Getting your first perfume is a special moment for girls because wearing it makes you feel grown up and special. I remember my very first fragrance was a bottle of CK One that I got for my birthday after trying it in the Duty Free shop at an airport when I went on holiday. I still use it now and it’s become an easy go-to everyday scent for when I was something fresh and gentle.
But of course, I’ve got a few other perfumes as well. I wouldn’t be without my Marc Jacobs Lola for a dinner date or a day out with my friends, while Dior’s Pure Poison has become one of my favourite fragrances for evening wear or a special occasion.
Although I still love CK One, there’s no doubt it doesn’t conjure up quite the same feelings and images for me as it did when I first started wearing it as a teen and I definitely don’t think of it as being a sophisticated perfume any more – it’s more of a light, fun scent to wear to work.
So why do our tastes in perfume change as we get older and will there be some scents I will love forever? Or will I begin to wonder why I ever bought them in the first place?
Will my taste in perfume change as I get older
For a start, our sense of smell changes as well get older and, when we hit the age of about 50, our sense of smell can start to decline. Obviously this means the fragrances we like will change as well. As a result, people often start wearing stronger perfumes as they age because they don’t get the same effect from a gentler scent.
Another reason is likely to be because the way you dress and the things you do begin to change. I know that when I was a teenager I didn’t go out for romantic meals very often and my clothes were fun and casual. These days, I love going out for a nice meal with my boyfriend or to a cocktail bar with the girls, while my clothes are a lot more grown up because I work in an office during the day and my figure has changed.
This means the perfumes I want to wear have changed too. I’ve found I’m more attracted to deeper, musky oriental fragrances for an evening out, rather than the fresh small of CK One, because they smell, well, more grown up. As my sense of fashion changed and my style developed, I wanted perfumes to go with it.
However, although our perfume tastes do seem to change as we get older, certain fragrances will always hold certain special memories, which often means we’ll continually be drawn to them. Maybe a rose scented perfume reminds you of the smell of your grandparents’ house, or maybe there’s a perfume you wore when your boyfriend proposed to you that instantly conjures up images of that moment. These perfumes will always stay with you and for sentimental reasons, you’ll probably buy them your whole life.
Perfume is a funny thing and it’s difficult to generalise, because everyone has different tastes and favours different scents. But whatever you like, there’ll be something out then to suit you – no matter how old you are.
