There's a direct psychological link between your reaction to fragrance and your personality, but today we're so convinced by all the marketing spin. People buy scent by brand image and not smell. Eventually, when the buzz of that purchase has gone, you find that you didn't really like it. The proof is all those abandoned bottles sitting on top of dressing tables.
— From Interview: Roja Dove, perfumer at the Scotsman.
The interviewer forgot to mention the permatan. LOL! And the fact that RD is really tall and imposing (I don’t know why I always imagined he was a little, bustling man).
Anyway, great advice there. I find myself agreeing with everything (which doesn’t happen very often).
Oh, that IS funny – I always pictured him the same way! Thanks for the information.
I especially agree with not picking out perfume for other people if you can help it…
I do pick out fragrance for my husband though. Every bottle he has is one I have bought for him. I don’t think he has ever bought a bottle of anything for himself, not even Old Spice or Brut. Really the main reason he wears it is because I like it on him. Consequently, I try out things, buy him what I like, he wears it, I enjoy it on him, and he enjoys that I enjoy it.
Bela- Glad you mentioned that as the photo makes him look a little diminutive.
It is somewhat true, in my case I just like them just like that´s all and then keep the empty bottles and never buy them again. What is inside is the pearl that have all in it.
What do you do with the empty bottles?
My empty bottles go into my vitrine in the living room where they are spotlighted and admired. I change up my collection from time to time so I feel I am in a perfume bottle museum. If a bottle is plain and rectangular I put it in a box in the basement.
Fun!
I recycle most of the bottles and keep the lovelies (Niki de St Phalle perfume bottle, Shiseido Feminite du bois, Nina Ricci’s Farouche in Lalique crystal). I purchased Essence by NR, really only wanted the bottle-cared less about the juice.
“has” I meant
Great article! Last year my closest friend, who is English but lives in the U.S., was going to be in London about the time of my birthday. Knowing I love perfume, she asked if there was anything she could get me that I couldn’t get here. I immediately answered “Roja Dove’s Unspoken”! She loved meeting him and getting to see his store at Harrods.
I’d love to see the store…wish they had an online version.
I agree! I *need* more on-line places to buy perfume! 😉
Do you know about this: http://www.harrods.com/experience
Let it download, then click on Explore all rooms, then on Roja Dove. I always get a little dizzy watching that kind of thing, but it gives you a good idea of what it’s like.
Thanks so much Bela!
You’re welcome. 🙂
The Haute Parfumerie is a lovely room, but it’s always *extremely* hot, which is not surprising considering the OTT lighting, but which can’t be very good for the fragrances.
Very interesting article, one of my favorites you’ve posted, I think. I would very much like to meet RD. (I’ve visisted London a few times, and never enjoyed it as I should have, because I find it so breath-takingly expensive. Last time, I didn’t visit the 5th floor of Harrods and I went to Ormonde Jayne but didn’t buy anything. What was I thinking?!?!)
His tips for purchasing a scent for yourself and his general rules of thumb for buying gifts for others (if you’re going to risk it!) were particularly useful and fascinating. While I enjoy and appreciate a little bit of everything, of course, I’m mostly a chypre girl, with the occasional floral/fougere leaning, and the personality descriptions fit, I guess.
Nothing at Ormonde Jayne ?!? Cannot even focus on the rest of your comment, LOL…
I know! Does not compute! It was the beginning of my trip and I guess I thought I was saving “cap room” for fragrant purchases later. But I kick myself now…
I’d love to have Mr Dove do a scent recommendation for me! I’m not happy go lucky though I try to present that outer face. I’m extremely discriminating, yet am extremely shy inside. So that would make me all or none of the above.
Always love reading what he has to say, whether or not I agree.
OF, I thought the same thing about the descriptions: I’m generally cheerful, but I hate the wishy-washy and of course we all love treats and luxuries…
But then I tried to focus on things that are kind of distinctive about me. My mom has always said that I need to have the *right* thing or nothing at all, and while I like to thing of myself as able to compromise sometimes, I like opposites of things: the big, ambitious epic or the perfect, gem-cut short story… the spare, clean-lined design or the baroque and bulging-at-the-seams… Black or white, I guess. Jives with my love of chypres, certainly, and of course they start with brightness and develop into the dark, mossy, woody scent – kind of interesting!
Maybe I “need” one of each…
He totally pegged me as a chypre-lover; I find his descriptions fascinating.
And what he says about people buying the image instead of the juice is so true…
When I was young, I wanted desperately to have that sort of life depicted in the Calvin Klein Eternity ads… (if I couldn’t LOOK like Christy Turlington, I at least wanted her grace)… hated, HATED, the juice though — it actually gives me heartburn (cheap and/or strong perfume — like Giorgio Beverly Hills). Pretty photographs though…
Heh. My bottles aren’t abandoned. Just neglected.
yes! what March said! now…I go to hug my perfume cabinet.
I am generally only influenced by marketing in a negative way — for example, even if I liked the smell of a Calvin Klein fragrance, I probably wouldn’t buy it because the brand is too “mainstream”.
Most of the abandoned bottles I have are because I wore them during a certain period, and whenever I smell them it just gives me nostalgia (or flashbacks… 😉 ), and while I may still like the smell, I have a hard time wearing them.
My, he is quite the commanding-looking person, isn’t he?
He does give nice advice on perfume shopping. I am WAY to undisciplined to spray on the blotters and leave without smelling them, though!
I guess if you were going into the store with a list of things you were purposefully seeking…then I suppose I could spray on blotters without sniffing….unfortunately for me: I live in a small midwestern town and not London, Paris or NYC…so most of what I want to sniff isn’t in a store where I can do that. (really, it’s a pretty meager scent selection around here!) But basically, his advice is good: sniff and think then test and think before you buy….and of course–don’t try to pick something new for someone else! (although that does make for good evil-bay deals for the rest of us!)
Interesting article although I don’t agree with RD’s comment on how people buy fragrance based on brand image and not scent. Perhaps this is a generalization, but I always get a kick out of media statements that say,”And you voted” or “Your favorite”. I’m always the one saying,”Who? Because no one asked me.” I always purchase a fragrance based on smell.
A lot of people don’t, though, as evidenced by the zillions of bottles people buy from HSN and QVC that you can’t smell before you buy.
True. I can’t believe there are that many people out there like that. I guess it’s those same people that have made QVC and HSN what it is today. Personally, I couldn’t do it.
After selling perfume for 15 years, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s ultimately the juice that sells, not the bottle, box or house. Of course, there are those individuals who know little about fragrance and will buy whatever the No. 1 seller of the day is or the designer label name on the bottle. They don’t care about the scent, they just want to be perceived as being “in”. I hate it when customers ask what the most popular scent is or what I like the best. I agree with Roja: one should never buy fragrance for a gift unless you know that person has been wearing “X” for years.
Celestia, i do that all the time at restaurants, cos I reckon if the dish is popular then people have come back for it. My boyfriend HATES it. I also ask what the SA’s favourite scent is – just cos it seems like they are with the scents so often they might at least have an interesting opinion. I have never, and would never, buy a scent because someone else liked it – unless it was for them. I seel scharovsky jewlery in a shop and sometimes tell customers buying a gift what is popular. I guess thats because I do (in a very general way) think that there is some intelligence in mass opinion. The stuff LOTS of people like is often flattering on MOST people, for instance.
sorry typo – meant sell…
I don’t think ordering food in a restaurant is the same as buying perfume though. You can’t really (in most cases) sample the food first the way you can perfume, so you are guessing as to what you will like. You certainly aren’t going to take samples of several dishes, take them home, try them out, and then return next week to order dinner. Ordering what a lot of other people have liked makes sense in that case. Besides, the food is not the same level of commitment as the perfume. You will eat it up (or not) in one meal, or at least two (if you have leftovers) whereas even a small bottle of perfume is enough for many wearings.
True!
Glad that I dont buy scent based on image…and that I actually like the fragrances that I buy. However, I will admit to not testing the fragrances for enough time to allow it to mingle with my body chemistry. So, I do have a couple of bottles because of the smell not working out after a couple of hours.
Yea, I learned about that one, but even so, I almost bought Ninfeo Mio after only a few minutes of bliss and am so glad I made myself wait for the drydown.
Tama, I have found myself in that situation many times and it has been sheer agony to wait for the stages of fragrance to develop. I have to force myself and I was shocked at how many I have turned down because of it.
Me too, on Givenchy’s Demoiselle, or whatever it’s called, Balenciaga’s Paris, Kenzo Flower and just recently, Love, Chloe. They all start out gorgeous, but fade, fall apart, go sour or screechy. Oh well, I have plenty of others to love.
I agreed with RD’s remark that a fragrance you love doesn’t always seem strong; it seems to blend with your skin and your personality. But what if it does seem strong to others, and you are overpowering them? I often wonder about this.
I generally like a strong scent. I prefer to be able to say I definitely like it or I definitely dont, or I am definitely ambivalent. I hate having to say, I’m not absolutely sure what this smells like! And I love waking up and still smelling it. Also, its not always image that sways one too much – it can be a fabulous review that makes ones language centre over-ride, or temporarily recast, what one is actually smelling. And there are a zillion other reasons for abandoning a scent….
Oh, I meant to say that I disagree with his comment that we are not born with preconceived ideas of good or bad smells — I think most animals (including us) are prewired with instinctive responses to certain smells…..I think one of them is patchouli….ok, kidding about that. However, preferences between smells , ie. I like roses but dislike lavender, are learned.
I have read that we are all born with taste preferences, specifically that we are born liking sweet tasting things and disliking bitter tastes. This is a survival mechanism to cause us to prefer foods that are safe to eat. Most sweet things (fruit, honey, milk) are safe to consume, whereas a great many bitter tasting things are toxic. Consequently, any preference for bitter foods (dark chocolate, coffee, etc.) is an acquired taste.
I love the part about chypre perfumes (my favorite genre) “People who like a chypre are generally very black or white in their approach to life. They cannot abide wishy-washy. They have very strong personalities.”
My husband would love to read that! 🙂
Completely wrong in my case, but yes, interesting comment!
My husband would be stunned at its accuracy… my lack of flexibility on certain things can drive him nuts. Wishy-washiness drives *me* nuts.
I loved his advice “… go on to a good perfume blog and see what people are saying.” Spectacular advice. 😉
I don’t know if I read it here or elsewhere, but about five years ago, I went to the “blotter spray, sniff, skin spray, evaluate” method of perfume selection. I usually did the skin test early in the shopping expedition so I could smell it over the course of a couple of hours. Maybe have a meal to check it out with food. Get strange looks while eating and repeatedly sniffing my wrists. Then if a scent was successful, shock the SA by actually returning to make a purchase.
My problem with RD’s suggested method is that is involves going to the store three separate times. The stores that sell the really interesting stuff are an hoIur’s drive away, and I only get to them about once or twice a year. It’s just such a hassle to set aside a half day for the excursion, then deal with the traffic and parking, that after such an outing, it takes me several months to work up the motivation to do it again. I cannot see myself spraying blotters in April, testing on my wrists in November, and then returning the following June to buy. Thank goodness for TPC , Lucky Scent, and other sources of samples. Besides, how do you get all those blotters home without them touching one another?
Okay, so this is a big problem for the serious perfume explorer. Either put one blotter in each pocket and one in your money-carrier or take along a few small ziplock-type bags to separate them in.
I met Roja Dove back in the day when I was a fragrance specialist for Guerlain and he was absolutely charming, riveting and just a terrific guy. He is nothing like the foreboding image at the top of this page.
Further to the topic of customers asking what is most popular: I agree that it follows that that fragrance will appeal to most. However, I prefer to help customers become more discerning and choose what appeals to their nose, not the noses of the masses. They may ask what I like, just to be curious about my personal taste. That’s fine, but I still want them to pick what they will love and what works on their skin.
Hey, I’m not going to get into any argument with a Guerlain fragrance specialist!
Nice to hear that about Roja: I somehow had got the impression that he was quite pompous.
I’m a bit of a newbie and still trying to get independent from other people’s opinions. I never was into ‘fad’ perfume, and only got interested by way of quite educated reviews. But then I started wondering whether I really did dislike modern mainstream produce or whether I was just repeating what I read about their general inferiority. So instead of imitating the masses, I was just imitating the experts!
The latter would be as good a reason for abandoning bottles as the former. I don’t think the arbiters of taste (in any art form) acknowledge this problem.
Nevertheless, I am very thankful for those perfume SAs that have the patience to go through my various phases with me, and who dont object to me trying and retrying and retrying!