Three Classic Perfumes For Women

If you're trying to decide which perfume to buy, either for yourself or perhaps as a gift for a friend, the sheer number of perfumes available can be daunting. Every year, new perfumes are launched in a flurry of publicity. Some of these perfumes disappear almost as quickly as they arrive. Others hang around for a few years until fashion moves on to something else, and then they slowly become less easy to find before disappearing altogether.

But there are also those special few that never go out of style. These are the true classics, the great perfumes that not only make a huge splash when they first arrive but also stand the test of time and continue to be produced, worn and loved for decades.

Here are three great classic perfumes. They're all different and but they also all include that certain special something that makes them stand out from the crowd and continue to be deservedly famous generations after they were first produced.

Chanel No. 5 is the most famous and popular perfume of all time. It has been in continuous production for almost ninety years. Even people who have never bought a bottle of perfume in their lives know its name, and everyone's smelled it at some point: in an elevator, at the office, at a wedding or on our own skin. Chanel No. 5 finds a place everywhere. Marilyn Monroe famously replied "Chanel No. 5" when asked what she wore to bed. The Chanel company estimates that a bottle of No. 5 is sold somewhere in the world every 55 seconds.

Chanel No. 5 is classified as an aldehydic floral, meaning that it smells floral but also includes a strong component of aldehydes, which give an extra boost to certain elements of the perfume but also provide it with a distinctive synthetic edge.

Because of the dominance of the aldehydes, No. 5 was considered a ground-breaking scent when it first came out in 1921. Coco Chanel herself said that she wanted her perfume - it was the very first Chanel perfume - to be a composition rather than to try to evoke the scent of a particular flower. No. 5 certainly achieves this aim. The top notes are aldehydes, bergamot, lemon, ylang-ylang and neroli, followed by heart notes of jasmine, rose, lily of the valley and orris, and rounded out by base notes of vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, and amber.

Chanel No. 5 occupies a special place in the history of perfume, and every woman should try it at least once in her life.

Like Chanel No.5, you've probably smelled Shalimar before without even knowing what perfume it was. It is a distinctive fragrance that, once smelled, is not easily forgotten.

Launched in 1925, Shalimar is named for the beautiful Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, created by Shah Jahan, who also built the Taj Mahal. Shalimar's scent, like its name, recalls the East: it was one of the very first oriental perfumes produced in Europe. Orientals are typically rich, warm and spicy perfumes. The warm vanilla base of Shalimar is classic oriental, but the light citrusy top notes give it an added contrasting cool brightness that immediately demands attention.

And then there's the musk element. Shalimar is a sexy perfume. The musk lurking in the base notes provides just enough of a hint of the smell of sweaty skin to make people start thinking about the possibility of getting sweaty together. There are times when a girl wants to smell like a lady, and times when she wants to smell like a woman. Shalimar is most definitely a woman's fragrance.

Shalimar includes notes of bergamot, lemon, jasmine, rose, tonka bean, vanilla, iris, incense, and ambergris. Its true genius lies in the masterly blending of all these different elements into a perfume that's unique and uniquely memorable.

Joy was launched in 1930, just after the on-set of the Great Depression. In response to those dark and difficult times, Jean Patou decided to create a truly extravagant, beautiful perfume to put people in mind of happier days. 10,600 jasmine flowers and 336 roses go into every ounce of the extrait (concentrated perfume) so "extravagant" is definitely an accurate description!

Joy opens with a burst of aldehydes that soon settle down into heart notes that are a mix of rose and jasmine. Other notes include peach, tuberose, sandalwood and musk. Joy is an elegant and sophisticated perfume. It was the favourite perfume of Jackie Onassis, which immediately tells you a lot about it. It was once the most expensive perfume in the world, but these days can be found in a variety of bottle sizes and concentrations that are much more affordable.

Joy is the perfect name for this perfume: there isn't anything dark or gloomy about it, and that's always a very welcome feeling.