Choosing the Best Perfumes For You: 11 Tips

They say a picture paints a thousand words. But no picture can top the power a fragrance has to transport us through time, evoking positive emotions and unearthing long-forgotten memories along the way. 

It's this power that makes choosing the best fragrance for you such an important task. Unfortunately, with so many scents to choose from as well as new additions every year, it's also one of the reasons why deciding on the best perfumes can also be so difficult. 

Luckily, we're here with our top fragrance-finding tips to help you select a scent that's the perfect match for you and your personality!

1. Seek Inspiration Everywhere

Before you get too caught up in picking a new perfume, open yourself - and your nose - up to a world of scent inspiration. To do this, start considering the kinds of smells you love. From musty books to tennis balls, these kinds of everyday scents can guide you towards a better understanding of the best fragrance for you.

For example, for those of you who love the smell of leather, Tom Ford Tuscan Leather has a rich and powerful leather base. Or, if you're partial to the scent of freshly-cut grass, you're sure to love Tom Ford Fougère d'Argent. 

2. Know Your Notes

Searching for the best fragrance for you is a lot easier if you learn a little bit about the structure of a perfume and how its different notes work together. 

Perfumes include top, heart, and base notes. The top notes are what hit you when you first spray a perfume. While they're strong at the start, they fade within 15 minutes before giving way to the heart notes. 

The heart notes are the body of the perfume, offering a combination of scents that linger for a few hours. The heart notes then fade out into the base notes, which are full of richer, heavier scents that last for the rest of the day.  

It's also useful to know the main themes in the world of fragrance notes - fresh, fruity, floral, wood, musk, and spice. Armed with this information, you'll start to look at - or rather, smell - your current favourite perfumes in a different way as you learn to appreciate the different notes and what kinds of fragrance themes attract you. 

3. Ask Around

While you're on the hunt for the best perfume for you, any time you catch a whiff of a scent you like on someone, don't be afraid to ask what that person is wearing. While it's true that your natural scent might mean that it doesn't smell quite the same on you as it does on them, their input could open your search up to a whole new brand or fragrance theme. 

After all, you might have considered yourself to be more of a fruity floral type. But finding out that your friend's alluring perfume is a woody-citrus mix could change all that. 

4. Stay True to Your Style

While it might sound contradictory to the last point, it's also important to stay true to your style when choosing the best fragrance for you. 

In the same way that we might like a certain fashion trend or colour on someone else but feel uncomfortable in it ourselves, liking someone else's fragrance doesn't mean that it will suit us. A musky oriental perfume might be perfect for your party-loving friend and her bold fashion choices. But if your style is a little more understated, does the same fragrance represent your true tastes and preferences? 

By all means explore new fragrances, themes, and notes. But also make sure that any new fragrance you choose allows your personality to shine through. Because a fragrance you love and feel comfortable wearing is the one that will suit you best. 

5. Buy Into a Brand

If you're keen to find a new signature scent but don't want to stray too far from the fragrances you know and love, consider exploring some of the other perfumes from the same house as your current favourite. 

Many fragrance houses use a signature note or combination of notes in all their fragrances. This 'scent signature' helps tie their fragrances together and offers a degree of brand harmony in an ever-expanding fragrance market. 

You never know, you might even end up liking the latest offering from your favourite fragrance house even more than your current go-to!

6. Don't Be a Perfume Snob

When shopping for luxury fragrances online, even with the amazing discounts on offer, you'll see that perfume pricing can vary a lot. 

While an expensive perfume might contain expensive or rarer ingredients, the opposite is often true of a cheap fragrance. That said, it's important to bear in mind that just because a fragrance is cheap, it doesn't mean it's any less complex, enticing, or enduring than an expensive one.

In fact, some of the cheapest perfumes around are also some of our most popular, highly-rated fragrances, including Calvin Klein Beauty, Calvin Klein Eternity, and Hugo Boss Orange. With this in mind, it's a big mistake to be a perfume snob and rule out a cheap fragrance for its price point before you've smelt it.  

7. Borrow from the Boys

With oversized cuts, masculine styling, and boyfriend jeans all the height of fashion, why not consider shopping in the men's fragrance section too? After all, not only might you find your new favourite fragrance, you'll smell even more unique and original whenever you spritz it on!

Some colognes that work well for women include the mix of lavender and spice in Givenchy Gentleman and Issey Miyake's floral-filled L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme. Or, if you're not quite ready to go for a masculine cologne, why not opt for a unisex fragrance such as Calvin Klein CK One or Tom Ford Vert Boheme for something unexpected yet sexy?

8. Shop For Your Lifestyle

You wouldn't have a wardrobe full of power suits if you work as a gardener or hundreds of pairs of heels if you're always at the gym. In the same way, it's important to choose a scent that matches your lifestyle. 

For example, if you're not one for parties and going out at night, you probably wouldn't get much use out of muskier evening scents such as Armani Code and Dior Hypnotic Poison.

Likewise, if you're looking for an everyday perfume for work, you might prefer a lighter scent that won't annoy or overpower your colleagues. Clinique Happy is a great choice for its all-natural ingredients, while Ellie Saab Le Parfum offers a light and refreshing daytime-appropriate scent. 

9. Make the Most of the Perfume Counter

While you're likely to find the cheapest perfume prices online, it can be helpful to check out some of your top options at the perfume counter before you make a purchase.

That said, avoid spraying any perfume onto your skin during your first visit. Instead, take a few tester sticks and spray a different perfume on each one. Then, check your testers throughout the day to get a feel for their different notes and themes. 

10. Don't Skip the Skin Test

Although it's possible to find a perfume you love even if you can't test it first, being able to test it on your skin is invaluable when searching for the best fragrance for you. 

Your skin's oil levels, pH, and natural scent all have a bearing on how a perfume smells on you. This makes a skin test far more reliable than sniffing the bottle or even a tester stick. 

For the best results, spray the perfume on your pulse points without rubbing it in afterwards. Rubbing your wrists together heats up the perfume and disrupts the release of different notes. Instead, let the perfume dry and try to avoid covering your wrists with accessories or clothing if possible. 

Then, as you did with the tester sticks, check your wrists every so often to see how the fragrance develops throughout the day. If you've done your research well, a skin test should confirm that this perfume is 'the one'. 

11. Avoid Fakes

Unfortunately, the fragrance market is full of fake products that many people fall for when looking for cheap perfume online. 

Although it can seem like a minefield, the best way to avoid forking out for a fake fragrance is to always buy from a trusted online perfume seller. This way you can be sure that the perfume you liked in the shop is the same one you'll get in the post.

After all, there's nothing worse than hunting down a perfume you love and scouring the internet for the cheapest perfume prices only to receive a fake fragrance that smells nothing like the real perfume. 

Your Guide to Choosing the Best Perfumes

There are a lot of different ways to seek scent inspiration when looking for the best perfumes for you. 

But, whether you're looking for a range of different fragrances for different moods or a new signature scent, hopefully, this guide has made your search that little bit easier!

For more advice on choosing the best fragrance for you, feel free to contact us today!