GIFT FOR SOON-TO-BE-18 YEAR OLDS FIRST WARDROBE

Visit the Jo Malone website for an education on their fragrances.
http://www.jomalone.com/templates/pr...D=CATEGORY6542
You'll see (at the bottom of each fragrance's product description) a list of other JM products which can be layered with each product (i.e., Orange Blossom can be layered with Wild Fig & Cassis).

Then, go to ebay and buy affordable decants of an array of JM scents you think your daughter might like. This will get her started on perceiving which notes she likes and how fragrances are built up by combining notes. She will get the added benefit of wearing scents that are different from all of her girlfriends who shop at department stores.

The offerings in the fragrance marketplace can be overwhelming. Buying products by hit and miss can be costly, time-consuming, and may even squash an interest before it has a chance to start if one invests in a couple big bottles that wear out their welcome.

Bless your little cottons socks for being such a thoughtful mom. That daughter is very fortunate!

Well. I think that it's up to her to create a fragrance wardrobe... Tell me if I'm wrong
I hate when somebody presents me perfume as it's always a disappointment
But the process of choosing fragrances and falling in love with them is a kind of magic and a good way to establish communication with your daughter :

Maybe you should discuss it with her, show her some sites, show some fragrances
Maybe explain what's good and what's cheap... And then let her do the choice herself
This lesson will be the most expensive present.. IMHO

i would say, go test-shopping with her and first make notes of what she has liked before and weather she thinks she's "too old" now to wear some type of scents (par amour toujours...please tell her to smell this it's great!) or "too young" to wear, say arpege of N.5.
I would say to you, that first and foremost is to test the frags on her skin. Stick to 2-3 per day, so you will get a better sense of what it smelles like and how it develops. And DEMAND to the sales assinstant to give to you samples if they carrry them, never be shy but be very sweet and with a smile on your face even if they seem stck up...and tell them that it's for her 18th bday and that you are excited and that you don't really know..etc etc and they will be out to help you. And take your time!

Check out luckyscent.com, lusciouscargo.com and beautyhabit.com to take advantage of their sample programs. I just received the samples I ordered from lusciouscargo and beautyhabit (they arrived extremely fast!) and am thrilled. Look around the sites to see which ones you might want to try. It's a really cost-effective way of smelling many different perfumes without the committment of buying a whole bottle. And all three sites carry very unusual choices--not your standard department store fare (not that there is anything wrong with that--I own tons of perfumes sold in department stores).

Maybe order a bunch of samples and present them to her in a little gift basket accompanied with a card telling her to try them out and to pick her favorites and then you will buy her the full sizes. I'm 27 with a million perfumes and I would be in heaven if my mother did that for me, so I imagine anyone who loves perfume, no matter what age, would enjoy such a gift.

Fragrance is such a personal thing, so it is hard to make any recommendations. I can tell you that my first perfume was Dior Poison (if I remember correctly) and I still adore that fragrance today. My favorite perfume of all time is Tiffany and I have worn that since I was about 17. Sheer Tiffany (not produced anymore, but still available via eBay I am sure) is also a beautiful fragrance, as well as Pure Tiffany, which came out a few years ago. Around my early college years I also enjoyed Dior Tendre Poison, Clinique Happy, Estee Lauder Pleasures, Estee Lauder Beautiful, Cacharel Noa, Calvin Klein Eternity and several Victoria's Secret fragrances. I still own most of these today.

Good luck! I wish my mom had been more into things like this--but it turns out that I am the one who introduces her to most of her fragrances these days.

W188, I know that you mean well, and many would say, wow, that girl of hers is a lucky one!
From the other hand, I remember being 18 myself, and that I never had enough money for experiments, but anything given to me as a present was sort of wrong in this or that way :-/
It is also so much fun collecting your own wardrobe!

Concernig what I've said, combinatory lines like Jo Malone or Body Shop seem to be a lovely compromise, allowing you to make a special gift and her to combine freely.

I give my ideas anyway, I know that you'd like to know... ;D

For light-White Musk TBS; for dark&heavy-Alien Thierry Mugler;
for fruity-Maybe Baby Benefit; for floral-Pivoine Magnifica Aqua Allegoria Guerlain;
for get more for less money-Coty Thais
for expensive must-have- a Keiko Mecheri, but let her sample first.

Have fun

I'd particualarly try to sample Keiko Macheri's Loukhoum for an expensive but worth it -- soft, powdered sugared, almonds and vanilla with a rose hint.

I say take her shopping but I think you should definatley take her somewhere with a large selection so she can smell firstnose the difference between tommy girl and serge lutens sa majeste la rose. then let her pick what she likes but make sure she has a chance to try everything from chanel to creed to caron to "dolce and gabanna"

Well, I agree with the comments that it's good to actually go testing and smelling before buying, but here are some suggestions:

light: Lancome Miracle, Elizabeth Arden Green Tea
dark: YSL Opium
heavy: Vivienne Westwood Boudoir, Chopard Casmir, Mahora (discontinued, but still around)
fruity: Clinique Happy (the most fruity fragrance I can think of), Lancome Poeme
floral: Dior Diorissimo, Dior j'adore, Givenchy Very Irresistible
inexpensive: Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers
good value: Too subjective, sorry
expensive: Jean Patou Joy (or Enjoy, which is a bit pinker and younger and not as expensive), Dior j'adore

Now these are just my personal thoughts, and a hundred different people could come up with a hundred different suggestions, I'm sure. I tend to like floral fragrances, and it shows in the list...

bonni

Wizard, what a wonderful gift idea for your daughter!

It is very diffiscult to build a whole wardrobe as a surprise and have it 100% successful - there are so many factors at play, your daughter's taste, het skin chemistry, and also - she may enjoy more being part of the process of building up the wardrobe and selecting the fragrance. What I think will be the best gift from you is choosing the fragrances with her. This will also enable you to spend some quality time together - which is the greatest gift of all!

I suggest you take her to a the best perfume boutique or department store you have around, where you can smell and sample as many fragrances as possible. There are plenty of wonderful classics available in the "mainstream" stores, so I don't think that looking for niche is necessary (although ordering samples is a great idea of course for sampling together scents that are exclusive and hard to find - I think you should still not miss on the opportunity to go fragrance shopping together).

Here are a few perfumes that asnwer to the categories you mentioned, and I truly think you and your daughter should sample and consider:

Some light: 4711 (also very inexpensive), Bvlgari's Eau Parfumee au The Blanc (the green tea is also nice and light but I think the white tea is the best), Narciso Rodriguez EDT, Lovely by Sara Jessica Parker

some dark: Opium summer edition - this year it's called Opium Eau Imperial, and last year it was Opium Fleur de Shanghai. Both are wonderful and not too strong, yet dark with a base of myrrh, and a hint of spicy carnation. I say it's a must have!
Also try Youth Dew Amber Nude for a dark scent (yet not as dark as the original Youth Dew!) that is easier to wear.

Some heavy: I wouldn't go too heavy as most young girls this age may not like very heavy scents. Try Obsession and
Shalimar pure parfum. They are hard not too like with all that yummy vanilla!
Chanel's Allure may be nice too - not quite heavy, but along the lines of sweet ambery orientals (it's less heavy than the others, and more floral).

Some fruity: Ode a l'Amour (see below), Oyedo (Dyptique), Guerlain's Aqua Allegoria Pampelmousse, Euphoria (very similar to Ode a l'Amour but more expensive...), J Lo Miami Glow (a wonderful tropical beach scent with pineapple and coconut).

Some floral: Diorissimo, Joy, Bvlgari pour Femme, Pure Poison, Champs Elysees, Chant d'Aromes

Some of inexpensive , good value: Yves Rocher's Ode a l'Amour (mail order from their website or call them - their fragrances in general are very affordable and of a great quality, Neblina is also a good one from their line, it's very similar to Gucci Envy), The Body Shop White Musk (and also some of their other oils - but the musks are my favourites from there - the Japanese Musk is also outstanding), 4711 (a light citrus, a must have if you live in a hot climate)

Some of expensive-but-must-haves: Shalimar in pure parfum, Fleur d'Oranger by Serge Lutens, Diorissimo, Spring Flower by Creed.

Hello.

What a thoughtful idea for your daughter's 18th birthday! I personally think that you should buy samples off eBay, put them in a box, wrap the box, get a birthday card and write that you're going to buy a full bottle of the sample she likes the most. If you do this you'll buy something that you're sure she will love and use.

Unless you know what a person likes or already wears it is difficult to shop for them. I once had someone buy me a bottle of D&G Woman and although I do love woody scents, this one did not work with my chemistry - in fact it worked against me. I smelled like cat pee! I had to give it away to someone that smelled terrific wearing it. I can only enjoy D&G Woman vicariously now.

Hope that helps.

P.S. The Body Shop sells a sample pack. So do some etailers like dragonflyblue (not affiliated)... etc.

What a nice mum -I may do that too in 12 years. I have D&G Light BLue and my 6 yr old daughter likes it she occassionally has asked for spritz. It is very light and Spring like, similar is Raplh Lauren's Ralph. I also tested Miss Dior Cherie it is fruity a bit sweet, but it seemed rather young to me, its has strawberry in it, and when I was 16 I used to wear Body Shop Strawberry oil, and I always received so many compliments. Body Shop White Musk is nice light, young. Perfume is so personal its soo hard to buy for someone. You could purchase a few dozen samples from ebay or somewhere, or keep going back to the dept stroes and asking for some. One thing though - I wish I had not thrown or given away all the perfumes I did not like when I was younger as my tastes have changed. Do they really go bad after awhile? Good Luck

How you smell is such a personal thing that I have a hard time buying a fragrance as a gift unless I already know that they like it. I faced a similar problem with my younger daughter turning 16 and wanting to get her started on a fragrance wardrobe.

What I did was I collected a bunch of fragrance samples, I think I got about 40, and told her to test them and that I would buy her what she wanted. I view that as something of a double gift as she has gotten the chance to explore a number of different fragrances, plus she got a fragrance that she would be happy with. With minimal effort I was able to collect the 40 samples in about a month.