Fashion designers sketch, shade, tuck, fold, cut and sew textiles and threads into pieces which drape and skim our lumps and bumps turning them into curves and silhouettes. Perfumers choose, mix, calibrate, measure and blend aromachemicals and natural essences to produce volatile liquids, different notes rising over time producing an olfactory chord which can make us smile or recoil, soothe or furrow our brow. It is the perfumer's touch which makes the difference between a smell and a perfume, a designer's touch which can turn a piece of fabric into a look.

Both perfumers and fashion designers are creators. They have that instinct to mould, shape and manipulate a group of disparate elements into something else: beautiful, interesting, chic, jarring but something that is not what it was.

Creators might work from a similar urge but their mediums are not the same. What happens when one creator works through the medium of another, the perfumer creating a fragrance through the words, thoughts and vision of the designer? It's experimental and a bit unnerving and that is the collection which arises from the Six Scents range of fragrances. Six Scents call themselves a fragrance initiative. We'll forgive them that as they give their perfumers a complete free hand, producing every year, a collection of strange, compelling and sometimes bonkers group of scents that have us wrinkling our noses in a good way.

Six Scents puts together six designers and six noses, give them an irresistibly woolly and weird brief and then let the crazy kids go mad in the lab until something takes shape. Series Three is "an exploration into the nature of childhood memories and the influence of adolescence on identity".

Translated into English (via my nostrils) …

No. 1 "Beau Bow" by Alexis Mabille & Rodrigo Flores-Roux is a fresh citrusy floral scent but not so lemony that you'd call it a traditional eau de cologne. The florals are a bit too strident for that and the green notes also tussle for attention but it's not spiky, more sprightly and zesty.

No. 2 "Trompe L'Oeil" by Mary Katrantzou & Shyamala Maisondieu is mostly a floral and I was worried at first sniff that it was overbearingly "Ye Olde English" handsoap. But after the initial blast calms down the floral gets rather jagged in an interesting way, tart and pointy and it brings to mind images of real flowers (lots of Mimosa) rather than floral watercolours. The dry down has the distinctive funk of ambrette warmed with tonka and vanilla.

With a name like "Can't Smell Fear" (No. 3, by Juun J & Natalie Gracia-Cetto) I would have expected a cuddly comforting scent but this is quite robust with lots of spice, leather and smooth woods. It feels solid, with the warm notes overlapping but a bit indistinct in the middle with a mostly sandalwood drydown.

No. 4 "Ascent" Rad Hourani & Christophe Raynaud feels slightly otherworldly, not natural but not synthetic either. It starts off with a puff of powder, then a bit of fruitiness then morphs into incense and musk. Raynaud swears that there's a fresh accord in there "like a drop of sperm" but frankly all I got was a teensy bit of ozonic.

No. 5 "#087" N.Hoolywood & Stephen Nilsen is the watercolour painting in the group feeling very sheer and faint all the way through. There's a salad-like green vegetal feeling in the top notes which give way to some woods and furniture polish-like notes, as if there was a carpenter's studio somewhere in the distance. It's interesting but feels more like an ambience scent rather than a fragrance to wear.

No. 6 "M" Ohne Titel & Yann Vasnier probably comes out as my favourite and the one that I wore the most during my testing period which happened to be during the freezing cold weeks around Christmas. I struggled to pick-out individual notes in this one so I stopped trying. In a word it's leather, but it's really soft, buttery smooth skin-like leather which has been worn on a body for a few hours. It's got a slightly sweaty oily drydown but in a delicious warm way, very gentle and wafting.

Introducing young session hairstylist Ranelle Chapman.  Aside from assisting hair legend Johnnie Sapong in his Soho studio, Ranelle writes for The Studio blog and will be scouting out backstage secrets and reporting on runway hair trends exclusively for Because.

"It's a New Year, so what better way to start than with a New You"  If I had a fiver for every time I read this in a magazine, I would be writing this on a beach in the Caribbean with some sort of fruity rum concoction beside me.

Saying that, January isn't associated with image transformations for no reason.  New Year really is the time for new hair.  For decades women have been using their hair as a way of transforming and re-launching themselves.

Look at how Madonna used her overtly sexy Peroxide blonde hair back in the late 80's to establish her powerful female image, or how in the 90's Kylie reinvented herself into a sex kitten with her textured cut (and of course those hot pants). Jennifer Aniston's "Rachel Cut" and her longer "Ironed hair" of the early 2000's, both equally iconic, have gone on to make her one of the most copied women in the world.

Supermodel Kate Moss regularly reinvents herself through her ever-changing hairstyles, which is why I have chosen her recent fringe as the New Year's most wanted! Not only was it all over the SS11 catwalks but I have seen it popping up on every street corner. It's a simple transformation that makes a huge statement. Whether you're rocking it like Balmain, going Retro with Dior, or barely there with Givenchy, this look can take you from 2010 to 2011 with a bang!!

I may have even gone for one myself...

Live saving fringe products for fringe first timers:

Batiste Dry Shampoo £2.35 (for in between washes.)

Tigi Catwalk Your Highness Firm Hold Hair Spray £9.50 (Used backstage at the shows, this hairspray is as light as Elnett and has a really great hold.)

Aveda Pure Abundance Hair Potion £17.50 (sprinkle power directly onto root area and work through with fingers, alternatively liquify in hands and work through damp or dry hair.)

Make-up artist Christabel Draffin (aka The Makeup Mole) is making waves down under as one of the first and biggest Australian Beauty Bloggers and is one of the key artists introducing cult brand Illamasqua to the shores of Australia.  All this and she still has time to give us her New Year beauty secrets.

Happy New Year Beauty by Christabel Draffin...

It's supposed to be the coldest winter for one hundred years and the usual festive excesses have finished, leaving nothing but piles of recycling, some new favoured items, and let's be real, probably a bunch of stuff that will end up on eBay, if you ever get the time. Come this time of year and that's about what I feel like doing with my body as well - that gym membership is looking like not a temptation but a necessity, and my liver needs a trip to Betty Ford (I don't think there would be any takers for that on eBay).

So might I suggest a breath of fresh air through your makeup bag, and a new skincare routine to get you through the cruelest month?

First thing that's required (apart from lots of nights in, plenty of sleep, and three litres of water a day - but you're already doing those, right?) is some serious hydration for that skin that's been so exposed to the elements over winter. My current favourite moisturisers for winter parched skin are Liz Earle Superskin for day, and at night the superior richness of SKII's new Skin Signature Melting Rich Cream which is a magic balm that is as decadent and thick as, well, melting rich cream! Lips can feel protected and hydrated with either Burt's Bees Lip Balm, or for those who prefer an ointment, Lucas' Paw Paw Ointment is always a winner on chapped lips.

A good but gentle scrub can be given to your skin - I like Dermalogica's Daily Microfoliant as it uses ground up rice-based enzyme powder and is gentle enough to use every day (although I think that could be overkill, given the current freezing temperatures).

Once your skin is exfoliated AND hydrated, let the fun stuff begin - it's time to cover up that poor, raw skin with the minimum of makeup that does the job. I like either Myface Mymix Foundation or Bobbi Brown's Skin foundation as they're both creamy and give a dewy finish which is something lacking this time of year, and both foundations come in a pretty comprehensive range of shades.

Noses tend to get red in winter as well, so a good creamy concealer is a must to cover any Rudolph redness. I like Estee Lauder Double-Wear Stay in Place Concealer and Bobbi Brown's Creamy Concealer.

Now for the fun stuff! Once your skin looks gorgeous you can get away with a lot less makeup - or make more makeup look a lot better. I recommend a beautiful cream blush suited to your skintone to make you look lively. There's some fab ones around - my particular favourites are Illamasqua Cream Blushes, Stila Convertible Colours and Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge.

A dab of luminescence on those poor, parched cheekbones never goes astray in the winter months. I like Becca's Luminous Skin Perfectors or Armani Fluid Sheers. If you're fair go for pink or white (Becca Pearl or Opal), or tawnier skins can try Becca Gold or Armani Shimmering Beige or Golden Beige.

I think a deep lipcolour can be a chic way to ring in the new year, and certainly the last runway season was awash with berries, crimsons and wines, either with gloss or without (seen at Marc Jacobs, Gucci and Yves St Laurent). Good ones to try are NARS Velvet Matte Lip pencils - Damned, Cruella and Dragon Girl are all on my hit list for this look, although a good lipbalm first is a must to prevent your lips looking like wine-coloured sandpaper. For lipsticks you can't go past a classic red like MAC's Ruby Woo or Lady Danger for a more daring, orange red colour. Or Chanel's Rouge Coco lipstick in Ballet Russes is the perfect wine coloured stain if you're fancying channeling your inner Snow White.

Curl those lashes, add a slick of mascara and a good dose of black eyeliner and you're ready to face whatever January (and 2011) throw at you. Happy New Year!