Signature Perfume.

If there is one thing I am vulnerable to on Instagram is sample sets of perfume. It is made worse by my tendency to immediately buy them, so the algorithm has got me. I have spent quite a bit of time searching for a signature fragrance over the years and because I only now entertain cruelty free and free-from-animal ingredients products, I have reduced my options – but that algorithm has cottoned on to this – there is no escape.

This began when I was 15 years old and had an Avon round. I only used to do this around our street and the street crossing it, but interestingly despite being only 15-16, I spent a long time each month doing this round due to the number of ladies who would welcome chatting to me on the doorstep. Sometimes, they would only buy some talc, or some bubble bath and I thought they were doing this out of kindness, but I wonder now if it was more about having a regular visitor when perhaps they wouldn’t have had anyone to talk to.  Some nights I would only be able to deliver two packages because of the time spent at each. When I look back now, I think it taught me to speak with women of all ages, and to converse on a variety of subjects. This has helped me in my career as well as personally.

Anyway. My favourite perfume at the time was Avon’s Odyssey.  Unfortunately, they discontinued it.

When I was 16 and left school, I went on a YTS (Youth Training Scheme). I remember we used to get £27 a week though had to spend the first £3 of this on travel costs and the government would cover the rest, and in the second year it rose to £35 if I’m remembering correctly. I worked at the House of Fraser store in Hull (was Binns at the time), and my first department was the toiletries department. I would be given samples or out of date tester bottles by the women on the counters and most of them were a little too mature for me (my Mum enjoyed these), but I remember liking Nina Ricci’s L’eau du Temps and wore that for a while. My colleague on the toiletries counter used to buy perfume free deodorant and creams, and when I asked her why she said because she didn’t want the scents to compete with her perfume. I remember that and have tried to follow suit.

In 2001 I began training to be a counsellor at university. I remember one of the programme directors at the time talked about how she would stick to the same perfume because it was important to almost fade into the background, be consistent and not distracting. And I got that. I was a White Musk - Body Shop wearer at the time. But weren’t we all – it was that or Dewberry.

I thought I had found my signature scent in the mid to late 2000s. This was Ghost’s Serenity – until once again – it was discontinued.

The next decade like with the 1990s I would buy bottles of perfume and then throw them out when half empty. Never quite right. In recent years I have been working my way through The Bath House collection. This is a company based in Cumbria and Yorkshire; our closest is York. I really like their scents, and I like to layer them to create my own fragrance. I use their reed diffusers too and my favourite for a while was Patchouli and Black Pepper. I had the room fragrance and perfume in the same scent such was my growing obsession with having a signature fragrance! But this was great for winter but less so for spring. 

My daughter bought me a lovely reed diffuser when I moved into this house in 2022 from a local independent shop in her high street. It was fab – but the shop went under like many have so that was the end of that – again!

And now I am here again. I have a box of samples I am currently trying. I sprayed one of the scents on my neck this weekend, and when my husband came home, he said “Ooo you smell nice” – I wasn’t letting him off that quickly and asked him to describe why. He answered quite embarrassedly by saying that although it sounded odd it smelled like my personality, and it reminded him of me. He hadn’t realised that that was exactly what I wanted. Could my search be over?

I am going to sit with it for a little and if I agree with Alan, I will let you know 😊

Does anyone else have a perfume journey they wish to share?