How to Order Perfume Online When You Can’t Smell It First

Buying perfume online can feel a little intimidating. After all, fragrance is personal, and when you shop online you can't pick up the bottle, spray a tester, and decide whether you love it.

The good news? Once you learn how to read fragrance notes and understand the types of scents you already enjoy, ordering perfume or cologne online becomes much easier.

At LNB Candles, we believe you don't have to spend designer prices to discover a fragrance that feels luxurious. Our perfumes and colognes are crafted in the USA in small batches using clean ingredients and essential oils, with fragrance profiles ranging from fresh florals and citrus to amber, musk, woods, vanilla, and oud.

Here are some of the things to look for when choosing your next fragrance online.

1. Start With Fragrances You Already Love

Before looking at perfume names or bottles, think about fragrances you've enjoyed wearing in the past.

Do you normally gravitate toward:

• Fresh and clean fragrances?

• Floral perfumes?

• Warm amber and musk?

• Vanilla and gourmand fragrances?

• Citrus?

• Woods and oud?

• Spicy fragrances?

• Fresh masculine colognes?

You don't necessarily need to find an exact copy of something you've worn before. Instead, identify the fragrance family you enjoy.

For example, if you repeatedly purchase perfumes containing jasmine, musk and amber, those notes are an excellent starting point when shopping online.

2. Pay Attention to the Fragrance Notes

One of the best ways to buy perfume online is to stop shopping by the bottle and start shopping by the notes.

Perfumes are typically described using top, middle and base notes.

Top notes are what you notice first. Citrus, bergamot, lemon and fresh fruits commonly appear here.

Middle or heart notes emerge as the fragrance develops. This is where you'll often find florals such as jasmine, rose, lavender and lily of the valley.

Base notes provide depth and tend to remain noticeable the longest. Musk, amber, sandalwood, vanilla, oud and other woods frequently appear here.

If several of your favorite perfumes contain the same notes, that's a very good clue about what you actually enjoy wearing.

3. If You Love Fresh Florals, Try Lily of the Valley

Lily of the valley is a beautiful choice for someone who likes fragrances that smell fresh, delicate, green and floral rather than heavy or overly sweet.

Our Lily of the Valley Perfume is centered around a fresh white floral lily fragrance with a clean green spring character. It's an especially nice choice for someone who wants an elegant everyday perfume that feels light and timeless.

Shop LNB Candles Lily of the Valley Perfume on Amazon.

4. Don't Ignore Men's Fragrance Notes

The same strategy works when buying cologne online.

Instead of searching only for "men's cologne," decide whether you prefer something fresh, woody, spicy, musky, smoky or warm.

For example, our FIERCE Men's Cologne combines fresh woods, musk and citrus. That combination works particularly well for someone who likes a masculine fragrance that balances freshness with a warmer woody foundation.

Shop LNB Candles FIERCE Men's Cologne on Amazon.

5. For Something Richer, Look for Oud, Amber and Musk

If fresh citrus colognes aren't your style and you prefer something deeper and more sophisticated, look at the base notes.

Oud, amber, musk, woods and resins generally indicate a richer fragrance profile.

Our Valor Cologne combines oud, warm woods, spiced amber, musk and resinous notes for a deeper fragrance experience. It's a good example of why reading fragrance notes is so helpful: someone searching specifically for an oud and amber cologne can immediately determine whether the fragrance fits their preferences.

Shop LNB Candles Valor Cologne on Amazon.

6. Think About When You Want to Wear the Fragrance

Another trick when ordering perfume online is to think about where and when you'll wear it.

For an everyday fragrance, you might prefer:

Fresh florals • Citrus • Bergamot • Light musk • Green notes

For an evening or date-night fragrance, you might prefer:

Amber • Musk • Vanilla • Sandalwood • Oud • Tonka

For warmer weather:

Citrus • Peach • Jasmine • Lily of the valley • Mint • Fresh florals

For cooler weather:

Amber • Vanilla • Tobacco • Oud • Sandalwood • Musk • Warm woods

There aren't any rules saying you can't wear amber in July or citrus in December. These are simply useful clues when you're trying to narrow down dozens of fragrances online.

7. Search by Notes, Not Just Perfume Names

This may be the most useful tip of all.

If you know you love vanilla, amber and musk, search for those words.

If you love jasmine and mint, search for those.

If you're drawn to bergamot, sandalwood and amber, use those notes in your search.

Searching this way can introduce you to fragrances you might never have discovered by searching only for familiar perfume brands.

It also allows you to compare fragrances based on what is actually important: how they are designed to smell.

8. Read the Entire Description

A fragrance may contain a note you love but still belong to a completely different fragrance family than you expected.

For example, vanilla can be sweet and dessert-like in one perfume but warm, smoky and sophisticated when paired with tobacco, woods or amber in another.

Jasmine can smell lush and intensely floral, or it can provide just a subtle floral softness behind citrus and musk.

That's why we describe the individual scent notes throughout our LNB perfume and cologne listings rather than simply giving each fragrance a name.

9. Give Your Fragrance Time to Develop

When your perfume arrives, don't judge it from the first few seconds after spraying it.

Apply a small amount and allow the fragrance to develop on your skin.

The initial top notes gradually give way to the heart and base of the fragrance. What you smell immediately after spraying may be very different from what you notice 20 or 30 minutes later.

Your skin chemistry can also influence how a fragrance develops, which is part of what makes wearing perfume so personal.

Luxury Is About the Experience, Not the Price

We created our LNB perfume and cologne collection around a simple philosophy: luxury should describe the quality and experience of a fragrance—not necessarily its price.

Our fragrances are crafted in the USA in small batches rather than spending months sitting on a warehouse shelf. We focus on sophisticated fragrance combinations, clean ingredients, essential oils and long-lasting scents that make discovering a new fragrance online feel a little less intimidating—and a lot more fun.

So the next time you're shopping for perfume online, don't worry about being able to smell every bottle first.

Start with the fragrances you already love.

Find the notes they have in common.

Then follow your nose—even when you're shopping from your screen.