Mistakes I've Made In Testing Perfume (And What You Can Learn From Them)

Autumn is a time when we are especially drawn to scent. The smell of cinnamon brooms in a craft store, wood burning in a hearth, pumpkin bread baking in the oven-- all are so wonderful. Likewise, since I favor earthier fragrances Fall is the time where I am most likely to add a new perfume to my collection. Years of doing this has meant a lot of hits but also some misses along the way, and I have discovered some mistakes that I have made in perfume-testing that have led to less than happy purchases.

Blind Buying Based on Other People’s Recommendations: Just as you may find a movie reviewer or food critic with similar tastes to your own. I have found people both in my life and through online reviews who seem to share my preferences in perfumes. We may be drawn to the same notes, types of compositions, and so on. Yet, because perfume smells differently on one person to the next, it is impossible to know for sure, even based on our shared attraction to the list of notes, whether that perfume will smell and wear the same on one person as it does another. There is no substitute to trialing a perfume on one's own skin.

Not Getting Samples First: I am an avid online shopper, but there are no testers you can spritz when buying online and sometimes, the free samples they are offering do not include the perfume I'm interested in trying. In the past,these things have led me to buying a lot of travel sprays or the smallest bottles of a fragrance I could find, which sometimes worked out OK and other times left me disappointed or even with fragrances that I ended up being allergic to. As much as I hate to say it, this is where going to a physical store is still irreplaceable. If no testers seem to be available in store, don't be afraid to ask someone at a counter if they can make a sample so you can really get a feel for the scent before buying. I used to feel very shy and intimidated about doing this, but most people I've encountered working on counter have been glad to help. From using these samples, I have been able to make much wiser purchasing decisions. ,And now, even when I have to order online to try a certain scent, if there are any special instruction fields in the order form, I will often ask for specific perfume samples. Depending on the company, they will often send the ones requested.

Falling Too Fast: Sometimes when the first whiff of the scent hits my skin, it is like the clouds part and I am instantly swept away and fall in love so hard that I feel I must purchase right then and there. To be fair, sometimes when this happens, my impulsiveness pays off positively. Many more times , though, when I have fallen too hard, too quickly, I have ended up disappointed in the long run and regretted buying the fragrance. The vast majority of perfumes have a journey consisting of top notes (the things we smell first) midnotes (that bloom on most people about 1-3 hours after application), and bottom notes (the lingering notes that dry down and adhere closest to our skin). When buying a perfume on instant impression, however, the fragrance has not been on long enough to get an understanding of how it will wear on one's unique body chemistry, especially as it heats up throughout the day. First impressions only tell us if we like the top notes and usually if we like how the top notes smell when sprayed in the air (not how they will smell on our skin) or how the fragrance will develop over time.

Rubbing It In: When I wear a scent I am familiar with, as is typical perfume application, I spray the wrists and rub it in. However, to get the best wear and full complexity of a scent, it really needs to dry on the skin on its own. The friction of rubbing the wrists together weakens, if not eliminates, some of the scent molecules in perfume and can distort not only what it smells like but also its projection level (how much the scent will push away from you and be noticeable from faraway). Letting the fragrance evaporate naturally is a tip for perfume wearing in general for the maximum longevity of a fragrance, but it is especially important in getting to know a new one and finding out how it wears on the skin, how strong it is, and how long it will last.

Testing Too Many at Once: This is the one great disadvantage to going to a store to shop for perfume. Perfume counters offer such an array of scents to try, displayed in gorgeous bottles, and it instantly draws me in. I get very giddy and want to spray, spray, spray. By the time I’ve done that,though, I sometimes I can’t tell which is which or else they have all blended together to create one blend that doesn't tell me anything about each perfume as an individual. There’s a lot of fun to be had in layering scents and creating fun, custom blends, but that does not help in deciding if one perfume or another is worth purchasing. So I've learned when going to the perfume counter, it is really best to spray only two perfumes on the skin, and ideally, test one on each arm and evaluate them through as much of their life as possible before deciding to buy. If there are others that still interest me, I spray tester cards to get a first impression and take those home or ask for samples to give those a fuller wear test another day.

In trying out new perfume, I have learned the importance of trying before buying, giving each perfume its own fair shot and truly appreciating how each one wears on my own body as its own unique piece of art. No two people will have the same perfume smell the same on them or have the same experience with or opinion of a scent as anyone else. This is perhaps what makes perfume the most personal and defining signature of all the beauty product world.