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(Image credit: Bottega Veneta / Comme des Garçons / Maison Crivelli / Jimmy Fairly / Launch Metrics / Gucci / Trudon / Diptyque / Getty / Aesop / Longines / Escentric Molecules / Glossier) Share Copy link Facebook X Pinterest Share this article Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter When looking for your next fragrance obsession, you're probably accustomed to sticking to familiar fragrance families or beelining for a brand you know you love. But what if your perfume preferences have less to do with whether you favour florals or woody notes, and more to do with who you are?
After all, fragrance is deeply personal, shaped by our memories, tastes, habits and the way we see ourselves. Whether you're a reformed minimalist embracing a little excess, a recovering wellness obsessive or someone who takes pride in discovering things before everyone else, there's a scent to match.
Take our quiz to discover your perfume personality—and the fragrances that might feel just like you.
You know your rising sign, have paid someone to clear the energy in your house and can talk quite seriously about manifestation without ever sounding remotely woo-woo. Your wardrobe is an artful collision of Roksanda, vintage Westwood and something you found on a beachside stall in Goa; your bathroom contains a gua sha, Vintner's Daughter and at least one object whose purpose is energetic rather than cosmetic.
You're ten minutes late to everything but remember every birthday, give excellent presents and are the first person your friends call in a crisis. You trust your intuition, have made at least one major life decision based entirely on a feeling and will try almost any unconventional therapy once.
Your fragrance taste is similarly esoteric but polished: incense, resins, sacred woods and aromatic botanicals that smell more Dover Street Market than crystal shop.
Heart Notes: Nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper
Top Notes: Cardamom, coriander, and grass oil
Heart Notes: Black hemlock, violet, and jasmine absolute
Base Notes: Vetiver, cedarwood, amber, and sandalwood
Top Notes: Bergamot, Grapefruit, Rhum (Rum)
Heart Notes: Oak Wood, Clove, Leather, Tobacco
Base Notes: Ambroxan, Labdanum, Moss (Oakmoss), Patchouli
You haven't lost your drive; you've just grown suspicious of anything that requires you to wake up before 6 a.m. You've stopped measuring a good day by how many things you ticked off your to-do list and started measuring it by whether you had time to lie down.
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You've discovered that cancelling plans can feel as satisfying as making them, and increasingly prefer to enjoy your luxuries horizontally: excellent sheets, room service, a hot bath.
Accordingly, you want your perfume to provide the olfactory equivalent of being tucked in: rice, milk, almond, vanilla, tonka and soft woods—gourmand, but never cupcake.
Top Notes: Rice steam accord, white musk, pink pepper
Base Notes: Blonde woods, roasted sesame seeds, coumarin, ISO E Super, and sandalwood
Top notes: Bitter almond essence, angelica root essence
Heart notes: Madeleine accord, carrot heart, absolu ambrette
Base notes: Caledonia sandalwood, Madagascar vanilla, musks
Base Notes: Ambrox, musky and spicy notes
You've taken all the supplements , worn the sleep tracker, done the adaptogens and spent an unholy amount on green juices. You know what spikes your cortisol and blood sugar and, increasingly, wish you didn't.
These days, you're more inclined to take off the tracker and go for an old-fashioned walk, eat something because you fancy it rather than because it contains 30 grams of protein, and go to bed when you're tired without asking an app how well you slept. You haven't abandoned wellness; you've just stopped treating your body like a problem to solve.
Your fragrance follows suit: green, herbal and alive, with crushed leaves, bitter citrus, herbs, moss and vetiver. Less biohack, more fresh air.
Top Notes: Cassis, Red Berries, Blackcurrant, Galbanum
Heart Notes: Green Ivy, Tomato Leaf, Fig, Red Rose
Top Notes: Rosewood, wild thyme, and bergamot
Heart Notes: Sagebrush, basil, and rose otto
Top Notes: Green mango, grapefruit, tomato leaf, and carrot
Heart Notes: Lotus, bulrush, orange blossom, hyacinth, and peony
Base Notes: Musk, iris, incense, labdanum, and cinnamon
Top notes: Mandarin, neroli, and bergamot
Heart notes: Iris absolute, heliotrope, and frankincense
Base notes: Amber, vanilla absolute, and white musk
You still discover books in bookshops, restaurants by walking past them and music at festivals. You don't want everything you buy to come with a side of "you might also like". You're not a Luddite—you simply miss the pleasure of finding something organically without being funnelled towards it by the algorithm.
Your fragrance taste follows the same logic: you're drawn to unusual notes, unexpected combinations and perfumes that aren't immediately easy to place. Maybe that's paper, ink and old bindings; perhaps it's black tea, mineral notes, bitter herbs, smoke or something altogether stranger.
Base Notes: Leather, patchouli, and vanilla
Notes : Ink, bamboo, hiacynth, incense, fir resin, oakmoss, white pepper and woody notes
Base Notes: Oakmoss, musk, and black amber
Notes : Iso E Super, black tea extract, maté tea absolute, bitter-fresh notes, floral notes
You've spent the last decade cleansing your life of clutter—and inadvertently removed all trace of colour from your wardrobe, every throw cushion from your bed and most appliances from your kitchen worktops.
At some point, surrounded by limewashed walls devoid of personality, you began to wonder whether all that restraint had become rather suffocating. You've still got great taste; but now you're remembering that good taste doesn't always have to be so quiet.
Perfume is the gateway drug: tuberose, jasmine, orange blossom and ylang-ylang, worn at a volume that would have horrified you not long ago.
Top Notes: Water fruits, bergamot, eucalyptus, vegetal notes, and galbanum
Heart Notes: Tuberose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, and orange blossom
Base Notes: White musk, coconut, tuberose absolute, and orange blossom absolute
Top Notes: Bergamot, mandarin orange, peach, hyacinth, orange blossom, and green leaves
Heart Notes: Tuberose, jasmine, gardenia, osmanthus, narcissus, lily of the valley, carnation, white iris, violet root, rose, and coriander
Base Notes: Musk, sandalwood, amber, oakmoss, vetiver, and cedarwood
Heart Notes: Damask rose, hibiscus, leather
Base Notes: Vanilla orchid, ambrette, amber
Heart Note: Jasmine absolute and jasmine bud extract
Lottie Winter Beauty Director Lottie Winter is the Beauty Director at Marie Claire UK. With over a decade of beauty journalism under her belt, she brings a desire to cut through the noise and get to what really matters-- products that deliver, conversations that empower, and beauty that makes people feel like their best selves.
Source: Fashion