Perfume guide for dummies

I'm a stickler for good perfumes. Prior picking one, I study some products first and that perhaps gives me enough knowledge and pride to write about an incident that took place during my previous semester break.

A shopaholic's routine, as you all can predict is shopping of course.  I went shopping that fine day as well. Usual look-see and stuffs. Suddenly I had this thought of sampling perfumes since my TH Dreaming which I use when I'm home is going to dry up any time soon.

Well I went to the perfume counter and requested to test the top selling perfume which hit the market some time ago, Burberry body. The sales representative looked at me as if I said some alien word. Then after repeating it twice with British and Malaysian accent, she comprehended. She took the perfume and sprayed in on the usual test blotter. Guess what? She soaked the paper. That's not how you do it. The right way should be to spray twice a few centimeters away from the sheet and let the customer test it by smelling from the opposite side. She didn't bother or perhaps didn't know.

Just for the record, the scent was not even as fabulous as anything mentioned . Burberry body= dish washer.

Since I apparently expressed my dislike in an universal language to my sister publicly, the rep decided to convince me into trying some other labels. Wait, before she even begin, with all her concern she asked me a question, 'what smell you looking for?' Exactly this! I told her it's something citrusy and there she was, frozen!

Let me tell you ladies, there are only 4 type of scents when it comes to our perfumes. It's not 'feminine', 'fun' or 'sexy'. Wrong words! The 4 are: floral, citrusy (or fresh) , fruity, and vanilla.

Only 4 basic ones to remember. Is it that hard?

(I'm also aware that some prefer to use 'strong' and 'mild' but that's pretty hard to narrow down. )

Without a doubt, the person who is at the counter to assist customers should of course have this basic knowledge but it's more like a sorry sight lately in some places. Happily though, when we say fresh nearly all sales reps gets it. Easy uh? Oh ya it is, since you can spray anything and call it fresh. People won't know. Cheaters! Most sales representatives or promoters especially in small cities do not have much clue about the perfumes they have at their counters. Trust me!

All they know is the art of soaking and coffee bean for rescue.

I seriously feel that the girl at the counter shouldn't have asked me that golden question as my clear answer gave zero help in finding the fragrance of my preference. What to do? It's all luck.

Honestly I have no intention or personal grudge to bad mouth the naive sales rep but merely emphasizing the fact that one should know the best or at least the important details about what he or she is representing . In order to sell, you must assist right? So why not learn?

I specially love hypnotic poison n dior addict 2 

Perhaps I should have taken a few moments to show my mother of India attitude and educate her, but time constrain you see. Next time ok?

BTW who said reading fashion magazines and blogs make one a dumb doll?

Well, as for my new perfume, I bought it from the duty free outlet in KLIA for 180MYR. 5 different Christian Dior perfumes in a box, each of 5 ml and guess what? Blimey, it's worth every penny!

Renuka G