Finding just the right scent for you can be more challenging than some people think. You also don’t want to be wearing the same perfume as everyone else at a party, so how do you find something special just for you? You pick and choose the notes that suit you on any given day. To learn all about fragrances, we turned to Demeter CEO Mark Crames.
29Secrets: What makes Demeter products so unique?
Mark Crames: The Demeter Fragrance Library consists of over 250 fragrances inspired by everyday objects and experiences. In short, we are the olfactory version of “stopping to smell the roses”. We isolate and highlight the beautiful scents that surround us every day, in wearable formats. It is a unique perspective, both because we find beautiful scents in the everyday, and because choosing a Demeter fragrance is a personal choice that is all about the wearer, not an expression of the designer.
29Secrets: Do you have any tips for narrowing down all the scents? How do you know which ones suit you best?
MC: Demeter provides a broad range of fragrance choices in smells people are familiar with, making choosing a Demeter scent or scents a uniquely personal choice. The most important impact of making scents inspired by reality flows from the very nature of our sense of smell. There is overwhelming evidence that our strongest emotional responses are to scents, triggered by our sense of smell. This fact has two important aspects for Demeter:
• Choosing a Demeter fragrance is often related to the personal emotional responses already associated with that smell. And those associations vary wildly from person to person.
• Wearing a Demeter fragrance is a personal expression of that emotional response, making Demeter the only prestige scent all about the user, not the designer.
The bottom line: everyone knows what smells please them. That simple question – what kind of things do you like? – is the key to choosingDemeter fragrances.
29Secrets: What can you tell us about individual reactions? How does a person's body chemistry come into play with fragrances?
MC: For single scents or layered scents, it is important to remember that all fragrance will react with the oils in an individual's skin. Because the amount and make up of those oils vary significantly, not all fragrances, or combination of fragrances, will smell the same on everyone. Indeed, some fragrances that smell great out of the bottle, but can smell "off" on an individual's skin. This is the natural oil in the skin reacting poorly with the fragrance oils, and why some scents, no matter how beautiful, will not work on everyone.
29Secrets: What about mixing, matching and layering? What advice do you have for trying new combinations?
MC: By mixing, matching and layering Demeter fragrance on the skin, you can create a new personalized and customized scent, unlike any other. While Demeter scents are standalone fragrances, and beautiful in their own right,.because they are notes and accords, they can also be used to build a new and unique fragrance, by mixing, matching and layering Demeter fragrance right on the skin.
Typically we do not make mix and match recommendations. Demeter is all about personal choice, and that extends to mix and match recommendations. That said, it is a good rule of thumb that if things go together in real life, like Dirt, Grass and Tomato, they will merge well into a layered scent. Experiment! The worst result is you wash it off and start again.
29Secrets: Do you have any tips for matching to mood, event or scenario? IE: is it "too much" or "just right" to wear dirt and tomato fragrances for a garden tour?
MC: In much the same way that the choice of a Demeter fragrance is a personal experience, so is use. For Demeter, it is about the scented statement YOU want to make, at that moment and in the context of the moment. Designer fragrance is about emulating someone else’s idea of the moment; Demeter is about giving you the tools to create your sense of the moment in fragrance.
