The whole idea of signature scents may in fact be a relic of the 20th century. At cosmetics counters and on perfume blogs, young women now flit through dozens of fragrances, never bothering to choose and commit. Science seems to back up the wisdom of this particular promiscuity. Why shouldn’t we run through a personal reel of perfumes, whose scents can conjure at will an earlier persona, but whose bottles can also be tucked away like a journal that doesn’t bear revisiting?

— Pamela Paul writes about the demise of the signature scent, in The Perfume Diaries at the New York Times.