Signature Scent Conundrum

Before this week’s post begins be sure to check out my latest video titled At Home Manicure where I show you a tutorial on how I give myself a manicure at home and share with you my new favorite neutral shade of nail polish, Diego Dalla Palma's French Pink No. 16. To see the video click here, look in the sidebar of this blog or visit my channel: www.youtube.com/TheDailyConnoisseur

And now for this week's post...

As many of you know lately I have gone on the search for a new signature scent. I have worn Stella by Stella McCartney for a good part of the last decade and felt it was time for a change. I’m not sure what I expected to encounter on the hunt for my new signature perfume… some good fragrances, some bad fragrances… an adventure perhaps? Well, yes I have encountered all three but I also have encountered something a little unexpected…

I have found that I like some of the perfumes on my hunt so much that I am beginning to wonder if I can choose and be faithful to just one! I know many of you readers have expressed the same issue. Of course I didn’t just use Stella for the past decade, I also used a few other fragrances for certain occasions but I mainly used Stella… it would be very accurate to have called it my signature scent.

But I am starting to wonder if perhaps I should have a capsule perfume collection to go with my capsule clothing and makeup collection…

I have received large sample sizes of most of the perfumes I’ve reviewed enabling me to wear them much more than once. When I recently attended a baby shower I had a strong desire to wear Jo Malone’s Grapefruit as I felt the occasion called for something fresh, vibrant and crisp.

When going out to dinner with my husband recently I wore Bvlgari’s Rose Essentielle because I wanted something heady and romantic.

And last night just to wander around the house I had a strong desire to wear Love, Chloé because I longed for a powdery, ladylike fragrance.

This is quite a conundrum because, you see, I had it in my mind (firmly in my mind) that I wanted to have a signature scent. I wanted my daughter 20 years from now to smell a Bulgarian rose and think “Ahhh that smells like Mommy’s perfume- Rose Essentielle!” Wouldn’t that be nice?

And also because that’s what this entire series is on… finding my signature scent! I suppose I could always change the title to The Search for my New Capsule Perfume Collection- but it doesn’t quite have the same ring…

And to complicate matters further I came across the most amazing niche perfume boutique in Venice last week called Strange Invisible Perfumes and feasted my eyes (and nose) on a whole slew of their organic, botanical perfumes that were just totally desirable to me (reviews forthcoming)…

I do suppose this is a high quality problem… but all the same I am going to go meditate on the subject for a while.

I would love to know… can you relate to my perfumed conundrum?

This Thursday look for a special guest post by Randi Ragan on the top 10 herbs to cultivate for beauty and health (including recipes, tips and tricks!)

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The porcelain figures pictured above are from China's Kangxi Reign and date back from 1622 - 1722 They are quintessentially Chinoiserie and can be found at the Getty Center in Los Angeles