How to Test Fragrance in a Store Like You Mean It

Most people test perfume the way stores are designed to make them test it: spray six things in ten minutes, buy the one that sparkled first, regret it by Thursday. Testing well is mostly about limiting inputs and adding time. Here is the routine.

Before you go

• Wear no fragrance and skip strongly scented lotions or fabric softener that day.
• Bring a shortlist of at most six names, built from your scent family results and reading in the Journal.
• Find stores worth visiting in our directory: independents and niche boutiques are usually more generous with time and samples than mall counters.

The strip round

Spray your shortlist on labeled paper strips, one scent each, and write the name on the strip immediately (everyone forgets). Wave the strip, wait ten seconds, then smell in short sniffs. Strips are for elimination only: they exaggerate top notes and cannot show skin chemistry. Cut your six down to two.

The skin round

One finalist on each forearm, one spray, no rubbing (rubbing crushes the top notes and speeds evaporation). Note the time. Now leave the fragrance section entirely: get coffee, run errands, and smell your arms at roughly 15 minutes, one hour, and three hours. The three-hour smell is the perfume you actually bought; the first-minute smell is the advertisement.

Reset your nose

Smelling your own unscented sleeve or simply breathing fresh air for a minute works better than coffee beans. Past eight or ten sprays in the air around you, your nose is done for the day regardless.

Working with the counter

• Say what you are exploring ("something woody but not sweet") rather than asking for the newest launch, and you will get better help.
• Ask for a carded sample or a small decant of your finalist. Many counters will make one; boutiques almost always will. Testing at home for a week beats any in-store impression, as covered in the first fragrance guide.
• No is fine. You can sample the scent cheaply online instead (see decants and samples).

Seasons and skin

Heat amplifies projection and sweetness; cold mutes both. A December test of a summer scent lies to you, and vice versa. Skin condition matters too: fragrance lasts longer on moisturized skin, so a dry-skin test day undersells longevity. Factor it in before declaring something weak, and read more on performance in our application and longevity articles.

Total cost of doing this properly: two store visits and maybe ten dollars of samples. Total cost of not doing it: the going rate is one shelf of regret, refreshed annually.