Every woman needs her personal fragrance wardrobe... to fit her mood, to blend in with the nuances in her personality.

Getting ready for some romance?

You could go for a heady fragrance or one that is feminine, rose based. Incidentally, rose and jasmine are the classic floral scents for romance.

In a carefree mood?

Go for something fresh. A fragrance that is fruity, especially one with notes of grapefruit or orange or neroli would be wonderful for that optimistic outlook.

Perfume is all about your individual taste. My cousin loves patchouli but that smell makes me want to throw up.

The trick is to get something you simply adore which smells great to other people too. The easiest way out is to buy a brand name perfume off the shelves. But would that mean someone else would probably be wearing the same scent as you?

If that is your concern, you need not worry too much. That same fragrance smells different on different people as the day progresses. The fragrance mixes with the oils your skin produce and the end result is something that is subtly, uniquely yours.

If you do want to mix your own fragrance, go ahead.

When I was in my teens, my pals would mix their own fragrance by mixing 2 or more of their favourite perfumes. That could turn out to be a hit, or a total waste of good perfume if the result stinks.

The other way is to mix your own fragrance from essential oils. Each essential oil provides a note in the complete fragrance.

A beautiful fragrance consists of at least 3 notes. A top note, a middle note and a base note.

• The top note evaporates the most quickly. Meaning, your first whiff of the fragrance would be the top note. Mints and Citrus scents like grapefruit and lemon are top notes. It is also the first note to disappear, meaning as the day progresses, the top note would have evaporated off, which lets the fragrance develop, showing off the other notes.
• The middle note forms the body of the fragrance. That means, for most of the day, this is the note that dominates the fragrance. Lavender, tea tree, geranium and nutmeg are some examples of middle notes.
• The base notes are the most lasting parts of the fragrance. Long after the fragrance has faded, the base notes remain. These would be the woody and the musky scents like musk, sandalwood and vetiver.

Some scents are complete perfumes by themselves.

Rose for example is made of hundreds of components. It can be used as the top note, body and even the base note in a fragrance. I used to keep a tiny bottle of Rose Otto. Very expensive stuff but a single drop goes a long way. 1 drop of that in 5 ml of jojoba oil lasted for a very long time as a personal perfume that was also therapeutic. It was also a complete perfume on its own.

Experiment with different scents, diluting them in a massage oil, to create your personal fragrance.

For starters, you could put 1 teaspoon of sweet almond oil or a carrier oil into a small bottle, add 1 drop of essential oil for the top note, 1 drop for the middle note and 1 drop for the base note and see how it goes.

Have fun!