A Perfumer Advises on How to Choose and Wear a Signature Fragrance.

When One Says Signature Perfume

" A signature perfume is your characteristic perfume, literally a fragrant signature," explains perfume designer Kateřina Nováková, a term that may not be fully established in your consciousness yet. And it adds a more poetic perspective: "It's what stays behind as an unmistakable signature in space, time and in people's minds after you dance away." A signature fragrance should define who you are and be 100% in tune with you. And even if you get separated for a while, you'll find your way back together again. 

Signature Fragrance vs. Day-to-day Fragrances

There are some advantages to building a perfume arsenal, a sort of perfume cabinet from which you choose a piece each day according to the weather, your mood or your plans. "Choosing from several different fragrances is not only a creative and playful process, but it also allows you to determine your first impression, strongly support your intentions and fix important experiences in your memory. This can be used, for example, when learning, therapy sessions and special life events occur," says our expert. 

Why eat vanilla ice cream all your life when there are so many other delicious options? "A signature perfume creates a safe space, it works as a psychological anchor, it's like a home that we carry with us all the time," says Kateřina Nováková, adding: "In the same way, it works on the people around us who, thanks to our signature fragrance, become more aware of us, remember us perfectly and can also recall us flawlessly through this." 

Step by Step: How to Find Your Signature Fragrance

You may not have thought about perfume in this way before, but now suddenly you want to find "the one". This is the right way to go. 

1.Start with the Basics

You may be familiar with them, but more than likely you won't know them all: categories of fragrances (for example, did you know there are green, aquatic or aromatic fragrances?). It is with a little education that your journey should begin, says the perfume designer. "If you can identify a favourite category or one to three preferred ingredients, you have a good start and you can then embark on olfactory exploration," advises Kateřina Nováková.

2. No Hype, Just You

With endless choices, it's easy to reach for a fragrance we know from social media and magazines, or one with a "bestseller" icon. Trends and the hype will pass, but the allure of your signature fragrance shouldn't. Therefore, take your own style and personality into account when choosing. "The key is to be on your own with a fragrance, to notice how it makes you feel and, if possible, not to be influenced by advertising and comments from others," confirms the perfume designer. 

3. Using Emotions as a Guide

And how do you recognise that it's THE ONE? Leave it up to your emotions and intuition. Or, as the expert advises, answer these questions: Do I want to feel this way? Do I like who I am when I wear this perfume? Does it enhance and complement what I need? 

4. Take Your Time...

Just like finding the love of your life, the journey to finding the perfume of your life can be a long one, and you won't avoid mistakes. "Arm yourself with patience and plenty of perfume samples. Sometimes it's an impulsive love at first sniff, sometimes we work our way to what we want over time or through the help of knowing what we definitely don't want," the expert advises. 

Before you make your final decision, give the fragrance enough time to develop and get to know all its facets - top, heart and base notes. One more thing: always try the fragrance directly on yourself, because perfume smells different on each of us due to different skin characteristics (not to mention it's on paper in the perfume shop). 

5. Forever. Or Maybe Not.

It smells good now, it smells good after a week and even after a month. But will it be the same a few years from now? Have you truly found your signature perfume? According to our expert, it's just the same with people. It is hard to say for sure whether we will still be comfortable around a particular person in a few years. And, of course, our tastes and needs evolve over the course of our lives.

"And even if you can predict this with a fragrance, perfume houses often refine their formulas, commercially less successful fragrances are withdrawn from sale, and if you fall in love with a limited edition product, you will soon be looking again," Kateřina Nováková points out.

Maybe you'll find it tomorrow, maybe in a few years. Maybe you'll be together forever, maybe you'll go your separate ways. But there's no need to worry about finding a signature fragrance, it's supposed to be fun, according to the perfume designer: “Keep your olfactory receptors on point, explore, love it and enjoy yourself.”