Essential female fragrances that every guy should know

Loaded question, honey. I'd say start by smelling a few of the famous Chanels and Guerlains, just to get an idea of how two fragrance houses can compare for style.

You may have to narrow down this question for us by age range--not that it's that simple, but, for instance, if you wonder what young, single women are wearing these days, then we can nominate a few sweet-young-things scents, like Miss Dior Cherie and Hanae Mori Butterfly.

It may be simplest to walk up to a department store counter and ask the sales associate what have been their biggest sellers in recent years.

.... and end up with the female equivalent of acqua di gio and/or Cool Water?

Very, very good question by the topicstarter. I find myself to be in the same situation. I only have one tester of YSL Cinema (which I find very sexy on any girl) and that's about my whole knowledge of female fragrances.

Oh, and I like the name of Shalimar.

Pick up as many samples as you can. Go round the stores testing and asking for samples. Some lines are more generous than others. Sometimes you will get a real handful of samples, othertimes nothing much. I seem to get lots of Narcisco Rodrigues and Jean Paul Gaultier without even trying.

Chanels and Guerlains are good ideas, also try popluar lines like Agent Provocateur, Narcisco Rodrigues, Angel, JPG, Jo Malone, Marc Jacobs, anything that is more or less popular but not tacky. A walk around a good department store perfumery is a good start. In my experience the Guerlain sales assistants are very knowledgable about their products beyond the modern ones they are told to push, like Insolence, though you'll easily get samples of Insolence and L'Instant. If you ask them about notes in other perfumes they are usually very glad to talk. Ask them about the older perfumes like Shalimar, Jicky, or Vol de Nuit and they'll love you for it. Say you've heard about the legendary status and would love to test them.

Don't be put off by assistants on other generic perfume counters who don't know very much; some of them get moved around a lot and don't get good training. It's not their fault if they don't know all the products.

Also look at the bottles. Get a good idea of the styles you find attractive. The women's bottles give a much wider variety than men's, and some are incredibly striking, real beauties in their own right, for example the Lolita Lempicka bottles which are quite lovely. It's a good topic of conversation if you want to stay perfume-related without being an expert in notes or vintages.

Good luck.

Guerlain, Dior, and Chanel. There is something for every taste at any of these counters, well most tastes.

Dior is a very good suggestion, but why are they so stingy with samples? It's impossible to get store samples of Dior, at least in the UK. Occasionally I get a little sample of cosmetics like eye cream that I don't want, but cannot obtain a perfume sample. It's infuriating.

Serge Lutens samples are always generously given at one of my favourite stores. Try Serge Lutens, Mostapha.

You may want to go upmarket and search out the more "niche"
scents.
I would suggest you explore Frederic Malle, Villoresi, Serge Lutens,
Jo Malone, Santa Maria Novella, Etro, Parfums de Nicolai, Divine,
Hermes and Rochas (the last two readily available in larger dept. stores.)

Greetings Mostapha,

You might want take a look at Rtmara's thread here:
Choose one from each house (http://community.basenotes.net/showthread.php?t=205066)

which will give you an idea about what folks here think are the important scents from many major houses. and niche lines.

I applaud you for undertaking this research and for giving compliments.

I can't find Rochas in dept stores where I live, and I've got access to the usual good stores. The ones I own came from The Perfume Shop, fortunately easily found in shopping centres. Of the dept store perfumeries, I find Harvey Nicks is easily the best, but the one in Birmingham isn't very big. I meant to say that the other day when I saw a post from a Brummie but I can't recall the thread; I'd like to know where she shops.

Anyway, back to Mostapha - you might find gift sets available with perfume and skin lotion, or a bar of scented soap. These can be good as general gifts if you know what the person likes. Some of these gift sets are reduced in price at this time of year. For something more special, ask for the perfume of your choice to be gift wrapped with a special message. Search the websites of established perfume houses, they may have a special delivery service as well. Take a look at the Annick Goutal site:
http://www.annickgoutal.com/annick+g.../Gift+Wrapping

DeeOlive's idea of sending you to RTamara's thread was a great idea.

Do you know about makeupalley.com? Here's a link which shows women's fragrances arranged in order of the number of reviews which have been written about them, along with ratings for their popularity. It appears that Angel, Pink Sugar, Coco Mademoiselle, Chance, Lolita Lempicka, and Romance are probably the most popular mainstream fragrances you're likely to encounter on women today.

Those of us who've tried a lot of fragrances tend to seek out many of the vintage-style French fragrances or the numerous niche scents just for the splendor that comes with variety.

You really are clever and darling to investigate women's fragrances!

Mosthapha you can order niche perfumes online. Malle do a great questionnaire
and then send you spme samples based on your answers. I buy most of my
niche lines from online perfume sites.

I think the Fragrance Foundation FIFI awards give a pretty good picture of what new releases were popular in a particular year. For example, these were the feminine fragrance award winners for 2007 and 2006:

2007

FRAGRANCE OF THE YEAR – WOMEN’S LUXE
Juicy Couture – Liz Claiborne Cosmetics

FRAGRANCE OF THE YEAR – WOMEN’S NOUVEAU NICHE
KenzoAmour – Kenzo Parfums

FRAGRANCE OF THE YEAR – WOMEN’S PRIVATE LABEL/DIRECT SELL
Dream Angels Desire – Victoria’s Secret Beauty

FRAGRANCE OF THE YEAR – WOMEN’S POPULAR APPEAL
American Beauty Wonderful Indulgence – BeautyBank Inc.

FRAGRANCE HALL OF FAME
Angel by Thierry Mugler – Clarins Fragrance Group


2006

Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Luxe
euphoria Calvin Klein – Coty Prestige

Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Nouveau Niche
Narciso Rodriguez ‘for her’ Eau de Parfum – Beauté Prestige International

Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Private Label/Direct Sell
So in Love – Victoria’s Secret Beauty

Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Popular Appeal
Spirit Antonio Banderas for Women – Puig Fragrances & Personal Care, Inc.

Fragrance Hall of Fame
Fracas de Robert Piguet - Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, Ltd

You can go to the site to look at previous year's winners.

The following are
my husband's suggestions:
Angel
Pink Sugar
Shalimar
Poison
Prada

I'd suggest going to each big brand's counter in a department store and saying 'I'm learning about perfume because my wife's a nut about it. Can I please smell your best-known or best-loved perfume'. (If you put yourself across as wanting to understand your wife's passion, you'll probably find the sales assistants will think you're very sweet and want to help you.)

This way, you'll probably get to smell:
Chanel No 5
Angel
Miss Dior
Opium (YSL)
Shalimar
etc

It's kind of a shotgun-blast effect, I'm afraid. But it might give you an idea of the overall picture of women's fragrances.

I once visited Egypt, many years ago, and remember a lot of perfume-oil-sellers in the markets. This might actually be a very good resource, since I imagine they must sell single note oils as well as blends to represent popular brands. You can learn what individual notes smell like from the oils. And you might also get some idea of what the famous brands smell like and maybe make a shortlist of things you'd like to smell the real versions of.

The smell I remember best from Egypt was the garlands of jasmine blossoms you could buy in the market. They smelled astonishing. Oh, and the lovely rich smell of unburnt apple shisha tobacco. It was a wonderful place.

Please visit an Estee Lauder counter (they can be found at most department stores) and smell White Linen, Youth Dew and Beautiful.