I went perfume shopping yesterday. This is sometimes a frustrating task, because once you have smelled two you have smelled them all. If you're lucky, like I was yesterday, one of the first two will smell so good that it becomes your final choice.
It did come down to two scents for me: Tommy Bahama and Tommy Bahama Very Cool. The regular Tommy Bahama in the pink bottle was more floral and flirty while the blue bottle of citrusy Very Cool caught my nose coming back for more with a clean crisp scent of tangerine, clementine, pink pomelo and cactus flower. Kim and Dave both initially thought that the Very Cool disappeared when they smelled it. I thought perhaps the first scent was just overpowering the cooler scent. So we went back and forth: left wrist, right wrist, which do you like better, smell this one again, now look at me and smell it, close your eyes and smell it, smell fresh air and then smell it again, compare it to this one -- it was really quite ridiculous! But it helped me make a final decision: I just ignored everything they said and bought the one I liked.
Tommy Bahama Very Cool is going to be my new signature summer scent (I used to wear Clinique Happy). It is clean and calm, summery and citrusy. The scent doesn't call attention to itself -- it is subtly intriguing. (It made me want to smell my own arm every ten minutes after I sprayed myself at the fragrance counter.) The bonus was that the 6 pm spritz on my wrist was still lingering when I woke up the next morning at 6 am. I am Very Happy with my choice.