Can you smell me now?

For the past three years, I’ve been wearing HERMÈS Un Jardin en Mediterranée. I’m very fickle when it comes to perfume as I am sensitive to smell. The wrong perfume would give me headaches, nausea and even fever. That’s one thing I am jealous of other girls, the ability to wear any fragrance they want. Sometimes I might start off ok, but down a month or two not so much. That’s why I was initially happy to have found a signature perfume and proudly finished three bottles (almost done with the fourth).

HERMÈS Un Jardin en Mediterranée is very light, it pretty much disappears in 10 minutes after spraying. I understand that one may get so use to the fragrance that they cannot smell it on themselves, but this is not the case. No one has ever commented on my perfume. I take that back, my sister did say something once. She said it smelled nice, but she could only pick it up once in a while and had to be in close proximity.

Sadly, HERMÈS does not make a lotion, shower gel or Eau de Parfum (EDP) for Un Jardin en Mediterranée. Thus, I started another search *sigh* It’s not the first time; I’ve done a search before, but always ended back being faithful to my holy grail. This time around I am more adamant as the price for Un Jardin en Mediterranée had increased in the last two years. Higher price for a low staying power fragrance, I think not. So after 2 ½ months of trying on a bunch of different perfumes, I chose Prada Infusion d’Iris.

Prada Infusion d’Iris is very feminine in contrast with HERMÈS Un Jardin en Mediterranée clean fragrance. I was a bit hesitant, because I don’t see myself as very feminine. Well not the way I dressed anyways. I pictured heels, dresses and pearls when I get a whiff of Infusion d’Iris. I guess with time I’ll get over this complex.

If you are looking to buy perfume or new fragrance, here are notes I have saved from long time ago on perfume strengths (I don’t recall what site I found it on, so my apologies to the owner of the site):

• Perfume Oil/ Perfume extract/ or simply Perfume (extrait): Pure Perfume, 15–40% perfume oil in an oil rather than alcohol base. Few fragrances are commercially available in this concentration, and those that are tend to be extremely costly.
• SOIE de Parfum/ Esprit de Parfum (ESDP): 15–30% aromatic compounds, a seldom used strength concentration in between EdP and perfume.
• Eau de Parfum (EDP): 10–20% aromatic compounds, sometimes listed as “eau de perfume” or “millésime.” Price depends on the brand and fragrance, but will be a little bit more expensive than less concentrated fragrances.
• Eau de Toilette (EDT): 5–15% aromatic compounds. Very common concentration.
• Eau de Cologne (EDC): 3–8% aromatic compounds. Was once a very popular concentration, but not as much now at least in women’s fragrances. Still is fairly popular in men’s fragrances.
• A/S: After Shave: 1–3% aromatic compounds.
• Eau Fraiche/ Splash (EDS): 1–3% aromatic compounds.