To test a perfume properly, use the blotter to narrow the field, then wear the two or three survivors on your skin for a full day each. Write down your impressions at 1, 4 and 8 hours, because the base notes, the part you will wear the longest, only show up after several hours. A 2 ml sample is enough to do this at home, without any sales pressure.
What the blotter is for, and where it stops being useful
A blotter, or scent strip, is the strip of absorbent paper you spray in a store. Perfumers use blotters to evaluate raw materials and trial versions, because paper is a neutral surface that behaves the same way every time. For a shopper, it has one main job: elimination. Within a minute, it tells you whether a perfume belongs to a family you like or contains a note you clearly dislike.
It does not tell you much more than that. Paper does not warm up and does not react the way skin does. Top notes often linger longer on a strip than on your wrist, while the base takes hours to come through. A blotter smelled after two minutes mostly tells you about the opening, which is the part of the perfume you will wear for the shortest time.
A simple routine works well. Write the perfume's name on each strip, keep the ones you like and smell them again an hour later. The ones you still like have earned a trial on skin.
Preparing your skin and picking the right moment
Test on clean skin with no other scent on it. On test day, skip scented lotion, strongly fragranced body wash, and any perfume you wore the day before on the same spot. Skin moisturized with an unscented product usually holds fragrance better than very dry skin, which brings the test closer to real life. Our article on why a perfume smells different on every skin explains these differences.
Use the inside of the wrist, the crook of the elbow or the back of the hand. Spray once from about four inches away and let it dry without rubbing. Our guide on where and how to apply perfume covers these steps in more detail.
Timing matters too. Test on an ordinary day, in a setting where you would actually wear the perfume. A trial in a store already full of scents, after sniffing ten other bottles, gives a distorted reading. Your nose adapts quickly to the smells around it, as we explain in why you stop smelling your own perfume.
Two perfumes at a time, no more
One perfume per day is still the most reliable way to form an opinion. To settle a tie between two finalists, though, a side by side comparison helps: one perfume on the left wrist, the other on the right. You follow both under the same conditions.
Beyond two, things get muddled. The scents blend as soon as you bring your nose close, and you lose track of which wrist is which. If you have five samples, run a small tournament over several days instead. Wear each one alone first, then pit the best against each other in pairs.
The coffee beans some stores offer do not solve the problem. In a small study published in 2011 in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills, coffee beans did no better than lemon or plain air at helping people recognize a scent after smelling several others. A short break away from the bottles works just as well.
Taking notes at 1, 4 and 8 hours
A perfume changes on skin as its materials evaporate, the lightest ones first. Our article on the fragrance pyramid explains how this works. For testing, it leads to a practical rule: come back to the perfume at set times and write one sentence each time.
- At 1 hour, the opening has faded. You are smelling the heart notes, often the most distinctive part of the perfume.
- At 4 hours, you are smelling the version the people around you notice for most of the day.
- At 8 hours, the base remains, or almost nothing does. Either answer is useful.
Also write down what has nothing to do with notes. Did you keep wanting to smell your wrist? Did the perfume bother you at any point? Did anyone comment on it? One line is enough, as long as you can reread it when it is time to compare, after the memory of day one has faded.
To find out whether a perfume gets noticed, ask someone close to you to smell it from about three feet away. You are a poor judge of your own sillage, because your nose gets used to it. The sillage and projection gauges on our product pages give a first indication, and our article on longevity and sillage explains them in detail.
Six perfumes from our catalog to practice with
Some perfumes show better than others why testing takes time. Here are six examples from the catalog, with the notes listed on their product pages. All of them are available as 2 ml samples.
When the top and the base pull in opposite directions
Tonkin Tonka 3 by The Unleashed Apothecary is the clearest example. The top notes promise fresh snow, frozen pine, an icy breath and cold steel. The heart moves to tonka bean, a warm skin note and bitter almond. The base brings together Tonkin musk, deer leather, body warmth, fur and benzoin. Smelled on a blotter for a minute, it reads as a cold perfume. Worn for a day, it becomes a warm, animalic skin scent. Its product page lists longevity of 10+ hours and sillage of 5 out of 5, so a single spray is enough for a test. Our profile of The Unleashed Apothecary tells the house's story.
Blue Fever by Aaron Terence Hughes follows a gentler path. Its opening of lemon, bergamot and blood mandarin is very bright, with a freshness gauge of 5 out of 5. A heart of apple, sea salt and lavender takes over, then a base of cedar and amber settles in. The product page lists longevity of 8+ hours. If the citrus is what draws you in, check at the 4 hour mark that you like the woody base as well.
When a perfume stays close to itself
Aged Pu-Er Tea by Zhufu has a short pyramid: pu-erh tea and bergamot on top, cedar and vetiver in the heart, sandalwood and vetiver in the base. Vetiver appears at two levels, which suggests a fairly steady perfume from start to finish. With this kind of composition, a blotter is a little less misleading. Only your skin will tell you whether the sandalwood comes forward or fades. See our profile of Zhufu.
Two similar perfumes to compare wrist against wrist
ChangBai Sandal N°M37 by ChuJian shares tea and sandalwood with Aged Pu-Er Tea. Its top is different: citron, pink pepper and lime. The heart pairs tea with fig, and the base combines sandalwood, white musk, papyrus and powdery woods. The two make a good head to head on the same idea of a woody tea. Worn one on each wrist, they quickly show whether you prefer pu-erh, a fermented tea, or a more citrusy version softened by fig and musks. Our profile of ChuJian describes the house.
When a perfume stays discreet
Tianshan Spring N°L31, also by ChuJian, opens with lemon, bergamot and juniper berry. It then moves to aquatic notes, musk and lavender, over a base of ambrette, ambroxan and cedar. Its product page gives it 5 out of 5 for freshness and 2 out of 5 for intensity. With a profile like this, it is easy to think the perfume has vanished. Before you decide, smell your skin up close at the 4 hour mark and ask someone else for their opinion.
When one spray is enough
Rosanostra by Spiritica is a parfum absolu. Its top pairs bitter orange with a blood note. The heart brings together three roses (Taif black rose, Damask rose, rose centifolia) with a burnt paper note, over a base of frankincense and damp earth. Its product page rates it 5 out of 5 for sillage, longevity and intensity. With a perfume like this, one test spray is already a full dose. Three sprays on the same wrist skew the test, because you end up judging a dose you would never wear. See our profile of Spiritica.
Making a decision after the test
A perfume you liked at 1 hour and grew tired of by 8 hours is unlikely to work for you day to day. On the other hand, a perfume with a puzzling opening, but whose base kept you sniffing your wrist all evening, deserves a second try. The base carries more weight in the decision, because it is what you will wear the longest.
Always run a second test on another day, ideally in different weather. Heat speeds up evaporation and often makes a perfume more noticeable, while cold keeps it closer to the skin. Our guide to getting the most from a 2 ml sample tells you how many sprays it holds. Our article on choosing your first niche perfume explains how to build a first shortlist. To explore a family, start for example with our fresh perfumes or our woody perfumes.
Frequently asked questions
How long should you wait before judging a perfume?
At least an hour for a first opinion, and a full day for a decision. Top notes often fade in under half an hour. The base, which makes up most of the experience, shows itself after several hours.
Can you test a perfume on your clothes?
It is best avoided for a test. Fabric does not warm up like skin and often holds a scent longer than skin does, which muddles your next trial. Some colored materials can also mark light fabrics. Save clothing for later, once you have settled on the perfume.
How many perfumes can you test in one day?
For a real decision, one per day, or two side by side, one on each wrist. In a store, you can smell more blotters for a first pass, as long as you take breaks in fresh air. The more trials you stack up, the less reliable your impressions become.
Do coffee beans help when smelling several perfumes?
There is no evidence they do. A 2011 study found no advantage for coffee beans over plain air or lemon. A break away from the bottles, or a few minutes outside, does the same job.
Why does a perfume tested in a store smell different at home?
In a store, the air is full of other perfumes and your nose is already busy. The test is often done on a blotter in a few minutes. At home, on your skin and over a full day, you smell the whole perfume, including the base the store never gave you time to discover.
You will find more advice in our Choosing your perfume guide. If you are not sure where to start, our fragrance finder quiz offers a first direction. Every perfume in the catalog is available as a 2 ml sample on our samples page, and the best sellers collection gathers our most requested perfumes.