The Perfect Perfume

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 1, 1 July 1926, Page 35

The Perfect Perfume

Elaborate advice is often given to women on choosing perfumes to suit their personalities. A good deal of this talk seems rather strained and exaggerated. A pleasant and matured personality needs no aid from an artificial lotion and if individuality is lacking, no scent wil give it. It is not the function of a perfume to suggest traits of character, but to give an impression of fragrance and the most alluring cleanliness. The simple, flowerlike scents best do both these things, and lavender water, white violet, lily of the valley, rose and eau-de-Cologne never pall. Far from being common-place, they suit English beauty infinitely better than exotic Eastern odours, which are best left to Oriental women. jCVerything to match — salts, -*—'soap, powder, creams —is perhaps the ideal. But this is often neither easy nor cheap. If it prove impossible, the best alternative is

to have all toilet articles of fine quality, but unscented, and to rely on a few drops of liquid perfume to create fragrance. Scent is far better sprayed than dabbed on, as the spraying gives a much more even effect, and, in the case of eau-de-Cologne, has a tonic effect on the skin. A cheap throat spray from the chemist is just as effective for scenting, by the way, as the expensive dressing-table gadget we can't all afford. A very faint fragrance may be embedded in every garment worn — accumulating in the. whole toilet to just the perfect perfumeby buying sachet powder in bulk from a good perfumery. Sprinkled on cottonwool and fitted into thin silk sachets for wardrobe and drawers, this takes the place of liquid scent. A charming touch is added both to a room and its owner if a bowl of fragrant pot-pourri, containing some of the personal perfume used, stands on mantelpiece or windowsill.