Perfume congruency

I’ve never been a person to like perfume!  You can but imagine my joy when I find myself trapped in a train carriage in a cloud of someone else’s choice of perfume!   I also have a strong reaction when I walk down the street and a ‘cloud of perfume’ walks past me with a person at its centre! 

However, I do recognise that a lot of people, women particularly, love perfume, it’s an important part of putting together an outfit and their perfume says something about who they are. 

That doesn’t take away from the fact that who I am, is somebody who ‘doesn’t like’ perfume. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the smell of freesias, I love the smell of lavender, I love the smell of trees in blossom, fresh cut grass but turn that into an artificial perfume and you turn me off.   So, what a delight to meet Virginie Daniau from Parfum Parfait , she talks about perfumes having colours and used my colour season and clothing personality as part of her consultation to help identify what perfume I might like.   

Over 15 years of expertise in the perfume industry has given her a nose for it!  The fascinating part about this is realising that at House of Colour we work with you to help ensure your visual communication is congruent with who you are and supports you in your professional and personal life.  In order to be ‘believable’, that your visual and verbal messages align.  It therefore makes absolute sense that the olfactory communication is also supporting these messages.   As with your clothing and accessories, your perfume needs to be a natural extension of you – so that people notice you, not your perfume!

So, I gave it a go, and while I’m still experimenting and adjusting to the change, I am really happy with the choice I made from the 3 short-listed options.  Interestingly, with 2 choices, 1 on each wrist, both my colleague and husband chose the same one as being more ‘me’! 

So it’s not that ‘I don’t like perfume’,  it’s just that I hadn’t yet found the one that works for me and therefore quite possibly, the perfume clouds walking down the street aren’t actually a natural extension of the person at the centre!