Perfume - 5 tips for beginners

I love sharing my fragrance obsession by hosting and teaching fragrance workshops across Portland. In each session, guests learn to "smell like a perfumer" and understand the scent pyramid. Then we smell tons of different fragrance materials and learn to blend them together for a totally unique, custom perfume oil. Here are 5 tips for beginners looking to discover the incredible world of fragrance!

1. Open your cupboard

Before you go out and buy a ton of fragrance samples, essential oils and other materials, get to know your spice cabinet! Many of your household spices like peppercorn, cardamom, cinnamon and herbs are used in perfumery. Understanding each material can help you better identify notes and their interactions.

2. Start small

I've been collecting perfumes for 10 years and if I could go back and start over, I would only buy samples and travel-sized perfumes. I just love scent so much that buying full sized bottles is too costly and wasteful. If you are a scent minimalist and love a "signature" scent, then larger bottles may make more sense for you. Fragrance materials are expensive-especially naturals like absolutes, essential oils and concretes. Sampling perfumes in discovery sets is a great way to try scent on skin before committing to a larger format. 

3. Beware Blind Buying

Perfume is having a huge surge of popularity through social media. Fragrance brands have new launches every day and the temptation to try them all can be...well, tempting. Add in your favorite fragrance influencers (PerfumeTok is a slippery slope!) and you've got yourself a recipe for financial and olfactory disaster. If you are a beginner, I would be very wary of buying scents without smelling them first. Until you know your favorite scent notes, profiles and descriptors, try to sample your fragrances in-person. 

4. Know your Niche

There are different categories of perfumers. Designer fragrances that you find in department stores (Chanel, YSL, Dior, etc) are typically made by large fragrance houses and are created to appeal to a mass audience and focus on designer appeal. Niche perfumers are smaller operations, typically made in-house or by 1 "nose" (aka one perfumer). These brands are found in specialty stores and have fragrances with less mass-appeal and are focused on a unique point of view. Independent perfumers (that's us!) are usually a one-person operation who work at a lower volume. Finding niche and independent perfume brands is like opening a whole new world. Their offerings are artistic, complex and unlike anything you'll find in a big-box store.

5. Store Safely

Perfumes don't last forever, and storing them in a cool, dark place is key to keeping them smelling great. I store my collection on top of my dresser in a closet. Many mainstream fragrances contain UV filters that protect from sunlight damage but most niche and independent perfumes do not. If you notice that your perfumes darken over time, it may be because of their ingredients (vanilla and its derivatives are known to darken and deepen with age). However, once the scent changes its best to discontinue its use or layer it with another scent.