How to test a fragrance without wasting a bottle

Most fragrance is bought wrong. You spray a paper strip in a bright shop, you decide in forty seconds, and three weeks later the bottle is in a drawer. The nose is not the problem. The method is.

Skin, not paper

Paper tells you the opening, which is the least important part. Skin tells you the rest. Spray one wrist, do not rub, and go about your day.

One a day

Two fragrances on the same arm is a third fragrance. If you are comparing, use one wrist each, on the same day, so the weather is the same. Then notice which one you keep lifting to your nose at four o'clock. That is the answer; you are just confirming it.

Wait past ten minutes

The first ten minutes are the alcohol leaving and the brightest materials shouting. Almost nobody smells like their first ten minutes. Judge the first hour, then the afternoon.

Wear it somewhere ordinary

A fragrance that is wonderful at dinner and wrong at a desk is a dinner fragrance. Test it on a Tuesday.

Put it on clothes once

Cotton and linen hold scent differently from skin, often longer, and some notes (tea, iris, cedar) are at their best on fabric. Spray a scarf. Just not silk.

Why the sample set exists

We sell 2 ml vials of all three for $12, and the $12 comes back as a code toward a bottle, because this method takes a week and a paper strip takes forty seconds. Four or five full wears of each is enough to know. The First Turn sample set.

One more thing

If you have sensitive skin or known fragrance allergies, patch test the inside of an elbow first and wait a day. The ingredients for everything we make are on the Safety and ingredients page.