Shopping Guide and Reviews

Mother’s Day is by far one of the most important days that all mothers have circled on their calendar. Forgetting to get your mother a gift, or purchasing one that doesn’t suit your mother’s taste, can be quite an upsetting experience for the both of you. So where do you begin? How do you decide what constitutes the perfect and most appropriate gift for your deserving mother?

Most women will rarely ever leave the house without at least a little spray of a certain perfume that they feel suits the situation and their mood. It is very likely that your mother lives by and follows the same routine and it is very easy for you to take advantage of this. Perfume on its own, or a gift basket with an assortment of perfumes and goodies, can make for a timeless gift that your mother is sure to love.

However, you do need to shop carefully and keep your mother’s taste in mind when deciding on a particular fragrance. While perfume is a wonderful type of gift, you need to still make sure it is a thoughtful gesture and not a last minute rush purchase. With that being said, there are a few tips you can use when deciding on and purchasing a fragrance for Mother’s Day.

It is important to keep in mind that perfume is rarely ever on sale. Waiting till the last minute searching for a deal is going to leave you in more of a rush and not be that beneficial. Your best bet is to search around and look for a package gift set. Often these gift wrapped sets are the best form of a sale that you will find.

There are several different “grades” when it comes to perfume that classify the potency of each perfume available. You should take into consideration the type of perfume your mother already owns and try to stick with what she likes. If you purchase a very strongly graded perfume, and your mother usually prefers lighter, airier smells, she may never end up opening the bottle.

Many people make the mistake of testing all the perfumes by opening them up or smelling them straight from the bottle. The fact is that the smell of the fragrance will change drastically when applied to the skin.

On top of this, in the end, smelling a variety of perfumes over and over again will not really help you to finalize on a decision.

Lastly, go ahead and try to look and purchase something new. Sure it might be easier to stick to your mother’s favorite perfume, but finding her a new fragrance that she loves just as much will be much more meaningful and make her cherish the gift a lot more. Take your time, put thought into the gift and be creative. You will have a much better chance of dazzling your mom on her big day.

If you’re a perfume lover like me, chances are that a trip to your local high street perfume shop is like letting a child loose in a sweet shop. I just can’t resist the urge touch every bottle and spritz perfume on every available patch of skin, even my husband’s if he’s unlucky enough to be with me at the time. As much fun as this can be, if you’re actually looking for that next signature scent for yourself then this is not exactly the best way to go about testing perfume and here’s why.

You see the human nose is a funny old thing. The more you bombard it with different smells, the more difficult it becomes to differentiate between those smells, something which is obviously pretty important when choosing a fragrance. The general rule seems to be that you shouldn’t test more than three fragrances at a time. I personally would go so far as to say you shouldn’t actually test more than two on your skin at any one time.

But before you even try a perfume on your skin you should try blotter tests first – you know, the little strips of paper that you see in your perfume shop. Blotter testing allows you to get an initial impression of a fragrance. Some fragrances you may immediately dislike and so there’s no real point in testing those on your skin. Others you may not dislike but you may be a little uncertain about them. Don’t ignore those completely – remember that fragrances change when they come into contact with your particular skin chemistry and they also change the longer you wear them. And like most things, when testing, take your time with these blotter tests. Smell one or two perfumes and then give your nose a minute or two to settle before trying more.

Once you have a selection of blotters that you like, try to choose the two or three that stood out the most for you. Now you’re ready for some actual skin testing. In an ideal world, your friendly perfume sales assistant will be able to provide you with sample vials of your selected fragrances so that you can take these home and test them at your leisure as personally, I feel that the best way to really test a fragrance is to wear it for several hours without mixing it with any other fragrances. More often than not however there won’t be any samples in which case you will have to spritz or dab some in the shop. I would suggest applying a little of each perfume to the inside of each wrist or ‘pulse point’.

The key here is to give it time. As I’ve mentioned previously, fragrances change when they react to your body chemistry and the longer they are exposed to air, releasing first the top notes then, after ten or twenty minutes the heart or middle notes (the dominant character of the fragrance which determines the fragrance family i.e. woody, spicy, oriental) followed by the base. This is when you start to get a better sense of what this fragrance is really like and what it would be like to wear throughout the day. You’ll be amazed at how different some fragrances can seem from top notes to base. In fact I can’t count the number of times I’ve smelt a particular perfume and been disappointed by its initial impressions only to love it as it has settled and the various notes have blended into a complete fragrance. As you will no doubt have realised by now, this is why you can really test and fully appreciate a perfume by a quick little smell in a perfume shop.

Hopefully out of this process you will have found yourself a wonderful new signature perfume which you know you’re going to love once it’s settled and can wear confidently throughout the day. If not, well there are so many fragrances to choose from, that’s all the more reason to keep going back and trying it again with something new. After all, that’s part of the fun of perfume isn’t it?

PS – A little tip, whenever you see perfumes advertised on TV or in magazines, if there is a website address, take a moment to visit the site. Very often you can sign up to receive free samples in the post. That way you get to test the latest perfumes without even having to go to your local perfume shop.

Buying your perfume is definitely not a piece of cake. With the large number of brands and perfume types to choose from, purchasing perfumes can prove to be a very stressful task. But harder still is to buy perfume for the man or men in your life!

If your man already has a favorite perfume, which you absolutely love, you can just purchase the very same men perfume. If you happen to hate that smell, you can also consider scouting for a new perfume you like and which you think he will like and keep your fingers crossed that he will eventually love (which means, tada old perfume!).

There are tips that one can bear in mind in scouting for that perfect men perfume. The first is to know your man. What type of personality does he have? What kind of lifestyle does he lead? Or better yet, what memories does he have that could put a smile on his face?

Take note that our sense of smell is connected to our memories. This means that the power of scent is that it can greatly influence one’s mood and disposition by triggering memories associated with the perfume scent. For example, the musky men perfume scent can conjure images of his wild camping days with his dad or maybe the clean smell of Old Spice brings back good old memories with his beloved Grandpa.

Take note of his future activities and even his closet-yes, his closet. Men wear different scents, depending on the activity and depending on their wardrobe. Some experts believe that the way you dress and even your skin tone can affect the perfume scent. For example, a Saturday drive to the nearby town, dressed in shirt, jeans and sneakers, will be better off with a citrus scent. A hot dinner date will be better off with a spicy scent. Does he have a lot of outdoor activities lined up or will there be more coat-and-tie events to attend to in the next coming weeks? Having an idea as to your man’s activities will help guide you in choosing which perfume scent to purchase.

If you have enough moolah to splurge however, you can just opt to buy scents in three main categories- citrus, green and spicy. Chances are, your man will need to wear different perfumes depending on his mood, activity and attire. To buy all three perfume scents would mean that you have just completed his perfume arsenal.

The best test however is to test the perfume scent on your man. If you can’t get him to shop with you, or if you plan on giving it as a surprise, you can choose to buy the 1.7 oz. bottle which is a safe option- not too small and not too big. If he does not like it, you can always do something else with it (maybe use it as a potpourri scent) and if he adores it, well, you can always purchase the bigger bottle next time!