Perfume gifts can be tricky to give. In most cases, it's probably safest and best to leave perfume purchases to the wearer. Scents are personal, and what one person may find delightful, another may find cloying. If you're dying to give your loved one or friend a bottle of perfume, though, there are some techniques to finding a good one.
Do Your Research

If you know some of the favorite perfumes of the recipient or know their personality very well, you can glean enough information to discover new scents they'll love. Here are a few guidelines for selecting perfume gifts.

Types of Scents

Go to Parfums Raffy to see the different categories perfumes can be broken into. If your friend, girlfriend, spouse, or acquaintance generally wears a certain type, this outline could make it simple to choose a new scent. Here's a breakdown:

*Citrus: This woman is energetic and full of life. She can wear this fragrance anywhere-especially during the warm months. Notes in these types of fragrances include lemongrass, orange, bergamot, citrus.

*Green: This is a modern type of fragrance, suitable for the office. This one, like the citrus type, is good for daytime and warm weather.

*Floral: Feminine and romantic, this type of fragrance is good for girly girls and date nights.

*Chypre: These scents are slightly eccentric, classic, and not very sweet. They're woody, mossy, slightly floral, but again, not very sweet, and may include hints of leather and fruit scents.

*Oriental: The woman who loves oriental scents is a woman of mystery and drama. She's sexy and sensual. These scents are best for eveningwear.

*Oceanic: These scents are crisp and enlightening. Women who are young, sporty, and full of energy and joy tend to like this type. Since the scent's understated and soapy, it's best for daytime.

Once you decide which type of scent the recipient's fondest of, you can do a search for similar scents within the same category.
Discover the notes of the recipient's favorite perfumes.
Using Notes as Clues

If you know the receiver's favorite perfumes, you can easily look for common notes and the category they fall into. Learn if they like patchouli, honeysuckle, jasmine, leather, etc. From there, you can look for perfumes with similar notes.

Find the perfume the recipient loves but you're not sure about the notes involved? It can be pretty hard to decipher complicated scents. BaseNotes.net breaks them down for you. You'll see top, middle, and base notes and a blurb about the perfume itself. In some cases, you'll see customer reviews.

Suspect a perfume may be "the one" but need more information? Look it up on Makeup Alley and you may find that the reviews hold just the clues you need. Users may have compared it to other similar scents, or they may have similar tastes to those of the recipient and give the perfume in question the thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
How Close Are You?

Is the person you're buying perfume for your girlfriend, spouse, or lover? This is the best scenario for purchasing a perfume gift. If you're not sure what they like, you can choose something you would love to smell on them. Make sure they can easily return it if they're not too fond of it, and don't get your feelings hurt if they do! You may just have different tastes in scents.