I was stuck by this comment by Ramdane Touhami, the Parisian behind the revival of Saint Germain-situated beauty brand Buly1803. These are good tips for anyone trying to buy a perfume. I prefer “smell” to a perfume. After much trial and error, I have settled on a couple  — a summer smell, an every day smell and a winter smell — mostly because the heat does impact on how we smell.

A good perfume adapts to the person and the personality. It must neither precede nor follow the wearer too intensely. With water you have the essence of the scent; it’s not about a love story between two people, it’s all about the love story between your skin and perfume. The most magic time to smell perfume is when you first wake up in the morning. Perfume should be personal. If you have an intimacy with someone you should smell it, but I really just want people to smell the perfume on their own skin.

In other words, the smell has to be subtle, personal and yes, very very discrete. By the way, I had stopped by at the establishment on my most recent visit to Paris, but left empty handed mostly due to being totally overwhelmed by choices and the experience. It is quite a wonderful place to visit — rather beautiful.