Your ultimate guide to buying perfume online

I hate an icebreaker as much as the next person, but bear with me while I ask you to participate in a completely solo activity. I promise that you won’t have to pair up with the person next to you…

Close your eyes and try to imagine the smell of a perfume with top notes of saffron and jasmine. Middle notes of amberwood and ambergris and base notes of fir resin and cedar. Now, I’m sure if you’ve really committed yourself to the activity, you are getting the floral jasmine and the woody tree scent, but ambergris? Probably not.

The perfume I just described to you is not only one of my all-time favourites, but it’s also the one that makes people constantly ask what you are wearing. In fact, if you’ll forgive me the name drop, it’s also the scent that Kylie Minogue immediately recognised on me at the launch of her own perfume.

While shopping for beauty online is easier than ever, shopping for fragrance without a knowledgeable customer service assistant misting you remains slightly trickier. However, armed with the information below I guarantee that you’ll be able to identify the scents you love without the use of a blotter. Oh, and don’t worry, we’ll get to what my icebreaking iconic perfume in a second.

Notes are what make up the overall scent of the perfume, also known as the accord. These notes are ingredients which perfumers painstakingly select and can be broken down into a fragrance pyramid of top, heart and base notes.

In the simplest of terms, top notes evaporate the fastest (in around 5-15 minutes) and base notes the slowest (roughly 6+ hours). Therefore, it’s the top notes that draw you in, but once they have evaporated, it’s the heart (these last from around 20-60 minutes) and base notes you’ll be sniffing for the rest of the day. That also explains why you might love a perfume on first spritz and then hate it a few minutes later.

• Common top notes: Anything citrus like lemon, orange and bergamot. Grapefruit and some herbs
• Common heart notes: Rose, ylang ylang, jasmine, lemongrass
• Common base notes: Cedarwood, sandalwood, vanilla, amber, patchouli

Now you know why the order of notes matters, it’s time to identify the ingredients you like. One of the ways to do this is to look up the notes of the fragrances you already love and identify the repeat offenders.

For me, I know amber is a note I always love and is in most of my perfumes, so that’s always a good sign to me. It might seem like a weird contrast to the fresh and citrus scents I also adore, but once those top notes have gone, I found a lot of my fresher scents actually had an amber base.

Amber
Think aromatic, chypre, citrus, floral, leather and woody scents. Think warmth, think comfort, like getting a hug from someone whose neck you want to snuggle. Oh, and I class Ambrex in the same family. Anything with an ‘amb’ at the beginning, essentially.

• Jo Malone Lime Basil & Mandarin – Technically not in the amber group, but uses amber as a base note so once the top note of mandarin has worn off, you’re left with a comforting scent
• Aerin Amber Musk – Creamy, velvety and downright delicious

Aromatic
Traditionally used in ‘male’ scents. It’s a freshness that’s spicy, a little harder on the nose if you will. Common ingredients in this category are sage, rosemary, cumin and lavender.

• D by Diesel – A universal scent that balances the spiciness of ginger with warming notes of vanilla and cotton.
• Floral Street’s Electric Rhubarb – A perfect example as the tartness of the rhubarb immediately hits you, but balances out with sandalwood. 

Chypre
Named after a perfume from 1917 by Francois Coty, which was a sharp fresh scent with oak moss, patchouli and bergamot. Chypre florals are mixed with rose, lily of the valley and jasmine, while Chypre fruits blend with peach, apricot and others.

• Narciso Rodriguez For Her (pink edition) – A floral Chypre with peach and rose
• Giorgio Armani’s Cyprès Pantelleria – Evokes all the natural elements of Cyprus in a bottle

Citrus
Summer in a bottle, Italian lemon trees, tart oranges, nothing but warm sunshine. Be warned though, citrus is a top note, so make sure you like the follow-up scent.

• Maison Margiela Replica Under The Lemon Trees – It will transport you to the Amalfi Coastinstantly
• Tom Ford’s Neroli Portofino – The only scent you’ll want to wear this summer

Floral
Sweet, heady and blossoming. Personally, I’m not a floral fan, so I know to avoid anything too flower heavy.

• Calvin Klein’s Eternity – A classic with top notes of white lily and bergamot
• Dior Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet – Unapologetically floral with a heart of peony and rose

Leather
Smoky, heavy and more than a little bit sexy. Most definitely an evening scent.

• Molton Brown’s Russian Leather – A dark scent with an extra smokiness thanks to tobacco and pine
• Frederic Malle Rose & Cuir – Possibly the most sensual perfume I have ever smelt thanks to the smoky rose

Woody
Stronger and richer than amber but with that same warmth. Sandalwood and cedar are common additions and – like leather – are incredibly sensual.

Le Labo Santal 33 – One of the most iconic scents in the world thanks to its blend of sandalwood, papyrus and cedarwood

Commes des Garçons Wonderwood – For real lovers of this group. It lives up to its description as an ‘overdose of woods’

While we’re not at the level of scented virtual reality yet, you won’t need it with this guide.

Oh, and for those of you who stuck around this long, the perfume in question was of course Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540, which of course falls into one of my favourite groups: amber.

I hope to smell it on you soon.