The sense of smell is one of the brain's best mechanisms for adding context to recollection. It's the reason many people associate the aroma of fresh-baked cookies with the holidays. The science at work may still be somewhat mysterious, but the big lesson is that you can use fragrance to your advantage if you know a few useful tricks.
If you give the gift of a distinctive fragrance, it will almost always ensure that on some far-off anniversary, she'll uncork that distilled essence of a long-ago evening or weekend and remember how wonderful it felt to spend special moments in your company. Drop for drop, that's good value at any price.
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This might sound fanciful, but fragrance has power -- whether it's the noxious odor of rotten cabbage or the sweet smell of night-blooming jasmine at sunset. Smell can be a time capsule. Giving her a wonderful fragrance she loves has a couple of other advantages, too. You'll earn important relationship points for discriminating taste and romantic savoir-faire. You'll also net extra points (not that anyone is actually keeping score) for going with a difficult choice when candy or flowers would have been a safer bet. She'll love the fact that you're a risk taker.
If you thought you could get away with selecting a fragrance you happen to like and using that as a handy explanation for your choice (wrapped with a pretty bow), guess again. There are no easy outs when it comes to picking a perfume or cologne she'll wear and enjoy. If she isn't drawn to the scent, it will eventually end up at the back of her lingerie drawer -- never to be used again.
This ups the ante on a task that may seem pretty complicated anyway. Your lady may already have some pronounced preferences, and even if she doesn't, there's a good chance she'll feel drawn to some fragrances over others. A little careful sleuthing will give you useful clues, though, and if all else fails, we have a foolproof option to offer.
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