What Happens During a Fragrance Consultation?

Engaging, personal and revealing all at once, the fragrance consultation process of finding a new perfect scent can surprise more than you think...

Finding your signature scent is something that takes time, trial and error to define. To be perfectly honest, I feel as though I have found three, one each from Armani Privé, Chanel and Tom Ford, that I truly adore and would wear endlessly - see below - but then, recently, I realised I was bored of the rotation and wanted something that was even more rare, even more suited to me. I took some online fragrance consulations and found them fascinating, but they came up somewhat short.

ONLINE CONSULTATIONS

A lot of online consultations can vary. Mostly they are unmanned and offer a predefined set of questions to narrow down your result.

The Penhaligons consultation asks how you would like to feel when you wear a fragrance - 'confident' ,'inspired', 'elegant' and 'sensual'  all on a virtual shelf.

The Guerlain consultation asks you to select a fragrance 'world'; fresh, floral, oriental or woody. Select fresh and absolutely everything that is recommended across the board contained orange, mandarin, orange blossom - sensing a theme here.

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You see, no matter how fun the line of questioning, now matter how on point the recommendations, there's always a bit of an anticlimax when, at the end, those little bottled suggestions on screen don't quite give you the feels. Sometimes a real life, human fragrance consultation or 'fragrance profiling' can really help. 

THE IN-PERSON FRAGRANCE CONSULTATION

When you visit the Boutique in Marylebone or any other perfume counter I guess, you immediately get a sense of a tactile and dissarming experience. Enveloped in fragrance it's an experience never to be replicated online. However with regards to the questions and information asked its very much a bespoke experience.

Often kicked off with an explanation of the background of the brand. You will be asked similar questions to that of those online consultations. Things like what time of day do you want to wear the scent, would you prefer a night in or night out or what colour do like to wear. It feels self-indulgent and in the right setting should not only be personal but fun and not at all comfortable.

WHY SO PERSONAL?

Often when you are trying to find a new fragrance for yourself, you cannot but help stumble into sometimes intimate questions. It's not until you have a fragrance consultation that you realise just how emotive smell can be. All at once, you find yourself fondly reminiscing about the oddest or sometimes most nostalgic of memories. Of which you can find more on here.

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Often we ask about your relationship with fragrance. When did you first start wearing purfume, where were you and with who? Deep in our brains are the olfactory receptors, parts of our prehistoric DNA that so closely relate smell and memory.

The art is to unlock keys to events through smell as often these comfort and create a new and lasting relationship. Sometimes, when you smell a perfume you feel good about you really have no recolection as to why. You just get a feeling. During a consultation if we are able to kit these keys we can be sure you will love your new scent.

INTERROGATION (IN A GOOD WAY)

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Overall to get a great picture of someones likes and dislikes you need to ask lots of questions. Questions about the colours you like, the notes you are maybe drawn to in other fragrances - often in some expereince huge emphasis is placed on the lingo but a great consultation will ask simple questions for us to interpret the answer. Such as - 'What did you have for dinner last night?' Or maybe 'Do you play a lot of sweaty sport?' But often enough customers have a good idea as to what they like and dislike. 

Dont be shy to use real or natural language and describe answers in a way that means most to you. From there we are able to refine a selection from the range into a handful of suitable suggestions. Often customers find themselves using answers such as 'awake', 'fluffy', 'whatever the opposite of smoky is' and more - things that I'm sure made no sense to anyone beyond that of a consultaion.

So what makes a great fragrance consultation? Well it's certianly not the title! It's less of a consultation and more of an engaging and persoanlised chat about your life, mood, like and dislikes. All amazing information to help us recommend a new fragrance that not only suits you but helps you feel more you. We call it 'Persoanlity Amplification' becase when you hit on a great fragrance you need nothing else to be your very best you.

WHAT DO YOU GET IN A CONSULTATION WITH US?

So you have scheduled an online consultation with us, what happens next?

On the day of your consultation at the appropriate time you will jump onto the website where a pop-up chat box will appear, here you will be able to tell us that you have a consultation booked and that you are ready to go. Once our member of staff is ready, they will join you on the chat and your consultation will begin. First of all, we will ask if there are any fragrances that you love from other brands so that we can get a general idea of the types of scents you like, and we will go from there. After a bit of a chat and some nitty-gritty questions we will suggest between 1 and 5 Shay and Blue fragrances for you to try out from our recommendation. And that’s it! Super easy, super quick and you walk away with some great fragrances in your basket!

A fragrance chat with Shay & Blue combines the best of the convenience of shopping online with the personal touch of human conversation. We spend 15 minutes getting to know you and your perfume choices and we are then able to select what we think will make you smile. Ultimately the more information you can give us the better. Anyway, we dont get too personal but its really up to you. We hate rules. We think fragrance should be celebrated and used liberally. 

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If you want to find something new, book in a chat.
You'll have to provide your own coffee though.

Set up a 15 minute online fragrance consultation HERE

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