Selection of luxury perfumes available at Liberty

How to Buy a Scent You Haven’t Yet Smelled

Even if a trip to our iconic Fragrance Hall isn’t a possibility, you can make an informed perfume-buying choice online. Let Liberty be your guide

How to Buy a Scent You Haven’t Yet Smelled

Even if a trip to our iconic Fragrance Hall isn’t a possibility, you can make an informed perfume-buying choice online. Let Liberty be your guide

By: Verity Clark

Fragrance shopping is tricky at the best of times. Do you go for a blockbuster scent, something instantly recognisable and universally adored? Or, do you plump for something unknown and a little obscure? Should you opt for eau de parfum, or an eau de toilette? See, a minefield. Add virtual shopping into the mix and selecting a new scent becomes even more testing. So, while we fervently recommend any fragrance-hunter a trip to the scented shelves of our iconic Fragrance Hall, if you live Stateside, then that isn't going to be possible. Sometimes you have to go in nose-blind; for which you’ll need to learn how to buy perfume online.

Thankfully, Liberty knows a handful of savvy tricks and tactics to help you make the most informed online fragrance choice possible, the kind of intel that almost guarantees you’ll purchase something you love enough to make it your next signature scent. Let’s begin…

Read More: Liberty LBTY. Fragrance is finally in bloom

1. Learn the Language

The world of fragrance is a bit like wine, there are a lot of long, complex words, unfamiliar terminology and categories that only make sense to a handful of people. “Like any art or industry, there is a certain amount of jargon,” notes David Moltz, perfumer at D.S. & Durga. Getting to grips with some of the most common fragrance phrases will help you decipher one fragrance from another, and, more importantly, help you land on something that you really want. So, allow us, well specifically perfumer Veronique Gabai, to take you through a crash course in fragrance vocab.

Concentration: “This is the percentage of oil (the part that is the perfume) in the solution (the liquid you spray on, usually a mix of alcohol and water). The more perfume oil in the solution, the higher the concentration,” explains Gabai. Concentration is the differentiating factor between perfume, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, and eau de cologne. If you like your scent to be very strong then opt for a parfum, which has a perfume oil concentration above 10%. After something lighter? Eau de cologne comes in at under 6%.

Sillage: Pronounced see-yahz, “sillage is what a person following into your steps will smell,” says Gabai. Essentially it’s how powerful the scent is. Weak sillage means you can only properly smell it if you put your nose to the exact point in which you sprayed it, whereas something with a strong sillage will fill the entire train carriage – one to avoid if your desk fellow is prone to migraines. Saying that, most people consider scents with strong sillage to be better value for money, so do take that into account, too.

Longevity: This one is simple. “It’s how long the fragrance stays on your skin,” explains Gabai, and unless you're switching up your fragrance throughout the day or need it to be gone by a certain time, most people are looking for something that lasts a long time. As with sillage, the term longevity is often used in fragrance reviews so understanding what it means can be helpful when choosing what to buy.

Fragrance Pyramid: Most fragrances are built a little like a pyramid. The top notes, those you smell at first spritz, lie at the very tip of the pyramid, and tend to evaporate first, making way for the heart notes at the center. Finally, you have the base notes, those that linger hours after you first apply your perfume, are at the foot of the pyramid. When checking out a perfume online, you'll often find a breakdown of the fragrance pyramid in the product details, which can help you understand whether you'll like how your scent develops over the course of the day.

Shop the Fragrance Lounge Brands

Creed

Aventus Eau de Parfum 100ml

$ 425.00

Buy now

Liberty LBTY. Fragrance

Ianthe Oud Eau de Parfum 100ml

$ 320.00

Buy now

Byredo

Heliotropia Eau de Parfum 100ml

$ 305.00

Buy now

Le Labo

Ylang 49 Eau de Parfum 50ml

$ 240.00

Buy now

Bibbi

Swimming Pool Eau de Parfum 100ml

$ 310.00

Buy now

Vyrao

Free 00 Eau de Parfum 50ml

$ 185.00

Buy now

MATIERE PREMIERE

VANILLA POWDER Eau de Parfum 50ml

$ 230.00

Buy now

The Perfumer's Story by Azzi

Twisted Iris Eau de Parfum 150ml

$ 345.00

Buy now

2. Find Your Fragrance Family

“The fragrance family refers to the ingredients inside the scent,” says Gabai. There are four main families; floral, woody, aromatic and fresh. Each of these scent families has distinctive characteristics and notes associated with it. Find out which family your current favorite fragrances belong to to help kick off your new perfume search.

“You will be instinctively attracted to a fragrance family or two,” notes Gabai, so once discovered, note down the family’s major notes. When you’re searching for a fragrance online, use this list as a kind of bingo card, hunting for fragrances that share top, heart and base notes of scents you already know you like. You’ll find our perfume glossary particularly helpful as it lists fragrances according to their key ingredients.

Read More: Discover the next big thing in fragrance with our run-down of the most popular perfumes

3. Stay Loyal

A perfumer is an artist, and although they don’t use paint to create they often have a signature style and use similar characteristics and notes across the scents they compose. One way to avoid the risk of buying something you turn out not to like, is to first find out who composed the scents you love most and then look online for other fragrances they’ve created. Think of yourself as a perfume collector.

shop top perfumes

INFINIMENT COTY PARIS

Les Mots Doux Parfum 75ml

$ 270.00

Buy now

Liberty LBTY. Fragrance

Wild Rosinda Eau de Parfum 100ml

$ 320.00

Buy now