Birthdays, anniversaries, the Holidays, Valentine’s Day, and just for no reason at all are wonderful occasions to give a gift of fragrance. When you are buying perfume or aftershave for someone else, what do you take into consideration before purchasing?

There are plenty of questions to ask yourself, or the salesperson that will help you decide. If you think you wouldn’t be giving too much away, you could even ask the intended recipient a few of these questions.

Is their age a factor with you in deciding what to buy? Where are they in their life? Are they an established career man or woman? Are they a new student just deciding where to head in the world? Would you perhaps be buying for someone who moves into a new apartment every year?

How about their fragrance wardrobe? If you are purchasing for a woman, do they wear just one fragrance all the time? Are they the type that buys a different fragrance for each mood or outfit? If you are buying aftershave or cologne for a man, has he worn the same scent for years? Does he experiment with different fragrances every once in a while?

What are their hobbies? How do they spend their spare time? Do they have spare time, or are they a workaholic? Is their family a priority, or are they single? What role do sports play in their life, if at all?

Most fragrance salespeople can suggest what fragrance to try based on answers to the questions asked above. If you know that they enjoy a certain fragrance, you may want to pick up that same scent for them, or spice it up a little with a new fragrance that just came out. Tell the salesperson what fragrance you know the intended person has already, and they can help steer you toward the same family of fragrances.

Does the person you are buying for like candles? Perhaps you could get them the candles in the fragrance to see if they like it. Not all fragrances have candles in the same fragrance as the perfume. Usually around the Holidays they items other than perfume in the scent.

Perhaps there is a soap, lotion, or shower gel in that fragrance that you could get for them instead. If you put that with flowers for a nice little gift basket, what woman wouldn’t feel special? Men do like flowers as well, so perhaps a plant with a flower or two that tucks away a bottle of aftershave would be appropriate?

There is nothing to say that you have to stick with department store fragrances, also. There are nice fragrances in other stores, as well as representatives from home party businesses that come to your door. Sometimes they will also offer to gift wrap a particular gift as well.