A perfume is usually chosen by one question: does it suit me? A hand serum's fragrance cannot be chosen by the same question. The hands come close to the face, are reapplied many times a day, and are taken into the office, to the dinner table and into a handshake. A perfume is worn once a day; the scent of a hand serum is repeated, close to the hands, all day long.
So the choice needs criteria of its own, made for the hands. This article sets out four criteria for choosing a scented hand serum, followed by a short map of Soie's five fragrances. It is not about which fragrance is right but about how to choose.
One: strength, noticed when the hand is brought close
The first criterion is how far the scent travels. The fragrance of a hand serum is not meant to fill a room; it is meant to be noticed when the hand is brought near. Immediately after applying, the back of the hand lifted to the nose carries it clearly; thirty minutes later it surfaces only between movements. That distance is the right strength for a scent on the hands.
At work, it should not reach the next desk. At a meal, it should not compete with the food. Strength is the thing to check before the notes themselves. Composed to a standard that would stand as a perfume, yet designed to stay close to the hands: that balance is the premise of a hand serum's fragrance.
Two: the occasion and the hour
The second criterion is where in the day, and on what kind of hands, the fragrance will be used. The scent for getting ready in the morning and the scent for the minutes before sleep are asked to do different things.
- For the morning and the day: something dewy and light that wakes the senses, a transparent fresh floral or a clean, refreshing note.
- For work: something calm that makes no claim on the room, tea and herbs or a soft woody base.
- For the evening: sweetness and depth, a floral warmed with spice that unfolds slowly.
Anyone who carries one bottle through the day will want a fragrance that leans neither too far towards morning nor too far towards night. Anyone who would rather change by the hour keeps two bottles in two places: a morning scent by the basin, an evening scent by the bed.
One caution when choosing by occasion. A decision made on the name of a fragrance or the impression of its description can sit oddly with how the scent actually behaves on the hands. Where possible, apply it to the back of the hand and live with it for thirty minutes before deciding. The scent of the first moment and the scent noticed between movements half an hour later are two faces of the same bottle.
Three: season and the warmth of the skin
The third criterion is the season. A hand serum's fragrance moves from top to middle to base with the warmth of the skin, and the hands are a part of the body whose temperature changes greatly through the year. The same scent rises differently from warm summer hands and cold winter ones.
In the warm months a light, transparent fragrance sits comfortably, while a heavy one tends to feel loud on the hands. In the dry, cold months a scent with sweetness and depth opens slowly in the skin's warmth and stays close for longer. Changing the fragrance at the turn of the season, rather than keeping one all year, renews the routine itself.
Four: whether to match the hand soap
The fourth criterion is the relationship with the scent of washing. Where a hand soap and a hand serum are available in the same fragrance, washing and moisturising layer one scent over itself. It lasts naturally as a fragrance for the hands, and the same scent is there at every visit to the basin.
Combining two different fragrances has its own pleasure: a light soap under a deeper serum, for instance. In doubt, begin with the same scent for both and try combinations once the first has become familiar. Our thinking on scent for the hands is set out further on the fragrance page.
A map of Soie's five fragrances
Soie's hand serum comes in five fragrances. A short map, for setting the four criteria against.
- LUXURY FLORAL. A gentle floral citrus of bergamot and neroli with jasmine and musk: refined, like teatime at a hotel, and at home on any occasion.
- ELEGANT TIME. The sweetness of osmanthus and tuberose with oriental spice: depth that suits the evening.
- COLOR DROPS. The transparency of lilac and a watery accord: for mornings, daytime and the warmer months.
- SUPREME TEA. Green tea and black tea with herbs: a calm impression often chosen for work.
- SAKURA. The freshness of white lavender and cherry blossom: for the start of a new season.
The map is a starting point, not a verdict. A tea fragrance chosen for the office may turn out to be the one that suits a winter evening; a floral kept for the morning may follow its owner through the day without protest. The four criteria narrow the field; the hands make the final choice.
Each was composed by the brand's dedicated perfumer with the temperature and humidity of the hands in mind. All are pitched to be enjoyed close to the hands, and the same fragrance can be chosen for Enlight Hand Serum and the hand soap.
To choose by fragrance is to choose a reason to keep going. If the scent that rises from the hands at every application is one you like, a hand serum stops being a duty and becomes one of the small pleasures of the day.
