Perfume is as old as human history. While the earliest perfume bottles date back to ancient Egypt, around 1000 BC, archeological evidence suggests we wondered how to smell good far earlier.

So it makes sense to assume that we’ve also been asking the question, “How to choose a perfume?” since the dawn of humankind. Thankfully, today, we have a wealth of knowledge passed down through perfumeries, as well as a steady body of scientific research into the wearability and psychology of scent to guide us.

Read on for a quick dive into the fascinating world of the perfume pyramid - choosing the right perfume for you.

Choose Your Scent

Perfumers refer to the perfume scents as “notes.” In almost all perfumes, the overall scent comprises three layers of notes: top, base, and middle. When choosing a fragrance, pay attention to the notes that jump out at your or continue to smell great on your skin.

Top Notes

Top notes, also known as headnotes, are usually the first scent you recognize when you spritz perfume. They’re short-lasting, which means that they disappear after just a few minutes. This doesn’t mean that they’re a one-hit-wonder, though.

They continue to linger in the background, subtly influencing the other layers of scent in the perfume. Standard top notes include citrus, light florals, and herb scents.

For citrus, think orange, lime, or lemon zest and scents like bergamot. Florals are the scents most people can recognize instantly: rose, lavender, and peonies. Finally, herb scents are typically fresh, making you feel like you just stepped out into a summer rain shower.

Base Notes

As we noted above, top notes don’t hang around for long. Once they’ve evaporated, the base notes start to dominate, sinking into your skin for a long-lasting effect.

It takes about half-an-hour for even an excellent nose to notice base notes. These heavier, more indulgent scents add depth and richness to the perfume.

Men’s fragrances are heavy on woody base notes like sandalwood, cedarwood, and patchouli. Musky and vanilla scents are another familiar base note: think the smell of freshly laundered linen.

If you think about your favorite perfume, consider why you like it so much. You’re likely responding to the base notes.

Middle Notes

Making up over three-quarters of any fragrance are the middle, or heart, notes. They are a transition scent. Middle notes hold hints of the top notes, and you smell them throughout the fragrance-wearing experience.

Fruity scents like berries and apples are among the most popular middle notes. Spicy middle notes like pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg feature in more full-bodied fragrances.

Select the Concentration

Types of perfume are defined as much by concentration as they are by their mix of notes. According to the International Fragrance Association (IFRA), perfumers commonly prefer a concentration of 20 percent. But don’t assume that’s the case for every bottle.

In order of strength, the perfume concentrations are:

• Parfum: 20 to 40 percent

• Eau de Parfum: 15 to 20 percent

• Eau de Toilette: 5 to 15 percent

• Eau de Cologne: 2 to 4 percent

The most expensive perfumes have a concentration at the parfum level. A single spray of this type of women’s perfume is likely to last all day. By comparison, a spritz of cologne, which contains the lowest perfume concentration, will last only a few hours.

Try It On

Perfumes are intensely personal. During the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, people turned to their favorite fragrances to lift their spirits, even though no one else would smell them. Trying on perfume is the only way you’ll know if it’s the right scent for you.

Understanding Your Skin

It’s essential to identify your skin type before you buy. Your natural skin quality will affect the perfumes that smell best on you.

People with oily skin tend to sweat more, so their natural odor will mix with the perfume. While a fragrance will last a long time on dry skin, it also evaporates quickly, dulling the scent.

Thankfully, there are perfumes made to work with both skin types. And if you’re lucky enough to have combination skin, you can choose from them all.

Take temperature and pH into consideration, too. On warm days, scents may smell stronger. If your skin’s pH is out of balance, it might reject specific notes.

Trial and Error

Do you feel ready to hunt out your new signature scent? When the time comes to visit the fragrance counter, it’s essential not to rush into a purchase.

Resist the urge to try on every fragrance on the shelf. In a single shopping session, limit yourself to trying on a maximum of three or four perfumes. Spray the fragrance directly onto your skin and not onto a piece of paper.

And remember, perfume changes over time, so don’t buy any bottles on your initial visit. The scents you’ll notice first are the top notes, but the middle and base notes will come much later. Walk away after the first spritz, and take note of how the perfume changes over twenty-four hours.

Trust Your Instincts

Like fashion and food, fragrance preferences are personal. They’re developed over a lifetime and tied to everything from memories to what your favorite celebrity is wearing.

Fascinatingly, science tells us that, like colors, scents are something our brain perceives.

They don’t actually exist, and therefore, it’s very likely that a perfume smells entirely different from one person to the next. Not to mention each person has over 400 olfactory receptors in their nose.

The golden rule? Trust your nose, and don’t let anyone else dictate your sense of scent.

How to Choose a Perfume: Get Shopping

In much the same way you’d try on a dress or research a new cell phone, you need to do your homework when choosing the best perfume. Learning how to choose a perfume is an art form that you’ll continue to cultivate your entire life.

The good news is that if you put in the hard work learning about perfume and listen to these tips for smelling good, fragrance shopping will be a breeze.

If you’re looking for more fashion and beauty guidance, take some time to check out the other articles on our blog.