Testing a perfume
Choosing a fragrance is like choosing your olfactive identity, signature and scented slogan.The more complex and faceted the fragrance, the more intriguing and unique it will be, but the longer it takes for it to blossom on the skin. To properly test a perfume, you should take your time.
The crucial role of a sales consultant
It would be perfect to have a perfume consultation with a consultant who is familiar with all the fragrances available for sale in their store, without neglecting a certain culture of the great classics of perfumery. Knowing how to advise and how to test fragrances is a real talent, including those that are not in your olfactory register.
It is even better if the consultant can ask you the right questions, and get you to talk about the scents and flavors that you deeply love. They should guess your desires, make you remember the positive scents that have marked your life. All this with generosity and empathy.
The olfactory touch or the skin?
To test and to get a first impression of a perfume, an eau de parfum, or an eau de toilette, you can first smell it on stripes of paper.
However, these can change the scent of the fragrance which is why it is better to test perfumes on fabric, preferably noble or on your skin.
Discovering Sylvaine Delacourte’s fragrances is a joyful and attractive moment. There are cashmere yarns of different colours, impregnated with two or three sprays of perfume. The wool retains the fragrance well for up to three days. The mini-pelotes deliver the base notes of the fragrance. Then the client can spray the perfume as the second step to smell the top notes.
This experience allows customers to find their perfume more quickly. They can discover the soul of the perfume, without having the alcohol vapors mixed with very fusing top notes.
In summary, it is better to discover the base notes first, then the top notes.
If you do not have other alternatives, spray the fragrance from a distance about 20 cm. Wait a few minutes before testing and smelling another scent.
Smelling a fragrance on natural fabric allows you to smell more, up to 10 different fragrances. The alcohol with top notes can quickly saturate the smell. Doing 3 tries is ideal, otherwise you should limit yourself to a maximum of 5 fragrances.
But nothing can replace the essential skin test. It really shows if a new fragrance is right for you. You have to smell it on your skin. If it works, resist the temptation to buy it right away. Let it evolve on your skin for a while, live with it.
Three skin tests are possible, in particular on wrists and forearms.
A small warning, do not rub your wrists, the molecules would be crushed and it can destroy the perfume balance.
Some people prefer to test a fragrance on the back of their hands, rather than on the palm of the wrist. When you go to a perfumery, the ideal is to spray a perfume and go for a little walk outside, to live with your perfume. It's really a good way to test the perfume.
Some customers who did not like a scent on the paper stripes, might finally be seduced by discovering the same scent on their skin. So you have to beware of first impressions; it takes time for a perfume to evolve.
The perfect way to discover a fragrance is the real blind test without the name of the perfume. The bottle and the name of the brand can have an influence on the choice of a perfume, but what is most important is the perfume itself. It is the fragrance that will reflect or sublimate your deepest personality.
As for perfumes for teenagers, the blind test would be really useful, because teenagers are particularly influenced by their entourage.
In short, you get to experience the scent fully and with more dimension when you test it on the skin rather than on the paper stripes.
Testing a perfume also means knowing the olfactory pyramid
Perfume is always represented schematically in the form of a pyramid, hence the name olfactory pyramid.
We start from the most volatile notes, the top notes, then go towards the most tenacious notes, which are the heart notes, to finally discover the base notes. This pyramid often looks like a drawing of a Neapolitan slice.
It is an educational but simplistic scheme, a perfume is much more complex. In reality, all these notes are intertwined, they interact and sublimate each other. If a perfume is well constructed, we can differentiate the base notes from the top ones, “from its flight, you have to discover its conclusion”.
We can use the word “smile” to describe the top notes (such as citrus or aromatic notes). It must be attractive, make you want to know what happens next, just like smiling people who attract and spark the desire to know them.
The heart notes are the curves of the perfume. They are rounded off with flowers (usually with roses and jasmine flowers) and fruit among others. The heart notes last a little longer, between 10 and 20 minutes.
The base notes are the ones that retain the memory: it is the true soul of the perfume. All the tenacious notes of woods, balms, white musks, for example, that can last from two/three hours to a whole day, or even longer. After an hour, the imprint will begin to reveal itself.
How to "clean your nose" after testing a perfume?
To clean your nose and avoid saturation after testing a perfume, you can use coffee beans. You can also smell fine peppers or eat a piece of chocolate, it would have the same effect. The principle is to make a diversion and offer a break to your precious appendix. You can also simply smell your own skin, which is also very effective.
Finally, you can only truly discover a perfume if you sleep while wearing it.
Sylvaine Delacourte fragrances
Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musks and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.
More articles
How often should we use perfume?
Do we have to perfume ourselves once or several times a day? In the morning or in the evening? It all depends on the concentration of your fragrance. Sylvaine Delacourte tells you more about the best way to perfume yourself.
Where to apply your perfume?
In everyday language, we say that we "wear" a perfume, in order to smell good, for ourselves and for others... But come to think of it, wouldn't it also be the perfume that wears us? Let's get to the heart of this, starting with a little terminology.
How to preserve your perfume?
Your perfume is your intimate ally, you have chosen it and the chemistry has taken place! Like you, it is complex, evolving and ever changing. It remains an ally needing of taking good care of.
To make a perfume last
You have invested in a valuable perfume and you want it to last for a long time? It is not acceptable for you that it lasts only 2 or 3 hours? Perfume is your scented slogan, the trace you leave in the memory of those you meet, it imprints your personality and it marks your identity.