By BR Amelia
Buying perfume for a loved one can be… tricky. There are all those bottom notes and middle notes and top notes, there’s floral and woody and citrusy and sweet. It feels like there is so much room to go wrong and yet, when you buy a perfume and it’s perfect and they love it, well, you’ve not just made their Christmas day, you’ve made their whole perfume-wearing life. So what can you do to ensure the scent you select is sure to surprise and delight? Read on…
1. Reccy. If you can have a look at their collection, see what looks to be used the most or is sitting proudly up the front rather than covered in dust in the back, then covertly type what you see into your phone or take pics for future reference. If snooping about their stash isn’t an option, bring up favourite perfumes as casually as you can and get them to talk about theirs.
2. Make the tough choice. Once you’ve an idea of what they like you have two options. The easy one is to buy them a replacement bottle. The brave option and the one most likely to wow, is to find them a different scent, but one which based on your knowledge of what they like is sure to be a winner.
Say for instance your friend is fond of citrusy floral scents, that’s a great starting point and it gives you something to work off when you head to a perfume counter, where you can search out some great options,
If you’d prefer to do some online research before buying, one website to check out is www.perfumesociety.org, a site that has a handy little tool where you put in a fragrance and then it finds others you might like. I put in my fave and it came up with two other perfumes I quite like...so it does work!
3. Go mini. A safer option for a new scent is a perfume sampler set. That way they can try a range of scents and hopefully find a new favourite.
4. Cover your bases. If you somehow do happen to get it wrong? Well, nothing says ‘all is forgiven’ quite like the sighting of an exchange card.
I absolutely LOVE it when someone buys me perfume but am often a little bit too scared to do it myself, but I think I might give it a go sometime this year. I'll just buy one I like and if they don't like it I'll tell them I will happily take it off their hands! haha