Choosing the perfect perfume for your perfect day

 

As a bride-to-be, you’ll spend hours fretting about the smallest wedding-day related decisions: what shape, size and colour the table scatters at your reception should be; what order your songs should be played in; what shades of green ought to be present in your bouquet. The list goes on.

Yet, with all this attention to detail, what’s often forgotten is what perfume the bride will wear on her most special of days.

Smell is the greatest trigger of memory, so you want to wear a scent you’re comfortable with but one that reflects your style as a woman and a bride, just as your dress or shoes or hair accessories will.

After all, every time you smell it, you’ll be reminded of your wonderful wedding day.

New Zealand-born Isaac Sinclair is one of the world’s few perfumers. He spends his days ‘collecting’ scents from around the globe and uses his uncanny ‘nose’ for smells to help companies turn them into the perfumes we wear and the fragrances we smell in products every day.

Perfume-mad Isaac’s latest role is as the ‘Nose’ of Australian cosmetics and homecares brand Ecoya, which also makes luxury candles that smell, well divine, largely thanks to Isaac’s influence.

In Australia to ‘collect’ smells to use in Ecoya’s next range of Aussie-inspired candles, Isaac took time out to put together a list of suggested scents suitable for some of the most popular wedding styles and themes.

While many brides opt to wear their favourite scent on their big day, Isaac suggests going with something a little different. After all, he says, “It’s not just another day.”

“Go whichever way you feel most comfortable,” says Isaac who has collaborated on fragrances for the likes of Guerlain, Lancome and DKNY, “but, personally, I think everything on your big day should differ from the norm and be a little bit special.”

A traditional wedding

For traditional weddings, Isaac suggests sticking with classic, floral bouquets.
For her: Chanel No. 5 is a classic scent for traditional brides as is Estee Lauder’s Beautiful.
For him: Egoiste by Chanel.

 

A fun and funky modern wedding

Scents for this type of wedding should be light, bright and lovely. Don’t be afraid to experiment with younger, louder fragrances, suggests Isaac.
For Her: Flower by Kenzo or Viva by Juicy Couture.
For Him: You want something with a huge presence, such as Paco Rabane’s 1 Million, which has a fabulous pineapple top perfect for the modern groom.

A beach wedding

Two styles of fragrances suit beach weddings, says Isaac. He suggests either light, fresh fragrances that combat the heat of a day at the beach or scents that evoke the feeling of beaches, so something with a coconut or peach base.
For her: Any fragrance with a peach or coconut base.
For him: Try Acqua Di Gioia, which is a fresh marine-style scent that has more peach than coconut. Similarly, the recent summer version of Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana is woody but has marine scents.

A garden wedding:

For Her: Chanel 19, Estee Lauder’s Private Collection or Truth by Calvin Klein.
For Him: Hypnose for Men, which is light but also uses violet without being overly feminine.

A vintage wedding

Vintage weddings are about those stronger, more potent smells unlike the lighter fragrances favoured by today’s consumers.
For Her: Paloma, Cabochard or Ma Griffe by Carven.
For Him: Issac suggests leather scents such as Grey Flannel or Prada’s Infusion D’Iris Homme.

 

A winter wedding:

For winter weddings, Isaac suggests warmer, vanilla-heavy fragrances such as those used in Ecoya’s Vanilla Bean or Lotus flower candles. They’re comforting, especially when it’s cold outside and they’re also warm smelling. He also suggests pine or juniper berry-based scents.
For Her: Dior Addict, Obsession, Aromatic Elixir from Clinique.
For Him: Pi by Givenchy which is (relatively) unisex or Bleu de Chanel.

A spring wedding:

Isaac favours mimosa and nectarine-based scents for spring weddings. They have a particularly Australian flavour, which is why he’s used them to scent a special Mimosa candle from Ecoya.
For Her: Guerlain’s Champs Elysee.
For Him: Dior’s Fahrenheit.

Isaac has been in the business of perfumes for about half his life, having found a job in a pharmacy as a teen, just so he could be surrounded by wonderful smells. He’s one of an estimated 500 perfumers in the world, most of whom are French.

“I’ve always loved scents, one day, it occurred to me that somebody somewhere must make them – and I knew I wanted to do that job.”

Of course, such a job didn’t exist in New Zealand, so Isaac found the next best thing, he got a job in a department store selling fragrances. After getting in touch with industry expert Michael Edwards, Isaac made his way to France determined to follow his dream.

And he did.

Today, the thirty-two-year-old is based in Sao Paolo, Brazil and spends most of his time travelling the world collecting smells on various fragrance-related quests for some of the world’s biggest fragrance companies.

Currently, he’s designing a new Aussie-inspired candle for Ecoya and has spent several weeks touring Australia and New Zealand looking for local scents to incorporate into upcoming ranges, which are due later this year.

Ecoya is the only Australian company to have an in-house perfumer, a privilege most perfume houses even in Europe do not enjoy.

“I love working with Ecoya because I never thought I’d work for a brand Down Under,” says Isaac who fell in love with fragrances as a teen. “It’s really quite amazing to see a local company doing so well. Most companies in the world don’t develop their own fragrances, they buy them, but I’m actually developing new scents for Ecoya from scratch, which is wonderful.”

What was/is your wedding day scent and did you change it from your usual fragrance for the big day?