Perfume and Cologne

Some of the most popular gifts for any time of the year are perfume and cologne sets.  Many people mistakenly think that buying perfume or cologne for someone is an easy option when you can't think of another more personal gift to buy, however choosing the perfect fragrance for someone special is not as easy as it can seem.

There are a huge range of ladies perfumes and mens colognes available in a wide range of prices from relatively cheap scents and discounted perfume sets to designer perfumes.  The one you choose as a gift can depend on many different factors but it is not an easy gift to buy.  There are two main differences in perfumes and fragrance sets that we will look at below.

There are two main differences when it comes to perfumes and other fragranced products.  This is one of those times where you do get what you pay for, that is not to say that cheaper perfumes do not work or are not appealing, it comes down to the ingredients used in the making of the perfume.  Less expensive perfumes almost always use synthetic replications of essential oils as their main ingredients whereas designer label perfumes and colognes tend to use the high quality essential oil extracts.

While both of these can produce a similar scent, some oils are hard to replicate sucessfully and many people believe that the quality, dry down time and lasting power of a perfume comes from the use of real essences extracted from natural sources such as flowers and certain woods and plants.

It is easy to determin which perfumes have used natural ingredients by looking at the label and the benefit is that these perfumes are much less likely to cause skin irritation and allergies than their cheaper counterparts.  So knowing this you can choose a quality perfume as a gift that is much less likely to irritate anyone prone to sensitive skin conditions.

Another factor that is important when choosing which fragrance to buy is personal taste, knowing what oils are used to make the perfume can help you to decide, for instance if the person you are buying for has a fondness for a particular type of flower you can easily find a perfume that lists that flowers essence as one of the main ingredients, increasing the likelyhood that the wearer will like the perfume.

Not every perfume will suit everyone, it is not just down to personal taste,  perfumes will react differently to different people and what smells fantastic on one person can be unappealing on another, this is to do with the bodies reaction to the ingredients in the perfume and it makes buying perfume as a gift slightly more difficult, however you can still find a perfume that will make a great gift if you do a little research.

Of course if the person already has a favorite perfume then buying for them will be a simple task but if they do not then you need to carefully decide which perfume to buy.  A good option here is to go for a perfume that is popular.  In many cases a popular fragrance is more likely to suit a wider range of people. These usually tend to be lighter fragrances.  Buying strong fragrances is not advisable if you do not know the preferences of the person you intend the gift for or they are not regular perfume wearers.

The most popular  and the bestselling perfume in the world is unsuprisingly, Chanel no 5. First released in the early 1920's Coco Chanels No5 perfume has become a legend in the perfume world. 

Popular among celebrities and personalities over the decades, it was and remains to be one of the highest selling perfumes on the market today, however it is not a perfume that is to everyones taste and many people consider it to be a more mature scent most popular with women aged in their late thirties and above.