3 Fragrance Rules to Break (and One You Absolutely Must Follow)

From fall fragrance trends to wide-ranging collections of beloved brands, PureWow staffers are fascinated by scent. We want to know what Jennifer Aniston smells like and the colognes George Clooney wears. We were delighted to learn that this year, celebs opted to wear hair perfume on the Emmys red carpet. And as well as keeping on top of the latest fragrance releases and classic scents worth wearing, my colleagues and I are intrigued by the way that culture and fashion are changing the way we all choose to wear our perfumes. So I turned to a fragrance expert and social media scent influencer to get the story on what old ideas to let go. Along the way, I learned a new rule of scent that even science agrees is a must-follow.

Paul Fino is a fragrance influencer and social media creator whose posts reviews and reports as @paulreactss reach a combined 1.5 million viewers. Fino’s travels and perfume trials are known for their irreverence, relatability and information.

“Some people say that a sweet vanilla scent is better for the winter, but if I want to smell like a sweet vanilla cupcake when it's 110 degrees outside, I should,” Fino says. Traditional thinking says that heavy gourmand fragrances, “such as vanilla, cinnamon, marshmallow cream and milk,” should be saved for the colder months, while summer is reserved for “tropical sunrise and watermelon spritz.” By contrast, the scent influencer says, “In my opinion, I feel if you like the scent, wear it whenever you want…being subject to one category per season is so sad.” The personal care industry seems to agree, with brands mixing up when they introduce and how they market their formulas. For example, Fino points out that “there's so many different variations of, like, Bath and Body Works and so many other different brands have done winter citrus, or a pomegranate or a cranberry.” The key takeaway? “If you like the scent, wear it whenever you want.”

“A lot of people don’t approve of the whole layering concept,” Paul notes. In the past, scent enthusiasts were told to layer the same specific scent or brand. (Fino laughs at the memory of being expected to wear “YSL head-to-toe in the ‘70s.”) “Today,” Fino says, “you're allowed to mix and match anything—any brand, any price point, any scent, to make your own combination.” He says that layering has become less about conformity and more about customization. “People want something that feels personal to them. They want something that feels like it’s their own. It’s more of their signature.”

Fino told me his own layering strategy as a gourmand lover. “Usually, I’ll always start off with a vanilla, and then I love a vanilla and caramel layer combo. And I also believe that a flormand—which is floral and gourmand mixed together—is such an underrated combo. He told me to experiment with two of Soap & Glory’s sheer body sprays (Vanilla Licious and Radiant Rose) to see for myself: “You’re going to get a creamy vanilla gourmand rose,” he told me. (Note: Reader, I sure did, and I wear it on repeat now.)

Fino’s final rule to shatter was one of the oldest in the book. “People used to say that fragrance has a gender to it, but I think that fragrance is gender-free. Completely. I think that the perfumers and the master perfumers that create these fragrances, they have a vibe and a concept in mind, not a gender,” he says. Paul shared his personal experience. “As a man who wears sweet fragrances and quote-unquote girly fragrances, I’ve always been asked and wondered why I wear women’s fragrances...The truth of the matter is that I feel like, you know, if you're a woman, but you love the way a men’s fragrance smells on you, please, by all means, wear it.” The reverse is equally appealing: “I think it's really interesting to see a man with a beard that’s hairy to smell like vanilla cupcakes. You might never guess, but that’s appealing. It is.”

His core message? “Just having no rules, with no rules, gender rules, with fragrance, that is just great.”

Mic Drop Moment: With the myth-busting Fino destroying so many of my old ideas about fragrance, I thought he’d leave me with a rule to follow that I already knew. (Something like, don’t store your perfume in direct sunlight.) Instead, he blew my mind with a simple tip I’d never thought of before: Moisturize. He explains it as understanding the science of scent: “When your skin is dry and you apply fragrance...the fragrance oil is going to absorb into your skin much quicker, which isn't necessarily going to give you a scent draw off.” (That’s the term for the way a fragrance radiates off of your skin.) “Because your skin is so dry, it’s yearning for oil, for moisture.”

“So I always recommend to go ahead and put a lotion on first—already have my skin prepped and hydrated, kind of like how people would do with makeup. You know, you need your base. So put unscented moisturizer and lotion on, and then your fragrance just to allow the fragrance to work.”