I'm the perfume guru around the Lipstick and Glamour.com offices—I take pride in the fact that at least once a week I get to answer some person's "Oh my god, what smells so good?" with "Me." And, well, not to toot my own horn too much, but one thing I've become quite good at over the years is layering scents to add just a little extra level of spiciness/summeriness/sexiness/whatever-I'm-after-at-the-momentiness.
Here's how you do it.
1) Start with something basic. You can layer multi-note perfumes, but single-note or very basic fragrances (like Demeter Fragrances or Body Shop Perfume Oils) are easiest to start out with. So I recommend you begin with those. If you insist on jumping into combining multi-note scents, I warn you, don't pick anything too complex or you're going to just end up smelling like the fragrance section of a department store.
2) Start thinking like a baker. This whole thing is like making a cake. The base notes are your actual cake--they're the starting layer, the strong part. Think musks, patchoulis, woods. You definitely need one of these 'cause they're the only things that stay on skin past the first couple of hours—in other words, you need something to hold the frosting, even if you think the frosting is the best part.
Then you get to put on a flavoring of sorts, like the raspberry jam or coconut layer between cake layers. These are your middle notes. They give your scent a little more character. Think berries and greens.
And then you've got your frosting. These are the lightest scents, the white flowers, the citrusy scents, and the other sweet notes that burn off fastest.
If you try to hit all three layers in your mix, you'll have a fairly well-rounded fragrance.
3) Get some paper strips. You know those fragrance tester strips they have at stores? Grab a few or create your own by cutting out strips of paper. Then here's what you do: Spray the fragrances you're thinking of layering on each one (so one per piece of paper), label them (so you don't get them confused!), then gather them together in different groupings until you get a fragrance mix you love. This will save you a lot of trial-and-error headaches, trust me.
4) Apply in the right order. Now it's time to actually put your new scent mixture together—and you want to do it in the order that you'd put together that fictitious treat you "baked." So put on the cake first, then the flavor, then the icing. This is key because each layer is lighter than the last. Think about it: If you reversed them, all you'd smell is the strongest note because that would be on top.
Now you know the basic steps, it's time to experiment. Or maybe you've already been playing around. If so, what concoctions have you come up with?