I consider myself a bit of a fragrance snob. I love walking through the perfume section of department stores and just taking it all in. In recent years the fragrance industry seems to have exploded and every famous person (and their childhood best friend) is making fragrances. While many are nice there are some fragrances that just go above and beyond to ensure high-quality and stellar performance. A top-quality fragrance, however, is not always easy to sniff out among the kiosks of elegant bottled blends.
Before ever smelling a perfume a consumer can come to a conclusion regarding whether or not it is a top quality fragrance. The fragrance industry is now declaring ingredients after a slew of dermatologists bonded together to suggest that fragrances in beauty products were causing commonly seen allergic reactions. There are 26 ingredients that now have to be declared when they meet specified percentage requirements. Most of the ingredients that must be listed are essential oils and rather expensive. If a perfume or cologne has some of the essential oils listed as ingredients it is likely a top-quality fragrance. Cheaper, or lower quality, fragrances often use synthetic chemicals to mimic the scent of the expensive essential oils so if the oils are strangely absent on the ingredient list it is likely not a high quality fragrance. A list of the oils in question can be obtained at Colin’s Beauty Pages.
Top-quality perfumes smell different on different people. The simple fact of the matter is that essential oils develop differently on different people based on their body chemistry. The more essential oils that are in the perfume the more obvious the difference will be, states Seattle PI. For example a friend of mine loves a certain scent and it smells divine on her, so divine, in fact, that I went and tried it on myself sure I would love it and go buy a bottle. It smelled god awful on me, serious it made me a bit nauseous! While it may not sound like such a thing would suggest top-quality smells it does. The cheaper synthetic compounds used in low-quality products smell the same on everyone or everything for that matter. A top quality fragrance blends to the person who is wearing it and thus creates a signature scent for every consumer who wears it.
Quality perfumes are dynamic and involve a number of different notes. Because of this many of the top-quality perfumes will change their scent over time. Once the top notes wear down the wearer will likely have a scent that is significantly modified. To test for a top quality fragrance carrying around the tester paper it is sprayed on for a few hours helps. If the smell changes over time it is likely a top quality fragrance. Lower quality fragrances are less dynamic and thus will change less as the scent ages on the skin.
Top-quality perfumes often smell just like the notes they suggest, because they use the right ingredients and the right procedure to accurately capture the scent. If a perfume is advertised as having lilac notes it should have those notes. It should be fairly easy to identify for the average nose. Lower quality perfumes might have the scent but it will likely smell a bit off or a little subdued or a little strong, depending on the perfume in question. A top quality perfume will be as close to accurate as possible in regards to the scent of the notes listed or advertised.
Top quality perfumes have some serious staying power. Inferior perfumes may linger strongly for a short time and die off if the right amount is used, however top-quality fragrances often linger all day long, if not longer. The dry note that is a perfumes final resting place may stay for 8-12 hours if the ingredient list is of strong quality. More inferior products might have a staying power of somewhere around 4 or so hours, if not less. To test the quality on this factor one should come back to a tester sheet several times throughout a 24 hour period to see how the fragrance has dulled over time.
Marketing means very little in the perfume world, sorry to say. It is important not to be sucked in by marketing campaigns. Companies could willingly spend a million dollars on a marketing campaign without ever sinking significant cash into the actual product they are peddling. If you don’t believe me just look at late night television infomercials; big time slots, low quality plastic products. While some major high quality retailers do you market largely it is not an indicator of quality. Take House of Creed for example. The perfume house is known for it’s exquisite quality products, it’s age-old production process of infusion and it’s celebrity endorsements, however I’ve never happened upon an ad for them taped to the side of the M5 bus.
Overall there are several ways to find a top-quality scent. It simply involves patience and some research. Buying a fragrance is sadly not an impulse buy, it’s something that has to have some thought put into it. After all a fragrances can become a person’s signature and nobody wants a low-quality item associated with them.
