Don't put on any fragrance before you go shopping, and if you can, bring some unscented Wet Wipes along in your purse. This precaution has a couple of purposes: first of all, you may very well run into a perfume that smells fine until you've sprayed it on. Suddenly you realize it smells just awful, and you're wearing a good, healthy does of it. A Wet Wipe can clean it up and let you start fresh. If you bring some cotton balls, you can spray perfume on the cotton ball and sniff it before committing to trying it on your person.

It takes time to choose a perfume, but our noses turn off after a few sniffs. It's called "habituation" and not only does it shut down your olfactory senses for awhile, it can also make other things smell completely different. When you test perfumes, spray a cotton ball or a single finger, and sniff. Wait a minute, then sniff again. Wipe it off, give your nose a couple of minutes to readjust, then try another perfume. Some stores have coffee beans you can sniff to revitalize your nose, but you'll still need a break after every few samples or your sniffer will shut down and you may not even realize it.

After you've tested three perfumes, take a break for a few minutes. Go somewhere else, then return for more sampling. In this way, you're less likely to come home with a perfume that smells completely different to you than it did in the store.