This week we’re helping Mona. Mona says that everything she knows about perfume “could fill one of those slips inside Chinese fortune cookies”. She wants to find a daily perfume that “lingers like background music, something that unfolds nicely”. She doesn’t want anything bland or generic. She has excellent access to perfume stores, but she can’t shop online so no obscure brands, please. She’s willing to spend whatever she needs to.

Here is what we know about Mona:

She’s a college freshman studying to be a special ed teacher.

She travels a lot (right now she’s in Saudi Arabia) and she’d like a perfume that reminds her of different places.

Mona says she’s usually cool & calm, but is very passionate about the things she likes.

Mona is open to most notes…

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Today’s subject: Amara. Amara is looking for a perfume for daily wear that “is not an assault on the senses, but is markedly different”. Amara describes herself as “fairly new” to perfume. She does not have great access to fragrance stores, but she’s willing to order samples online. She’d like to keep the cost to $100 or less.

Here is what we know about Amara:

She’s in her early 20s, and “just getting her feet wet as a professional”. She works in the insurance industry, in a fairly conservative office.

She lives in a rural area on the east coast of the United States.

Amara describes her style as “mostly business casual”, but possibly a “little indie” — she likes to be different…

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My apologies go out to Nick, who was expecting this post to appear on Monday. Nick grew up “always wearing a fragrance as part of [his] everyday life” and “feels naked without a scent on”. He is familiar with standard designer and celebrity fare, but would like to hear our suggestions on niche and/or unusual fragrances that he might not know about. He likes his fragrances abstract and strong, and he isn’t afraid of a daring scent. He lives in Australia, where niche scents can be hard to find, so please stick to things that can be purchased online (and preferably that can be easily sampled). Here is what we know about Nick:

He’s in his mid-20s and works in a legal adminstration office.

He says he is “confident, sociable and artistic”, and he wants a fragrance to match.

Nick loves notes of bergamot, musk, amber, sandalwood and tobacco leaves…

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Today we’re helping Sheena. Sheena’s longtime signature perfume was Rochas Tocade, but her local perfume store in Kuala Lumpur stopped carrying it 5 years ago, and she’s having trouble finding a replacement (and yes, she knows she could buy it online). Sheena wants to find a perfume that “has a strong personality and possibly poetic”, but she also wants something she can buy locally at a reasonable price (no more than $100, and preferably much less). She also says that “Malaysia is obsessed with mainstream/ pop fragrances”, so she’s not after a “distinctive niche scent”; still, she’d like to find something that not absolutely everyone else is wearing. Here is what we know about Sheena:

Sheena’s in her mid-20s and works as a literature educator in a local university.

She’s also a performance poet and slam artist…

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