How to smell a perfume?

This discussion can make you smile: "How to smell a perfume?"
In facts, the discussion is not so weird. Just walk into a perfume shop and look at the "horror show". 

Perfumes tested and judged after just two seconds.... 
Tiny test papers sprayed from a distance of 35 centimeters (i.e. about 1 feet), and / or smelled at a distance of at least 10 centimeters (five inches) away from the nose...
Test papers waved and twisted in the air before spraying, because "the fragrance will be distributed on both sides" (???) .
Unbelievable but true.

In this short article, we try to focuse on test papers, trying to highlight the most common mistakes and correct them.
Test papers are simple. Just remember, during old time, the papers were used to pour perfumed drops all over, or immersed in the perfume solution, then smelled. The phenomenon of "capillarity" had a big role.
First lesson: test papers should be very absorbent. 
Often we see the opposite situation, using an extremely smooth, almost impermeable paper. Today perfumes are "spray" ones, so a spray cloud has some difficulties to hit the paper, even more if  physical-chemical properties of the paper itself are not the ideal ones. 
Strangely, you get better results by building test papers at home using a very porous and absorbent cardboard, rather than the traditional cards, available in stores, which resemble papers for technical drawings, highly polished.

Another lesson: you can not judge a perfume before at least thirty minutes. And this will be a very gross, rude examination. In fact, an accurate analysis takes hours, and it is very complex. You should try on paper, skin, fabric, make an evolution test, a temperature test, check sillage...
"Test papers" mean everything and nothing in the same thing. There are a lot of different types. Here is a small selection on the table.

Now consider the examples depicted below: the narrow, thin papers, and the very large one. In the stores, you will see preferably the narrow, thin ones.

Now, let's try to spray from a long distance, waiting for the spray cloud to impact on the paper. Well, at a distance of 30-40 cm (more than 1 feet), how much spray will reach the thin paper?

From 30-40 cm, the amount of perfume reaching the large, squared test paper will certainly be greater (below)
Keep in mind that the sense of smell is given mainlky by the amount of perfumed substances. If only a few molecules reach the paper, how could there be an intense feeling of  "fragrance"?

And if we gradually reduce the distance, maybe it's even better: an increasing number of perfumed molecules will arrive on the paper and will be available for smelling.

Both situations:

Best situation :

And this is the best situation: spraying from a few centimeters, and wait for the paper to dry. Since the squared, large paper will capture more perfume, it is preferable to choose the large paper.

Remember, before you start smelling the paper, wait until the evaporation is completed, otherwise you will smell mostly alcohol, which can irritate your nose. 
About the smelling distance, this is not an issue: olfactory receptors are inside the nose, so you can safely hold the paper in contact with the skin (beware: the scent should have been evaporated: no liquid should touch your nose skin). 
All right now? Unfortunately not; as we will see, papers not the best option to test a fragrance. Not the best for strictly analytical purposes, at least.
But excellent, however, for convenience, quick responses, practical purposes, and samples comparison. 
We'll talk again about it, in the second chapter.

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SECOND CHAPTER

"Where" to smell?

Previously we learned something about "how" to smell, now it's time to know something about "where". We could speak about "surfaces to smell" and "places/environments where to perform".
As we previously saw, the paper strip is the most common "surface", but if you want to thoroughly test a perfume, you should use at least three different "surfaces". Precisely: 
1- Paper.
2- Skin.
3- Fabric.
Why so complicate? Because every "surface" react to perfumes in a different way. So you could test a scent on paper only, and you can find it extremely disappointing. The same perfume, on the contrary, could perform exceptionally good on your skin. 
But the best test, in my opinion, is to smell perfumes on "heavy", complex fabric. This because heavy fabric will trap an enormous amount of molecules, and you, dipping your nose in the fabric, will smell it much better.
About spraying, there are the same rules explained before, i.e. it's better to spray near the surface.
So, if you want to properly test a perfume you should use:

1) A classical paper strip (the larger, the better)....

2) Your skin (I personally prefer the back of the hand)...

3) .....and finally the heavy, complex fabric from old clothes. 

Making a comparison between paper, skin, and fabric, will enable you to "evaluate" a perfume in the best way.
About "places/environments", remember first that a perfume shop is the worst place where to smell (strange but true). It's very important to smell in a clean, odorless environment. 
So, the best place is a very small one, such as a small room at your home, or, even better, inside your car. I personally know a few people smelling perfumes...in the elevator! 

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Chapter Three:

"Evolution"

The "evolution" is the "changing" of a perfume during the hours. For example, you could smell citrus at first, then flowers, and finally ending with woods. Each perfume has its own pattern, and a few perfumes have no "evolution" at all.

How can you study the evolution? This is a practical approach on paper and on skin (see pictures below). 

On paper:

-Spray the perfume on the first paper, 
-then wait 10 minutes,
-then spray the perfume on the second paper;
-wait for another ten minutes ,
-and finally spray again on the third paper.

We will have in front of us three stripes with the same scent, but sprayed at different times.
So what?
We can use the papers to assess rigorously the evolution of the perfume.
In fact, when we spray the third paper, on the  second paper there is a "ten-minute-old"  perfume; and on the first paper there is a "20-minutes-old" scent.
In this "twenty minutes period" most of notes and shades probably probably come out, and with a single sniff in sequence ( first paper , then the second paper, then the third one ) we can have an immediate idea -in just seconds- of how a perfume evolves.
Between the first and the last map there are twenty-minute difference :  can you  detect any difference? If yes, which one?
Continue this exercise, and evaluate differences after an hour, two hours, three hours.
At a certain point, of course, the three papers will arrive at the "base notes " ( the "drydown" ) and will smell identical.
This technique lends to many variations: you can lengthen the time (15 minutes instead of 10 , for example), or you can use 4 papers (instead of 3 ), or you can spray a new paper after the old ones "aged" one hour, smelling the immediate difference between initial and final notes .... and so on, the limit is your imagination .

Even better, you can use your skin, because spraying the perfume on three different points of your arm at different times, you can reach impressive results (photo below)

At time zero, spray perfume on your elbow (point 1), after ten minutes sprays on the forearm (point 2), and finally, after another ten minutes, on the back of the hand (point 3).
At this point you can "sniff" the whole arm from point 1 to point 3, slowly "sliding" to each point, and have an effective idea of the evolution of the perfume on your skin.

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....and... 

Batch-codes

Year-of-production, 

all-you-need-to-know

about vintage perfumes in the following pages:

-GUERLAIN perfumes ( here )

-YVES SAINT LAURENT perfumes ( here )

-CHRISTIAN DIOR  perfumes  ( here )

-GIORGIO ARMANI Perfumes ( here )

-VAN CLEEF et ARPELS perfumes ( here )

-CHANEL perfumes ( here )

-BVLGARI perfumes ( here )

-HERMES perfumes ( here )

-VERSACE perfumes ( here )

-GIVENCHY perfumes ( here )

-GUY LAROCHE perfumes (here) 

-CACHAREL perfumes ( here )

-ROCHAS perfumes (here) 

-JEAN PATOU perfumes (here)

-LANCOME perfumes (here)

-CARON perfumes (here)

-CALVIN KLEIN perfumes (here)

-RALPH LAUREN perfumes (here)

-JEAN PAUL GAULTIER perfumes (here)

-SERGE LUTENS perfumes (here)

-GUCCI perfumes (here)