Finding your fall fragrance can be overwhelming and daunting. Black woman fragrance and beauty educator Maiya Nicole is bridging that gap and helping you with a step-by-step guide to discovering your signature scent.
Nicole is more than a content creator recommending perfumes to her audience. She’s a synesthete fragrance connoisseur and founder of the online community Black Girls Smell Good. With over 100,000 followers on TikTok, Nicole has made Black women feel welcomed in the world of luxury fragrance.
Check out her guide to finding the perfect fall fragrance.
Step 1: Start With A Question
According to Nicole, finding your favorite fragrance doesn’t start with notes or scents at all. It starts with thinking about how you want to feel. It’s about taking your favorite emotions and attaching a scent, sight or feel to them.
“Fragrance evokes emotion, it’s more intimate than any of our other beauty products,” Nicole told 21Ninety. “It has transformative power to take you back to a certain time or place.”
A perfect fall fragrance could look feeling comfy and warm or sexy and bold.
Step 2: Take Note of Your Current Fragrance Collection
Before running to the store to buy the first fragrance that feels cozy, Nicole recommends looking at what you already have.
“Ask yourself what is in your collection or what have you smelled that makes you feel that way?” Nicole said.
According to the fragrance educator, people associate feelings with different scents. For example, one may link the feeling of comfort to gourmand scents, like vanilla, while others may associate comfort with clean linen. Figuring out which perfumes you actually like from your collection will inform you on what to buy in the future.
Step 3: Find a Theme Among Your Favorite Perfumes
Nicole suggests pinpointing a theme among your purchased perfumes. Are they from the same fragrance family? Do they all have the same top notes in common? Once pinpointing a theme, you can layer this perfume with body creme, body wash and hair care items that include the same notes.
“Your entire routine plays a role in your scent bubble,” Nicole said.
Step 4: Date Your Fragrance
Nicole warns against being pressured to go out and buy a full-size bottle of perfume. Instead, she says the next step is experimenting different fragrances.
“You have to take it home with you and let it live on your skin,” Nicole told 21Ninety.
She recommends purchasing travel sizes and sample sets. Do you only like the top notes? How does it smell once it settles into your skin? It’s all about being curious and getting to know the fragrance.
Step 5: Know Yourself By Making An Informed Decision
Even after you “date” your fragrance, you have to decide your commitment to it. Marrying the fragrance equates to buying the biggest bottle the perfume offers. Essentially it means you’ll wear this perfume in any season. On the other hand, if you feel like it is simply a fall fragrance, opt for purchasing a one ounce size bottle.