Your first experience with perfume was probably at your mother’s dressing table – a spritz of her scent let you enter her world. In your teens, wearing your own fragrance was part of establishing a grown-up identity. In a recent study conducted b medical psychologists, shows that your reasons for using fragrance evolve as you age.

Stage One: Scents and Self-Discovery

Typically, fragrance becomes a factor in a young woman’s life at puberty. This sudden interest in scent has nothing to do with the opposite sex – it is biologically programmed. Information gathered in scientific research shows that sense of smell heightens at puberty. A teen then becomes more self-conscious abut her personal odors and begins to use fragrance to hide personal insecurity related with the beginning of teenage years.

Stage Two: The Fragrance Mating Call

During the late teens or twenties, women begin using fragrance as a kind of sexual smoke signal. A lady at this time has developed articulate needs for love that she wants to be fulfilled. To fulfill these needs, she consciously uses fragrance, aside from other things, as a way to get the attention from the opposite sex.

Stage Three: Scents and Sexuality

Women in their thirties are more secure in their sexual identity – and markedly more sophisticated in their use and choice of fragrance. They start to feel at ease with their own skin and do not mind with masking odors.

Thirtysomethings may wear something light and fresh, like cK One during the day, but something older like Amarige or Poison which is richer and more complex at night. Of course, the reasons for this change are financial as well as emotional. In your thirties you tend to have more income, so you can afford to buy more fragrances and to own a broader spectrum.

Stage Four: Scents and Self-Awareness

By this stage, women have developed more sophisticated tastes and know what they want – both in life and in fragrances. Women in their forties continue to use fragrance as mood enhancers. However, they are less likely to change fragrances due to rends or peer influences.

When you are 40, you know yourself. You do not need something o reinforce your confidence or to prove yourself. To these women, fragrance is primarily a way to complement their sense of style.

Stage Five: Scents of Self

At this stage in their lives, most women are noticeably less affected by what their peers wear. They are no longer interested in following every fragrance trend and they are unlikely to discontinue using a fragrance because it is not currently popular. Most women in their fifties and older are self-assured enough to decide on a signature scent.

Tags: Fragrance, Fragrance Mating Call, Scents, Self-Awareness, Self-Discovery