We went out to a big family birthday party last night. It wasn't a wild party or anything, but certainly an event, with a hired venue, catered dinner, loads of brightly coloured balloons, and a live jazz trio.

While getting ready to go, I had my husband help with a few things, like jewellery. Finally, when I had everything ready I said, "Ah, time for the perfume." Jokingly, I then turned to my husband and said, "Got any suggestions, then?"

I say "jokingly" because he's got a fairly unsophsticated nose. He can almost never recognize a perfume by the scent, let alone pick one by name, but he surprised me. He answered, "J'adore, definitely."

He has, in the past, commented that while most perfumes sort of smell the the same to him, he can recognize that J'adore is a complex fragrance, and he can detect some of the subtle layers of scent in it. Perhaps that's why he remembered it, or perhaps it was just a lucky guess. I mean, I wear Tresôr regularly and he knows the name of it, and he knows the name of Diorissimo (which he'd never suggest because he doesn't like it) and Opium...

Anyway, I thought it was a splendid idea,and I did, indeed wear J'adore. I wore it layered, with the gorgeous scented cream going on first, and then the eau de parfum on top. When I woke up in the morning, I could still smell the lingering, delicate basenotes...

So maybe I'll ask him more often and see what he says. I let him pick my jewellery sometimes, and occasionally my food, so why not my perfume? Even if it was just a lucky hit, it was a great suggestion. (He, by the way, wore his favourite and mine, Caron Pour Un Homme.)

I've previously done a review of this one, but I'm wearing it today and it just struck me how surprising it is that I like this one as much as I do. I'm not normally a fan of vanilla, but this fragrance is just so perfectly balanced. It's just lovely, vanilla and all. Very nice light, silky, modern oriental blend. Yay Armani.

When I was a teenager, I used to wear a now-discontined fragrance for men, Hawk by Mennen. I often got compliments on it, from men and women alike. Nobody ever guessed that it was a "masculine" scent, and I felt oh-so-saucy wearing it (tee hee, a girl wearing boy's cologne, how daring!).

These days, the men's fragrance I wear with some regularity is Miracle Pour Homme by Lancôme (note that I also wear Miracle, which is much girlier and pinker). I bought it for my husband, on whom it does smell quite nice, but he prefers another fragrance (Caron Pour Un Homme, which I absolutely love on him), and so the poor Miracle Pour Homme was languishing. Until I started to wear it.

I put it on one day because I saw it and just thought, well, why not? And I put some on. And it was very nice on me. I love the coffee notes in the middle (though the top notes are the typical bright citrus you find in umpteen million billion men's fragrance; nice but extremely common), and the somewhat earthier base. It lasts a good long time on me, as well, and on my skin, it's pleasantly fresh without being cloying.

Nobody has ever worked out what it is (including my husband, but he's got a notoriously bad nose and usually can't tell what I'm wearing, other than not liking Diorissimo because it's "too flowery"). I like it, because, well, I like the fragrance, and I'm woman enough to wear a man's scent and not feel like some sort of cross-dresser. It's mostly marketing anyway; there are lots of men's fragrances that work well on women, and plenty of women's fragrances that work well on men, and there are a number of fragrances that are actually designed to be unisex.

Being not someone who is that easily swayed by what marketing people tell me to think about things. I like Miracle Pour Homme and it's lovely on me. That's all I need to know.