“Buying a scent online is arguably better than buying it in a store and for multiple reasons,” says Burr. “In both cases, you can see the packaging, bottle, font the brand chose—and really, who gives a damn? You don’t wear the packaging. The advantage of buying online is that you can read in quiet, sitting down, about the scent. You can read everything from the marketing copy to buyers’ comments, the history of the brand, and (for the hard-core perfume buyers) who the perfumers are. [Perfumers like] Maurice Roucel, Caroline Sabas, and Alberto Morillas each have very different résumés and strengths. It just allows you to know more.
“It’s also easier to try on the fragrances because you can order samples—and you should (usually) order samples. Blind buys are rolling the dice, and good online perfume sites like aedes.com, luckyscent.com, and others sell samples for next to nothing and or include them for free when you buy a bottle of something you already know [and love]. You can get the perfumes delivered to you, try them on at your leisure, in an airspace that isn’t inflected with the smells of makeup, other customers’ fragrances, and the scent of the street.”