusion or sillage in perfumery is the ability of a scent to smell at a distance: the greater the distance at which it is felt by someone else's nose, the higher the diffuseness.
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Are there perfumes for winter and summer? For blondes, brunettes and redheads? For Aries and Pisces? I would like to say: no. I would like to mainly in defiance of representatives of a new profession, fashionable, like a gallery in the early 2000s - aroma-acoustics and perfume stylists. The latter will be happy to pick you a scent under the ascendant in the birth chart, under your diet ("Are you a vegan? Here's a perfume with the scent of sprouted wheat"), under a tweed suit inherited from your grandmother - any whim for your money.
If a person offers to find a suitable perfume based on your personality type according to some Enneagram, please get up and leave. Spend these conventional ten thousand on a whole bag of "samples" and choose - with your own nose - what you like. However, there is a nuance: the season - more precisely, the weather conditions (and not the "energy flows of spring") - really affects the evaporation and, as a result, the disclosure and perception of the aroma. In winter and summer, the same perfume composition behaves differently. How - can only be determined empirically, "fitting" at different times of the year.
And finally: take care of your perfumery wardrobe as you do your favorite clothes. Perfume is not such a precious substance as consultants in stores like to present it. They can take a lot: the shelf life on the packaging is mostly fictitious, which proves the excellent preservation of many vintage fragrances. But there are basic rules - store the bottle in a dark place (for example, in a cabinet with opaque doors) and not expose it to a sharp temperature drop. You don't need to keep perfumes in the cabinet near the heated towel rail, but you shouldn't put them in the refrigerator either, especially if you plan to use the appropriate perfume every day.
5 scents for all occasions
Le Frenchy, Guerlain
The three-piece bird on which the sonorous Le Frenchy flies is verbena, vetiver and petitgrain, fresh leaves and young sprigs of orange, which smells of unripe citrus and spring coolness. The perfect scent for the middle of an endless work week: recalls the beauty of organic life outside the cold office.
RUB 16 530 for 100 ml, TSUM
Trench, Yves Saint Laurent
There are always a lot of beautiful trench coats lingering on summer sales: for all their ostentatious versatility, they are quite demanding on a person - a trench coat must be able to be worn confidently and at ease. The same applies to the best perfumery irises: these are fragrances of complex cut that think a lot about themselves and, like poorly shrunk raincoats, exist separately from the wearer. But not Trench - a fruity iris with a cool, smooth, “ironed” musk, at the same time everyday and suitable for publication.
RUB 9750 for 75 ml, YSL online store
Superstitious, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle
A magnificent aldehyde-floral scent that needs a special occasion: a benoir bed at the Bolshoi Theater or a cocktail to celebrate a long-awaited move to Paris. The volume occupied by roses and jasmine Superstitious in space is extremely large - its counterpart in clothes can be called a crinoline from the times of Marie Antoinette: when such a one floats down the stairs, there is no room for other skirts.
5050 RUB for 10 ml, TSUM
Escentric 04, Escentric Molecules
Parents' meeting, meeting with the loan officer, meeting the parents - funny and cute grapefruits, gathered on a metal thread, are great for events that require a smile in combination with an iron rod. Real perfumery goodness with fists.
7400 RUB for 30 ml, Molecule boutiques
XX ± Latex, Uer Mi
All fragrances of the Italian brand Uer Mi are dedicated to the materials from which the clothes are made (the name of the brand is stylized English wear me, “put me on”). Latex was collected by Antoine Lee, the author of the most controversial fragrances of recent years - from Sécrétions Magnifiques, Etat Libre d'Orange to Sulfur [16S], One of Those; the result is a "ghost in the shell" - a pixelated lilac wrapped in latex. Suitable for trendy film premieres and contemporary art auctions.
RUB 9,000 for 75 ml, beautydrugs.ru>