The Unique Power of Aromatherapy Perfume

A perfume makes a statement about you. People notice it before they notice what you are wearing, what your make-up is like. They may notice it at a sub-conscious level, and be unable to describe it - but long after you have gone away, a sniff of the same perfume recalls you as nothing else could.

Who does not remember the perfume their mother wore? Even now, when I mix perfumes, to uncork my precious oil of roses is to smell my mother walk into a room. While the curious combination of baking earth, lavender and orange transports me more immediately to the South of France than any picture could do. Being French, I understood at a very early age, that perfume fragrance and association, is part of our culture.

Smell is the most powerful of the five senses and the one most intimately connected with memory at a deep, almost instinctive level. Having one that suits you is more important than a favourite dress, more like a precious piece of jewellery. A good perfume will adorn you forever.

The Perfect Perfume for you:

Perfume changes on the skin - it reacts with your personal pheromones and skin type to produce a scent that changes over time. This is why not all perfumes suit the same people - why the same perfume can smell entirely different on another woman. It's the reason why you should never test a perfume on a piece of card instead of your skin and why something you buy in a crowded perfume hall, where all the smells are mingled, will seem quite different when you get it home.

Often clients have said to me they wished a perfume could smell the way it does in the bottle on them - or they describe a scent they long to wear and are sad because it seems impossible to find it.

It is possible to find the fragrance they desire, but it might smell different in the bottle, because a master perfumeur would have to discover what scents work with their skin, how the different elements respond. There are also new oils and scents most women have never heard of - ones that commercial companies would never dream of using since they cost thousands and thousands of pounds per kilo.

A fragrance can define a woman - as Chanel No 5 came to define Coco Chanel. It can boost or enhance your mood - a fragrance for summer, for evening, for romance. It can reveal, tantalise and entrance. Above all, a perfume should be yours, uniquely yours, from the feelings it evokes each time you smell it, and to how others respond.

Perfumes beyond 'that smells nice':

I have worked on essential oils and the science of smells for more years than I shall admit in writing. For me every smell will always work on several levels. There is whether I like the smell, what the smell makes me think of and how it makes me feel, and by that I mean - what the fragrance is doing to me on a personal level.

Aromatherapy has made the effect of some smells better known than others. Most people know lavender is 'relaxing' and rosemary 'awakening' (although it is not quite that simple). You're unlikely to want a perfume made out of these, though - even if they may be oils you love in your bath!

Few people know how perfumes can have a similar effect. At some level we all appreciate it. After all, early fixatives like musk and civet were mimicking the natural pheromones of sexual attraction. But far beyond this, there is scope for the modern perfumeur to create perfumes which can help breathing, relax and de-stress you or energise and excite you. Of course, this is only true if the perfume is being made with true essential oils, absolutes and essences.

Commercial perfumes, made with alcohol and synthetic chemicals fade quite quickly. You cannot keep them more than a year or they begin to breakdown, even to smell rancid. I, personally, am not a fan of what they can do to your breathing as well. Chemical components of perfumes can provoke skin allergies as well as breathing problems or nausea (especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding since some elements can find their way into the milk). Too much time in the perfume department of a store can leave me with a headache and a sore throat.

The process of designing a signature fragrance:

To design a perfume properly is not a matter of some 'multiple answer' questionnaire. While personal likes and dislikes in general and of particular fragrances is essential, more important is the perfumeur's nose in understanding how these elements react and combine with your skin.

If you were having a wedding dress made, you wouldn't pick it off the internet without trying it on. It's the same for a perfume. You begin with a one hour consultation at Danièle Ryman's London laboratory and office. Here, the basic outline of your perfume will be thought about - your favourite smells, how your skin works, what your needs for the perfume are.

It will take approximately 2-3 weeks to create samples of fragrances I think likely to work for you. Your fitting is a time to try out the fragrances and fine-tune the scent. This is still not the finished fragrance - particular ingredients may be hard to find or source, for example, and, most importantly, the fragrance will need to mature. About 4 weeks later your perfume will be ready.

Because I use all natural ingredients, insisting on 100% Grade A essential oils or essences and only natural alcohols or fixatives, these fragrances will not breakdown or fade, instead they mature over time, becoming richer, deeper and more sensuous the longer they are left. 4 weeks is the minimum amount of time required for the elements to properly blend in the bottle.

A gift without equal:

I have designed unique signature perfumes for many women; sometimes to mark a special occasion; sometimes for women suffering from allergic reactions to commercial preparations and sometimes just because a woman has never found a truly special perfume that felt right.

It is a very special and precious gift because it is so exquisitely personal and rare. Mothers often buy the perfume for their daughters as a bridal gift or a husband looking to commemorate the birth of their first child. It makes a moving silver or golden wedding anniversary gift or a birthday present to mark a special year that should never be forgotten.

Commercial perfume companies have never used some of the oils I use (even in their lab-made synthetic versions) because they are so difficult to obtain. I know each distillery and grower that I source my ingredients from at a personal level. That way I can always be certain of the quality of the oil I am getting, the conditions and crop in a particular year. Choosing oils for a perfume takes the same level of careful planning as a wine-maker choosing his grapes to blend.

No blend is ever repeated - your fragrance will be unique to you and your signature scent will be kept on file in my laboratory to be re-ordered whenever you need more. It will be a unique wonderful fragrance that is forever yours!

For a personal appointment with Daniele Ryman at her studio in Central London:

For a personal one hour skincare consultation appointment with Danièle (no obligation to purchase):or for further infomation, please call our office on: 0207 222 6305 or email us here >>