Most wrong scent purchases are decided in the first three minutes, at a counter with ten scents standing side by side. Nobody chooses wrongly for lack of refinement; they choose wrongly because the nose is overloaded.
Testing scent properly involves four things: try at most three scents in one session, hold the test strip at a distance rather than against your nose, wait at least fifteen minutes before concluding, and if it is a perfume, test it again on skin.
The order of testing
- Start with the lightest scent and finish with the heaviest. Go the other way and the heavy scent will cover everything after it.
- Hold the test strip about a hand's width from your nose and take short sniffs, not continuous deep breaths.
- Between two scents, rest and breathe ordinary air. Smelling coffee beans does not erase a scent, it only pushes in another one.
- Write a few words down straight after each scent, because after three scents the memory of the first has already faded.
- With candles, smell them both unlit and lit, because the two states are different.
Testing on skin
Everyone's skin has a different temperature, humidity and oiliness, so the same bottle still gives different results. Try it on the inner forearm, do not rub, then leave it alone. Check again after fifteen minutes, after an hour and after three hours. If you still like it at the three-hour mark, that is a far more reliable choice than the feeling in the first minute.
Do not try more than four scents on skin in one day. They will blend into each other and you will be judging a fifth scent that nobody sells.
The common mistakes
Testing while wearing hand cream or another perfume. Testing where there is a smell of food. Testing while you have a cold. Deciding the moment you have sprayed. Listening to the description before smelling for yourself, because the description will steer how you perceive it. At ZUNGZA, when a customer tries a scent we usually do not say its name first, and only say it after they have had their first reaction. This is how we work.
A few questions you often send us
How do I test at home
Try it in the evening in a room that has been aired, and do not test straight after cooking. With a candle, burn it for thirty minutes, put it out, and come back to the room after ten minutes; that is when you smell the lingering part, the part you will live with most.
Why did I like it in the shop and not at home
Because the room is different, the humidity is different, and because in a shop you only smell the opening. This is why it is worth waiting and worth testing on skin before deciding on an expensive bottle.
Are small sample vials worth buying
Well worth it, especially with perfume. The cost of a sample is always less than the cost of a bottle you never use.