The fragrance industry is smellmaxxing. Shelves no longer hold just marquee brands and duty-free favourites. There are homegrown brands in the mix, plus scents from the Middle-East, South Korea and Japan. Signature scents are for old ladies. Complicated layering is for Millennials. But sleep perfumes and hair mists and scent jelly balms are going viral. Spray and sniff will only take you so far. Here’s what to know before you buy your next little bottle.
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Don’t rush it. And not just because perfumes are expensive. “Most communication in the field is designed to create desire, not to explain how a fragrance will actually behave on skin, in heat, over time, or in daily use,” says perfumer Rajiv Sheth. So, spray something on your wrist. But resist the urge to smell and decide right then. “The opening scent is designed to impress. But the drydown,when the perfume settles after an hour or two, is the smell you’ll actually live with.” Aparna Gupta, perfume blogger and beauty consultant, recommends checking how much the scent changes and lingers. This means that airport duty free may not be the best place to test a new scent. “Buy the ones you are familiar with for good deals there,” says Abdulla Ajmal, CEO of the Ajmal Group.
Mind the flash. There is such a thing as a sleep perfume – a scent to wear to bed. It can’t induce sleep, but you might be able to rest better, says Ajmal. Hair mists are a bit of a gimmick too. Hair doesn’t need a different perfume formulation to last longer or smell better, and it can’t make hair softer or shinier. When loose hair swishes around, it may leave a scent trail. But regular perfume does that too. Remember that all perfume-making is chemistry; all perfumes are chemicals. Natural ingredients are not automatically safer, synthetic isn’t inherently harmful. Making a solid version of a perfume doesn’t make it better for the planet. “What matters is responsible formulation and safety compliance,” says Sheth.
Don’t fall for longevity. How a cocktail of scents reacts to your skin determines how it smells and lasts on you. Not everything lasts 10 hours, especially if your world is hot, humid and sweaty. But long-lasting isn’t always better, says Gupta. It just means it’s got heavier ingredients. A lighter, fresher fragrance is often worth a top-up spritz after a few hours. Who wants to smell like a siren at 3pm, anyway?
Don’t mix and match. Especially with designer perfumes. “There is already too much going on there,” says Gupta. If you like building your own scent every time you spray, pick simpler notes: Lavender, vanilla, rose, jasmine, wood, and layer them. “It’s harder to go wrong with them.”
Play hide and seek. Discontinued fragrances don’t die. They just lurk in disguise. Popular scents go off the market when ingredients are in short supply, if new regulations make formulation more expensive, and if the makers just want to pivot to a different kind of buyer. “But popular, discontinued scents are often relaunched as a new fragrance with a few added or subtracted notes,” says Gupta.
Watch for buzzwords. The current obsession is for oud, or agarwood, one of the rarest ingredients in the scent-making world. “About 80% of fragrances that put the word on their label don’t have oud in them,” claims Ajmal. Think of it as a vibe more than an ingredient – it stands for heady, Eastern and woody. The other obsession: Balm. The term is meant to exude soft, pliable comfort. It’s often added to the description, even though the recipe for the scent has no balm component.
Try this experiment. Pick a fragrance group you like: Vanilla/bakery smells, rose, citrus, or fruits. And smell as many fragrances within that group as you can, slowly, over even a month. It will train your nose to disregard what the label says, and just focus on what’s happening when you inhale – you might end up loving a simple, inexpensive bottle more than its costlier cousin. “The most common mistake people make is relying on others’ recommendations or buying something online just by reading about it or getting lured by an ad,” says Ajmal. Try a new fragrance in person, take your time with the decision, and only invest in what makes your own nose and heart happy.
From HT Brunch, July 18, 2026
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