📕 Part 1: Perfume

This episode's vocabulary

Fragrance (noun) - a sweet or pleasant smell.

Deodorant (noun) - a substance that you put on your body to prevent or hide unpleasant smells.

Scent (noun) - a pleasant natural smell.

Aftershave (noun) - a liquid with a pleasant smell that a man puts on his face after shaving.

Eau de toilette (noun) - perfume which is diluted by a large amount of water and does not have a very strong smell.

Range (noun) - a set of similar things.

Narrow (adj.) - limited to a small area of interest, activity, or thought.

Collarbone (noun) - a bone between your shoulder and neck on each side of your body.

To get hold of something (idiom) - to find someone or obtain something.

Questions and Answers

M: Do you like perfume?

R: Well, I wouldn't say I was wild about it, but I have my preferences in terms of fragrances. Just don't ask me to describe them in detail.

M: What kinds of perfume do you use?

R: Aside from deodorant? If that even counts. Sometimes I wear different scents of aftershave or eau de toilette from a certain brand. But aside from that, it's usually just a clean smell of my deodorant that I have on.

M: How much do you spend on perfume?

R: Not a lot, I think. Maybe less than 100 pounds a year. I'm good at making things last, and I don't really aim to own a range of different ones, so it's easy for me to stick to a narrow budget for that kind of thing.

M: Where do you spray perfume?

R: Usually on the area around my neck and collarbones, which makes sense since people's noses are usually around that level. Sometimes I put it on my wrists. A friend once said that that was a good idea for spreading it around. But I have no idea if that's true or not.

M: Do you give perfume as a gift?

R: I do, well, very regularly, actually. Every birthday and Christmas, my mother asks for the same perfume, so that's what I pick up at the shops or online, when it's available. It's French, though, so sometimes it's hard to get a hold of, but given how much she likes it, it's always worth it in the end.

Discussion

M: Hey, dear listener! Perfume is back. Yeah. IELTS, people like the topic of perfume.

R: Have we done it before?

M: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a comeback. So please google IELTS Speaking for Success podcast, perfume, and listen to our previous episode, which is going to be very useful. So you have two episodes on perfume. Yum, yum, yum. And Rory, tell us the thing. So perfume is for men and women?

R: Well, I always associate perfume with women, and then things like aftershave is for men, but then I don't think it makes a difference. It's all about things you spray on yourself to make yourself smell nice.

M: Yeah, dear listener, so usually perfume for women, for men, deodorant or aftershave. And an aftershave could be a kind of perfume.

R: I certainly hope so, because I pay a lot for it.

M: No, but like aftershave is like something, which like you shave your face, and then you put this aftershave, it could be a foam, this white thingy, maybe, or kind of the spray. Aftershave on your face, right? You don't spray it on your neck.

R: I think one thing you're describing is shaving foam. That's what you use before you shave. And then aftershave is like a spray, similar to perfume in my experience.

M: Hmm, okay.

R: The other thing is, we're talking about things that you spray, but you can also just rub the liquid on your skin. Some brands use this kind of mechanism instead.

M: True. So we can spray the perfume. Like... Or we can just put the perfume on our skin.

R: Yes.

M: You can say that I have my preferences in terms of fragrances. Fragrance is a nice synonym to smell. Oh, I like this fragrance. I like this smell.

R: What's the difference between a smell and a fragrance?

M: Well, a fragrance is C2 word. So band nine word. And a fragrance is always good, dear listener. A sweet or pleasant smell. A smell could be bad. Oh, it smells bad. Like a bad smell. But fragrance is always good, like a beautiful fragrance of roses. Yeah. And also a fragrance could be a kind of perfume. So a new fragrance for men. So a new perfume, a new aftershave for men, right? So it's kind of like perfume, or a fragrance, this liquid that we put on our bodies for us to smell pleasant. So you can say that's like, ooh, I have my preferences in terms of fragrances. I prefer different fragrances. What kinds of perfume? So there are different kinds of perfume, but like...

R: Apparently.

M: What is it like? Kinds? Like categories of perfume? Perhaps you can speak about like deodorant or... What do you call it like? Cologne.

R: Oh, yeah, that's what I was thinking of. But it's also eau de toilette as well.

M: Exactly. Eau de toilette is also for women, right?

R: It's also... It can be for men, too. I discovered recently, I think, based on what the lady in the shop said, Cologne is stronger in smell than eau de toilette. That's a lighter smell. Apparently. That might just be for the specific brand I was buying. I'm not going to say the name of the brand, because I'm not being paid to advertise.

M: Or dear listener, here you can say that I like different fragrances. For example, I like floral fragrances. Floral? Like from flowers. Floral - flower. Right? Or, for example, fruity fragrances, fruity perfumes, like made of fruits and berries, which have this like fruity flavours. Or woody fragrances. Woody. You know, some perfumes have this wood. Wood or like amber or musk as ingredients. So you can say like woody fragrances, or, for example, citrus fragrances. Citrus? Like lemon, orange, grapefruit. So I like, I prefer citrus fragrances. Also leather. Leather perfume, leather fragrances, which smell of leather. Rory, have you ever worn leather fragrances?

R: I have no idea what you are talking about. I have never looked at that kind of thing before in my life. However, I can believe people enjoy it. I'm glad you're here, though. Because you know much more about this than I do.

M: You can say that sometimes I wear different scents, or I wear perfume, or I often wear perfume. So we wear clothes, we wear makeup, we wear perfume. You know, and there's this joke like, oh, what you're gonna wear? Only perfume. This means that you're gonna be naked, without clothes, wearing only perfume. Ha-ha. And Rory said scents. So we have perfume, we have fragrances, and also we have scents. So what is a scent?

R: What is a scent?

M: It's a pleasant, natural smell. So a fragrance is pleasant, a scent is pleasant. So the scent of roses, the smell of roses,

R: Smell of success.

M: Hm... Smells like band nine. You see? Like perfume is like a usual word. Like an ordinary word. Like, ooh, I usually wear perfume. But if you say oh, I wear different fragrances. I like the scent of roses. Band nine. And here, also, what kinds of perfume, you can say, I usually wear aftershave, I usually wear different kinds of, well, woody, fruity, citrus fragrances, perfumes, or eau de toilette. Rory, how do you pronounce it again?

R: I think it's eau de toilette, as far as I remember how it's pronounced in French, but it's a French word. So you can say what you like.

M: Yeah, eau de cologne, for example. So kind of like a pleasant-smelling liquid that you put on your body to make you feel fresh. Usually it's for men. But what do women have?

R: I think they just have perfume, and eau de toilette. I don't know. Oh, my gosh...

M: I know... Oh, yeah, we have mist spray.

R: Mist. Ah, okay, I'll take your word for that.

M: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dear ladies, so we have like women's body sprays, and also body mist. This beautiful liquid, you know, you spray it on your body and you shine. Oh, beautiful. We spend money on perfume. So spend money on things. And Rory says that, okay. Maybe less than blah blah dollars per year, or blah blah pounds per year. And you know what? A famous brand, Chanel. You know? Coco Chanel? For example, Coco Mademoiselle, this is a kind of perfume, costs $172 per bottle. Yay!

R: That is the brand that my mother likes.

M: Yeah. And this is like the smallest bottle.

R: I know, I know. I'm very, very aware of that.

M: And if you go to chanel.com you can read the explanations under the picture. The explanation of this particular perfume. And they say like irresistibly sunsual. I like how they describe it. Bold. It gives you a fresh character. Wow.

R: Gosh, that's a lot for perfume to do, although I'd realized, I'm reflecting on this now, and I just realized that I haven't actually told the truth that I don't spend that much on perfume, because I'm about to buy some for myself for about 250 pounds. So perhaps I do spend a little bit more, but I assure you, it is extremely good stuff, and it will be absolutely worth it as soon as I regain my ability to smell things again.

M: You can say that I have a range of different perfumes. So I have different perfumes. Like I own a range of perfumes, I have, uh, different perfumes. But it's easy for me to stick to one particular perfume I like. To stick to? To only use one fragrance. And you can say I don't usually spend much on perfume. I prefer to narrow my budget. To like one particular thing. To just choose one.

R: Or you might have a narrow budget. Which just means it's a small budget, which I lied about, which I don't have. I worked hard. I'm allowed to buy nice things.

M: Yes, Rory. I have a narrow budget means I don't have much money. We usually spray perfume on our neck and collarbones. What are they? What are they? Collar bones?

R: Oh, God, I'm gonna grossly oversimplify this. It's the bone that joins your shoulders to the rest of your body.

M: Yeah.

R: You can probably feel them if you touch your shoulder. Like if you touch your right shoulder and move left, you'll feel a bone, or you should feel a bone. There is the bone there. That's a collarbone.

M: So you can say, I usually spray perfume around my neck, around my collarbones, and sometimes I put it on my wrists,. You know, wrist? Where we have our hands, we have our wrists. So we spray perfume around, or we put it on, I put it on my wrists. I wear it, I wear it on my neck, I wear it on my body. Or I spread it around my neck. So kind of you spread it around. And also, can we have perfume like for our house, I wonder?

R: I think that's a room fragrance, as far as I know. So I think a perfume is for a person, and fragrances are for the house, generally speaking. But what do I know? I didn't even know how much money I spent on perfume.

M: You see? We can have room sprays, so, like home fragrances. Room sprays? So pretty much like a perfume, a spray that you spray around your room. So you can say that I have some home fragrances, and I usually spray them in my bathroom, in my rooms. Yeah, for example, like room sprays. Perfume for your house. Yeah, now I think they are really popular. These room sprays. The perfect tool to refresh the air in your house.

R: Why don't you just open a window? $45???

M: Yes. Oh my, God... Room sprays. No, they look pretty cool. They look really nice.

R: They are also worth an arm and a leg, or cost an arm and leg.

M: Yeah. Yeah, they cost an arm and a leg? They cost a lot. And you know what? Every luxury hotel has their own spray. Have their own fragrance. Because when you, when you enter a luxury hotel, you kind of you smell it, and then you remember the smell. And this is how they are different from the other hotels. Yeah.

R: That's insane.

M: I know. Yeah, you can also have like toilet spray that usually, usually spray these liquids in the bathroom. Some air freshener. Air freshener? You know? Spray. Air freshener. Like to fresh the air in the bathroom.

R: But that's not perfume.

M: You can say like, ooh, I prefer lavender spray for my bedding. Dear listener, we do have some perfume for your bedding. Bedding is what you put on your bed. You have like a blanket, and on the blanket you put... What you put on your blanket?

R: Covers.

M: Yeah, covers. So you sleep on a sheet. You have bedding. So we have... We can have a special spray for our bedding. Amazon, only for $11. No, sorry, 31, $31. Linen, yeah, it's called like Linen Spray. Linen. We usually give perfume as a gift. You don't say present, we say give. Or a good fragrance could be a very nice gift. And Rory says that he usually gives perfume for his mother. So I pick up a nice perfume for my mom. Or I order it online.

R: But it must be available.

M: Yeah. Because some perfumes, some fragrances, are hard to get a hold of. So the phrase is something is hard to get a hold of. Which means it's difficult to get it. It's like so limited it is sold in certain countries or in certain shops. So, ooh, this is like a rare kind of perfume, which is hard to get a hold of. What do you call it? Like a limited edition or something

R: Well, maybe just really difficult to find, especially now, because it's difficult to import things from Europe into this country. Well, into my country. I'm not there right now. But it could be limited edition. Yes.

M: What about the most expensive perfume?

R: Well, for me, it's definitely this one that I'm about to buy for 260 pounds. I'm not going to tell you the name of the brand, but it's nice, it's French, and my friends highly recommended it, and I worked hard for it, so I deserve it.

M: Yeah. And did you try it? Did you go to a shop and try it on?

R: Not yet. So plan is I'm gonna buy a sample, but the sample is eight pounds. Usually samples are free, so this had better be worth it, and I'll get the sample and I'll check that out, and then I'll probably buy the real big thing.

M: Yeah, so check it out. Some perfume, something like 1 million lux edition by Paco Rabanne. I don't know, the name of the perfume. 100 millimeters. Milliliters, sorry, milliliters. It's $57,000.

R: What is in there? Gold?

M: Yes, and diamonds.

R: Are you kidding? That's insane.

M: Oh, check it out. And, ooh, actually, like a brand is called DKNY. And gold and delicious by DKNY. 50 milliliters costs 1 million.

R: That's insane.

M: But... Oh, BVLGARI. BVLGARI, 75 milliliters costs $235,000.

R: No one needs that. That's insane. Why are they... Why do they need that?

M: Yeah, but the bottle, the bottle is very nice. You know, they decorate the bottle, and it looks like, I don't know, a piece of art. And J'adore, like, I think, a popular brand, Dior J'adore for 100 millilitres, $75,000.

R: That's crazy.

M: There you go, dear listener.

R: I'm just gonna stick with my bog standard stuff.

M: I prefer to go for cheaper options.

R: Not just cheaper, more humane and realistic options. Who's got millions of pounds to spend on this kind of stuff.

M: Right, dear listener, make sure you listen to all our episodes about perfume. Okay? We have at least one of them, so you can just Google IELTS Speaking for Success, perfume, and listen to our previous episode and also this episode. All right? It'll be nice for you to name some brands like Chanel, Dior, J'adore. And if you remember the name of the perfume, it's also nice. If you are aiming for band nine, band eight, go to the website of your favourite perfume, read the description. The description of perfumes have beautiful words, descriptive adjectives, you know, like vibrant flavours, vibrant scents, fragrances. And if you don't wear any perfume. So if you are not a perfume person, you are free to lie. Lie, dear listener, okay? Imagine that like you love perfume, just to use the vocabulary, okay? Yeah. You are free to lie. You have my approval.

R: Hopefully you've enjoyed our fragrant answers!

M: Thank you very much for listening, and we'll get back to you in our next episode! Bye!

R: Bye!

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