Right on the Nose

A little more than a year ago I read this article about mass market perfumes in Intelligent Life (really great magazine, btw).

I started thinking about J'adore by Dior that I wore, and that my money probably went more towards Charlize Theron than actually making a quality perfume (I find the scent rarely lasts more than an hour or two). For another example of silly perfume ads check out this clip for Lolita Lempicka.

I wanted to find a niche perfume, but living in Toulouse it's difficult to test different perfumes. A friend of mine mentioned that Fragonard sells a "gift set" of little vials of 10 different perfumes and you can test them that way if you can't make it to Grasse. I looked into ordering the set, but it seemed an expensive method to find a new perfume (especially if there were several I really didn't like).

Then several weeks ago a student at the university got an internship at a company called Nose based in Paris. Curious as to why a company would be named like that, I went to their website nose.fr

And it was everything I was looking for!

First thing, I did their "Diagnostic" by entering 2 different perfumes I've worn and liked. As they explain:

A partir de l'historique des parfums que vous avez portés, nous sommes capables d’identifier les ingrédients que vous aimez, de définir vos familles olfactives de prédilection, et de vous proposer des créations adaptées à vos goûts. 5 parfums vous seront ensuite recommandés parmi nos 300 parfums.

You get 5 suggestions, which you order for 10€ (no shipping fees). If you end up buying something from Nose, you have a code to put the 10€ for the samples towards your purchase (so if you buy something the samples are free).

I ordered on a Friday evening and my samples arrived Monday or Tuesday in a small box.

My recommended perfumes were all pretty different, and like in the Intelligent Life article, they sometimes pleased me more after some time had passed. There was even one perfume that seemed super strong and "alcohol-y" the first time (B complained a lot for that one!), but I decided to try it again the following week and B mentioned how much he liked it. I found that testing the perfumes at least twice was important (although I had a "coup de coeur" for the first one I tested).

As you test them, you can rate how you like the perfumes on the Nose website. The ratings produce another 5 perfume recommendation (I guess in case you don't want to purchase any of the 5), but I found it a handy way to remember which ones I liked and which ones I didn't.

In the end I had to make a decision between my top 2 favorites. Considering that both were about 120€ I wanted to make a choice I wouldn't regret! If I had more money I might have bought both because one was a lighter fragrance that seems good for spring/summer, and the other seems more suited to colder weather. Similar to what the articles says, I found the perfumes told stories and seemed adapted for different situations or moods.

Here is the perfume I ended up buying:

Yes, I admit this looks like perfume Barbie would have....

I had hesitated for this perfume because was listed as an "eau de toilette" which is isn't as concentrated as "eau de parfum" (and for the price I want more concentrated!), but when it arrived it was labeled "eau de parfum". The packaging looks like something straight out of the 60's, but I really like my new perfume so I'm happy.

Overall I was really satisfied with the whole process with Nose. If you live near Paris you can go to their store and test the perfumes, but I think their system for shipping the samples if you live elsewhere works well. You can buy gift certificates for the samples and/or towards a perfume, which can make a nice gift.