Moustafa Mohammed, fragrance advisor at Paris Gallery, The Dubai Mall. PHOTO | STELLAR MURUMBA
What you need to know:
There are a variety of new scents that combine elegance and intrigue you should wear.
For those who truly love fine perfume or colognes, pairing a scent to your personality requires creativity.
People wear scents differently. Some women enjoy florals with a lingering effect while metrosexual men are not shy about wearing sweet flamboyant scents and using them to make a statement.
Some people have a go-to scent; they pick a signature cologne and never change it. But with more than 1,700 new fragrances that combine elegance with intrigue launched each year, why show that kind of loyalty?
Moustafa Mohammed, a fragrance advisor at the Paris Gallery in Dubai Mall, said perfume trends are shifting. Shoppers are switching between niche brands.
In the last four months, he said, more buyers have been going for new scents such as Van Cleef & Arpels scents, made by a luxury French jewellery, watch and perfume company.
No loyalty
‘‘With many new perfumes entering the global markets annually, the impression that people stick to one scent for life is quickly fading,’’ said Mohammed.
At the top of the selling list, Mohammed said, are the unisex fragrances. The moresque perfumes (male and female scents) effortlessly excites your taste buds with a match of Italian design married into the rich art of Arabic perfumery. It possess three jewel collections in red, white and black signature bottles.
“Moresque costs Sh78,000 for a 50ml bottle,” said Mohammed, adding that Sospiro, an Italian brand available in both male and female scent is also fast-moving.
Other top sellers in Dubai Mall which is one the busiest and luxurious shopping centres in the world, housing hundreds of designer shop are Sospiro perfume which retails at Sh34,000, which literally takes your breath away.
This comes in three packages namely; chapter one, chapter two and the Exclusive edition.
For Van Cleef & Arpels perfumes and colognes, you would have to part with Sh75,000 for a 30ml bottle.
Many people may not have heard of these brands, but that is what makes them cool because they are not the same fragrances that you smell on everybody walking down the street.
The common thing about these new top selling brands, Mohammed said, is that they are all natural scents and share a very concentrate and intense trail. “This means that they are long-lasting and not copied thus mare different from most scents,’’ he said.
Celebrity brands
Most shoppers are going for the new fragrance for formal occasions and not an everyday wear because of how highly they regard them.
Other “common perfumes”, mostly the celebrity brands have their own ardent customers who look at fragrances as a personal signature.
Lovers of celebrity brands such as Tom Ford, Elizabeth Arden, Eddie Bauer and Mont Blanc, he said, are very loyal in that if they buy a new brand, they would always purchase it alongside their preferred fragrance thus sales remain steady.
At the Dubai Mall, perfume lovers can also splurge on custom-made scents to suit any occasion; be it a wedding, baby shower or birthday party with Paris signature perfumers making them in just under two hours.
Despite the swap to new scents the top best-sellers globally are the old perfumes and colognes such as Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, Giorgio Armani di Gio Homme, Ralph Lauren Polo, Marc Jacobs and Jo Malone.
