If you want to get into perfume it can feel a little daunting. The fragrance world can feel very vast, intimidating, and at times even intentionally alienating. High prices can be a big barrier for your average person, but you don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of fragrance or a big bank account to enjoy perfume. But be warned! This is not a cheap hobby!
To help you get started, I’m sharing my tips and advice for getting into fragrance—whether that means you want to find a few scents you’re drawn to or become an all-out fraghead with a huge collection. I hope this helps you feel less intimidated and encourages you to jump in and find your favorite fragrances.
How To Get In To Perfume
Don’t Blind Buy
I have to start with what is probably the most important piece of advice…don’t blind buy! Blind buying is when you buy a full-sized bottle (usually 1.7oz and up) without smelling it first. It’s tempting to do this if you’ve read a glowing review of a perfume or seen a video about it that made it seem wonderful, but fragrances smell a little different to everyone. What one person loves and picks up on in a scent you might not. Perfume is personal so while something might smell like autumn in a bottle to me, it could smell like wet rotting leaves to you. Listen to and read other people’s reviews, but always buy samples or smell the scent in-store before you make a big splurge on a full bottle.
Visit a Perfume Shop or Counter
If you’re lucky enough to live in a city with perfume shops this is the best way to get into perfume. Perfume shops often don’t feel as pushy as perfume counters, but if a counter in a department store is your only option then that’s what you have to go with. People who work at perfume shops are almost always friendly and eager to help you find something you’ll like. Not that people working the counters aren’t helpful either, but sometimes they can be a little too eager for a commission.
Either way, go in curious and don’t feel dumb asking questions, they do not expect you to be an expert. It’s literally their job to guide you. If you smell one thing and tell them what you like or dislike that will help them guide you towards the right fragrance. They will also let you smell and try on whatever you want which will help you get an idea of what family of scents you’re drawn to and which brands of fragrances you like. Sometimes they will even give you samples or let you purchase some. Sometimes you can get a free sample with purchase too so make sure you ask. Closed mouths don’t get fed.
Buy Discovery Sets or Order Samples Online
If you can’t make it to a perfume counter or store, almost every perfume brand sells a discovery set. These sets are usually 2ml bottles of their most popular scents or scents with a family and come with 4 to 10 fragrances in them. They’re made to allow you to try all or many of the scents in a collection. These can range from $35 to over $100 depending on the brand or fragrance house, but most are around $60.
Getting a discovery set is my favorite way to explore a brand and get a sense of what the collection is like. It helps me figure out which scents I want full bottles of and what I gravitate toward. Plus it lets me try out scents on my own time without the pressure of a salesperson being in front of me or committing to a full-sized bottle and it lets me wear the scent on my skin. Scents smell different on paper than they will on your skin. You should smell it both ways, but how it smells on your skin will be the most important since that’s how you’ll be using it.
Most brands will give you credit toward a full bottle with your purchase of a discovery set so you won’t feel like you “wasted” money on scents you didn’t like. But if you know of a few scents you really want to smell from a bunch of different brands, you can buy samples from places like Scent Split, Lucky Scent, or Twisted Lily. These sites will also let you buy a full-sized bottle so the first price you see likely isn’t the sample size.
Get Into PerfumeTok
I’m sure you could do the same thing on Instagram, but I prefer to learn about fragrances on TikTok. It’s a great place to learn about perfume houses, new scents, old classics, perfume terminology, and perfume news. Just search ‘perfumetok’ and start watching videos that catch your eye and follow some of the creators. The algorithm will pick up on what you’re looking for pretty quickly. Some of my favorite accounts are: @petramocanu, @professorperfume, @funmimonet, and @perfumerism.
Read Perfume Substacks
Substack is another great place to learn about perfumes without the flashiness of TikTok. There are plenty of publications dedicated solely to fragrances like A Hundred Billion Bottles or Black Girl Perfume Club, but you can also follow lifestyle publications that mention fragrances. In my newsletter every week I share what scent or scent combination I wore each day along with my outfit. It’s an approachable way to see what scents I like to wear day to day and season to season.
Subscribe to YouTube Channels About Fragrance
If you like long-form videos, YouTube is another great place to expand your perfume knowledge. There are channels solely dedicated to talking about fragrances like Perfumerism and Demi Rawling. I also have a playlist on my channel dedicated to perfume and fragrances. There really is something for everyone over there.
Read Perfume Reviews
I would be remiss to not mention reading fragrance reviews on sites like Fragrantica. Though this isn’t my primary source for diving deeper into fragrance, it’s. great place to get a sense of what notes most people are smelling in a given perfume.
Make Lists
I have a VERY long list of perfumes that I want to smell and that I want to buy. Any time I see or hear about a perfume that intrigues me I add it to my list. Anytime I’m in a perfume shop I check my list and see if there’s anything in there I can smell. I’ll also consult this list when it’s time for me to buy some samples. There are far too many options available to try to keep a mental list. Use your notes app or digital planner to keep a list of fragrances you want to smell.
Don’t Just Smell it on Paper
Make sure you’re not just smelling a perfume on paper before you buy it. You need to see how it reacts to your skin and body chemistry. Perfume will smell different from the bottle, to the paper, to your skin and a good perfume will have many phases to it. The last phase (aka the dry down) is the base notes and these can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to settle in. They can end up smelling very differently than how the perfume smelled when you first spray it on your skin.
Talk to Your Perfume-Loving Friends
Perfume is widely popular right now so it’s safe to say that at least one person in your friend group has gone down the fragrance rabbit hole. Go to their house and smell their collection and ask them for fragrance recommendations. As a perfume enthusiast, I love talking about the scents that rock my world and letting people smell them.
Don’t Judge Your Taste or Anyone Else’s
Don’t let perceived snobbery stop you from dipping your toes into the world of perfume. It can be easy to think that the more expensive perfumes are the best and the cheaper ones are crap, but that’s not always the case. Certainly, not everything will be your cup of tea but don’t judge people for their taste. It’s okay to like the trendy scent and it’s okay to hate it, but don’t yuck someone’s yum. Things often become popular for a reason and you don’t have to like weird stuff in fragrance to prove your credibility. Ralph Lauren Romance is hated on for being basic, but I think it’s a great everyday scent, and while Baccarat Rouge 540 is not my cup of tea I don’t mind that other people will swear by it. Perfume is personal. We’re drawn to smells for many different reasons so far be it from me to judge someone else’s taste. You can let yourself off the hook for liking or not liking a scent for whatever reason.
Have Fun!
I’m diving deeper into this world because I love smelling great. I love how a smell can be tied to a moment or a memory. Have fun with that! Fragrance is an art and is meant to be fun and pleasurable. Don’t over think it. Smell strange things, smell regular things, explore, and pay attention to how a scent makes you feel. That’s really all that matters.
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