How do you decide what bottle of perfume you’ll buy next? Given perfume’s cost, it’s probably not be a decision you take lightly. I know I don’t. At least, most of the time I don’t.

Over the past few years, my perfume expenditures have dwindled. Where I used to buy at least a bottle a month, now I might buy a bottle every six months. When I first fell down the perfume rabbit hole, every grand perfume with a history attracted me, plus I was a sucker for a good review. I bought with abandon, including a lot of bottles I hadn’t sniffed. I ended up with a perfume wardrobe of at least half “fine but not fabulous” bottles, most of which I’ve since swapped or given away.

Eventually I became more choosy and started keeping a “to buy” list. My theory was this: I’d sample a fragrance, and if I liked it I’d order a decant or cadge another few samples to give it a good long test run. When the samples or decant ran out, if I still loved the fragrance I’d record it on my “to buy” list. Then, when I had both cash and a hole in my perfume collection corresponding to the kind of perfume on the list, I’d buy it…

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