A personal branding exercise that we can get on board with
It’s hard to believe that mixing perfumes was once a personal grooming cardinal sin. Alongside opting for mismatched lip and nail polish colours, or coating your lids with an eyeshadow hue that didn’t sit directly across from your eye on the colour wheel, beauty buffs once upon a time wouldn’t be caught dead shrouded in two scents.
With this rule firmly faded into oblivion, mixing perfumes – or rather, layering them – is encouraged.
One need only look at the latest perfume launch by Tory Burch as proof. With her five-piece collection Essence of Dreams, she joins the growing number of houses making fragrance capsules with mixing in mind.
At first glance, you could mistake each blend for an ultra-classic scent and nothing more. Rose, wood, white floral…you know the notes. Upon deeper immersion, however, it’s clear that each fragrance is comprised of unexpected yet highly intuitive layers, and that’s before you even begin to pair them.
Take Sublime Rose: sweet without being sickly, the strong rose notes are grounded with a touch of wood and the tang of blackcurrant. I caught a powdery hit of rose while wearing it on its own, but when I put wrist to nose, a surprisingly tart, peppery scent emerged. You might assume a bold fragrance like this wouldn’t budge, but pairing it separately with both Mystic Geranium and Electric Sky proved otherwise. The former lifts it into a light bouquet of ultra-floral and feminine top notes, while the latter makes it much more mineral. The result is something that stamps out the rose scent, but keeps its crisp, floral sensibilities. It’s enchanting in all senses of the word.
Smelling remarkably savoury in the bottle (thank you salt water accord,) I found Electric Sky to have the most sway when layered atop each of the collection’s offerings. In the case of Divine Moon – Tory Burch’s answer to a strong white-flower blend – a spray-for-spray not only intensified the fragrance’s florals, it resulted in a rich evening perfume by bringing out a buttery, dessert-like base similar to that of a madeira cake or a biscuity custard tart. It’s not everyday that almond milk appears as a fragrance note (yes, really), so I was delighted to see it didn’t get lost in the layers.
Cosmic Wood, on the other hand, was surprisingly subtle for something with ‘wood’ in its name – to the extent that it was barely discernible as I went about my day, four sprays deep. This changed when Mystic Geranium entered the mix. Suddenly, a lightly-wooded, powdery, citrusy Turkish delight-tinted scent took hold. I was left impressed, and craving something sweet.
The verdict? Tory Burch’s Essence of Dreams is a solid line-up of standalone fragrances, but this is a strength in numbers situation, if only for the novelty of cosplaying an alchemist. Don’t be overwhelmed by the options, or the process. When it comes to creating one’s own signature scent, there’s no rulebook and no chance of a wrong turn – and that is a dream in and of itself.
Looking for an accessory to elevate your look even further? Explore Harris Tapper’s first foray into the world of accessories here.