"Choosing a scent should be impulsive, based on emotions and taste."
Honorine Blanc
Here are a few experts' tips for testing, using, and cherishing your personal dream perfume, scent, and fragrance in these perfume ground rules.
Rule1: Hit the reset button when testing.
"If you inhale perfumes for too long while testing at the store, you'll exhaust your scent receptors. The traditional trick of sniffing coffee beans jolts them back into action, but it's a little overkill. Do as the perfumers do and sniff a neutral area, like the crook of your elbow (where, presumably, you haven't been spraying anything); it will give your nose a break to recover."
Honorine Blanc
A Lebanon-born, Paris-trained perfume expert, who created some fragrances for Estee Lauder, Michael Kors, and YSL to her name.
Rule 2: Spraying the air and walking through the cloud? Not worth it.
"It's a waste of good perfume. To prevent the scent from overwhelming, choose one pulse point instead - the neck, behind the ears, or wrists, where your skin will warm the scent and gently diffuse it around you. Allowing it to evaporate naturally on the skin keeps the scent pure."
Francis Kurkdjian
A award-winning fragrance expert behind perfumes like Narciso Rodriguez for Her and Burberry My Burberry
"There's a long history of women stealing their boyfriend's cologne!"
Cecile Hua
Rule 3: Take those bottles out of the bathroom so they'll last longer.
"Treat a perfume like a fine wine; the juice can degrade quickly when exposed to light, heat, or air. Keep it anywhere but the bathroom. The temperature and humidity fluctuations as the quickest ways to ruin your scent. Store on a vanity or shelf away from light, and with good care, perfumes can last for a year or more."
Cecile Hua
She is the Provence native perfume expert who is responsible for Atelier Cologne Grand Neroli, Jessica Simpson Fancy, and, most recently Ralph Lauren Ralph Fresh, of which she was a coperfumer.
