A. There is nothing wrong with judging perfume intuitively. Indeed, since likes and dislikes arise in an instant, there can be little doubt that intuition is fundamentally important. But if you agree that intuition can be refined through experience, I think you will understand that studying perfume from different perspectives, acquiring knowledge, and gaining experience are not wasted efforts. In other words, if you want intuition to lead you to the best perfume for you, training that intuition can make it easier to get there. I see this as no different from food, music, or painting.
Words from Perfumers and Industry Figures
Above all, an intuitive person knows how to observe. Such a person observes both the self and the surroundings, and makes good use of those observations. Yet only observations already accumulated can provide the soil in which intuition takes root.
Edmond Roudnitska
Judging perfume is, first and foremost, a matter of taste. In fact, although taste rests on innate tendencies, it is something to be refined. Taste in perfume is truly cultivated only when it accompanies the refinement of taste in general, in other words, an awakening to artistic understanding. Simply saying “I like it” or “I do not like it” may suffice from a subjective standpoint, but it is far too rough a judgment.
Someone who appreciates perfume is a thinking person who tries to understand where personal preferences come from and to give those preferences the soundest possible foundation. However well informed a person may be, to suppose that a perfume wearer judges solely by sensibility, by standards of beauty “peculiar to that person,” is to deny the value and effectiveness of information and knowledge provided with an educational purpose. It is like insisting that studying music does not lead to a better understanding of musical works than before.
Edmond Roudnitska
A person’s taste or sense of style is enhanced by continually cultivating the self in depth. Is this not the same as encountering painting and sculpture, or opening one’s heart to music and literature? Developing yourself is the path to finding a perfume that is good for you. If you know yourself deeply, you will naturally come to recognize the scent that suits you best.
Edmond Roudnitska
More wonderful than being visited by intuition is to grasp it and examine it.
Henri Delacroix, from Psychologie de l’art
