Layering and our Layerings
Greetings, readers!
We are back today with a new article. This week, we wanted to take a look at a new trend that is coming to the western world...
We are hearing more and more about "layering" in perfumery while the term is commonly used in cosmetics, especially for facials. The Japanese follow the ritual of "beautiful skin" which consists in applying a certain number of cosmetic products in a precise order. This practice also exists in fashion with the superposition of several clothes offering a unique result like a painting.
Layering in perfumery is a superposition or combination of several perfumes, a practice that most often emanates from perfume lovers who wish to obtain a unique and personalized scent. The main idea: to stand out, to find the perfume that corresponds to our personality. The superposition of perfumes is then a solution to obtain an original and 100% personal trail!
But this idea is not really new since this practice is daily and sacred in the Middle East and North Africa where for a long time men and women mix without complex many perfumes.
Women apply a musk-based cream on their skin then men or women perfume their skin but also their clothes with a mixture of their own. They burn different resins like Bakhour which is the Arabic term used to talk about a natural incense composed of a mixture of several woods: Sandalwood and Agar but also spices, floral oils, resins and musk. Bakhour is made from the famous Agar wood also called Oud wood -or Oudh-, a very rare and expensive natural raw material which is considered as one of the fundamental ingredients of perfumery since the 9th century.
They then apply a western perfume. There is no question of wearing only one perfume, only this practice allows to really wear a unique and mysterious scent.
In Western countries, this desire is carried by the new generations: to mark one's difference, to assert one's singularity. People appreciate more and more everything that is made to measure or customizable. People want to experiment and test new and original things.
Even if for many professionals, layering is almost a cardinal sin because a perfume is already a finished artistic composition, the phenomenon is gaining momentum in the West.
There is no real rule or guide for layering, you have to try and experiment with different associations depending on your olfactory heritage.
The risk is to cause a cacophony of scents, so be careful. To avoid the worst, Binet-Papillon offers you its advice:
- Apply the most powerful or heady perfume first, then the lightest. This will prevent the strongest fragrance from smothering the second, lighter one.
- Avoid layering two scents that have very strong personalities, or that are too faceted or complex.
- Opposites sometimes attract: fruity scents work well with floral scents.
- Floral notes usually work well together.
- The idea of combining a very vanilla scent with a spicy scent.
- You can accentuate a character trait in the same olfactory family, add almost pure Vanilla to an oriental scent that already includes Vanilla.
- Reinforce the character with an oriental perfume, add just a solinote like a Patchouli note or an Oud based perfume. The Oud note will then be more subtle.
- Fresh citrus notes go well with gourmand notes...
At BINET-PAPILLON, we recommend the following overlays, which give us the most pleasure and emotion:
3 & 12 | Ultra-fresh:
COLOGNE CURIEUSE + KOMBAWA CLOUDLESS
15 & 3 | Sensual, warm and fresh at the same time (a killer!):
JUNGLE TOBACCO + COLOGNE CURIEUSE
9 & 12 | Patchouli and fresh :
PATCHOULI MONARQUE + KOMBAWA CLOUDLESS
15 & N°2 | A truly oriental combination!
JUNGLE TOBACCO + PATCHOULI Extract N°2
9 & 7 | Contrasted, powerful, green and floral :
PATCHOULI MONARQUE + ROSE IMPOLIE
7 & 12 | Soft, fresh and light :
ROSE IMPOLIE + KOMBAWA CLOUDLESS
7 & 1 | Distinguished, fresh and powerful :
ROSE IMPOLIE + ALKEMIST PEPPER
