A.
The Bottom Line: In a Store, Try a Blotter, Then Skin, Then Give It Time
To test a perfume properly, first spray it onto a fresh mouillette or blotter to assess your first impression, then narrow down your choices before trying them on your skin. Do not decide solely on the scent immediately after application; also check how it changes over time.
- Avoid perfume and strongly scented cosmetics before your visit.
- Spray a fresh blotter, wait a few seconds, and then smell it.
- Do not rub or vigorously shake the blotter; assess it by bringing it closer and moving it farther away.
- Apply only the candidates you like to your skin, and wait without rubbing.
- As a guide, check the changes after 15 minutes, 2 hours, and 4–6 hours.
Trying too many at once makes it harder to tell them apart. If judgment becomes difficult, do not force yourself to continue; take a break in the fresh air outside the store before starting again. The way a fragrance unfolds over time is also explained in the differences between top, middle, and base notes.
In Japanese, testing a perfume is also called shikō. The paper used to test fragrance may be called a mouillette, blotter, or test strip. In a store, you can ask, “May I try this perfume on a blotter?”
There seem to be far too many people with the lazy habit of considering a very cursory check sufficient. They bring their noses to the mouth of the bottle, or put a drop on the back of a hand and rub the skin. This triggers an amino-acid reaction that, even if it does not make the odor nauseating, may at least alter the perfume.
Edmond Roudnitska
A first-rate perfume should be used with an atomizer (note: here, this means a bottle fitted with a spray). The scent escaping from the bottle’s opening can mislead your judgment. Smelling only that gives you a superficial impression with no depth, and does not let you discover the wonderful effects that follow and endure. Perfume is something like a film made of scent, to be enjoyed from beginning to end.
Another major mistake, seen in every perfume shop when customers are invited to try fragrances, is to have them test several perfumes one after another without sufficient intervals, when those perfumes should be smelled separately rather than in contrast with one another. The law of the relativity of sensation will never accommodate this error.
How to Test a Fragrance
Important Precautions
First of all, one thing you should never do is bring your nose close to the spray nozzle of a perfume bottle. Store testers are used many times every day over a long period, and only residue from previous sprays remains around the nozzle. It does have a smell, but it has been exposed to a great deal of air and oxidized. As this oxidized liquid builds up day after day, there is a strong possibility that it will smell very different from the actual fragrance.
I also do not recommend testing on a blotter that is already scented, or on some piece of plastic scented by the store. You do not know when the fragrance was applied, and it is often mixed with scents applied previously. Naturally, that makes it impossible to judge the perfume’s scent accurately, does it not?
These two points are among the reasons why a perfume you buy may smell different from what you remember testing. When trying a fragrance in a store, it is therefore best to ask a sales assistant for a fresh blotter.
How to Test It: Application
When you wear perfume, the way it projects differs at 3 cm and 30 cm from the skin.
Chihiro Murai
We tend to bring our arms close to our noses immediately after applying perfume, but smelling it at a distance of 30 cm from the nose may reveal something new.
Incidentally, I create perfumes with the scent rising 30 cm from the skin in mind.
When applying perfume to a blotter or the skin, spray from approximately 20–30 cm away. In particular, aim for the mist to settle over an area. This is because spraying too close concentrates it in one spot, so liquid may drip off the paper or skin, or a strong alcohol smell may remain, making the fragrance difficult to discern.
If you are too far away, however, the fragrance will not reach the surface, so adjust to a suitable distance.
For a blotter, use no more than two sprays and allow the alcohol to evaporate for a few seconds before smelling it. If the sales assistant writes down the perfume’s name during that interval, it should be just about ready to test. When smelling a blotter, do not wave it rapidly; slowly bring it toward your nose and move it away as you smell. Waving it rapidly only makes it harder to discover what lies deeper within the scent.
On skin, remember never to rub after applying. This is because the heat alters the scent. Instead of rubbing, gently fan it with your hand and arm. (When doing this for a customer, use a broad movement of the arm rather than the wrist, to make the gesture look graceful.)
For a More Accurate Judgment
There are not many specific foods I normally avoid, but I am particularly careful with garlic. I also avoid heavy meals because they affect the sense of smell.
Frédéric Malle
When testing fragrances, I put them on blotters during the previous day and continue comparing them through the drydown at night or the next morning. A work reveals a great deal of information in its drydown.
When I test fragrances in the morning, I do so before breakfast, when my sense of smell is at its best.
• It is important to keep in mind a limit of 5–10 fragrances in a single testing session. Even professionals at a perfumer’s level are said to be able to judge accurately only up to ten fragrances a day, so if you want to assess them seriously, it is essential not to smell too many.
• If it becomes hard to tell fragrances apart, do not force yourself to keep testing; note the perfumes that interest you and take a break. Step away from the store’s scents, and, if necessary, try them again on another occasion. Avoid assuming that smelling coffee beans restores your nose to its original state. In a study of 63 participants, comparing coffee beans, lemon, and air showed no significant difference in performance at identifying a new perfume. However, the experiment may not have induced sufficient olfactory fatigue, so this does not establish that coffee beans have no effect in every situation. The study is introduced in Do Coffee Beans Reset Your Nose Between Perfume Tests?
The morning testing described in the quotation above is useful as an example of Frédéric Malle’s own routine. Find conditions in which you can compare fragrances calmly, including taking breaks and trying them again. This study did not establish that these methods are best for everyone.
• Since a fragrance also changes over time, if you want to study it, try smelling it once every 15 minutes and taking notes.
If you are using a small sample, the number of sprays available from 1 ml can also serve as a guide.
