Tips for Buying Perfume for Others

'Tis season of giving, if you have some perfume on your gifting list, this post will help you choose the best-suited perfume for your recipient. 

Do not refer to those Top 10 best selling perfume guides

If I were to give you only one piece of advice, that would be - don't ever refer to those Top 10 best-selling perfume guides. There are many factors why the perfume could race to the top of the sales, and most of the time marketing and advertising play important role to boost sales. It has nothing to do with whether the scent is nice. It could be a lousy fragrance but with good product story, it would sell  

The fragrance is a subjective element. Therefore, it shouldn't be ranked which one should be on the top or bottom. However, you could use the guide as your starting point to source the right perfume, where you dive deep into the notes of the perfume, smell it and test it on yourself first. 

Find out the perfume that he/she likes, try to match the middle note and base notes

Casually ask the person you are gifting what perfume he/she is using. Find out the notes of the perfume. I usually check https://www.fragrantica.com/  on the perfume notes as it is the most reliable source and you can find recommendations of which scent is similar to the fragrance. 

For example, if the scent belongs to a white floral group, try to search for the fragrance of the same group.  

Go for gender-fluid perfume

Generally, perfumes are gender-fluid. The perfume smells different on different individuals. The label of feminine or masculine perfume is a marketing diversion. 

There are some companies that make gender-fluid perfume (this means perfume that can be worn by male or female). In the archaic term, we call it unisex perfume.

The most notable one is Jo Malone, however, I don’t recommend buying Jo Malone for friends because it is cologne and the smell tend to change really fast. Other options are Byredo, Diptyque, Replica, Maison Christian Dior, etc. 

Go for miniature sets or smaller bottle

Miniature perfumes are the best gifts because it allows the recipient to sample different scents. You should also purchase a smaller bottle perfume, unless you know that the recipient already using the same scent. Example, Chanel has perfume in size 30ml, 50ml and 100ml. In this case, purchase the 30ml one. The idea is wanting the recipient to test it out before they are sure the scent suits them. 

Ask openly

To avoid disappointment and if you don't mind the lack of romance in surprise when gifting, ask the recipient openly what perfume they want. I'm pretty sure everyone has one or two perfume wishlist up their sleeve.