7 Things To Keep In Mind Before Buying A Perfume Online

I did not realise that buying perfumes online is hectic. Initially, I’d casually walk into a store where they’d hand me tiny strips after spraying them with the fragrance and I’d pick one. Simple, right?

Then I started buying perfumes online and regretted all the times I took those scented strips for granted. So after a lot of wrong decisions and holes in my pocket, I prepared a checklist to make online shopping for perfumes easy.

1. Keep Old Perfumes Handy

Old perfumes are a mood board of what I like. Unless I am planning to try something totally out of my comfort zone, I dig out the empty bottles, check the notes and go for similar ingredients in my next buy.

I keep this bottle of Guess 1981 Eau De Toilette For Women for reference – I always want something similar.

2. Understand Their Vocab

The posh world of perfumes throws a lot of fancy words around, and they’re very important. I had to understand the difference between Eau De Parfum (EDP) and Eau De Toilette (EDT) to buy a long-lasting perfume. I picked EDP because it has more essential perfume oil (10%-20%) as opposed to EDT which has 5%-15% of it.

BTW, Sillage (pronounce as see-yazh) is also a thing people look for in perfumes. It’s basically the scent that lingers. Like how I get the smell of mom’s Chanel No.5 every time I open her cupboard.

3. Know The Notes

There are 3 notes – top, heart (middle) or base. This was the first thing I learned. The top is basically the immediate smell that you get on removing the perfume bottle’s cap. The heart (middle) notes start to show after a while. The base notes decide what smell lingers afterward.

I like to buy perfumes with fresh top notes and woody base notes like the Fresh Bergamot Eau De Toilette by M&S.

4. Decide What You Want

There are so many categories. Floral, fruity, woody, spicy, fresh, and so on. I like to smell zesty so I automatically click on the ‘fresh’ category or look for perfumes that have bergamot, water, or lime in their top notes and Dreamy from MyGlamm’s LIT XOXO Fragrance range suits me perfectly.

5. Judge The Packaging

Okay, this is not a thumb rule, but I think every perfume bottle somehow represents the scent it contains. My bottle of Victoria’s Secret Bombshell is pink and has a fruity smell.

But my dad’s bottle of YSL Y Eau De Parfum has a dark bluish bottle and it smells fresh. Fruity or flowery ones come in pink or red bottles while fresh ones come in blues or greens.

6. Price Tags Are Not Enough

For the last time, not every “good” perfume is expensive! While price is a major buying factor for me, I fall in love with a fragrance, not with its premium tag. It could cost a bomb and still not give me the feeling that The Body Shop’s Moringa EDT does.

7. Reviews Are Important

The best part about online shopping is the Reviews. I even buy perfumes going by their reviews. But I ended up spending a little extra because I wanted to try the Tom Ford Black Orchid that had rave reviews on Amazon!