What was your first signature fragrance?
Dior Addict! I got it late in high school, and it was the only fragrance I owned for years. I can’t even recall anything else for college.
— Christine
Explore Temptalia
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Compare Any Two
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
Enjoyed this? There's More
152 Comments
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
Comments on this post are closed.
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
YSL Cinema, in Highschool.
I still love it but i’m looking for a more grown up version.
The very, very first was the Victoria’s Secret in Raspberry Glace. But perfume wise, it should be Bulgari BLV (I don’t even know what it’s called, but it’s the one in a blue bottle)
It’s a little embarrassing, but back in the day, Gap had a line of four or five fragrances, and my favorite was the “Dream” scent. I also loved “Heaven,” but that was my best friend’s signature scent, so I had to claim a different one.
We were in 5th grade.
I loved Dream! My friends loved Heaven but I always liked Dream better. I remember there was also Grass, which smelled, well, just like grass! I can’t remember the other too. But no need to be embarrassed!
I LOVED the grass scent. I love anything that smells like Grass or Pine or anything green.
OMG!!! You just brought me back with Dream!!! I loved that one!!! Wish Gap still sold it!!!
They do! I just got a rollerball pack of 5 at a gap outlet at Christmas. I loved dream back on the day. I had the pieces of a dream set which was the individual notes you could mix and match.
That’s awesome Kim!!! Thanks for the heads up. I thought it was discontinued eons ago!!! Going to pick some up on my next mall outing!!!
Oh, God. Probably something from Victoria’s Secret. Hahaha. kate spade twirl or Chloé are my go-to fragrances right now.
Apparently some scientists in New Mexico recently found that the new “Bombshell” perfume from VS is almost as effective at warding off mosquitos as DEET. I find that absolutely hilarious.
pmsl ?
Fred Hayman 273 – it was one of the first things I bought for myself when I started working in my teens. I wore it for about 15 years.
I wore Eternity for many years. I still have a bottle of it but my tastes have changed quite a bit. I now wear Giulietta, by Tocca, most of the time (I find it very comforting) and Allure, by Chanel, on date nights.
Giorgio Armani’s Si and Replica’s Tea Escape….been wearing the two interchangeably and I love them both! 🙂
YSL Opium. I wore the bejesus out of it in high school when I was out with friends during the evenings. I tried not to wear any fragrance during the day as I was hyper-aware of the girls who completely doused themselves in (bad) perfume and gave me a massive headache (my sister included…). Nowadays I still keep scents to a minimum during the daytime, and usually tend toward the more boutique scents from places like Jo Malone.
tommy girl in high school! Nowadays it’s Flowerbomb.
Givenchy Amarige.
I received a full size bottle of it as a gift, at age 12, from my dad. I’ve loved that scent ever since.
That was mine too! I recently spotted it on the shelf somewhere & wow have my tastes changed! I did not care for it at all.
Lol. I still love the scent (probably because it evokes so many childhood memories), but it only falls into my top 5 favorite perfumes; however, it’s not my number one.
My very first fragrance I ever owned, Love’s eau d Love, which I got at 14 or 15, was not to be my signature fragrance. No, that award belongs to the original Chloe by Karl Lagerfeld. My Mom bought it for me shortly after it had been released, and because she had gotten me the large bottle, it lasted for years! One of my absolute, all-time favorite fragrances.
Way, way, waaaaay back, it was Love’s Fresh Lemon. After that, Farouche by Nina Ricci (long discontinued) and then Caleche by Hermes.
Love’s Fresh Lemon for me too!
Ooops – I don’t know how my earlier comment got posted here as I meant it to go at the end of the other comments but I wanted to say, Nancy, that I tried to wear Chloe years ago too. I loved the bottle and loved the smell and so I bought a large bottle of the spray, a bottle of body lotion and a bottle of bubble bath powder. I still have the bubble bath powder and it is still fine. It came with a “scoop” shaped like a calla lily (or whatever the flower was that was the symbol). Anyway, the other 2 products are long gone and the fragrance was not a good smell on me personally, though I loved how it smelled on others. But that milk bath powder….still blissful when I treat myself every now and then.
Avon Cotillion, from the time I was a preteen and through middle school. I absolutely loved it. I had those cute bottles shaped like girls in their cotillion ballgowns.
Charlie. I wore it for donkey’s years until I discovered …… LouLou by Cacharel!
I believe in high school my signature perfume (or rather body spray) was between Calgon In the Rain or Body Fantasies Cucumber Melon.
My 1st real fragrance I can remember dubbing a “signature” perfume was during my 20’s / college years using
Lucky Number 6 by Liz Claiborne.
Mugler’s Alien. 🙂
loooove love Alien. I wear it to bed. it helps me sleep.
Omg me too! The flanker Alien Essence Absolue is even better but there is something about that jasmine heart that is really soothing in the original and most of the flankers (I have Alien Aqua Chic as well).
Tresor by Lancome. I used it exclusively for years.
Ditto! Dior Addict was my first high end perfume – and remind my only high end perfume for a couple of years. And then i wen tout to buy a new perfume and got myself – Dior Addict 2!! Ha ha ha
The fragrance is a reminder of youth for me (I’m on the wrong side of 35 now) – my carefree days!
CKOne! I still have a bottle that I wear from time to time, when I’m feeling nostalgic. (OMG my age is showing but I don’t even care, it’s SUCH a good scent!)
Precriptives Calyx!!!!
DKNY Be Delicious!
Avon sweet honesty. I wore the perfume and deodorant for years in my teens and early twenties. I still love a nice soft powdery floral.
It was clinique happy and also one from mary kay but i cant remember the name, the smell was also fresh, very much like the clinique one?
Chanel No.5 and I still love it!
Heaven Sent by Helena Rubenstein was my signature back in Junior High in the mid 1970’s. They reformulated it in the 80’s and it’s just not the same. I scored a few small spray bottles off of E-Bay several years ago. Even though the fragrance has ” turned” I still spray it ever so often to be transported back in time. Fragrance can truly cause time travel!
CK One. My mom got it for me when I was 14.
Dior Diorissimo. My grandmother wore this and I was smitten! I’ve always had a bottle of it.
Tatiana by Diane von Furstenberg; discovered it in high school. LOVED that scent!
Viva La Juicy! Yes I was one of those girls who got into the whole Juicy Couture fad! It was my signature scent during college; I have all of the Juicy perfumes now but I reserve them for evening wear or weekends. I prefer lighter scents for daytime such as Walk on Air by Kate Spade and CLEAN perfumes! 🙂
Versace Crystal! I got it for my 18th birthday and it was the first bottle I’ve ever used up!
Shalimar in jr. high, joined by Youth Dew in high school. In Florida, in schools with no air conditioning.
Tommy Girl by Tommy Hilfiger! That was my jam for almost all of high school. 🙂
Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy
Not counting B&BW sprays, it would be both Clean Skin and Clean White Woods. I’ve never had just one signature fragrance, it’s usually 2. They were both my first actual fragrances given to me in my senior year of high school by one of my cousins.
This will date me, lol! Charlie, when it first came out!
Light years ago (slight exaggeration) in my early 20’s backs in the 80’s:. Givenchy Ysatis
Ralph of course. Like most of the teenage girls !
Ralph Lauren Romance. I think I was a freshman in high school when I started wearing it. Still love it but it’s not my signature scent anymore
Juicy Couture Viva la Juicy…I love the fragrance of it and I get so many compliments when I wear it that I just decided to make it my signature scent
Lou Lou by Cacharel. I was about 14 when it came out, and since it was inspired by Louise Brooks, I had to try it. I continued to wear it as it worked out very well for me. It was my “everyday” fragrance throughout HS & college, and even a few years after, but then it became harder to find, so I now limit use for special occasions. Even today, nearly 30 years later, I still consider it my “signature” fragrance, and it’s one my close friends & family have come to expect me to wear. That said, my “everyday” fragrance can vary, but almost always contains jasmine (unless it’s rose).
From what I’ve seen it’s pretty easily available from online stores and usually not very expensive either. 🙂 I remember my aunt had it back in the late 80s and early 90s but by then the paradigm was shifting thanks to cK One and L’Eau d’Issey so those really marked my childhood and early teens. 🙂
We had this scent in common. But I don`t know who Louise Brooks was / is.Unfortunately I haven`t got a bottle any more, I am in my forties now. I remember getting the expensive shower gel for a birthday from my best friend. O memories…
In high school and early college I was all about Clinique Happy. Then it was Viva La Juicy. Now I have more varied tastes and don’t stick to one single fragrance.
Emanuel Ungaro Diva… It wasn’t my first fragrance, but I felt so sophisticated wearing this that I repurchased it several times… Wore it around 5-6 years straight. I think I was 18 when I started wearing it.
CK One. I got it for my birthday in 1994 just like pretty much every other teenager 🙂
The first one I picked out for myself was probably Avon Forest Lily.
I remember it well and still love it to this day! It’s Lolita Lempicka. ?
Dior Addict Shine! I got a sample of it with a Sephora order, and purchased it during a trip to Paris! I still have the bottle, especially since it was discontinued. It was the first fragrance I ever really liked.
Tommy Hilfinger Tommy Girl back in high school. I pretty much bathed in the stuff for those 4 years.
I don’t remember the name of it even. (My medicine affects my memory-it really sucks!) But, it was in a glass pinkish heart shaped bottle. I think it was called Princess or something incredibly tacky like that. let’s remember this was the 90’s people. 🙂 After that I got into Victoria Secret fragrances for a while.
Vera Wang Princess, I bet!
That’s it! Lots of memories tied to that fragrance! 😀
I started wearing the original Burberry in high school. Twas my “senior” year I think.
Mine was Dior Addict too! I look back on it and realize it was a little too heavy for school and work but, I loved it 🙂
OMG! It was Nina Ricci “Bigarade”. They stopped making it once I got myself addicted to it. I was so disappointed!
Love’s Rain Scent. I was in grade school, but it was totally my thing.
I honestly don’t remember. It might have been YSL Opium. I know I used YSL Paris for years, but it came after Opium, so I think Opium my was first.
Right now it’s Black Opium. I haven t evolved much it seems 🙂
I have and love Black Opium but IMHO it’s quite different from the original! How do you find the difference?
Rose oil & Grey Flannel – men’s cologne. The only two I still wear, many years later
Narcisso Rodriguez. Reminded me of a fragrance I smelled as a child. It was a Barbie Necklace filled with a solid perfume. Of course Narcisso Rodriguez’ is more classy by far.
My first perfume was L’air du temps by Nina Ricci , a floral scent.
mine too!
It was either Camp Beverly Hills, Anais Anais, or Liz Clairborne in the yellow triangle container.
Chloe all through high school. I thought I was so special wearing something more expensive than Love’s Baby Soft.
Dior J’adore. I still love it.
I remember…. in highschool (15 years now i’m 40!) i haved anais anais the cacharel!!!
Chanel Chance came out during my senior year of high school and I bought it as soon as I could. I wore Chance for many years after, but I wouldn’t say it’s my signature scent now. Still, I have a nostalgia for the spicy scent and I go back to it every now and then, I even wore it on my wedding day.
Tommy Girl
Assuming I am leaving out gradeschool’s “Tinkerbell Perfume” and middle school’s “Love’s Baby Soft”, the first perfume I truly aspired to own and got was “Georgio of Beverly Hills”. It was the IT fragrance in the early 80s and I wanted to keep up with the Jones’. I really did like it and wore it until Christian Dior came out with Poison. i tend to wear one main scent and once I change, the older ones just don’t work for me anymore.
Easy!! Shalimar by Guerlain – it was the ‘it’ fragrance in my day! I still like it but I don’t wear it.
Roses de Chloe – my first and only!
Lauren by Ralph Lauren. I loved that it was a nice spicy chypre although I certainly didn’t know the perfume nomenclature at the time. I just remember wearing it in high school when all my peers were wearing CK Eternity or CK One in the early 1990s. I haven’t seen it in years and I’m told the new formulation is a completely different beast. I wish the vintage version would come back.
Oh I loved CK One!
Pink Sugar! I’ve been hooked for ten years!
Well, let me think. I’m so old…uh, maybe Charlie?
Ralph Lauren Ralph which is what everyone else wore, lol. I loved it though.
Boy, am I gonna date myself here, but here it is…Yardley’s “Oh! de London”. I wore that in my Junior and Senior years in high school, waaaay back in the late ’60s. I even remember the box with it’s “Mod” designs printed in lilac, aqua and metallic silver onto creamy white cardboard. The juice was a lovely, light, sweet clover blossom based floral and a perfect scent for a starry-eyed, young, optimistic “Boomer-ette”!
Halston. I wore it for years until I worked for Chanel and switched to Coco. I tried Halstin again years later. Wasn’t the same! Although I loved Halston cosmetics
You are my fragrance twin! I loved Halston in high school. But Coco was my first “real” perfume love. Stil hoarding my vintage stash!
I used to wear Chanel No 22 in high school. It was so floral! Then I switched to Obsession. Now I switch between Prada Candy and Bvlgari Crystalline.
Chanel Chance ♡
My first signature fragrance was either Fiji by Guy La Roche or Arpege by Lanvin. I always had a few different perfumes on the go.
I’ll be 63 next month, but at 21 my then boyfriend bought me a gift while he traveled on business. It was Revlon’s Ciara. I wore it for many years and got LOADS of compliments on it.
I think it was Chanel No5. It was in late 60searly 70s. Then it was a musk fragrance that I loved.
Aromatics Elixer by Clinique. Used for many years.
Mine was britney spears midnight fantasy
Fracas ….still love it
Gucci Envy Me 2, also during my high school time. I still love some of the fruity-floral notes nowadays.
Calvin Klein One and Poeme by Lancome
Uh oh, I’m going to age myself here. I had two that I wore in middle school: Lauren by Ralph Lauren and the Original Guess perfume. I thought I was so grown up wearing perfume. LOL ?
Now, because all the latest perfumes (except Tom Ford’s) seem to smell similar to me, I still gravitate toward the classics by Guerlain and Chanel. I’ve worn Shalimar and Mitsouko since high School and college though I never tried Guerlain’s makeup until the last few years. ?
It’s funny because I was just discussing this with a friend. We also discussed scent memory, and how I remembered learning in college that scent memories from young childhood can be very strong, which is true for me. The two memories from young childhood I have strong recall of are associated with scent. My Mom’s marinara (we’re Italian) and her Chanel 5, which will always be one of my favorite perfumes for life because my Mom still wears it, pretty much exclusively (along with Chanel Gardenia.)
Love’s Baby Soft was my first perfume, back in the early 80’s (which I can’t believe I wore, as I smelled it for the sake of novelty a few years ago at a store and, ick!). But Indult Tihota became my true “signature” fragrance after years of wearing scents that didn’t really smell all that great on me.
I totally forgot about Love’s Baby Soft!!! I remember begging for it, and my Mom putting a bottle of it in my Christmas stocking in grade school!!! Thanks for the blast from the past Ellen!!!
Dior Poison, which I wore in high school…dark and dramatic for a teenager, yes, but they didn’t make girly perfumes at the time.
Chloe, a gift from my first serious boyfriend in high school. It wasn’t something I would’ve picked for myself either. We broke up right after but I wore the fragrance for years.
In high school I mostly wore Bath & Body Works body splashes, Clinique Happy and Estée Lauder Pleasures. But my first real “signature” fragrance was Chanel Allure, which I wore in college. I still like it, but it reminds me of my ex-boyfriend that I was with at the time so I’ve since gravitated toward Chance and Coco Mademoiselle. I don’t really have a signature fragrance at the moment but currently Hanae Mori, Narciso Rodriguez, and Pink Sugar are in heavy rotation, and I keep Versace Eros and Hermes J’our d’Hermes for special occasions. I have a perfume fetish so I have a hard time committing to just a few 🙂
Norrell, the original launch, not this latest debaucle.
Paloma Picasso….have always had a bottle for 25 years…I really only wear it for special occasions….it’s pretty potent.
Love, love, love Paloma!! I wish I would’ve saved some from back in the day….
Ralph by Ralph Lauren was my signature scent in high school. I had so many compliments that I never tried another perfume until college.
Revlon’s Charlie
Dior Addict 2. Later I moved on to Daisy Eau So Fresh
Back in the early 80’s, Loves had a fragrance called Musky Jasmine. It was my favorite!
They reformulated it and changed to Fresh (?) Jasmine.. It wasn’t the same.
Lauren by Ralph Lauren.
I didn’t really wear perfume very much until my 30’s. I did have L’Air du Temps though, still love it. Gourmand scents weren’t around then but they’re my signature scents now.
I remember Tribe being popular at secondary school in the 90’s, I hated it! It made me feel nauseous. I was even given a bottle for a birthday or Xmas and I had to give it away lol!
CK One was popular then too, but it didn’t do anything for me so I didn’t wear it. I had a Charlie Gold bodyspray and loved it, still love Impulse bodysprays even now.
VS Pink. I actually still like it, but it feels tired to me and it’s not fancy pants enough anymore lol
Escape by Calvin Klein.
My first signature scent was Paris by Yves St. Laurent. My college roommate had it and I use to borrow it. Once I started working, I stuck with it for a while. I have gone through different scents. My current 2 favorite scents are Ms. Dior and La vie est belle.
The very first ORIGINAL Victoria by Victoria’s Secret. They quit carrying that. Now it’s Pure Grace and Amazing Grace by Philosophy ❤️
My first signature fragrance was Love’s Fresh Lemon. I loved it and wore it all the time.
Sunflower by Elizabeth Arden. I was obsessed with that perfume as a kid and teen. Now, to be honest, I hate it. Lol.
Calvin Klein’s Escape
Back in the day, it was Ciara. I still love the fragrance, deep rich musky spicy. I loved it then and love it now, although I don’t wear it often, if at all.
Maybe I’ll pick up another
The first I really loved was Hidden Fantasy by B.Spears. I was 19 or 20..
Today it’s L’Eau de Circe Parfumerie Generale
I wore New West! Loved it then and I love it even more now! So sad it was discontinued.
When I was a teenager I saw a picture of the Angel bottle in a magazine and without even smelling it, decided that I would wear it when I grew up. My mum knew and found a mini set for Christmas that year. I’ve been wearing it ever since although I have branched out into other perfumes more. I also wear the Angel EDT more than the EDP now. I also don’t wear it around my brother now as his girlfriend also wears it and he doesn’t want us to smell the same >.<
Kenzo flowers!!! For years it was all I’d wear
In 1998 I found Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel, and I’m still wearing it. In 2004, the law firm where I was working as a secretary merged with a larger firm and one of the female partners wore this fragrance as her signature scent. She did not like it that I also wore this, and that was just too bad. (I don’t work there now) It is the only fragrance that I have made repeated purchases.
My first was CK1, then I was a all about Tommy Girl, then I found Donna Karan Cashmere Mist, which I’ve been wearing since High School.
Este Lauder’s Knowing
I loved CK Escape in high school in the nineties, I grabbed a small bottle when I saw it a couple years ago at a very discounted price, just for nostalgic reasons and to see if I still liked it. I did not. It made me gaggy and gave me a raging headache.
Nowadays its mostly Angel by Thierry Mugler or L.I.L.Y. by Stella McCartney, which I was horrified to find out recently that Sephora is no longer carrying, and I haven’t found another place to buy it in Canada, I am afraid to run out! I have a harder time spending money on perfume over makeup though. I bought Tom Ford Black Orchid for my mom, I want it too but I haven’t been able to convince myself to spend the money yet!
Also…Ralph Lauren Polo Woman, how could I forget
I love this — love talking about fragrances. 🙂
My first signature fragrance was Hanae Mori’s Hanae Mori — I tried a sample of it when I was in the eighth grade and fell in love. Two years later, my parents gave it to me as a Christmas gift and I wore it every single day. I loved telling people how it smelled like “strawberry and almonds”. Just thinking about it makes me smile, even though I think I’ve outgrown the fragrance a little since then.
In high school, it was Curve; in college, it was Cool Water (though I loved those Versace Jeans scents, too)…after college, it was Gucci Envy Me!
In high school it was anais anais, gorgio of Beverly hills and then my next was romance by ralph Lauren. I loved my perfumes back in the day.
Loulou by Cacharel, bought it from my pocket money when I was about 18. Loved the blue bottle
Ralph by Ralph Lauren ?
Estee Lauder Sensuous. I received a sample from a Cosmetics Outlet Store. The only thing I’ve used for 6 years, even get complemented AFTER Roller Derby Practice on how nice I smell!
My first perfume was stila jade blossom but my first signature scent was Versace bright Crystal. My current is pink sugar
Ja’dore was my favorite for years!
My first signature scent was J’adore by Dior.
Shalimar. Late high school, college, and quite a few years after. It’s all I owned. (Then I discovered Clinique’s Aromatics Elixir. That was it for many, many years. Next was Chanel’s Allure. ). I don’t really have one right now. I spend too much time either in hospitals or around people who can’t be around scents. Plus I get Sephora’s Play! Box and every one so far has contained a perfume sample, so lately I’ve had fun with those when I do have the opportunity to wear perfume.
Elizabeth Arden Red Door
My first signature fragrance was Tea Rose by The Perfumer’s Workshop. When I was in middle school, I loved it but everyone else didn’t. Now, I have matured and own 12 signature fragrances which are all rose fragrances and are soft and wearable all year round. They range from Elisabethan Rose by Penhaligon’s of London to Les Creations de Monsieur Dior Forever and Ever by Dior.
I started out with Evening in Paris, in the 50’sand graduated to Chanel and Estee Lauder Youth Dew…the halls in high school fairly reeked of Estee Lauder…..then some of the girls were also wearing Nina Ricci….
Ciara, back in the eighties when it was made by Charles Revson and sold in department stores. I was a young adult and would wear it out on dates. It smelled great then & I used it all the time for about eight years.
The original Juicy Couture was my signature for years. Then I jumped to Pink Sugar. I stay between Pink Sugar and Prada Candy all the time
Primo… it was ‘Inspired’ by Giorgio Beverly Hills, and I loooooved it, my first dollar must have, Lol.
Victoria’s Secret sexy little things Noir. But I no longer buy it because Victoria secret sales in China and pays for them to test on animals
As a child I wore tinkerbell and Patite Naté. Early elementary school I wore Love’s Baby Soft. 6th grade I got my first signature scent of Jessica McClintock. After many signatures I now only wear Agonist parfums.