There seems to be no clear winner since men are such a dogged lot and if some literature has any truth to it then men are erotically attracted and aroused by a great variety of womanly scents from just the raw sweat of a just bathed woman to something like c, one of the more complex perfume fragrances available. There is even a fragrance that claims to smell exactly like the earthy, sea weedy smell of a womans nether regions. It is of course called “Vulva”. Not much marketing thought seems to have gone into this product. A far better and classier name would have been “Volvic Water” like the name given that mineral water of said name.

Now this is all well and good, but which woman wants to walk around smelling like a dank musty you know what? So good luck getting women to wear these types of rated womens fragrances as they would any other perfume that they own. Instead you might get a few takers to wear it on a temporary basis for the sole purpose of arousal in the bedroom only. The creators also refer to it as a “special substance” that gets applied with an applicator to the back of a wrist or something like that. So you actually need to use this stuff fairly judiciously and it will do the job. And what is that job. Well the job is described as, “the sense of smell then stimulates the cinematic visions of the imagination. Men can not only satisfy their needs more intensely during self-stimulation but women can also use this erotic substance to intensify the sensation of smell during intercourse.” So there you have it. The woman’s bedroom scent to end all bedroom scents.

It is such a punchy almost raunchy perfume, truly for the people whose olfactory senses have been impaired in some way. A whiff of this stuff and you think you’ve wandered into a brothel. It does not smell cheap but is certainly meant for the woman who wants to strut around leaving a veritable trail of overpowering scent in her wake. This type of woman will have on a flowing gown of some kind and definitely a head dress that will have feathers in it.

Fragrances don’t have to be overpowering to suggest matronliness. Ombre rose is one such fragrance that though not strong is powdery smelling to the extreme with a strong hint of rose. Another is Byzance. Some women swear by it and others like myself thinks its for the grandmas. The pretty round blue bottle is indeed a classy looking perfume bottle and it smells good on paper but on my skin it smell like old maid. The base note for this fragrance has some kind of a sour overlay that i find quite unattractive. Of course the queen of all grandma perfumes is the classic opium fragrance which in perfume form may qualify for the strongest perfumes ever made. It is one of the few perfumes that has sandalwood oil in its base and that among other fragrance ingredients gives it an over the top spicy smell. Unfortunately, there is no real opium in this concoction.

Chanel no 5 is the classic. No, in all honesty I like this no 1 womens fragrance. It is at once graceful and elegant, soft and sexy, yet strong. The problem is that my my grandmother wore it and so did my mother. The memories are there. I remind me so much of my grandma that I have to call it a grandma perfume.Among the top ten fragrances in the world I would not hesitate to wear it. It is so alluring except for the memories. As you may already know our sense of smell can pull distant memories up in a flash like none of our other senses can. This is why I can’t wear it.

For weekend occasions if I’m going on a date I like to experiment a little. A nice summer fragrance for women that kept me feeling fresh on hot summer evenings if our date happened to be outdoors is a couture fragrance for women. Of course its juicy couture. I was skeptical about getting it but it reminded me so much of meadows and fresh smelling short linen white dresses.
Other fresh smelling fragrances for the summer include white linen by estee lauder and Kenzo fragrance. White linen is a classic and i always keep goping back to that for the summer.
I used to like nina ricci’s L air du temps, especially the beautiful Lalique flacons that the perfumes come in. It was the perfect evening summer fragrance with a light flowery scent but ending with a strong base note that was light but suggestive and very womanly.

It’s sister fragrance which is fleur de fleur retained the flowery top note but lacked the sturdy base note and so it was the perfect summer floral scent that was light and airy and fun and reminicent of Cacharel’s Anais Anais. This was the most enduring floral scent that I have ever worn. The Eau de toillete would last all day and would never turn sour. Cheap perfume can be the bomb and a good find when you discover them. Elizabeth Arden and Avon carry some interesting summer fragrances on the cheap and can be found at stores that carry c.

Admittedly selling fragrance for women is not an easy job. I think I would develop bronchitis if I had to work in an environment saturated with womens perfume day in and day out. Fragrances for women is undoubtedly big business but for women in general, its very difficult to make a selection based on taking a whiff of for or more different fragrances. I think any more than scent strips and its olfactory overload. You simply will not be able to distinguish the differences in all the notes of a scent if you have more than three different fragrances to study. Think of it. Each scent strip is loaded with fragrance that has a top note, one or two middle notes, and a base note. So multiply lets say the number of notes by three fragrances so you have a total of at least nine separate underlying fragrances to evaluate. That’s why I say no more than three scents at a time.

Most smelling behavior by clients in this atmosphere of high pressure sales is to sniff the fragrance from the scent saturated strip and they will accept or reject the fragrance within ten seconds. Just a small percentage of shoppers will actually apply the fragrance to their forearm and take a whiff from there. the perfume manufacturers know this and many of their scents are designed to smell good on paper (no pun intended) but when it is applied to skin, its a completely different story. many perfume creators do not feel like creators at all. They simply take orders from the market researchers because sales and profits have become the driving formulas for the major perfume houses. the volume comes from the sheer number of bottled perfume that gets sold all over the world. It is the only heavily branded almost couture fragrance product that the ordinary consumer can purchase for a song, or maybe a little more than a song. So synthetics are a big part of fragrance components as are the perfumers in laboratories who manipulate them as a way to help sluggish sales.

Worth in the blue box was one of those classic fragrances. It had a light fresh scent that I loved as a women’s fragrance.

When I was with my boyfriend on a date in 1978 I was wearing Miss  Worth. I loved it. Near the end of the evening he said all night he could smell furniture polish and could I smell it? When I went to kiss him goodnight he said “I can smell it again”. I love Miss Worth, it’s one of my favorite scents.

Giorgio of Beverly Hill  was said to bring into your mind the swaying palms and sandy beaches of Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive, this was the perfume for any great fan of the hit teen drama Beverly Hills 90210!.

Giorgio Beverly Hills was introduced in 1981, and was characterized by delicate notes of gardenia, rose, sandalwood and orange blossom. One thing’s for certain,  that garish yellow-striped packaging wouldn’t pass muster these days!

Georgio red was also a great fragrance of the 80s in the tall red box.

On the subject of scents this is not a really a woman’s fragrance so to speak but it was a popular scent back in the day. Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific was a shampoo that was very popular in the late 70’s, early 80’s and came in either blue or maroon plastic bottles with some kind of rainbow illustration .

the shampoo was so memorable I had a dream about it . I remember a woman with long lustrous hair was coming onto me and I was following her down a passage and she stopped all of a sudden and I didn’t stop immediately so my face ended up almost in her hair and so knowing that she shook her hair in my face and said “Do you want a piece of that?” and I replied ” Hmm. Your hair smells like ‘gee your hair smells terrific’ ” and I started laughing uncontrollably because her bubble just deflated at the unexpectedness of that reply.

As far as men’s fragrances go Brut was an aftershave that was advertised by Henry Cooper and Kevin Keegan. They were major sports stars of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

The slogan for the after shave was “Splash it all over”. The aftershave was quite strong smelling  for the time but smelt nothing like anything that had been around before. It came in a green plastic or glass bottle and it is a very distinctive masculine fragrance. I remember using the deodorant when I was like twelve  in the late seventies and I though it smelled great. Brut is produced by Faberge and still sold to this day.

Of course men’s fragrances always had these alpha male names to them like Brut meaning “Brute” and Eua Savage by Christian Dior in the eighties meaning “You Savage”

Another Women’s Fragrance that I find many other fragrances seem to take their cue from is Byzance. Byzance perfume was launched by Rochas in 1987. The name stems from Byzantium - the fabled city built by the Greeks - which consequently means the frangrance is a true Middle Eastern blend of aromas to make you feel you’ve been trasnsported through time and space. A great fragrance, not too strong but mildly exotic. Another Exotic spicy perfume that comes to mind is Sinan, By the Designer Jean Marc Sinan. It was the first women’s perfume that went in a totally different direction.