STUCK IN A FRAGRANCE RUT?

Quick: Name your signature scent. If your answer is a) whatever soap is in your shower; b) whatever deodorant you’re using; or c) whatever perfume you bought at the mall with your best friend in 9th grade (PSA: that bottle of Clinique Happy you still have on your dresser has long expired), then you are in major need of a fragrance upgrade and update.

But where to begin? Here’s an idea: Start small. As in perfume oil-small.

Perfume oils are often delivered in sleek glass tubes and sometimes topped with a rollerball for easy application. Whereas spray-on perfumes have added fillers, primarily in the form of alcohol, perfume oils have no such harsh fillers: The scents and extracts are in concentrated form—thus the concentrated packaging.

Indeed, perfume oils pack a punch, but their scents are actually more subtle once applied to the skin. For one thing, you have more control in the application, dotting your wrists and backs of your ears with precision as opposed to accidentally spraying your entire face. For another, the fragrance from perfume oil is generally warmer and less sharp.

We like to use perfume oils especially in the winter, when skin is extra-parched and could use some added oils-- the alcohol in spray-on perfumes only dry out your skin more—but we also are quite fond of dabbing them on in the warmer months. Here are a few scents from Brooklyn-based MCMC Fragrances that we are digging these days. Yes, we have more than one favorite: When perfume oils are packaged this tidily and sweetly, there’s enough room on that dresser for an entire passel of them—especially once you throw away that bottle of Clinique Happy.

1) Garden (notes: Lemon, Bitter Orange, Red Thyme, Lavender, Oakmoss)
2) Maine (notes: Local Clary Sage, Pine, Sea Air, Beach Plum Rose)
3) Noble (notes: Indian Jasmine, Incense, Haitian Vetiver, Amber, Musk)
4) Mociun (notes: Neroli Flower / Petitgrain / Amber / White Musk)

Check out more of our favorite Perfumes and Perfume Oils.