nice stinky stuff

Image by Lisa

I've read a bit about choosing a special Bridal Perfume, and this always struck me as being one of the stupid things marketed to women getting married to encourage them to buy more Stuff. But maybe that's because I've never been that in to perfume.

In my adult life I've only ever regularly worn one perfume - Clarins Eau Dynamisante. But recently I've been wanting to change it up a little. I wanted, to be honest, something in a prettier bottle. But where to start? Well, Sephora have a neat fragrance finder, where you can enter your favourite perfume and it'll suggest what else you might like. Or, you might go to Fragrantica and look up your favourite, then search for other perfumes with similar notes. Or check out the reviews at Base Notes.

But you can't buy a perfume without smelling it first. Which is where The Perfumed Court comes in. They sell sample-sized vials of just about every perfume you can imagine - including discontinued and vintage ones. My first order was whittled down to, uh, eleven samples. All arrived within a fortnight, safely packaged. And it's been so much fun trying them all out. I definitely recommend the site.

And the winners out of my chosen samples? Miller Harris' Fleurs de Sel, L'eau Diptyque and Eau D'Italie's Sienne L'Hiver.