Ah, the sweet smell of being a girl!

What I'm Listening to: Her by Kissy Sell Out

Today I ran out of my "everyday" perfume. I actually had to go outside with NO PERFUME on. Sad. To me, that's basically like going out without my wedding ring on.

Back when I lived in San Francisco, I used to wear orange blossom fragrance oil. I had it in this little rollerball dispenser thingie, and I wore it every single day. I wore it to work, to the bar, to dinner, on the weekends...truly my signature scent. I wore that perfume for the entire five years I was in SF, and kept wearing it for about three years after I moved back to Milwaukee. Then I just got sick of it. Oh, that and the scent started to smell differently to me so some reason. So the quest was on to find a new everyday "Abigail" perfume.

I experimented with a lot of different scents. Lavender, pikake, amber, a couple different variations on the orange blossom theme, smoky patchouli, the list goes on. At first I tried to stick to oils, because they seemed to last the longest and were the strongest scents. But after a while I got experimental, and stepped outside my comfort zone into actual real perfumes. You know, perfumes with names like Prada, Chanel, Bath and Body Works...ha.

So in my quest to find another "signature" scent that I could wear every day, I wore Lulu Guinness' "Cast a Spell" (too fruity) for a bit, then Hard Candy's new one (my sister who teaches high school took a whiff of that one and said, "oh, so that's the perfume my kids are wearing now") and Philosophy's "Falling in Love" (also kinda sweet) and then some Victoria's Secret crap that smelled like a cotton candy factory exploded on me. As you can see, I have a little bit of a sweet tooth.

Needless to say, I am still looking for MY everyday perfume. I don't have that many criteria, really! I want a perfume that's fresh and clean (like clean laundry) but not too soapy, citrus-y but doesn't smell like Pledge, sweet but not like sugar-y Paris Hilton-y stank, sexy and smoky but not too x-rated and dark for work, and to top it all off, doesn't wear off after an hour. Oh, and did I mention I want to fall back in love with the smell of my new perfume every time I get a whiff? Oh, also, NO ONE else can wear it. It has to be my signature scent. So I can't just go buy a flask of Chanel's "Coco Madamoiselle" and call it a day -- even though that would be great-- because that's too easy. Duh.

I should just buy a bottle of Britney's "Curious" and STFU, hey? :) If you have any perfume suggestions for me, just let me know. BTW, I wear "Chanel No. 5" as my going-out perfume. And since I have been going out A LOT lately, maybe I should just wear it all the time! Chua.

What's your favorite perfume? Why did you choose it? And why do you keep wearing it?

PS: I love the blog "Now Smell This" -- a blogger after my own heart...and nose!