Most people choose a perfume the wrong way. They spray it on a card, smell it immediately, and decide in thirty seconds whether they like it. This tells you almost nothing about how a fragrance will actually behave on your skin, in your life. A perfume is a time-based composition. What you smell in the first five minutes — the top notes — will be gone within the hour. What remains is the character of the fragrance, and that character should feel like recognition.
Begin by identifying what you are drawn to rather than what you think you should like. There is no hierarchy of fragrance families — no florals being more feminine, no woods being more serious, no gourmands being less sophisticated. These are marketing categories, not truths. The only question that matters is: does this feel like me?
When testing a fragrance, apply it to the inner wrist or the crook of the elbow — skin that is warm and slightly humid, which best approximates how a fragrance performs throughout the day. Wait at least thirty minutes before evaluating. Wait an hour if you can. The heart of the fragrance — which is where its true personality lives — needs time to develop.
Consider the occasions you dress for most often. A fragrance worn at a desk all day demands different qualities than one worn to an evening in a dimly lit restaurant. RUMI's woody and musky compositions (Vintage, Wanderlust) have the kind of staying power suited to long workdays. The florals (Floris, Reverie, Susegado) are better suited to warmer months and lighter settings. The ambers (Opulence, Insignia, Bliss) are made for evenings.
Finally: buy a decant before you commit to a full bottle. Live with the fragrance for a week. Wear it to different places, in different temperatures, at different times of day. A fragrance that you keep reaching for — that you feel slightly incomplete without — is your signature. A fragrance that you admire intellectually but forget to wear is not.
