Your foolproof guide to buying a spicy fragrance

Warm up your senses with a mesmerising scent

Beauty Crew Beauty Editor / May 02 2016

Close your eyes for just a minute, and imagine that you’re standing in the centre of a Moroccan spice market. You can hear people around you bartering for the best price, and feel the hot blowing against your arms. But most importantly, you can sense your body’s temperature heat up, simply upon taking a deep breath.

What you can smell is an overwhelming medley of spices: there’s smooth vanilla, grounding nutmeg, aromatic clove… even the smell of pepper has a kick to it.

While these ingredients are typically found in men’s fragrances, they’re also widely popular in women’s fragrances too – not only can they warm up your senses, but they can even make you feel incredibly seductive and sexy.

Those that wear spicy fragrances really leave an impression; they’re sensual, warm and completely opposite to floral scents, so you’ll turn heads whenever you wear something with these notes.
Samantha Taylor
/
The Powder Room
Fragrance educator

 

And now that the temperature is slowly dropping, it’s the perfect time to invest in a spicy fragrance that’ll envelop you from head to toe. Here’s how…

1

Have a think

Consider where you’re going to wear this fragrance. “Spicy fragrances are generally worn more at night time as they can be quite heady,” says Taylor. “However, they can be worn during the day, just make sure you chose something a little lighter and go easy on the application,” continues Taylor.

2

Ask for help

Seek advice from those that with lots of experience. “I always tell people to describe the kind of fragrance they would like to wear to the sales assistant,” explains Taylor.  “Use words such as warm, rich, deep, mysterious, bold and seductive. If you do know the notes you like, that will be helpful as it will help narrow down the selection of fragrances to choose from.”

3

Try it out

You won’t know if it suits you until you put it on your own skin. “Let the fragrance settle for at least 20 to 30 minutes before you decide if you would like to purchase it. The base notes of the fragrance are those that will linger on the skin, so you need to make sure you love how it smells on you after 20 minutes as much as you did when you first sprayed it.”

Here are our favourites...

YSL Black Opium Nuit Blanche: Look no further if you’re after a super-charged scent; this one features a heady blend of bourbon pepper, coffee and sandalwood that get your heart racing.

Tom Ford Tobacco VanilleSmoky tobacco leaf muddled with grounding tonka bean makes it a mysterious and sexy scent to try.

Calvin Klein ObsessionFall in love with this classic intoxicating scent that features coriander, cedarwood and mixed spices.

Iantha is BEAUTYcrew's Beauty Editor, and has been part of the team since the site launched in 2016. Besides pinky-nude nail polish and wispy false lashes, she has a healthy obsession with face masks and skin care ingredients. Her previous work can be found in Virgin Australia Voyeur, Women's Health, and SHOP Til You Drop.