Best new scents to sex up your party season, according to a perfume expert

This is the time of year when shindigs and soirées stack up like Airbuses over Heathrow, so it’s your job to maintain your stamina and a comprehensive fragrance wardrobe of the latest releases. For dedicated 24-hour party people, an early start is required to go on all the rides. That’s why Jasmin des Anges Esprit de Parfum from Christian Dior, (£380 for 80ml, dior.com) is the perfect partner for reconciling “it’s five o’clock somewhere” with the bottomless brunches that lend a day-drinking fig leaf to revellers who love a morning rave. In this olfactory cocktail bash, jasmine grandiflorum from Egypt and Grasse clinks glasses with candied strawberry and syrupy peach, resulting in a lickable liqueur that smelltracks your festive season debut. Dior The party continues by water, as you and yours spontaneously board the Thames Clipper for a river’s-eye survey of London. Fresh air calls for fresh scent, and Hermès Barénia Pleine Fleur (from £74 for 30ml, Sephora.co.uk) is a beauty. She’s playing it tough in a bottle styled like the house’s iconic studded Collier de Chien bracelet, but that’s just a cute bit of misdirection, like a baby in a Ramones T-shirt. This latest iteration of the Barénia bunch is still a chypre, but sheds the overt woods of previous versions to take to the skies as a fluffy cloud of white florals. Abstracted, out-of-focus orange blossom and lily shimmer with dapples of dewiness. Jasmine clinks glasses with candied strawberry and syrupy peachAs night smudges close, you’re in evening wear, sitting down to dinner in a gilded City banquet hall. The air smells like money. But hold on bucko, that’s you — resplendent in the lush orris and amber of Iris Debonair by Creed (from £220 for 50ml, creedfragrances.co.uk). A dream sequence shimmering between warm powder, refined lavender and crisp bank notes, the overall effect is sexy and rich.Later, a friend of a friend is buzzing everybody into their private members’ joint, and the move here is The Blazing Mister Sam Intense from Penhaligon’s (£300 for 75ml, penhaligons.com). The intense edition of the bull-headed hombre goes even harder, with sharper horns. This leather beast is a plummy, boozy tobacco with lights out, shades on and the glowing tips of fragrant roll-ups casting the only gleam on the smokers’ terrace. Assertive but not assaulting, this is a wood-panelled, leather- upholstered eau de parfum with a lot of throw.Penhaligons The mellow vanilla in the dry down is your reward for being such a good bad bae. Post-club regrouping in a backstreet boîte, you wonder, “Is there a perfume that will make me smell like I am being gently held by a handsome man?” The answer is yes: Heat by Akro (£160 for 100ml, Harveynichols.com). Whether you are the gentle holder or gentle holdee, you’ll want to smell like this: a sheer ginger/juniper woody gig in the Escentric Molecules fashion, but with more musky oomph in the long fade. Not only is this fragrance “your skin but better”, it’s “your personality but better”. It seems you’ve been invited to a pyjama party at Elton and David’s Windsor estate and your next perfume is a perfect fit. The only thing absolu about Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu (from £117 for 50ml, Harrods.com) is the certainty that you’ll be crowned Queen (or King) of the Care Bears in this twinkly rainbow of positive energy. Elegantly cuddly, this plushie pile of ambery florals whisks you right to the belly of the teddy on the brisk wings of lychee and grapefruit. Chanel Once comfortably ensconced in Crush Absolu’s reduction-sauce rose, jasmine and vanilla, you realise it’s patchouli and vetiver that are pumping the unexpected muscles on this cuddly toy. At this stage of the marathon you’re almost too squirrelly to keep going, so it’s time for a stiff tipple with your inner circle to debrief on parties past and refuel for future fêtes. This calls for Jo Malone’s Vanilla Scotch Cologne (£130 for 100ml, Jomalone.co.uk), a whisky number liberally leavened with vanilla and the caramel-hay of tonka bean. The finish is a dry, woody amber.And finally, after a long night of whirligigging from do to do, you’re seized by a sudden desire to watch the sun rise in Portofino. Your private plane is staffed and fuelled, your plus one is psyched, so the remaining question is: what is my scent concept? Easy — Hotel Portofino from Victoria Beckham (£303 for 50ml, Victoriabeckhambeauty.com), a stealth-wealth spritz of fizzy bergamot and leathery saffron chafing against stern, rooty papyrus with a fruity oud accord. You know what they say about Vicky B’s hotel: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”Not exactly the worst thing in the world.