Givaudan's new iPerfumer App for your iPhone

Are you overwhelmed with the choices of all the new fragrances out there? There seems to be a new one on the market every day – didn’t know there were so many ways of mixing scents.

Before 2001, there were fewer choices and more of the block buster fragrances, the Super Models of the fragrance industry if you like. But after 2001 every designer and celebrity started to bring out their own fragrances. Great news - more choice. Bad news - how do you find the right fragrance for you? 

Well you can try the many testers in the stores. But your nose can only take so many different smells and really you do have to wear the perfume for a while to allow the heart and base notes to come through.  It’s going to be a long search.

Or you could go for the quick and convenient way of buying online but then you are really taking a risk on a new fragrance. 

In fact you’ll probably give up and stick to your tried and tested old favourites. And what’s wrong with wearing your old favourite? Nothing but sometimes you just need to get out of your rut and have a little fling with a new fragrance.  Partners, friends and colleagues will notice you smell differently and it’s a great pick me up.

How do you begin your search for this new fragrance?

Givaudan, the industry leading perfumery house, may have the answer to your problem. They have created a new free App called iPerfumer.  This is the first mobile perfume recommendation tool and will take out most of the guesswork to help users select their perfect fragrance.

It is also unique in how it helps you choose a fragrance you’ll like. Similar tools will recommend fragrances by asking questions on your lifestyle such as do you like the outdoors etc. However it then would assume that because you like the outdoors, you’ll like fresh scents.

iPerfumer actually asks you to rate the different scents usually found in perfumes:

Citrus; floral; chypre; fougere; oriental; and woody.
You give the number of stars by each or click on no preference. And if you don’t know what these scents smell like e.g.   chypre or fougere for instance (and who does?)  , then there is a help button next to it which will describe the scent and give examples of perfumes.

With this information the iPerfumer is then able to recommend the perfumes which have the scents you prefer.
The recommended perfumes are shown with a photo of the bottle and a breakdown of the ingredients in to top notes, the heart and the base.

You can also give ratings on a particular perfume you’ve used in the past and the iPerfumer will then give alternatives you may like. These ratings are then stored and collated to provide an average score so users can see the popularity of a particular fragrance.

You are also not limited to your own profile; you can set others for friends, relatives and partners – a great way of choosing perfumes for Christmas and birthdays.

With over 4,000 masculine and feminine prestige fragrances stored in its data base, iPerfumer is a great tool for those who love technology on the go and want to learn more about fragrances.

You can load iPerfumer from the Apple store and oh did I mention the App is free.