How to choose a perfume | EPI 024 All Roads Lead to Aroma Podcast

The podcast 'Todos os caminhos vão dar ao aroma' is a podcast sponsored by Jarilo. In this podcast, Mariana, the founder of Jarilo, explores the world of perfumery and tries to discover how perfume is made.

This article is the transcript of EPI 024. How to choose a perfume

[Start of transcript]

↳ Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Todos os Caminhos Vão Dar ao Aroma.

↳ This is already the twenty-fourth episode where I'm rambling on about Perfumery and trying to discover how a perfume is made, and yet I still haven't talked about the art of BUYING a perfume.

↳ Buying a perfume can be a difficult task, especially if we don't know our own taste well, or if we are limited to the choice of Perfumery stores near us, or if we only know the most famous brands, if our budget is small, and if perfumes tend to change a lot when applied to our skin or if their performance on us is weak, insufficient in intensity and duration.

↳ And of course, all this becomes much more difficult if we are choosing a perfume not for ourselves, but to give to someone.

↳ Today I'm going to give you practical tips to buy with more confidence and awareness, whether online or in a physical store.

↳ To accompany me, as usual, I'm going to light a Jarilo candle — however, for now, I won't share the name of this product of ours, as it's from a new collection that we are currently designing and is still in the testing phase. But soon there will be news...

 

↳ My first tip is to know our own personal taste.

It may seem obvious, but just as we have difficulty describing smells, sometimes we also have difficulty really understanding what kind of smells we like.

↳ In the seventh episode I talked about olfactory families — and there I mentioned that a good trick to not fail when buying a perfume is to know which olfactory family we like best and buy a perfume from that same family.

↳ See which perfumes you like to wear and understand which olfactory family they belong to — you can use sites like Fragrantica for that.

↳ But please, don't limit yourself.

Always explore other olfactory families.

I, for example, who have always been from the floral family, find myself increasingly loving to wear green perfumes — all because I took risks and explored.

 

↳ It takes time and calm to choose a perfume — never make your choice based on the first impression.

↳ When you are in a Perfumery and want to choose a perfume to buy, spray it on a paper strip and smell its first olfactory impact, but, very importantly, smell it again [that same paper strip, or another———?] after 10 minutes.

This way, you will be able to smell [the first time———?] the top notes and [the second time———?] the heart notes.

↳ After smelling several perfumes on paper strips, choose a maximum of two perfumes and finally test them on your skin, that is, one on each arm, and go home without having chosen and bought either of them.

Evaluate, in the following hours, how the perfume behaves on your skin. 

↳ When you have made your choice, try one more thing: ask the Perfumery for a sample of that perfume so you can continue to evaluate it for 2 or 3 days on your skin.

Not all perfumeries offer samples like this, but it doesn't hurt to try.

↳ It's worth remembering the obvious, that is, remembering that, during this process, you should not be wearing another perfume.

 

↳ Buying online can be risky and I don't advise blind buying, that is, it's not very good to buy a perfume without ever having evaluated it.

↳ You can always opt for perfumes you already know, or there are many online stores that allow you to test perfumes:

↳ Either because they always send a sample — which allows us to use the perfume without opening the main package — and thus we can return it if necessary, because the package remains sealed.

↳ Or even some online stores that have the option to buy decants.

A Perfumery where I usually buy decants is Nose Paris.

I have already discovered many perfumes through this service, which is quite affordable and fun.

 

↳ Exploring designer and artisanal perfumes is a wonderful experience.

And it's what I like to do most.

↳ Often perfumes are more complex and require more time to be understood.

But we find true works of art.

↳ The good news is that these brands usually sell discovery sets or samples, which is an excellent way to explore calmly and without commitment.

And most of the time they come with a discount to use if we buy a full size.

↳ In our brand Jarilo we also have an Aromatic Discovery Set available, with which the customer can, at a lower price, try small candles with all our aromas.

I will leave the link in the notes of this episode, for those interested in purchasing.

 

↳ Don't let yourself be influenced — trends and fashions, marketing messages, influencers don't matter.

Choosing a perfume has to be based solely on ourselves — a perfume is something very personal, which will be on our body — it's a second skin that we wear, and we have to be 100% connected with our choice.

↳ Don't buy on impulse or by influence, buy because a certain perfume, in some mysterious way, fits you perfectly.

 

↳ Regarding the size of the bottle we are going to buy, it's worth thinking about the cost/benefit ratio vs. real need.

What I mean is that the size of the perfume bottle doesn't always have to be the largest.

Even if the largest bottle is the most advantageous in terms of cost-benefit, sometimes a 30ml bottle or even a 10ml travel size is enough for our needs.

↳ And since we're talking about size, it's also worth reflecting on the size of our collection.

Our perfume collection doesn't have to be immense either — I see huge collections on social media, but a normal person who doesn't work with perfumes certainly doesn't need to have so many.

↳ A single perfume is enough for most people, 5 perfumes are enough for those who like to vary between day and night, winter and summer, etc.

↳ A perfume collection can perfectly be made of samples — like my collection, which (contrary to what it may seem given the activity in the Perfumery area) consists of only 4 full-size perfumes.

 

↳ I've talked a lot here about the concept of an olfactory diary — but always more in terms of knowing the ingredients and developing the sense of smell.

But we can also do it with the perfumes we test, and thus we build a mental library of which ones we like and which ones we don't.

A tool that will be useful for building our collection which, I repeat, doesn't have to be immense.

↳ I'll make a personal note now:

I usually buy a new perfume whenever I'm on vacation, whether it's a fleeting, less planned vacation, or a longer, more planned vacation.

That is, I always buy a perfume that I have never used before — and then, whenever I want to remember those vacations and the places visited during them, I use that perfume on myself.

Thus, the perfume also serves as a memory album.

 

↳ In conclusion: before buying a perfume ask yourself:

↳ Do I know the olfactory family?

↳ Have I tested it on my skin?

↳ Do I have a sample to continue testing?

↳ Am I buying for myself, or by influence?

↳ Does it fit my budget?

↳ Do I need a full-size, or is a sample enough for my collection?

↳ If most of the answers are “yes”, then you are on the right track for a more conscious and happy purchase.

 

↳ Thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast 'Todos os caminhos vão dar ao aroma'.

If you liked it, don't forget to subscribe — share with friends — leave a comment — or send an email to todososcaminhosvaodaraoaroma@gmail.com.

↳ I reiterate that at JARILO we launched a free ebook — the complete guide where you will be able to learn all the tricks to enhance the aromatic diffusion of your candles.

I will leave the respective link in the notes of this episode.  

↳ Send me an email telling me what your tricks are for choosing perfumes, and what your favorites are.

↳ Until next time.

Happy olfactory experiences!

[End of transcript]

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