Finding your signature fragrance can be harder than it sounds - step foot in a perfumerie and you're quickly overwhelmed by four walls covered in hundreds of different scents, brand names, and price tags. So how do you begin to weed through them all and come out smelling like a rose?

Trust your instincts and your nose when it comes to finding your favorite scent. Fragrances are very personal and one can smell great on your best friend, but only so-so or downright funky on you. It has to do with your own individual body chemistry and pheromones. So just because your friends are all wearing the latest celebrity fragrance doesn't mean you should too.

In addition, according to the Fragrance Foundation, fragrance interacts with the oils on your skin, which means your skin type can affect the way a fragrance smells on you as well as how long it lingers. So if you have oily skin, a scent will be more intense and last longer, while dry skin doesn't have enough oil to retain a scent, so you may have to re-apply your fragrance more often.

When you are shopping for a new fragrance, don't try to smell the store's entire inventory in one stop - don't be afraid to take several weeks and make many visits to the perfumerie to zero in on a single one. With each visit, choose three or four different fragrances to try and take home samples so you can smell them outside the store's scent-heavy environment.

Reserve your final judgment of a new fragrance until at least ten minutes after you have applied it. This gives the alcohol time to evaporate and the fragrance to blend with your skin's chemistry, giving you a more accurate impression of the scent. A great way to tell if you really like a certain fragrance is to wear it to bed. You'll know if it blends well with your particular chemistry if you like it when you first wake up in the morning. If you don't love it after two or three mornings, try another.

Heat can deteriorate a scent, so when you buy a new fragrance, ask for a fresh box from the storeroom instead of taking one that's been sitting on the shelf under the hot display lights for months. And many people aren't aware that perfumes have an expiration date of sorts - most perfumes begin to lose their scent a year and a half to two years, so use and enjoy your fragrance! Heat and light will hasten its deterioration, so store it in a cool, unlit place, such as the fridge, to increase its life.

Apply perfume to clean, dry skin before you dress in the morning, so it drifts through your clothing and creates a subtle air around you. Also, your nose will become accustomed to your fragrance after a while, so you may not smell it as much as you used to. Don't let this fool you into applying more - your office mates and carpool cohorts may not appreciate the extra dousing. Apply the same amount every day to ensure an alluring yet subtle fragrance.