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We frequently show ourselves through the utilization of perfumes, and the kind of scent that we use the most to show our own personality is one that is often named our signature fragrance.

What regulates our alternative for our very own signature scent? It depends from person to person, since our bodies have a certain chemical makeup that is unique by itself. It is determined by our own genetic traits as well as by the lifestyle choices that we make. It is also the reason why some scents that we like to smell on others may not smell as good on our own skin.

There is an assumption floating about among biochemical experts that our choice of signature smells depends on which of our four senses (the sense of smell excluded) influences our personality. A person can either be sight-dominant, taste-dominant, touch-dominant or sound-dominant. Whatever sense drives our personality more also plays a larger role in our choice as to what our signature scent may be.

The Signature Scent for Sight-Dominant People

People who are sight-dominant are very visual. They derive pleasure from the things they see more than anything else, and they often can describe the things they see with vivid accuracy. Such people are often very energetic and full of life.

The signature scent for most sight-dominant people is either floral or fruity. Such a scent gives off a lot of energy, and such energy matches the florid personality of a sight-dominant person more than any other.  Sight-dominant people will enjoy English Laundry Notting Hill.  Notting Hill Femme is an invigorating mix of rose and citrus. Notting Hill for Him has notes of jasmine, peppercorn and cedarwood.

The Signature Scent for Taste-Dominant People

Food plays an important role in the lives of taste-dominant people. They do not eat food just for the sake of eating; every bite they take in is chewed slowly and savored for each and every distinguishing taste registered on their tongue. Taste-dominant people are gourmets and epicureans – “they get their pleasure from eating exquisite food. They see food more than just a way to nourish bodies, and neither do they see it as something to be abused. They have a healthy respect for food.

Such people who are taste-dominant often go for signature scents that have a hint of the aroma of food in them. It is not surprising for them to choose to wear perfumes made from vanilla or chocolate, or from fruits like oranges and strawberries. They find such scents delicious. For these men, English Laundry Oxford Bleu would be perfect, with notes of mint, green apple, lemon and vanilla. For women, English Laundry Oxford Bleu Femme should be a top pick, with notes of citrus, pineapple, melon and vanilla.

The Signature Scent of Touch-Dominant People

Touch-dominant people love getting in close contact with other people. Whenever they talk, they often hold the arm or the hand of the person they are talking to just to make sure that they have that person’s attention. They are also creatures of comfort. They love soft things and warm things. Touching silk or velvet with their bare fingers or letting their feet sink in the sand bring so much pleasure to them. More often than not, they also have pets that they adore so much.

Such touch-dominant people are often attracted to the warm scents like musk, sandalwood or amber. Perfumes made from these bases appeal to touch-dominant people because of their innate heat and the intimacy they imply. Soft, warm and comforting scents are the signature scents of touch-dominant people.

The English Laundry Signature line would be most appropriate for the touch-dominant. Signature for Him encompasses base notes of sandalwood, vetiver, musk and amber. Signature for Her also includes musk notes and comfort-food friendly white chocolate.

The Signature Scent of Sound-Dominant People

People who are sound-dominant tend to love music to a fault. They can recognize the intricacies of rhythm and melody and translate it, just like one would translate a foreign language. They also love to talk, but they love to listen just as much as they love to talk, simply because they like hearing nuances in other people’s voices. Such people are also great at mimicking sounds or impersonating the way another person speaks.

The signature scents suited to sound-dominant people are spicy scents or oriental scents, made with not just spices but also with exotic flowers like the lotus or the jasmine. Such a scent has layers upon layers of complexities in it, and it suits a person who can strip away layers from something as complicated as sound.

English Laundry Riviera would suit the sound-dominant man, with its notes of bergamont, cedar and patchouli.  No. 7 for Her, with notes of gardenia and sandalwood, would be a good choice for sound-dominant women.

Each person has a different signature scent. What is yours?

Quince is a fruit that was highly prized by ancient civilizations, and it probably originated near the antique city of Smyrna, Turkey. The fruit was widely disseminated in artistic drawings, as wall paintings and mosaics at the lost city of Pompeii, Italy, and even though the ancient Greeks had developed and grafted quince with an exceptional quality, it is only in recent years that agricultural scientists have hybridized a fruit with a softer texture and a juicier flesh.

Some modern Bible translations claim that Adam tasted in the Garden of Eden the fruit of an apple… but more likely that fruit was a quince, since apples came to the region at a much later date.
Research scientists have hybridized many new cultivars of quince that far surpass the characteristics of the wild, seedling quince trees.

From the ancient city of Smyrna, Turkey, this commercially grown hybrid is now produced for supermarkets in the Deep South where migrant Mexican works buy the fruit to satisfy their Latin palate appetites. Sometimes Smyrna trees bear fruit the very first year.

Hybrid quince cultivars are usually yellow in color when ripe; however, the new “orange” quince is orange in color. The fruit when ripe emits an agreeable fruit fragrance and can be eaten raw. The tree blooms during April in Georgia and ripens in July though September, depending on which cultivar was planted. The surface of the fruit is generally woolly like a peach except for the Smyrna, which is slick and waxy. Many jelly makers prefer to pick the fruit just before ripening, when the color begins to change from green to yellow. This seals the acid content into their jelly.

Quince hybrid cultivars grow 10 to 15 feet tall because they are grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock; however, the species, ‘Cydonia oblonga,’ has grown to 35 feet in California. Many early settlers of the United States planted the seed of the European quince, ‘Cydonia oblonga,’ in their gardens. Some of these seedlings produced quince fruit the size of pears, and others grew fruit to the remarkable size of a cantaloupe. These fruits were used mainly to add a wonderful fragrance inside their rooms from the long lasting quality of the fruit. The quince fruit was also used to make jellies, jams, pies, pastes, and pectin value to include with other canned items. The quince trees and fruit are remarkably free of diseases and insect pests. The trees are very adaptable to a wide range of soil types and temperatures, and readily withstand cold damage in Zones 5-9, subjected to low temperatures of negative 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of the quince that is grown from seed is nationally used as a dwarfing rootstock for other fruit trees by wholesale nurserymen.

The flowers of quince trees appear in late spring after the leaves form, and the blossoms are pinkish-white with a pleasant fragrance. After the fruit begins to turn yellow in the fall, a delicious aroma is emitted from the ripening sequence, one that is unequaled by any other fruit in terms of the long period that the fragrance lasts, and the delicate quality of the aroma. The flowers of the quince tree are self fertile and require no cross pollination by bees and ants. The seedling, ungrafted quince is very different from the flowering dwarf quince, even though they both produce large fruit. Quince fruit has been shown to contain healthy minerals such as potassium, potash, and phosphorus, and is high in Vitamins C and B2.

The medicinal qualities of quince have been appreciated to be true since ancient times. Shakespeare wrote that quince was the “stomach’s comforter.”

Quince has many uses, such as, pies, jellies, jams, marmalades, flavorings, ice creams, and cakes.

Both English Laundry Signature for Her and English Rose have Quince notes. If you are a quince lover, try both fragrances at EnglishLaundyFragrance.com

When you start looking at perfume, one of the first things you’ll notice is the array of terms used to denote the different kinds of perfumes and fragrances on the market. Some common terms you’ll see are perfume, cologne, eau de parfum, and eau de toilette. These terms are frequently confused with each other, and when buying perfumes, it helps to know what they are.

Perfume

Perfume is the broadest of the categories. The word refers to both body scents generally, and a particular type of scent, specifically. In its general aspect, perfume includes all of the other terms, but not scented body lotions or creams.

As a specific term, perfume refers to the strongest, and longest lasting, type of body scent. Most perfumes are “layered” scents, meaning they contain a combination of different fragrances. These layers of scent are called “notes” in the French perfume industry, and they are not chosen at random.

Typical perfumes have three notes. The first, comprised of the strongest scents, is also the shortest lasting. These are the scents that you’ll smell when you first put on the perfume, but they will usually wear off within a few hours, exposing the next layer…

The second layer, or “middle note,” is made of less volatile scents that will usually last until midday or early afternoon. By evening, the third and final layer is all that remains of the perfume. This is usually the most subtle scent; even though it is longer lasting, the strength of it will decrease through the day.

As a result of this layering, the best perfumes will slowly change their scent through the day. Good parfumiers have perfected the science of blending scents, so that the layers compliment each other, and the change in scent, while recognizable, is both subtle and pleasing.

Colognes

The next category of perfumes is cologne. I used to think that cologne was simple a word for “men’s perfume,” but that’s not actually the case. Cologne is a perfume, but one with only a single scent to it. Because of this, colognes are both stronger and shorter lasting than perfumes. The reasons for this apparent paradox are related.

Colognes, having only a single scent, will dissipate faster than perfumes. To balance that, they are prepared with a stronger scent, to last as long as possible. This gives colognes much less subtlety than perfumes, and makes it easy to “overdo it” when using them.

And back to my original misconception about cologne; while it is true that colognes are not exclusively for men, and that many fine women’s colognes are on the market, most men’s fragrances out there are colognes rather than perfumes. And even the men’s perfumes are frequently marketed under the term “cologne.” Perhaps perfume doesn’t sound masculine enough….

Eau de …

The last two categories of liquid based perfume scents are eau de parfum and eau de toilette. “Eau” is French for water, and “toilette” is French for the act of getting oneself dressed and prepared; eau de parfum and eau de toilette are, respectively, “perfumed water” and “make-up water.” Of the two, eau de parfum is the more popular.

Eau de parfum is a less expensive form of perfume, based on single scents, but less overpowering than cologne. This is the perfume that ladies like to daub on their wrists or necks, using the glass jar stopper. This sort of perfume might not last through a full day, but it will definitely last through a full date.

Eau de toilette is similar to eau de parfum, but not as strong, and even less expensive. Typically, these scents only last a few hours, but because they are relatively cheap, and sold in small bottles that are easily carried in a purse or handbag, it’s easy to refresh the scent during the day. Eau de toilette is usually not a strong fragrance.

Lotions and Creams

Finally, most body lotions and creams are scented, but these are not strictly perfumes. They typically contain scented oils in about the same concentration as eau de toilette: enough to detect, but not enough to overpower, and probably not enough to last more than a few hours. Such lotions are not intended as skin treatments, and not as perfumes. If you’re looking for body scents, it’s more cost effective to buy a good eau de toilette or eau de parfum than a scented lotion.

During your search for your next fragrance, be sure to check out EnglishLaundryFragrance.com

Sometimes, the array of perfumes, with their scents and their bottles, can be intimidating, and that can keep people from buying perfume. You won’t find pushy salespeople, and there are no obligations.

What you will find are the best perfumes for women and men delivered directly to you. So check us out, and see how easy it is to find the right perfume.