It’s time to see the mistakes done when selecting perfumes, so that you can avoid them and make your selection process a much more pleasant one.
Smelling immediately after spraying When trying on a new perfume, wait around 30 seconds before smelling, so that its alcohol content has time to evaporate.
Smelling too many scents without taking a break: Testing more than three different perfumes in succession is not recommended. Try smelling a different scent in between spritzes, as it can absorb and neutralize smells. You can smell some coffee beans to ‘reset’ your sense of smell, or, if you don’t have anything near, even your shirt would do. Another trick is to drink water between spritzes to clean the palette.
Wearing scents when selecting perfumes: When you’re selecting perfume, it’s better not to wear any scented skin products like body lotion, body sprays, or even deodorants with a strong scent as they can interfere with the scent of the perfume and distract you from it.
Testing too many perfumes: Nothing should be overdone. And this applies to testing perfumes as well. Limit yourself to six fragrances a trip at most. This will allow you to completely appreciate the complexity of each fragrance, and won’t overload your sense of smell.
Testing only on blotter sheets: Your signature scent will be the result of a combination between the perfume and your body chemicals. So testing the perfume on a blotter sheet will not serve the purpose of making a final decision about which perfume you want to buy.
Rubbing your wrists together. This is a mistake that should be avoided when testing perfumes on your wrist as well as when wearing it after purchase. Rubbing the wrists together will actually crush the scent. It will break the molecular bond between the top notes and make the scent weaker.
Thinking your friend’s perfume will work on you too. As I mentioned earlier, body chemistry plays a major role in how a fragrance smells on you. Your body chemistry is entirely different than your friend’s and how the same perfume reacts to each person is entirely different. So what might work wonders on your friend might be a fragrance disaster on you. So the only way to properly test a fragrance is to try it on your own body.
Being prejudiced: Just because you might not like a certain note in one fragrance does not always mean you will dislike it in all perfumes. A perfume can have anywhere from 10-200 ingredients and the balance is very delicate in each fragrance. So don’t discount certain fragrance notes based on prejudiced ideas.
Not trying anything new: Always try to keep an open mind. Select a fragrance that expresses your individual style and also fits your lifestyle or occasion, rather than resorting to one perfume for a lifetime.
