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MAKING SENSE OF SCENTS 2

A Rose by any other name may not smell as sweet!

Research on personality and perfume

150 executive women worldwide were questioned on their use of fragrance and their Myers Briggs personality type to see if there was any kind of correspondence. The results may surprise you! By the way this research was done on people with an average perfume "wardrobe" of 2.5, so it does not reflect the perfumistas out there for which perfume choice is also a way of life!

Myers Briggs personalities: (for detail check MB website)

The essence of the MB personality work is that much seemingly random variation in the behaviour is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

"Perception involves all the ways of becoming aware of things, people, happenings, or ideas. Judgment involves all the ways of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived. If people differ systematically in what they perceive and in how they reach conclusions, then it is only reasonable for them to differ correspondingly in their interests, reactions, values, motivations, and skills."

16 personalities can be derived from a mixing of four by four characteristics as follows:

Favourite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).

Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).

Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).

Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

Personality types are then derived from the answers to each of the above four questions, and the sixteen types, expressed as a code with four letters, are as shown in the table below:

16 personality types

Some professionals have gone further into categorising the types in general terms as follows:

In that there are sixteen MB types, and sixteen fragrance families, it occurred to Scents of Time Limited that there may be some kind of a match between personality and perfume choice, and that research on the subject was worthwhile. So we corresponded with 150 female executive types worldwide who knew their MB type and listed up to four fragrances they purchase and used themselves.

16 Fragrance families (based mainly on Michael Edwards categorisations)

NB: The core of the fragrances, with the exception of fougeres (aromatics) and chypres (dry /mossy woods) is floral.

Fragrance Family	Broad description	Brand examples
1 Aromatics	Fougeres (mainly used by men) composed of lavender with florals, spices and woods.	Cool Water, Tommy, Paco Rabanne
2 Woods	With an underlying dominant woody theme, mainly harmonies of cedar, patchouli, vetiver pine, sandalwood but with some novel exotic woods also.	Fahrenheit, Un Jardin sur Le Nil, Kenneth Cole Signature
3 Dry Woods	Leathery, smoky, tobacco notes often with a core wood of cedar.	Aromatiques Elixir, Bulgari Black, La Perla
4 Mossy Woods	Built around a special accord (Chypre) of citrus notes with a floral heart , oakmoss and frequently labdanum	Palomo Picasso, Pyxis, Miss Dior
5 Gourmand	Orientals, chypres and florals with an added “culinary flavour” based on confectionary.	Angel, Lolita Lempicka, Armani Diamonds
6 Woody Orientals	Orientals modified by woody notes.	Samsara, Ankh, Chance
7 Orientals	Sensual heavier blends of resins and exotic florals.	Shalimar, Obsession, L’Eau Ambre
8 Soft Orientals	Floral Orientals modified with amber, incense with vanilla.	Opium, Maya, Coco
9 Florientals	Florals with spicy, powdery notes.	Tresor, Princess, Armani Code
10 Florals	Single note florals or complex bouquets, and normally with the two themes of sweet or fresh florals.	Beautiful, Night Star, J’Adore
11 Soft Florals	Florals with aldehydic notes	Chanel 5, Rive Gauche,Alien
12 Water	Marine, ozonic , fresh influences.	L’Eau d’issey, Nenufar, Escape for her
13 Citrus	Blends of citrus fruits	Green Tea, Eau Dynamisante,4711
14 Fruit	Blends of fruits/berries	Daisy, Escada Euphoria, Dolce and Gabbana 3 Imperatrice
15 Green	Employs the aromas of nature such as leaves and vegetables	Vent Vert, Estee Lauder Private Collection Jean Louis Scherrer
16 None	Where any type of fragrance is not used

The results were as follows:

Extrovert/ Introvert?

Intuitive thought may lead us to believe that an introvert would use quiet, discrete perfumes, such as soft florals, whilst an extrovert would employ more strident aromatic brands if the use of perfumes was directed at self- enjoyment and character” stamping”. However, perhaps the reverse may be true? That extroverts use softer fragrances to damp down their personality, whilst introverts use the more strident brands to better project their presence. Indeed, is the use of perfume for a person’s outer (influencing others) or inner (influencing themselves) world?

A simple data trawl on the Extroverts versus the Introverts gave little indication whatever of either hypothesis. The reality is that frequency of choice was the same right up to the sixth level of choice, demonstrating no real difference in perfume influence between the two. It may be that choice of fragrance is influenced by other factors such as the name, olfactory experience of a particular brand, colour, latest trends or how the perfume is packaged and presented in the media.

It would seem that perfume choice is likely of not who you are, but who you would like to see yourself as, or to be seen as. Fragrances are a sprayed on fantasy of “being”.

Female	Extrovert	Introvert
First Choice frequency	Florals	Florals
Second Choice	Soft Florals	Soft Florals
Third Choice	Woody Orientals	Woody Orientals
Fourth Choice	Florientals	Florientals
Fifth Choice	Soft Orientals	Soft Orientals
Sixth Choice	Mossy Woods/Citrus/Fruits/Water	Mossy Woods
Seventh Choice		Citrus/Fruits
Eighth Choice		None

With regards perfume choice by paired personality types the following is found.

Personality Type	Fragrance Choice 1	Fragrance Choice 2	Fragrance Choice 3	Fragrance Choice 4
NT (rational thinker)	Florals	Soft Florals	Woody Orientals

ST (practical)	Florals	Soft Floral	Woody Orientals

SF (feeling, sensing)	Florals	Soft Florals	Soft Orientals

NF (idealist)	Florals	Soft Florals	Woody Orientals	Soft Orientals/ Orientals

SP(artistic)	Florals

SJ (traditional)	Florals	Soft Florals	Mossy Woods-

In terms of names, Traditionalists and Thinkers do go for classics such as Chanel 5 and Beautiful. Artistics favour more esoteric names such as Rock ‘n Rose and Tabu, whilst Beautiful and Chance are high on the Practical group list. For Idealists Chanel 5, Coco, Coco Mademoiselle and Paloma Picasso figure high, (over one third of Brands used by INFP types (idealists) were from the Chanel stable) whilst feeling/sensing types have a wide spread of name choice, with no one brand in particular favour.

It would seem as far as fragrance choice goes that perhaps it’s a case of not who you are, but who you would like to be, and what aromatic message you’re trying to convey about yourself. Put simply, women spray on an aromatic avatar or mood-shaper.

Perhaps all of this is obvious? Do we really buy perfume based on the "razzle- dazzle " and not the juice itself? Do women spray on the Chic of Chanel the Dash of Dior and the Celebrity of Cher whatever their own personality? It would appear so from this early (albeit limited) research. Maybe all the big fragrance Companies already know this through detailed and confidential research.

Over 100 years ago the juice was the important thing. everything else was considered secondary. That's why Mitsouko and L'Heure Bleu by Guerlain came out in the same bottles. And there was no such thing as a male and female fragrance. Everyone used just what they liked. How times have changed. For the better do you think? Maybe a discussion trail for the perfumistas?

If that was food for thought you'll enjoy our continuing series roughly once a month.