If your scent could speak, what would it say?
The Body Shop are celebrating freedom of expression with an innovative new fragrance range.
Working creatively with influential women from across the region, the brand has created the Scents of Life collection. Fragrance lovers can design their own bespoke fragrances with a mix and match collection of Fragrances, Essences and Spritzes – 15 cruelty-free, vegan scents for women and men.
Expanding on their existing fragrance expertise, the brand has partnered with Middle Eastern influencers to co-create a playful take on the time-honoured tradition of mixing scents, supporting female empowerment, self-expression and progress.
Roger Schmid, the creative force behind this wonderful collection, co-created with Middle Eastern influencers, tells us more…
What is the relation between your perfume choice and your personality?
Our personalities tend to be based on our experiences and culture. We may have grown up near the sea, and a marine scent would consequently represent home, and may be a feeling of comfort, family, whereas to someone else it would be more a memory of vacation, outdoor activities and fun. In the past, the limited number of perfumes available often limited us to one fragrance we should be loyal too, at least for a few years. Like in food, we would normally be limited to the food of our country, with relative variety. Today we live in a more global environment, with many choices, and the idea of a perfume wardrobe is the new reality, with fragrances that can match your mood or circumstances of the moment, rather than just your overall perceived personality. “Scents of Life” from The Body Shop was created exactly to satisfy this wish. Why should someone else dictate what your personality may be? By offering you the possibility of playing and combining different quality scents you will create yourself the perfume that corresponds to how you feel, or how you would like to feel.
Can you give a few examples of major scents and their personality types? For example, citrus lovers are leaders, rose lovers are known to be cautious by nature etc.
Here again, culture and life experience play a role, since memory is so much linked to perfume. Overall, one could say that scents dominated by citrus are for the active person, indeed often a leader, that floral notes work well for the more stylish person, that transmits elegance and power. Spicy notes add to your personality with vibrancy, if its pepper for instance, or mystery if it’s more saffron and cardamom. Gourmand notes, vanilla, go well with playful people, but also with persons with confidence. Woody and musky scents, usually long-lasting, are for lovers.
One could also say that a very familiar scent is more for the peaceful, don’t-disturb-me type of person, whereas the more extroverted would try the unfamiliar, chock herself or himself, by wearing the unusual, like in fashion. And like in Fashion, where over the years you may move from a safe Armani to a more daring Cavalli or Versace, the same can apply to the scent you wear.
What is clear, in today’s world, is that we like to change, we like to have a choice, and increasingly we want to be able to customize, play and learn, in order to use perfume has an expression of ourselves.