Over the years I have bought many fragrances and I often got tired of them once the bottle is half empty (or full- depending on your perspective). I then gave away whatever was left because I could not barely stand to smell the scent anymore. Nowadays, I never buy full bottles of fragrance anymore-I buy samples instead. I get these samples from
Luckyscent.com,
Beautyhabit.com, and
aedes.com. So I get a chance to try many different scents without committing to them. I do however have 3 fragrances that I have used some time and I still love them. The first of these fragrances I would like to mention is
Apothia IF. A couple of years ago I received a sample of
Apothia IF along with an order I got from
apothia.com. I tested it on my wrist and I thought it smelled wonderful. It was fresh, light, and clean but not squeaky clean. I bought a full-size bottle for $58 and
I have bought 2 more since then. I don't think I will ever get tired of this fragrance.
Apothia IF is sold online at
ronrobinsoninc.com and I have also seen it on
amazon.com. There is also a
Apothia IF
eau de parfum spray but I personally prefer the roll-on.
The next fragrance I want to mention, which is an all-time classic for many, is
Kiehls Original Musk Oil. I became interested in
Kiehls during the mid-90's while in college. I remember seeing their name and products pop up in fashion/beauty magazine, so I wanted to find out more about them. I called for a catalog (yes, a catalog-the web was too new at that time) and I received it along with some free samples. I saw some products I was interested in one of which was the Original Musk Oil. Plus at that time you could order a few samples from
Kiehls at no charge. You did not even need to place an order or pay for shipping. So I ordered the musk and a few other products. I really liked the Original Musk so I bought a small bottle which lasted for what seemed like forever(in a good way). I still wear it from time to time and it never gets old to me. This is one fragrance I will always buy and wear. Plus it is great for layering. Original Musk can be found at
kiehls.com, free-standing
Kiehls store,
Nordstrom, and some other higher end department stores.
Last but not least is
Hesperides by Fresh which is a lovely, uplifting,
citrusy scent. Last year I was in a department store and Fresh had a few really inexpensive ($38) box sets that included an 8.8 soap, a 4.2 oz lotion and a 1 oz
eau de parfum. I figured that was a lot of products for just $38 so I bought it and was so glad I did. I loved the way
Hesperides smelled on me then and I still do. I also love
Hesperides for layering. Fresh
Hesperides can be bought at
fresh.com,
sephora.com,
Amazon.com,
sephora stores, and some department stores.
Honorable Mention- There is one more fragrance I want to mention. It is called Untitled #5 by Maria
McElroy and although is it not a top fave yet, but I think it will be soon. I received this scent as a Christmas present and I think it is very yummy. It has notes of Brazil nut, chestnut,
cassis, honey, clove, honeysuckle, orange blossom, brandy,
patchouly, tobacco,
vetiver. This is one of those scents that I thought smelled so great that I wanted to eat it (not literally of course). There is sort of this sticky, pleasant sweetness to it - not that
gourmand, cake-like,
chocolaty , vanilla sweetness that was popular for fragrances a few years ago. Untitled #5 by Maria
McElroy can be found at
luckyscent.com.
I do still sample lots of fragrances but the top 3 are my mainstays and the closest thing I will ever get to a signature scent.
