I remember my first signature scent quite well, Cast a Spell by Lulu Guinness. I don't however remember where I bought it. As I started to run down the bottle and the last drops clung to the sides of its frosted container, I panicked, because my signature scent was gone. This was before Amazon or online shopping really took off. If I couldn't remember where I had gotten it... I wasn't going to be able to re buy it.
The smell of Cast a Spell was a complex vanilla that hinted at something a little spicy. I loved it. It could be worn everyday and it was just complex enough that it carried over to evening events very nicely.
The other problem in trying to hunt down another bottle of Cast a Spell was that I couldn't even remember the name. The bottle doesn't say it, and the box had been thrown out long ago. So instead of panicking that my signature scent was gone, I headed off to Sephora to find something that reminded me of that smell. So started my hunt for my next signature scent.
What I found was Saint by Kat Von D.
Saint is a lovely little perfume that held me over through my last few years of college and into my post-college years quite nicely. It's a very day friendly scent that wears lightly on the skin and slowly fades over the day, which is why I would always stick the rollerball in my purse to reapply later in the day. But what it lacked that Cast a Spell had was that spicy complexity that allowed it to carry over into night settings.
This left me wanting something else for those special nights out. This is when my love of perfume really took off. Because unlike the days when Cast a Spell was the only perfume I needed, now I needed more - I needed scents for different days, different events and different moods. Where Cast a Spell carried me day in and day out, Saint, while a great scent that I still wear to this day didn't have the complexity that really made me want to wear it over and over again.
Since then, I have found another bottle of Cast a Spell, but I've also been driven by this need to find a great date night scent - this was even more apparent when hunting for the perfect wedding scent (yes, I needed a special smell for the day of - Killer Queen by Katy Perry just incase you were wondering). It had become a bit out of control, so instead of buying new ones, I found a couple of Scent subscription boxes.
Looking for your signature scent, but don't want to commit to a full bottle, check out two subscription scent boxes that I'm gaga over: Scentbird and Scent Trunk.
Scentbird is very enticing - the perfumes are all major market perfumes that you can purchase individually or schedule out for your subscription deliveries. I've been using this one for a few months, and I like that I'm able to try scents for 30 days without commitment. You get one perfume from your list per month that you pick based on your scent favorites.
Scent Trunk works a bit differently, but has it's own benefits. Scent Trunk highlights small batch artizan perfumers, who are not mass market perfumers. These scents are going to be pretty unique to your friend set so it's likely no one will ever be wearing the same scent you are. Their perfumes come in smaller vial sizes, but you get three to the subscription - so you can try out different scents each month based on your scent preferences. This one you don't get to pick the scents, which is a bit of a bummer, but I do like the tailored grab bag mentality.
