The Fragrance Guide, Volume One: Love & Occasion
Love & Occasion
Six moments, and the honest answer for each one. Which perfume to wear, how much of it, and which ones to leave at home. Every fragrance here is pheromone infused. Same fragrance, different on everyone.
What perfume to wearOn A First Date
A first date is a close-range event. You are across a small table, and the person is going to be near you for two hours whether the scent is working or not. So the goal is not to be noticed from across the room. It is to be worth leaning in for.
Belle
Reads happy rather than trying, which is exactly the note you want in the first ten minutes. It is also the hardest one in the line to overdo.
$39 / $89
Allure
Warm and close to the skin. This is the one that gets asked about, and being asked about is a much better outcome than being noticed.
$39 / $89
Cashmere
Sits so close that it only registers on a hug goodbye. If you want to be remembered after rather than during, this is the one.
$39 / $89What perfume to wearFor Date Night At Home
The night most people skip perfume entirely, which is a waste, because it is the night scent actually does the most work. Nobody is walking past you. The whole thing happens at arm's length, and warm skin holds fragrance better than a cold room ever will.
Lover
Rose that never goes soapy or old fashioned. Deep, velvety, and it turns a little smoky after an hour, which is the part that lands late.
$39 / $89Cashmere
Warm, soft and comforting rather than performed. Smells like being taken care of, which is a very specific and very effective thing to smell like.
$39 / $89
Pulse Body Oil
Put this on damp skin first and layer either of the above on top. Oil holds fragrance where bare skin lets it evaporate, and the difference is not subtle.
$39 · 30ml onlyWhat perfume to wearFor Your Anniversary
Scent is the strongest memory trigger you have. Smell is the only sense wired straight into the part of the brain that stores memory, which is why a fragrance can drop you back into a specific year without warning. An anniversary is the one night worth using that on purpose.
Divine
Our most serious fragrance. Opens sharp, settles into smoke and skin. This is the one that makes someone stop mid sentence. Go easy, one or two sprays.
$39 / $89Lover
Romance with some weight behind it. Warm and a little dangerous, and grown enough that it does not read like a first date.
$39 / $89
Vanilla & Bloom
Soft, familiar and warm without being sweet. The one people describe as comforting, which on the right night is worth more than dramatic.
$39 / $89What perfume to wearTo A Wedding As A Guest
You are going to be seated shoulder to shoulder in a pew, then at a table of eight for three hours, next to people who did not choose your perfume. It is the single most crowded, least ventilated place most of us wear scent all year.
Mystique
Clean, dry and impossible to object to. The safest bottle in the line, and safe is genuinely the right answer at somebody else's wedding.
$39 / $89Vanilla & Bloom
Soft florals sit correctly in a room already full of flowers. It stays close to the body, so it will not compete with the centrepieces or anybody's grandmother.
$39 / $89
Aura
Bright and chic enough to feel dressed up, but it drops close to the skin after twenty minutes. Polished without taking up space.
$39 / $89What perfume to wearOn Your Wedding Day
The one day the rules invert. You are supposed to be noticed, the day runs fourteen hours, and you will be photographed the entire time. Pick something with presence, and pick it at least a month out so you are certain it agrees with your skin.
Executive
Radiant and impossible to ignore, and it outlasts the evening. The one that gets noticed from across a room, which for once is the entire point.
$39 / $89Vanilla & Bloom
Peony and rose over warm vanilla. Delicate and luminous, and soft enough that you can wear it for fourteen hours without getting tired of yourself.
$39 / $89Divine
White flowers with real oud underneath. If you want dramatic instead of pretty, this is the bottle. Strong, so one or two sprays and let it settle.
$39 / $89What perfume to wearOn A Night Out
Loud rooms, moving air and body heat all work against you. Anything quiet disappears within the hour. This is the night for the bottles that have something to say in the first three seconds.
Tempt
Tropical fruit with no apology in it, then jasmine pulls it out of candy and into something grown. Fun that still reads expensive.
$39 / $89Aura
Tart and fizzy on the open, sharp enough to make someone look up. Chic and audacious, and it never tips into sweet.
$39 / $89Allure
Warm, addictive, and the one strangers ask about by name. If the goal is to be remembered by someone you have not met yet, start here.
$39 / $89Questions About These Six
How many sprays of perfume is too many?
Start with two or three. Being stingy is the most common mistake people make, and one spray on bare skin will be gone before you get where you are going.
Then wait. You stop registering your own fragrance after about fifteen minutes, so that is the moment to judge it, not the second it lands. If you genuinely cannot smell it after fifteen minutes, go back and add a second layer.
And spray your clothes. Fabric holds fragrance far longer than skin does, so one pass on a collar, a scarf or a jacket lining will still be there tomorrow.
Is it rude to wear a strong perfume to someone else's wedding?
It can be, and it is the most common fragrance mistake there is. Weddings put you in a pew and then at a table of eight for hours, with people who did not pick your scent and cannot move away from it. A perfume built to fill a room will do exactly that.
Wear something that stays close: Mystique, Vanilla & Bloom or Aura. Save the bold ones for a night that belongs to you.
Should I wear a different perfume on a date than I wear to work?
Yes, and it is one of the easiest upgrades you can make. A work fragrance is built to be inoffensive at three feet in a shared room. A date fragrance is built to be worth leaning in for at one foot. Those are different jobs.
Most people only own the first kind, which is why they feel like their perfume is not doing anything at night. It is doing exactly what it was chosen to do.
Can my partner and I wear the same one?
You can, and it will not smell the same on both of you. Every GLB+CO fragrance is pheromone infused and reacts with your own chemistry, so the same bottle lands differently on different skin. The whole line is unisex for that reason.
If you want them to sit together rather than compete, put Cashmere on one of you as the warm base and something brighter on the other.
How far ahead should I choose my wedding day perfume?
At least a month, and wear it a full day before you commit. A perfume can smell right for twenty minutes and turn on you by hour six, and your own wedding is a fourteen hour day.
The 10ml is the sensible way to do this. It is the whole fragrance, not a paper strip, so you can live with two or three of them and decide properly.
Not Your Occasion?
Volume Two covers work: the interview, the first day, the presentation, the office and your everyday signature. Volume Three covers ceremony: church, showers, memorials, graduations, the holidays and the gift you have no idea how to buy.
In the meantime you can shop by season, or let the quiz narrow it down for you.