A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Givaudan, the worlds most respected fragrance manufacturer has released an iPhone App unimaginatively titled: iPerfumer.  It’s for the iPhone?  Better stick a small “i” in at the beginning of the name then *yawn*.

Having said that, I had barely finished scrolling to the bottom of the press release before I’d scooped up my iPhone and zoned in on the App Store.  Combine my iPhone geekery with an undying fascination for the perfume world and it was downloaded and installed faster than a fat kid at a cake buffet.

Now, despite my fascination in perfumes and scents… I’m a total n00b.  I’m clueless, which is great… ‘cos I’m guessing this App is aimed at people like me who struggle to navigate the complicated world of perfumes.

The App itself is pretty basic, you fire it up… enter some personal details and preferences (I had to look up some of the fragrance types – chypre? fougere? wassat!) and finally start ‘rating’ fragrances that you’ve tried, with 5 stars being top marks.

The first thing I noticed was that once I’d entered my personal preferences, there doesn’t seem to be a way to ‘go back’ and edit them.  I’m stuck with having given ‘Oriental’ 3 stars, when I should have given it more.  Make sense?  The only way I can see to fix this is to delete my profile and start from scratch.  Frankly, I can’t be arsed.

It also appears to have a limited database of perfumes… I’m hoping that as time passes, the clever people at Givaudan will update the App to include more and more fragrances.  I couldn’t rate anything by Annick Goutal… still, it let me score SJP Covet (go figure!)  – and no, I’m not telling you what score I gave Covet, you’ll ban me from ever owning another perfume!

Once you’ve rated as many perfumes as you can remember owning or sniffing… click the “Recommend” button at the bottom and the App takes just seconds to whizz up a list of recommendations based on your previous input and ratings.  Clever no?

I’d have loved to have been able to browse through the perfumes in the App’s database… it seems that you can only really access a fragrance’s details if you know the name to search for it directly or get recommended it by the App.  Seeing as I like ‘floral’ perfumes, it would have been nice to have been able to browse through a category devoted to these scents.  It’s all about making the database accessible in as many ways as possible to the user.

I’ll be honest… I don’t know enough about fragrances to tell you whether the recommendations are much cop.  I had a nice selection of floral/oriental fragrances in my list (the image above is a generic screenshot) including Armani Sensi, Ralph Lauren Notorious, Trish McEvoy Gardenia Musk and Serge Lutens Daim Blond.  But having never smelt any of those, I’ll have to follow my nose to my local counters to see what I think.

Overall, iPerfumer is a nifty little App that occupied a good half hour of my time yesterday.  I had fun rating and reading little snippets of info about fragrances I’d never heard of before.  Ultimately, it needs a bit of work and a lot of updating.  But the potential is certainly there, and if anyone can do it… it’s Givaudan.

I’ll be back to let you know what I think of it’s recommendations… if I like the suggestions, then this App will be coming with me on many a Beauty Hall tour!

Thumbs up!  Oh, and did I mention it’s free?  Double thumbs up! (I look like an idiot!)

That’s it… that’s all that I have left of my current favourite fragrance after decanting myself a small amount and giving the rest to a friend.

Jo Malone White Jasmine and Mint reminds me of Summer.  It makes me think of cottage gardens and fresh linen catching the breeze on the washing line.

But Mr L doesn’t like it and in all fairness, he has to smell me 24/7 and it’s a scent that truly bothers him.

When I was 17, I bought myself a bottle of Dior’s Hypnotic Poison.  It had just been released and I sampled it in the Duty Free Store on the RoRo ferry to France.  I fell in love with it’s sweet and gentle scent.  Vanilla, almond and sugar… it’s everything a teenage girl would love.  I spent all of my holiday allowance on that one bottle before I’d even got halfway across the English Channel.

Back then, it was new and remained relatively undiscovered for a while.  It was the first perfume I’d ever worn that lasted for hours on my skin, I couldn’t leave the house without being complimented on how lovely I smelt.

I’m now 12 years older.  The oriental and intoxicating scent I used to cherish and adore reminds me a little bit of play-doh.  It’s cloying and childish and admitting this upsets me.

Shall I tell you why?

I met my husband wearing Hypnotic Poison.  I married my husband wearing Hypnotic Poison (along with the matching body lotion) and I gave birth to our child wearing Hypnotic Poison.  Everything about our life has been set against a backdrop of Bitter Almond, Caraway, Vanilla and Caramel.  It’s one of the most comforting scents we know.

The end of a love affair… it’s not tempestuous or exciting.  Like many endings, it’s just sad.

I know I’ll never be without a bottle stashed somewhere in the back of my wardrobe… but I need to find something new, something that will carry me through my 30s and beyond.  What if I fall in love with something else that Mr. L hates?  What if he can’t let go of my signature scent in the way I’m dying to and no other scent compares?

As much as I assert that it’s MY scent, on MY body… it’s not.  It’s ours… and I’m not sure I’d be ready for him to fall out of love with his signature fragrance either.

Perhaps I’m being melodramatic… I usually am.  But of the traditional 5 senses, the sense of smell is a hugely important and often subconscious one.

Do you have a signature scent?  How would you go about finding a new one?