How to Choose Your Next Perfume
With the range and variety of perfumes that are available to choose from, picking your next perfume, if you’re still hunting for your perfect signature fragrance can feel a little daunting. But we are here to help with a few top tips to get you started, and hopefully make your next perfume buying experience a truly enjoyable one, with zero stress.
Know Your Notes
One of the best ways to choose the perfume that is right for you is by getting to know those fragrance notes, Top, Middle, Bottom.
The top note is the strongest scent that you’ll notice when you spray a perfume, this tends to fade after about 15 minutes, and that’s when the middle note makes its appearance, this is often known as the heart note. This is the main body of the perfume, and will be the one that stays for the longest period of time, often for a few hours. When this middle note starts to fade, you are left with the bottom note, heavy, lingering scents that will last until the end of the day.
So, how do you apply this knowledge when choosing your next perfume? Well, if you see a perfume on the shelf (or online!) and it has a top note of patchouli, which you adore, but a base note of cedarwood, which you hate, then t’s likely that by the end of the day you might end up smelling like something you can’t stand. But that being said if you’re unsure of the top notes, but love the middle and bottom notes, you might end up loving it over all. So, make sure that when you’re choosing your next perfume, you really pay attention to those fragrance notes, you might end up surprising yourself with what you pick.
Limit the fragrances that you try
Though it might be tempting to try a large variety of perfumes in one go, the suggested number to try at any one time is three, as suggested by Erika Shumate and Christine Luby, the founders of fragrance start-up Pinrose, who say that “your olfactory bulb is getting more of a workout than it’s used to. Give each fragrance its own proper shot.” Once you’ve chosen your three fragnraces, test them on different areas of your skin for at least 24 hours before you make a decision (again, this is where understanding those fragrance notes is really going to benefit you). By doing this you can appreciate and understand how the scent is going to develop on your skin.
Live with your chosen fragrances
Don’t just try your chosen fragrances in one location, Cartier’s perfumer Mathilde Laurent says that you should “Never smell a perfume at the counter. The smell in the shop can be overwhelming.” I mean, think about it: How can you truly smell the pure notes of a fragrance when it’s mingling with a cloud of other stale scents? Instead, “spray it and escape.’
You should also try your chosen fragrance in different settings; wear it a few times and allow yourself to get a really good feel for the fragrance and how it in turn makes you feel. Emotions, memory and mood can play a really important role when you are picking perfume.
What’s next?
If you’re buying a new fragrance online then the best way to do this is by knowing those fragrance notes, sit down and have a real think about the scents that you love, do you like fresh summer tones? Or something heavier and more seductive? By familiarising yourself with what it is you truly want you’ll soon be able to discover a new fragrance which is perfect for you.
However, if you decide to test the fragrances in person, remember that you should try no more than 3 and that you need to test them in different environments, wear them for 24 hours and try it at least twice, to truly gauge whether or not it’s the right scent for you.
