Today we’re helping Aliza, who is searching for a signature scent she won’t get bored with. It should be an interesting, grown-up scent she can wear around campus (she’s a college student) in a pair of jeans and boots or a summer dress. Her fragrance should be beautiful and versatile, express her creativity and sensuality, and not cost more than $80. Here is what we know about Aliza:

She’s an anthropology major in her early 20s. She describes herself as quirky, musical, creative and artistic.

She plays percussion, and also loves painting, drawing and collage.

She has a funky style…lots of loud colors and tribal patterns. Her favorite color is red, and her signature accessories are brightly-colored scarves and belts.

Her favorite real-life smells are grapefruit rind, fresh-cut grass and campfire. She also loves incense, cardamom, exotic woods and the smell of turpentine.

Aliza’s might like something a little woodsy or musky if it isn’t too sweet…

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Today we’re helping Desirae. She loves “heavy, opulent scents with plenty of cleavage and wiggle” — perfumes like Guerlain Shalimar and Mitsouko, and Rochas Femme. She needs a perfect perfume for hot, muggy summer days, but she tends to find light and cooling fragrances boring. She’d like our help in finding something appropriate that will hold her attention. She’d also like to keep the cost under $100, although she’s willing buy decants if need be. Here is what she know about Desirae:

She’s in her mid 20s and lives in Canada, where she works as an administrative assistant.

She loves retro things: furniture, clothes and … perfume styles.

Desirae likes notes of civet, peach, vanilla (non-foody), leather, rose, jasmine if it isn’t that terrible “air freshener” jasmine, tobacco and various spices…

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Today we’re helping Shelly. She’s a school teacher, and she wants to find an everyday fragrance that appeals to adults more than 7 year olds, and that isn’t so close to the skin that it doesn’t get noticed. She can spend about $100. Here is what we know about Shelly:

She’s 40-something, and lives and works in the San Francisco suburbs.

She has a large Bernese Mountain Dog and spends her weekends training her to pull a cart.

Shelly’s current favorite is Chanel Cuir de Russie, but she says it never gets noticed. She would love to buy Cuir de Russie and Bois des Iles in a higher concentration but she can’t…

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Today we’re helping Anne, who comments here as Ladymurasaki. She’s looking for a signature fragrance that has presence, character and an air of mystery — something she could wear nearly every day. Anne says she is at a point in her life where she doesn’t give tuppence about what other people think about her, so her new perfume can be “in your face” provided it isn’t headache-inducing. She doesn’t have a price limit.

Here is what we know about Anne:

She’s in her mid 40s and is an antiques dealer and painter living in London.

She says she is an open-minded person and people (including strangers) seem to find it easy to tell her their secrets.

She appreciates the odd and the absurd.

She loves color but is usually dressed in black. As a teenager she wore black clothes and a string of pearls… a bit pretentious, but she loved Françoise Sagan at that time.

Anne comes from a family of women who love things of quality and style. Besides perfume, she is passionate about the arts, history, books, films, music and cooking.

Anne says something with honeysuckle or osmanthus would be nice for this spring and summer…

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Today we’re helping Lee. She says every perfume she tries ends up “going to sugar” in the dry down, and she wants our help finding something dry — nothing fruity, nothing amber-y, nothing sugar-y and definitely nothing powdery. She is open to fragrances geared towards either gender, and she’s love to find something under $100.

Here is what we know about Lee:

She’s in her late 30s.

She works in science, but in an office, not a lab.

If she could make a California Girl perfume, it would smell like hiking through the grassy, sage and California laurel hills of Marin County on a hot day, then down through the wet redwoods, pine sap and black earth of Mt. Tamalpais, then coming out at last through the gardens of Stinson Beach to the beach itself with its cold breeze off the ocean.

Lee likes earthy and vegetal smells: wet dirt, sun-heated rock, brick, lumberyards, sage, grass, lime, tomato leaves, campfires. She loves salty fragrances…

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