How to Choose the Right Perfume for Your Style?

To most, selecting the right perfume is difficult. But if you know the right tips, you can easily choose the perfect fragrance for yourself that mirrors your style and personality.

Do You Know? GCC citizens wear 8 times more perfume than any other nationality worldwide.

In a perfume shop, every scent seems like ‘this is the one" but an inexact perfume can mess up your whole image. To avoid such an unfortunate series of events, we have some pro tips for you to choose the right perfume for your style. Let's Explore!

Top 19 Tips for Choosing the Right Perfume

19 Tips for Choosing the Right Perfume for Your Style

Your perfume’s fragrance can make an immediate impact on people. The following tips will ensure that you make the right buying decision.

Tip 1: Know Your Preference

Before shopping, make up your mind about what kind of perfume you want. Be it a perfume with a strong fragrance, soothing after-effects, airy, cool, etc. If you are not decided about it, you’ll surely pick up a regular or not-so-good scented perfume. Since shops have tons of fragrances, already knowing your preference will narrow down your options.

Tip 2: Select a Scent Concentration

This will help you decide how much you are willing to pay for a perfume. Perfumes have different longevity, and this depends on the concentration. There are 4 types of scent concentration that affect staying power.

Eau de parfum has 15-18% oil and alcohol concentration that will leave a long-lasting effect for the whole day.
Eau de toilette has 4-8% oil and alcohol concentration that has the power of 3 to 4 hours staying.
Eau de cologne has 3-5% oil, alcohol, and water concentration that lasts for only 2 hours.
Perfume or parfum has the highest concentration of oil and alcohol, 15-30%. It allows the fragrance to leave after effects for 3 days.

Tip 3: Consider the Scent Family

Let’s say that you can’t decide a preference; no worries! If you know the scent family (perfume categories), testing a few will tell you what kind of fragrances you like. Perfumes are divided into 4 categories.

Chypre/Woody: These perfumes can have earthy and woody fragrances. Perfumes having patchouli, oakmoss, and bergamot will have a woody fragrance.
Spicy/Oriental: Spicy perfumes can have complex and musky fragrances. Its main notes are vanilla, cinnamon, and star anise.
Fruity/Citrus: As obvious from the name, these perfumes have a fruity and citrusy fragrance. Its main notes are lime, grapefruit, apricot, apple, peach, and orange.
Sweet/Floral: These perfumes smell like you have landed in a floral garden. Sweet and Floral perfumes have orange blossom, carnations, lavender, and rose notes.

Tip 4: Understand Your Skin Type

Your skin type plays an important role when choosing the right perfume for your style. Your skin can have different melanin, basic, and acidic levels. There are two factors for understanding your skin type and choosing the fragrances.

If your skin is oily, perfumes with leathery notes, musky, balsamic, floral, sweet, and spices suit you well.
If your skin is dry, you can use woody, floral, fruity, aromatic, ozonic, green, and citrus perfumes.

Tip 5: Choose a Perfume Suiting Your Age

Age is one of many factors that add up when choosing the best perfume for you. Consider the following points.

Mature people should go for perfumes with sophisticated fragrances and complex and rich notes.
If your kid is not mature, you can suggest perfumes having notes like fresh, light, sweet, and energetic notes.

Tip 6: Inquire Others About Their Fragrance Choices

If you are traveling on a bus or getting out of work and you get a whiff of amazingness, don’t hesitate to ask the perfume which perfume they are wearing. This will clear your preference, and you’ll know exactly what you want.

Tip 7: Avoid Wearing Perfume While Shopping

Don’t wear any kind of perfume or perfumed products like lotion or deodorant before shopping for a perfume. Doing this will mix the new perfume with the applied one and confuse your sense of smell.

Tip 8: Shop with a Friend

Friends know you better than you, and even if they shop badly for themselves, they’ll make sure that you get the best one. Two suggestions are better than one; ask your friend to test different fragrances while you check out some perfumes. This will slim your options and save you some time on your watch.

Tip 9: Take Suggestions from the Salesperson

If your friend is not available, you can always take suggestions from the salesperson. Since by now, you know your scent preference, all you have to do is tell your price range and what kind of perfume you like. Suggestions from the salesperson are usually good and worth the price.

Tip 10: Test 6 Perfumes at a Time

Your wrist will have a singular pungent smell if you try more than 6 perfumes. Your skin will absorb all the perfumes, and your nose will start to sense only intense and stingy smells. Doing this can lead you to pick an incorrect perfume.

Tip 11: Smell from the Bottle First

If you have tried 6 perfumes and you still cannot decide, try sniffing the bottle. If you cannot smell anything, ask the salesperson to spray in the cap. Don’t just smell right away; shake the cap 1 or 2 times and then take a whiff. Sniff lightly and slowly to understand the perfume.

Tip 12: Sniff from the Blotter Sheet

The second option is to spray lightly on the blotter sheet, shake it for 5 seconds, and smell slowly. If you like the fragrance, give it to the salesperson and get your perfume; the best part: you can take the scented blotter sheet with you. We keep these in our bags.

Tip 13: Refresh Your Sense of Smell

Your sense of smell will smell only strong fragrances, even if you try a light floral perfume. This is because the nose gets used to fragrances. You can refresh your sense of smell by smelling a coffee bean, going outside for fresh air, or smelling your shirt. This also means you don’t have to rush when choosing the right perfume for yourself.

Tip 14: Try Samples

If the salesperson is on good terms with you, he/she will give you the sample for free—perfumes priced above $40 come with a sample/tester. The manufacturer provides these for testing and sampling purposes. The idea behind buying a tester is to see if this perfume stays for a long time and whether it goes with your style.

Tip 15: Layering Scents

You can create a personalized perfume by layering different fragrances. This is done by mixing two perfumes - use the blotter sheet. Spray once from one perfume on the blotter sheet and let it rest for 5 seconds, do the same with the second perfume, wait a little longer, and take a slow whiff. Keep experimenting until you know what you want.

Tip 16: Consider Trends

When Considering trends, you will either shop for the best perfume or end up with the worst buying choice. This is why you have to follow trends online, read fashion and beauty magazines, and follow influencers. Know that trends change completely in a single night. Even if you want to go with the trends, we’d suggest that you still try testers and samples first.

Tip 17: What’s the Occasion?

All events and occasions demand a new or a kind of perfume that leaves the bypassers stunned and still for a moment. If you are going to a party, get yourself a fruity or citrusy perfume, and if the event is a wedding or a meeting, buy a woody or spicy perfume.

Tip 18: Be Tolerant

You cannot judge a perfume’s scent in the first spray, you have to smell its last note. To smell all three notes, the first spray will be the top note; letting it rest for 10 seconds will bring out the middle or heart note. The longevity of the fragrances will be the base note. Test a number of blotter sheets and take them home, smell them the next day, and you’ll definitely know which perfume you want. Make sure to name the blotter sheet.

Tip 19: Check Reviews

Whether you pick a random perfume or take suggestions from a salesperson or a friend, always check reviews online. The internet can be brutally honest, and it is good for a shopper who values money, especially when it comes to buying perfume. Opt for the top 5 sites and Google ratings. Don’t just see 5-star perfumes; read some of the comments as well.

FAQs

What is the difference between a cheaper and an expensive perfume?

Cheaper perfumes have less longevity and a strong fragrance, while expensive perfumes last more than 24 hours and will not shock your sense of smell.

What are the indicators of a good perfume?

You can tell a good perfume by how it smells (pleasant and non-pungent), blends well with other perfumes or scented products, and how it accords over time.

Conclusion

Don’t get boggled with the number of tips; practicing these tips takes only a couple of minutes. You just have to be cautiously specific when choosing the right perfume for your style.

Learn about concentrations and see which category of perfume sits well with your skin type. Moreover, trusting your instincts will always make you shop for the best perfume. But keeping other considerations like occasion type and mood is also necessary.

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