Farewell, “signature scent”, your time is up. No longer content with smelling the same for day, night, work and play, fragrance fans are carefully collecting their own personal array of perfumes to wear according to time of day, mood, season or occasion.
Called the “fragrance wardrobe”, the trend involves putting together a selection of perfumes that complement the different parts of your life, bringing together influences that draw on the modern reach of social media to the Middle Eastern love of layering aromas.
Why build a fragrance wardrobe?
“I always compare a fragrance wardrobe to a clothing wardrobe: we wouldn't expect one outfit to work for every season, every occasion, every mood and every version of ourselves, so why should we expect one perfume to do that?” says Shareez Simmadari, an Abu Dhabi-based content creator known as @Fragrance_Fairy_Shama to her 20,000 followers.
“Having a fragrance wardrobe doesn’t mean you need to own hundreds of bottles. It simply means having a thoughtful selection of fragrances that serve different purposes in your life.”
Swapping up your perfume not only keeps you from getting bored, but in the UAE, varying degrees of heat can affect fragrance, making some more suited to summer than winter.
“For me, building a fragrance wardrobe is really about giving yourself the freedom to express who you are on a particular day,” says Allwyn Stephen, Founder of Oro Vento Parfum. He says scents add presence, with some naturally more suited to certain environments or occasions.
"For work, for example, I personally gravitate towards something polished and elegant that sits relatively close to the skin. In your personal life, there can be much more freedom. An evening fragrance might be richer, more seductive or more enveloping.
"On holiday, you may suddenly want citrus, salt, white florals or something incredibly luminous because it complements the atmosphere around you.”
The social media effect: 'They may buy without ever having smelt it'
Social media has changed the way we buy fragrance. The tradition of visiting a department store and spritzing your way through bottles of scent is long gone, with influencers now controlling the narrative and driving sales through in-app storytelling.
According to the 2022 Fragrance Consumer Report by market research company Circana, TikTok accounts for 45 per cent of social media-driven fragrance purchases in the US, and to date, the hashtag #perfumetok has amassed more than six billion views.
“What changed was not perfume itself, but the person buying it,” says Ravi Ramchandani, event director of Notes Dubai and Beautyworld Dubai.
While some will still test samples before committing to a fragrance, there is a rising trend of those buying before they try. “Today’s audience is much younger and shops very differently. They discover something on TikTok or Instagram, hear someone describe it and may buy it without ever having smelled it in person," says Ramchandani.
They also shop for far more specific moments, he adds, such as the office, a date, the gym, a night out or a holiday. “There is now even a culture of posting the scent of the day alongside the outfit. That says a great deal about how the role of perfume has changed. It has moved from being a finishing touch to something people actively discuss, compare and use as part of how they present themselves.”
Perfume layering in the fragrance wardrobe
“Layering has completely changed the way people look at their perfume collections,” say Zeynah and Layla, the faceless fragrance content creators who post as @ScentedSisterz.
“Instead of seeing every bottle as one finished scent, people are starting to see their fragrance wardrobe almost like a palette. You can soften something with vanilla, brighten it with citrus, make it cleaner with musk or give it more depth with woods or amber. Suddenly, a fragrance you’ve owned for years can feel completely new again.”
The global popularity of Mona Kattan’s Kayali brand, launched in the UAE in 2018, has been credited with taking the Arabic practice of intricate perfume layering to a worldwide audience and making it more accessible.
Layering can change the way one sees the scents they already own, says Stephen. "Instead of seeing five individual bottles, you suddenly see dozens of possible combinations. Historically, perfume was often presented as a finished creation that you wore exactly as the perfumer intended, but today's fragrance customer is much more curious."
It's part of a wider consumer trend to personalise what they buy, whether that's a colour combination, initials, or individual styling. When it comes to fragrance, "They want to understand how a woody fragrance changes when it is paired with something floral, or how musk can soften something sweeter," and then make that work for them.
What scents should be in your fragrance wardrobe?
If you’re looking to build a scent collection, start by examining the perfumes in your existing collection for common threads, and consider the day-to-day scents you enjoy.
“Look at the fragrances you already love and ask yourself what they have in common,” says Simmadari. “Maybe you repeatedly gravitate towards vanilla, musk, rose, citrus, amber or woody notes. That gives you a starting point. Then, rather than completely abandoning what you know you enjoy, begin exploring just outside of your comfort zone.”
Add Zeynah and Layla: “We don’t think there should ever be strict rules around a fragrance wardrobe." If you adore a particular scent family, there is no pressure to stray from it. “Even one fragrance family can take you in completely different directions. For example, a delicate powdery floral feels worlds apart from a tropical white floral or a dark, sensual rose.”
Test perfumes on your skin as opposed to fragrance sticks or paper, as the effect will be different and allow for your tastes to change not only from day to day, but also year to year.
“One of the most useful things I have learnt from watching people discover scent is that what they say they like and what they instinctively respond to are often very different,” says Ramchandani. “Someone may insist they only wear florals, then react visibly to something smoky before they have even identified it. The face responds before the opinion catches up. If you only ever choose what you already know, you never discover those unexpected parts of your own taste.”
