Updating My Signature Scent with John Lewis

One of my few vices in life has to be perfume.  Not only do I love to smell great but I love to feel great too and putting on a gorgeous smelling perfume certainly gives me that inner boost.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times that scent is a really powerful thought provoker for me, as it is with a lot of people.  I say powerful because I can smell a particular perfume and feel instantly transported back to notable times gone by that I’ve worn that particular perfume.  I’ve even been out and caught a particular scent be it from a perfume, air freshener, clothing, or just the scent of somewhere in general and been reminded of my nana who sadly passed away many years ago.  The effect is comforting, if a little surprising to begin with.

The easiest way for me to associate a particular smell with a particular time in my life is through perfume.  For example, a very old fragrance called Very Valentino reminds me of travelling to America to sing with my school when I was in my teens as that’s the scent I bought at the airport on the way out there and wore throughout the whole trip and Amore Amore by Cacharel also reminds me of being in school when I was 14 to 16 and my friend Cherelle used to wear it.  I loved the perfume that much I asked for it for my birthday or Christmas and wore it everyday! Alien by Thierry Mugler is the scent that I wore throughout my college days and one that is still one of my all time favourites to this day.  I’ve often heard people say that you school days are the best of your life but I hated mine and would never go back however my college days from 16 to 18 were very much a part of my life that I look back on so fondly.  YSL Elle is another significant fragrance to me as it reminds me of my first date with my first love and Jo Malone’s Blue Agava and Cacao layered with Pomegranate Noir will always remind me of a special time in my life.

These are all scents that I’ve worn time and time again at particular points in my life and their frequency of use and my love for them made them my signature scent at the time.

Generally speaking, I love oriental and musky fragrances; ones that are sexy, distinctive and strong.  I’m not usually a fan of scents that smell overpoweringly of rose and orange blossom or are too floral, fresh or citrus.  The deeper and more complex the scent, the better for me.

For the last couple of years, my signature scent has been Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel.  Surprisingly, while it is a very popular fragrance across the world, I personally don’t know many people who wear it so it always stands out when I have it on.

I’ve forever loved the elegance, class and femininity that Coco Mademoiselle excudes; its a scent that is often complimented on by both other women and men.

What I love about Coco Mademoiselle is how long lasting the scent is and the range of complimentary products available with the same fragrance.  I’m a huge advocate of layering fragrance so this is always a big selling point for me.  I have the body cream, body oil and hair mist from the range, as well as the perfume, and they’re all really highly scented which is great because if I ever run out of the perfume I can wear the body products alone and have a similar effect until I’m able to repurchase the fragrance.

The Chanel Coco Mademoiselle range smells luxurious and expensive and that luxury extends right through to the packaging which looks beautiful on my dresser.  Wearing it gives me a confidence boost; I feel as though I walk taller and glow from the inside out when I wear it which is why I always tend to select it for special occasions.

However with the start of the New Year approaching, the perfume experts at John Lewis asked if they could hand select a new fragrance for me to try and perhaps it could become my new signature scent.

I very much love my Chanel Coco Mademoiselle but given the expertise and vast array of perfumes for women at John Lewis, I had a sneaky suspicion that they’d be up to the challenge!

The fragrance that the perfume experts at John Lewis picked out for me is Prada La Femme; a match made in heaven.

Prada La Femme couldn’t be more perfect for me.  It has this incredibly elegant air to it; beautifully feminine and oozing class from the fragrance to the bottle.   With top notes of frangipani, a heart of tuberose, ylang ylang, spice and beeswax and a base of vetiver and vanilla, this perfume is smooth, creamy, seductive and really unusual.  La Femme is unlike any other scent I’ve tried and I’ve never smelt it on any of my other friends either.

The fragrance is alluring, sultry and warming on the skin but most importantly, it is long lasting and smells incredible from the first spritz to the dry down and beyond.

With all fragrances, I tend to apply them on my inner wrists, down the sides of my neck, across my collarbone and just above my belly button which is how I currently apply Prada La Femme.

However if you’re a regular reader of WhatLauraLoves then you may know that I’m a big fan of fragrance layering to make the scent last even longer and really become synonymous with me.  I even posted my guide to fragrance layering back in 2014 on my blog.

The key to layering up your scent is to use coordinating and complimentary products in the same scent as your perfume.  When wearing Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, I tend to just spritz it on my neck and inner wrists as I have the other products to layer with it; I apply the body oil on my legs, the cream on my arms and décolleté and the hair mist over my locks before a night out or special occasion.

What I love about Prada La Femme is that they too have plenty of coordinating products that I’m able to purchase to wear with the perfume and layer the fragrance.  There’s currently a Shower Gel, a light weightBody Lotion and a thicker Body Cream to use afterwards.  While the scent itself is long lasting, I’ll definitely be investing in the body cream to add a deeper layer of fragrance to my skin to make it last even longer… perfect for a busy Girl Boss like me!

A fragrance as distinctive as this has all the potential of a signature scent; I love it and would highly recommend you to check it out.

Prada La Femme is available in a 35ml, 50ml and 100ml bottle from John Lewis who also have a gift set of this fragrance thats available here.

You can check out the other John Lewis Signature Scents chosen by their perfume experts for other bloggers here.

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What is your signature scent?  Have you tried Prada La Femme?

*Many thanks to John Lewis for collaborating with me on this post.