How To Choose A Scent For Your Sibling - Answers Rajiv Sheth, Master Perfumer & Founder, All Good Scents
“Feelings behind scents are personal — it remains a relatively subjective choice. When choosing a fragrance to gift, especially to one whom you often know better than you know yourself, go with fresh notes; scents that evoke freshly cut grass, clean laundry, or rain on application. Nothing shows that you’ve put deep thought into a gift, as poetically as a perfume bottle,” says Rajiv Sheth — Master Perfumer, CEO & Creative Director — All Good Scents.
The one thing that you don’t want to do, when buying a perfume for someone else, is choose a bottle solely because of its popularity. Given the intrinsic, personal nature of a perfume, you need to instead find a connection to the wearer, “a scent can evoke a place, a memory, a time of day, a lifetime moment,” explains Sheth.
While some quick detective work can save you, for example sniffing out the preferred fragrances of your brother, or quickly scanning the bottles on your sister’s dresser, Sheth then recommends that you do a quick internet search or speak to our in-house fragrance expert, who can help you pinpoint which olfactive family your sibling’s favourite scents belong too and then, recommend another perfume that would beautifully fit into their fragrance wardrobe. This gives you options to consider, saves time and ensures you’re in the right direction.
Of course, if your sibling stays far or you live away from home, then one of the safer bets you could consider while going fragrance shopping is choosing Fresh Notes. “Perfumes that have an appealing, fresh, or clean scent are generally more appealing ones. For example, Vetiver from our Eternal Garden Collection – it’s not the traditional khus that many here are used to, but a contemporary and fresh take on it; thus making it an exciting and popular choice within our audience.”
If you’re still in doubt, Sheth recommends buying not one, but two, perfumes – hear us out: With the new AGS Pairing collection, Sheth has designed perfumes that are meant to be paired, mixed and matched to create a unique scent. Here, not only would you be gifting your sibling new perfumes, but also giving them a chance to hone their Nose and play the role of Perfumer.
“While it may seem counterintuitive to ignore your scent-instincts when it comes to gifting a perfume, it’s important to remember that you are choosing a perfume for someone else. The secret of giving a great gift is when you think of the recipient rather than yourself,” adds Sheth, “It’s not about choosing a ‘good’ fragrance, it’s about choosing the right one for the person who will be wearing it.”
Comfort zones exist even when it comes to the fragrant world, and just as you would urge yourself to step out of your comfort zone in other aspects of life, Sheth urges all fragrance users– new and seasoned– to regularly step out of their boxes, “it can introduce the wearer to a whole new fragrance world.”
With new offerings, especially within the homegrown fragrance market, there are a lot of niche, unique, unlikely combinations with beautiful ingredients, when it comes to gifting a perfume, the idea of giving someone a new fragrance which they will grow to love and cherish is incredibly exciting.
“While olfactive journeys are personal, sometimes, the best fragrance gifts can be the ones you wouldn’t normally purchase,” says Sheth.
The best place to start your fragrance gifting journey is our curated Rakhi Gift Store – explore hampers created specifically for the Cool Brother, Chic Sister and a Sibling Set for all the scent-sational brothers and sisters out there.”
