Today we’re helping Kate, a regular commenter (as KateReed) here at Now Smell This. Kate wants to find a nice bedtime /downtime scent — not too loud, not too quiet. It would be great if it was a natural fragrance, or at least, not “heavily chemical”. She says she has less than $90 of wiggle room in her budget every month, so it has to be reasonably priced. She usually shops online. Here is what we know about Kate:

She’s in her mid-30s, single, and works in insurance sales. She says she can sometimes be perverse simply to be perverse.

For fun, she reads and writes. She loves sci-fi and sci-fantasy books, and for movies, westerns.

She says she has little if any sense of style.

She hates being cooped up, and likes the windows open.

Kate likes dry and powdery fragrances, but she also likes many other kinds of fragrances…

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Today we’re helping Fani, who loves perfume and wants to find her signature scent. It should be something she can wear year round, and she’d prefer something niche so she’d be less likely to smell it on others. She can spend up to $150, but needs suggestions she can find in (or have shipped to) Greece, where she lives. Here is what we know about Fani:

She’s in her late 30s, and says her style is casual and classic: neither sporty nor suits & pumps, but somewhere in between.

Fani says she is introspective and imaginative, and loves to curl up in an armchair by the fire with a really nice book and a cup of tea. But she says she also has some fire in her personality, and she wants that reflected in her perfume.

She loves books and romantic movies, especially those set during the Regency / Victorian period (à la Pride & Prejudice). But she also loves vampire and assassin movies, and hard rock is her favorite music.

Fani likes oriental, spicy, incensey fragrances with amber and/or vanilla…

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Today we’re helping Rena, who is postmenopausal and finds that with the hormonal shifts, everything smells different: top notes are becoming sharper, tenacity and sillage are increasing. She’d like us to help her find some (more) perfumes she can still wear. She has good access to perfume stores, and is happy to buy samples or decants. She’s also happy to chase after vintage so long as the perfume is still reasonably easy to find. Her price limit is around $250. Here is what we know about Rena:

She’s a massage therapist in her early 40s. Next year, she’ll be starting acupuncture school.

She says she is generally cheerful, optimistic, easy going and down to earth.

Rena has wide-ranging tastes. Her chemistry seems to work best with scents that are lush, full, round and big. She’d be especially interested in suggestions for magnolia and honeysuckle. She can’t wear anything fresh, sharp, green or aquatic, and she doesn’t like baby or baby powder fragrances…

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This is an open thread for participants in the Monday Mail articles to share their experiences, and hopefully let us know if they found what they were looking for (or went bankrupt trying). I’ve sent out emails requesting feedback from everyone who took part between May and August of 2011, so check back over the next few days to see what we can find out (or, check out this post about the subjects from January through April). We’ll check on the rest of the 2011 participants in a few months.

Here are links to the articles for each participant…

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The Monday Mail returns from its holiday vacation today (and look for a Monday Mail feedback post next week). We’re starting off the new year with Kristen, who discovered Boucheron Jaïpur Saphir in Paris back in 1999 and has worn it ever since. Now that it’s discontinued, she’d like to find a new fragrance for special occasions. If she can find the perfect scent, she’s happy to pay whatever it costs, and she has excellent access to perfume stores. Here is what we know about Kristen:

She’s in her mid-40s and teaches mathematics.

She says she is fun-loving, romantic, and leads an active lifestyle…

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