Scents that make you go 'oooohh'
A perfume is something that's intangible, but yet capable of a reaction that's palpable. It can instantly evoke a mood, feeling or memory in the wearer and those around them. And such an invisible part of one's grooming or beauty regime, it can make things happen around you. Whether it's for personal enjoyment or as a projection of one's tastes, it can definitely make you feel more attractive and in fact, it can actually make you more attractive to another person.
It's hard to imagine but the 'attraction' can be felt without sight and touch of the other person. And it's all because our sense of smell is so closely connected to the memory and emotion centres in our brains, it's very different from the way we react to a sight or touch.
A smell can leave an impression linger indefinitely and if all the right notes are hit, it can prove to be a really powerful tool in the craft of seduction.
Using scents as an art of seduction is nothing new. In fact, Cleopatra was famously obsessed with fragrances and as the story goes, she is supposed to have filled her boats with rose petals and douse the sails in so much perfume that Mark Antony could smell her sailing in from miles away. Rose, myrh and spices like cinnamon and cardamom are known to have been weapons of seduction for the then Queen of Nile. Her bedchamber is supposed to have been strewn with rose petals upto a foot and a half deep!
Some perfumers have indicated that certain ingredients like ylang ylang, jasmine, vanilla, sandalwood and musk do have aphrodisiacal qualities. But almost everyone agrees that the ingredient by themselves don't do much. It's the combination between themselves and more importantly with the body chemistry of the person applying it that ultimately makes it seductive.
And this combination cannot be the same for everyone as each one has a unique body scent and body chemistry that reacts very differently with the perfumes applied. And then again, there's the natural body smell of a person that sometimes attracts one to another, irrespective of whether perfumes are involved or not. This can further add to the complexities of using perfumes for seduction.
Scents are extremely subjective and they are linked to each person's individual background, emotions, culture, personality and their aesthetic sense. So for those of you who think that musky and spicy scents can make you alluring, think again. It might not be true for everyone. But then the general purpose of a perfume is to make yourself feel good and hope that the person you hope to attract has the same tastes as you.
Here are 3 fragrances that have stood the test of time and are generally considered as 'sexy'.
Chanel No 5
In the 1920s Chanel sought a new scent that would appeal to the flapper and celebrate the liberated feminine spirit of that time. Flappers were a generation of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (just at the knee was short for that time period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behaviour. And it was this liberated spirit that Chanel No 5 wanted to please.
And with Marilyn Monroe, suggesting that she wore only Chanel No 5 to bed, and nothing else, the allure of the perfume rose to height unimaginable and has stayed there since.
A perfume that was probably created by an erroneous overdose of aldehydes but was approved immediately by Coco Chanel has not changed much since its creation except for the necessary exclusion of natural civet and certain nitro-musks.
Shalimar
"Before Shalimar was a perfume, it was a garden of love” – This was the tag line of an earlier advertisement of the iconic perfume.
Shalimar was one of the first perfumes that successfully incorporated large amounts of vanillin in its composition. The perfume was composed of citrus notes; lemon and bergamot, jasmine, may rose, opoponax, Tonka bean, vanilla, iris, Peru balsam and gray amber. The coolness of the citrus notes led to a floral heart and ended with a warm and luxurious trail.
The zesty citrus top notes and the heady florals flowed into a spicy base that was particularly rich in vanilla, incense, and sandalwood. In fact, many said that this perfume was pretty much a prototype for an Oriental perfume.
Soon this distinctive and dramatic fragrance became the favorite for the woman who was sensual, sophisticated and uninhibited, who liked making a grand entrance and who did not shy away from making a grander exit; someone who lived for the moment and enjoyed life to the fullest.
Dior J'adore
J’adore is a modern, glamorous fragrance that differentiates the women from the girls. Charlize Theron embodied the 'coming of age' woman and the visuals of the bottle and her helped build an unforgettable aura around the fragrance.
A luminous fragrance, its opulent, golden scent seems to shimmer on the skin like sunbeams. J’adore presented a new concept of Dior femininity, a scent so new and so in line with Dior style at the same time – sweet but balmy, slightly sharp floral with fresh mandarin in the top; jasmine, plum, orchid and rose in the heart; and amaranth, musk and blackberry in the trail.
