How do you test a perfume to decide if you like it?
If the composition is really not up my alley, I tend to know within three to four hours from the first wear, which I normally spray on my left arm/wrist (I tend to go topside because I spend a lot of my day typing, so the underside of my wrist rubs against my wrist pad). If I like it but am not sure if I love it, then I’ll wear it another day and use more of it (wrist, neck, décolletage) to see. The dry down is super important to me since that’s the longest phase. I know I love something if every time I get a little whiff, I’m like, “ooh, I like.”
— Christine
PSA: LuckyScent sells samples of virtually every perfume out there, usually for $4. Super useful because I can read thousands of words about notes, description, etc, and when I smell a fragrance in person it’s totally not what I expected. I’ve hated fragrances I thought I would love and vice versa.
I play it safe and work with houses where I have enjoyed other success. Then very sparingly on my left top wrist. I get terrible nausea when I do not like a fragrance and so sometimes there has to be an immediate wash off… dry down be damned.
I do buy a lot of fragrance samples and can mostly tell from the packaging alone.. sometimes just opening the haul. In my two guest bathrooms, I leave makeup, skincare, fragrance samples in a pretty dish for my guests to pick and choose and take home. The stuff I like, but don’t love, I put there. The fragrances I cannot tolerate go into the garage bin.
Love the idea of putting samples in guest bathrooms! If I get a fragrance sample that’s nice but not something I would wear, I’ll use it to scent my linens.
I browse Fragrantica first, check the notes, read all the reviews and if it seems nice I buy a sample online. I usually try it on my wrist for a day. Sometimes I don’t like it or I appriate the quality and/or the composition but it’s not for me. Sometimes I love to smell the scent but I can’t wear it. So I have lots of scent samples…. :)))
Occasionally I love it so much I buy a full bottle of it. My last buy was La Habana 19-69. Now I’m looking for a unisex summer scent.
There’s so many fragrances I like to smell, but I wouldn’t wear. 😅 I use to treat Sephora like a scent library, go there and just smell a line of fragrances each time. Nowadays it’s not possible with masks and stuff.
For example I like to go in stores to smell woody, leathery and tobacco based fragrances, but I would never wear them, get a candle with them or even have a partner wearing them.
I test on a paper to see if I like the scent itself. Then I’ll spray a tester on the underside of my wrist to see how it interacts with me. See how it smells, the strength and how long it lasts. I’ll do that once or twice per scent, before I make a decision on which one I’ll invest in. I don’t buy until I can’t live without it, normally.
A fragrance for me needs to smell good after multiple hours of wear and on different surfaces.
The ideal test for me is to apply the fragrance on a piece of paper, on clothes and on skin (on a pulse point – inside elbow, on a high traffic point – like the back of the hand, and on “normal” skin). Preferably, I would test it like this for at least 2-3 days, but I can so it most times just once, especially when I test in stores (even so, I prefer to test it again in another visit).
Usually I spray fragrances on my clothes, but since my body chemistry changes a lot scents, I need to make sure that a fragrance will still smell nice on my skin. There are a couple of my favorite fragrances I would have never bought based on the scent in the bottle / tester, but on me smell amazing.
My pulse points tend to change the fragrance more, so that’s why I test on various portions of the skin. I just want to see if the fragrance still smells good no matter where I end up applying it
For me it’s very important how a fragrance smells after a couple of hours. I will pick a fragrance that doesn’t have a nice opening if after it dries down it smells nice. It also has to smell good after “adulteration”; that’s why I test it on a high traffic portion of the skin (like hands who rub on multiple surfaces and get washed).
I also test for longevity. You won’t see me carrying and reapplying fragrances, so it has to last all day long.
One of two ways:
1.) Try it on in-store on several occasions, preferably early afternoon so that I have enough time to evaluate whether I’m in love with how it works with my body chemistry or do I hate it. There’s rarely an in-between! Sometimes, it takes just one usage to know, also.
2.) Ask for a sample! Sephora SA’s will usually give you a fairly generous sample that you can use for enough usages to determine whether or not it works out with one’s personal tastes and body chemistry.
My usual preference to test a scent is spray some on my arm, take note of the perfume and then see if I like it. The trouble is that when I go back to purchase, I can’t always remember the perfume because I often have one perfume on one arm and another perfume on the other.
Juliette Has A Gun is something I would like to own one day.
I generally try scents in store, at least two days. I just try it on the inside of my wrist.
Most scents last quite long on my skin, I do know that a few times I’ve still noticed the day after I applied it.
Some scents change dramatically, I tried a very popular one on my friend it smelled so good, on me it turned to unkept cat litterbox. It was awful. 😀
I will have to order some tests, I hope I can find somewhere in the EU, taxes and fees will be my economic downfall, I think.
I know what perfume houses that I like so I will spray a new scent on a tester, if I like it I will spray if on my wrist to see if it changes on my skin, In a few hours if I really love it I will purchase it, if I’m not sure I will get a sample to take home and try multiple times. My husband is very reactive to some scents that really trigger headaches, coughing and sneezing and I’m not sure what it is so I have to be sensitive to him and not apply too much.
1st – does it pass the initial sniff test (this applies more to oils than sprays) to weed out anything “gross”
2nd – spray it on something like paper or tissue to see if the bloom holds anything “gross”
3rd – a teeny, TEENY amount applied to my forearm – somewhere that doesn’t touch fabric and far enough from my face in case it turns – my skin treats fragrance like lighting a match. it’ll blaze intensely for a short period of time, burn low, and put itself out pretty quick. so I don’t need to slather
4th – smell that patch once the fragrance has run its course to see if the base hits my “gross” button (an example would be Black Phoenix Alchemy lab. they’ve made like a thousand scents over the years, but they use the same “base” (carrier oil or base notes, whatever, it’s the same thing for my purposes) for 99% of them so all of their perfumes turn in to this horrid cloying old lady smell after two minutes to two hours. exact. same. dry down.
5th – Was any part of that ride enjoyable? Did I like smelling it? Did I like smelling like that? Is it something I want to smell again?