Everyone has a bottle that never gets used. It smelled amazing in the store, and then it just wasn't you when you got home. That doesn't happen because you have bad taste. It happens because perfume is hard to buy right. Here's what we've learned from helping a lot of people find their scent.
1. Test on skin, not paper
A scent strip shows you how the perfume smells. Your skin shows you how it smells on you. Your skin's temperature, moisture and chemistry change the scent, sometimes a lot. Spray one spot, (we recommend the top of your hand), and let it dry on its own.
2. Wait at least a couple of hours
A perfume has three phases. The top notes are what you smell in the first few minutes, and they're what sells the bottle in the store. But they fade fast. The heart comes through after 15-30 minutes, and the base is what stays for hours.
The base is what you have to live with. So never buy a scent you've only smelled for the first five minutes.
3. Don't test too many at once
After three or four scents, your nose can't tell the difference anymore. Stick to a few at a time, and smell your own skin or a wool sweater in between to reset.
4. Buy a sample first
This is the big one. A 2 ml sample usually costs 50–100 DKK with us and lasts for several days of wear. Wear it to work, to dinner, on a cold day and a warm day. If you still miss it when it's used up, it's the right one.
And if it is, what you paid for the sample comes off the full size of that perfume. Here's how that works.
Want to try lots at once? Start with a discovery set.
5. Think about when you'll wear it
A scent for everyday and the office shouldn't be the same as one for Friday night. Fresh and clean scents work well for daytime. Warm, sweet and spicy scents work best in the evening and in winter. Many people end up with two or three scents they rotate between.
6. Don't buy a scent because everyone else has it
If you've smelled a scent on ten other people, you'll smell like ten other people too. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you want something people ask about, dare to try something you haven't smelled before.
7. Ask for help
Tell us what you wear today, and what you like and don't like about it. That's the best starting point for finding something new. You can also use our scent finder, or come by the store at Badstuegade 16 in Aarhus (Tue–Fri 12–17, Sat 12–16). We don't ask how much you want to spend. We ask what you like.
The short version
Test on skin, wait a couple of hours, buy a sample, and wear it for a few days before you buy the bottle. Then it won't end up at the back of the cupboard.
