Hack: Tips to know before you buy a perfume?
Quick tips to make the choice easier
Buying perfume is a difficult task and seems very complicated. Our research team here at Fragrapedia Haus has a few quick tips that may help!
1- Know that perfume is expensive and a luxury. Think of it an investment into your new hobby.
2- Package "deals" are the best! Perfume Companies put collections together in a festive holiday box and discount the price of the individual items! Grab that deal!
3- Know what you want before you buy! The billion dollar perfume industry will enchant you all the way to Neverland!
4- Never smell your perfume out of the bottle. Manufacturers create what perfume insiders call the "top notes." The buzz notes that grab the being as they approach. As soon as you spray out of the bottle the top notes scents vary from flowery, woodsy, to absolutely mesmerizing! But they disappear fast, 1-4 minutes precisely.
Then there's the "dry down" where the top notes disappear when the perfume dries on your skin and you have what is known as the "heart notes". Basically what you will smell like with the new perfume!
So to appear as a pro and not get "nose fatigue" from smelling hundreds of perfumes, do the following:
-get the sales rep to spray several perfumes on different sample/blotter papers
-wave the paper and wait a few minutes.
-mention the "dry down" andf the rep will know your a pro and not to be messed with!
5- Nose fatigue, whiff the coffee! Usually perfume counters have coffee beans hidden away. Ask for one if you want. This really does work, plus it shows you know what you're doing.
6- Want to smell everything? Chill! Most of the research has been done for you. Try to narrow it down. You like florals? Ask what's trending and choose from the top three. Then know this, florals are the easiest and hardest to buy. Most of the world's great scents are florals. That's a historical fact and is likely to continue. So, if you're buying for a perfume snob, do not do florals because she knows her addiction. In fact, don't buy her perfume, just give her money.
7- Wanna know one of the greatest secrets in the industry? Most popular in the US and number 1 in France is best-selling is "Angel" by a French designer named Thierry Mugler. This is an out-of-the-ordinary, known by perfumistas and men and women of fragrance, but not widely known to newcomers to the fragrance department. So this is a great gift. Tell that person that this perfume is the best-seller in the country that is most famous for savvy perfume consumption.
8- Perfume comes in different categories.
Sprays, colognes, and eau-de-toilet ,in French, which unfortunately literally translates to"toilet water". They are lighter fare.Best for people who love to touch up their fragrance often. Also suitable for younger people.
Some are known as eau-de-parfum. This is stronger and the more suitable for gifting. People who know perfume want eau-de-parfum or perfume.
9- French is know to be the language of perfume. Don't be impressed when your sales person speaks French. Just practice a little:
Eau-de-parfum is pronounced oh-duh-par-fahm where the m sound on the last syllable is only suggested.
Perfume is actually correctly called both parfum and perfume in America, so your salesperson may say par-fahm.
Many scents have French names. Givenchy (which by the way makes an extraordinary floral scent that just about everybody likes called Very Irresistible) is pronounced jhee-vun-shee. Say it, it's fun.
10- Even if your friend hates the perfumeyou gifted them, its not going to affect them mentally. Worse scenario she will give it away and say your terrible at picking perfumes;)
11- The big finale. Classic scents are known and you cant go wrong. Besides Very Irresistable, consider these classics: Chanel No. 5 (perfume lovers and novices all adore this scent), Tresor by Lancome, and Beautiful by Estee Lauder. If you want something hipper and newer, try Almaz by Kajal Perfumes Paris, Dulce Diablo by Narcotica, or anything by Philosophy (the fresh scent people).