Updated review on Best Perfumes and buying guide in January 2025

A good cologne offers numerous benefits, from making you more attractive, to helping you feel less stressed and more confident. these guides will help you to make the best choice when you are looking to buy a perfume.

How to compare fragrances?

The concentration of perfume oil in any fragrance decides how long a perfume would last on the skin. Most people make expensive shopping for fragrances without even knowing what makes them great. Just like everything, perfumes too have of their own grading, or variant categories that makes them last long or smell better. Generally, there are 3 types of categories that you should know if you are in the market for a good fragrance

Parfum, also called "Pure perfume"

pure perfume, has the highest fragrance concentration. Parfum will contain anywhere from 15% to 40% fragrance however concentration is generally between 20% to 30% for most parfums. Of all scents, parfums last the longest; usually six to eight hours. Any product that belongs to this category tends to have the highest price of all the fragrance types due to the high concentration of fragrance.

Eau de Parfum

eau de parfum (EDP) has the next highest concentration of fragrance typically, concentration of between 15% and 20%. On average, eau de parfum will last for four to five hours. It is also generally less expensive that parfum and while it does have a higher concentration of alcohol than parfum, it is better for sensitive skin than other fragrance types. Eau de parfum is one of the most common fragrance types and is suitable for everyday wear.

Eau de Toilette

Eau de toilette (EDT) has a fragrance concentration of between 5% and 15%. It is cheaper than eau de parfum and is one of the most popular types of fragrance available. EDT fragrance will normally last for two to three hours. Eau de toilette is considered by some to be for daywear while eau de parfum is considered nightwear. The term eau de toilette came from the French term "faire sa toilette" which means getting ready.

How to test the Fragrance - Perfume buying guide

Perfumes are made of "notes" couple of layers of different scents.These notes determine the overall scent. These notes consist of three different layers called base, top, and middle notes.

Top notes
Top notes are the first you smell in a perfume. They evaporate more quickly than the rest of the scents.
The middle notes
The middle notes are the "body" of the perfume and take longer to develop on the skin than top notes.
The base notes
The base notes are the final scent to develop and last the longest. They're also a fixative that slows down the evaporation of the top and middle notes, making the overall scent last longer. The stronger the base note, the longer the fragrance lasts.

How to properly sniff test

You can't find a good scent without a couple of sniffs. Anyone can recommend good perfumes but, it will be your preference at the end that makes a purchase. following is a couple of tips next time when you hunting perfumes

Ask for a scent blotter which are a white cardboard strips you find beside tester bottles on a fragrance counter. The paper is porous enough to absorb the perfume and give you an accurate reading of how the fragrance smells.
Spray a cloud of perfume in a downward motion. Two or three quick sprays in a row is how the pros do it. Then pass the scent strip through the cloud focusing on the pointed end of the strip.
Bring the scent strip to your nose. Without touching your nose, wave the scent strip under your nose. Close your eyes breath in the scent. If you love the fragrance, the next step is to see how it smells on your skin.
Spray the scent on your wrist and then Wait 20 seconds for the scent to settle on your skin. When it has dried slightly, bring your wrist to your nose and breath in
Coffee beans are the best diffusers if you are going to test multiple fragrances. Limit the number of scents you test to three at one time. The brain can’t discern between more than three