Best Perfume

What is the best perfume? Obviously this is a subjective question -- my best perfume might not be your best perfume. It all depends on your taste, your personality and the occasion.

Here are some of the factors that go into choosing the best perfume:

Personality. A woman's personality might be the single most important factor in choosing the best perfume. A cheerful, upbeat woman might like light, citrusy scents while a sensitive romantic might like florals, and a woman with a flair for the dramatic might like musky scents.

Age. The general rule is that the younger a woman is, the lighter and less complicated a perfume she will want to wear. However, rules are made to be broken.

The occasion. While some women like to pick one signature scent and wear it all the time, others prefer to change perfumes for the occasion and the season. One perfume might be perfect for a glitzy holiday party, while a totally different scent might work for lounging by the poolside in summer.

Taste. Different women have different tastes when it comes to fragrance. Some might prefer light perfumes, while others might like more substantial scents that stay on all day long. Some women prefer woodsy notes, while others like floral notes, green notes or citrusy notes or musky notes. This goes back to personality, but also to personal preferences.

Of course, you'll have to keep those factors in mind -- personality, age, occasion and taste -- when shopping for perfume, but let's do a general overview of the best perfumes for women. After all, popular perfume is popular for a reason -- it's because a lot of people like it and find it works for them.

There are several ways to find the top perfume. One is to look at perfume sales, another is to look at recommendations from perfume bloggers and perfume websites, and another -- maybe the best way -- is to look at customer reviews.

So, what is the number one best perfume for women overall? That is a very tough question because it's so subjective, but let's turn to the experts for this one. The perfume website Basenotes.com named Mitsouko by Guerlain (a definite classic -- it's been around since 1919) as the best fragrance for women. One reviewer called it one of the best perfumes "ever created."

New perfumes come out every year, and some of the best perfumes are newer perfumes. There's a wide variety of modern perfumes, so it can be hard to sort through all of them to find the best ones. Here are some picks: Happy by Clinique, L'eau D'Issey by Issey Miyake and Dolce & Gabanna Light Blue.

Some of the best smelling perfumes are classic perfumes -- those perfumes that have been around for many years. Maybe your mother even wore them -- but they are timeless. Classic scents also can be ageless -- many work well for women of all ages. Fashion-Era.com has information about perfume history and early perfumes. But what is the best classic perfume? Here are some contenders:Chanel No. 5, Joy by Jean Patou and Fracas by Robert Piguet.

Every year, scads of celebrities come out with perfumes that are supposed to embody their essence, their personality and their brand. Even though spritzing on some Paris Hilton perfume or some Sarah Jessica Parker perfume won't make you rich, thin and famous, celebrity perfumes are some of the most popular perfumes for women. So, which are the best? Here are some possibilities (based on the top-selling celebrity perfumes): Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker, Glow by Jennifer Lopez, and Curious by Britney Spears.

Let's face it -- perfume doesn't have to be expensive to smell good. In fact, some of the less complicated, less expensive scents can be the best for casual wear -- such as throwing on a scent to go to the beach or hang out at a summer party in a friend's back yard. (Cheap perfumes tend to be less complicated than expensive ones, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.) Citrusy perfumes -- such as grapefruit perfume -- can be perfect for just hanging out. So, what are the best cheap perfumes -- the ones that don't smell cheap? Here are some ideas: Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia perfume or Lush's American Cream solid perfume.

Photo credits --

Perfume bottles photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendati/ / CC BY 2.0