Welcome back! If you watched the latest vlog, then you may know I recently made a trip to Sephora to check out their holiday preview event for Rouge members. While I didn’t find any holiday sets that caught my eye, it was a great time to peruse the fragrance aisle and mentally add a few scents to my wishlist. Over the years, I have identified my fragrance preferences and developed a signature scent. Your signature scent is your go-to fragrance. It’s the one you can (and often do) wear every day and never get tired of it. Finding a signature scent is helpful because once you know your tried and true perfume, you can gauge which perfumes will or won’t work for you.

What can You Do to Find Your Signature Scent?

1. Take inventory of your current and previous fragrances.

Before you head to a store and stockpile your cart with an exorbitant amount of perfume bottles, shop your own closet! The average person likely has 2-3 fragrances at a time: the go-to, the special occasion, and the miscellaneous scent. Without even realizing it, you likely have a signature scent. At the very least, you gravitate towards a certain family of scents. Is it fruity and sweet? Maybe you’re like me and pick a lot of spicy and woody scents? Perhaps neither of those options fill your bathroom and you instead like fresh, clean, or floral?

Go through your cabinet and write down all of the fragrances you currently own. If you can remember fragrances from the past that you liked, write those down too! Once you have the consolidated list, it’s time to identify the notes within the fragrances. Pull up each fragrance online and review the scent details. This step helps you identify notes that consistently appear in your purchases and will give a sense of what type of scent you like. For me, I know I’m bound to like a fragrance if there are notes of sandalwood, vanilla, or patchouli.

2. Try out a fragrance sampler pack.

With the holidays right around the corner, this is a great option to add to your wishlist! Fragrance is a great gift because let’s be real, nobody likes to pay for it on their own. That being said, it’s not something I would recommend buying as a gift unless you know exactly what fragrance that person likes. In those instances, pick up a sampler set for yourself or your loved ones. Brand-specific sets like Maison Margiela’s memory box are great for trying the full range of a specific line and finding the scents that best represent your style. If you don’t have a particular brand preference and want to sample a variety, Sephora curates sample sets filled with multiple brands in a single box. A lot of the Sephora boxes also come with a voucher to redeem a full-sized version of your favorite fragrance discovered in the box.

3. Take a perfume quiz.

If you’re low on patience or would just prefer to have a headstart, take a quiz! Sephora is really great about providing quizzes for any beauty category that piques your interest. A fragrance quiz will guide you in the right direction by asking a series of questions that will result in a collection of perfume recommendations tailored to your preferences. While not all of the recommendations will end up in your cabinet, the list will give you a place to start as you shop around. Make note of a few that seem appealing and give them a spray the next time you’re in-store.

4. Let it linger.

My last tip is to let the fragrance linger during your testing period. When you sample fragrances in-store, it’s easy to fall in love with a scent straight from the bottle. Much like foundation or skincare, what works for someone else may not work for you. With fragrance, the true test comes when you wear the scent for at least 3-4 hours. Before adding a full bottle to your cart, dab a little sample on your wrist and behind your ear, then wear it out of the store for a few hours. This gives you enough time to see how the fragrance mixes with your body chemistry, and you can identify whether or not the perfume is long-lasting.

All in all, don’t be afraid to try out fragrances for an extended period of time before finally landing on your perfect match!

What’s your favorite fragrance? Shop a few of my recommendations below:

FTC: This post contains affiliate links, meaning, a small commission is received when purchases are made. Please show your support and help the site grow by purchasing from the links provided!