Best Mens Cologne: #1 Buying Guide To The Top Rated Fragrances & Perfumes For Men Of All Time

How To Buy Fragrances & Colognes Online

Seen something you like in the list above and want to make the plunge? If you’re new to buying fragrances online, feel free to read this brief guide beforehand.

Purchasing your fragrances online is often very tempting as the prices can often be very attractive. A lot of people will do this and reap many benefits of lower costs, which allows them to build a collection.

After all, colognes are notoriously expensive and high street shops often sell theirs at their full recommended retail price.

However, buying fragrances online does have a few risks and newcomers to the practice may encounter pitfalls. Therefore, the following guide will be able to help you through the process of buying online.

Try Before You Buy

One of the most obvious pieces of advice is to test a fragrance before you purchase it. Of course, this isn’t always possible when buying online. However, if it’s convenient, it’s certainly recommended to try fragrances at a store.

Going to a store also means that you’ll be able to try several fragrances at the same time. Testing various fragrances in a shop doesn’t mean that you have to buy it there.

Whilst some people argue that it’s dishonest when your intentions are to buy it online, it’s a service that they offer. Maybe you’ll stumble across something that you particularly like or perhaps they have a good deal on?

Although buying fragrances online is often cheaper, it’s not always the case. Therefore, heading to a shop beforehand will allow you to compare both the fragrances and their prices.

If you’re not sure how to go about trying out colognes, check out our guide to testing fragrances, which has a handy infographic.

What Is Blind Buying?

The fragrance community or so-called “frag heads” will often refer to “blind buying”. This is the process of purchasing a fragrance without even trying it beforehand.

Usually, these people have read a few reviews or heard good things about a fragrance. As a result, they feel confident that they’ll be satisfied with the purchase.

However, it’s also a known risk and can often lead to disappointment. Most frag heads are aware of this and so tend to trade fragrances through forums and close-knit groups when it happens.

If one of the fragrances above have caught your eye or you’ve read one of our reviews, you might be tempted to do likewise. We’re confident that our reviews provide a balanced perspective on the fragrances we test. Nevertheless, we’d like to offer some advice before you take the plunge!

Learn A Bit About Fragrances

Although this may come across as patronising, we feel like it’s important to mention. Buying anything whether it’s shoes or Champagne is always easier when you’ve explored the subject area.

For instances, learning the difference between an eau de parfum and an eau de toilette will help you know why one is more expensive than the other. Similarly, brushing up on fragrance families will help you figure out the sort of colognes you may like.

You don’t have to become an expert on the subject. After all, anyone can enjoy wine without being able to reel off all the grapes. Nevertheless, picking up on a few tidbits of information may make your search easier.

Get A Tester With Your Order

Whether the fragrance is a gift for a loved one or yourself, it’s always worth seeing if you can get a tester of it with your order. Many retailers and outlets won’t accept returns on opened colognes. Therefore, it will give you the opportunity to safely try before you take off the cellophane.

In some instances, you can ask for a free tester by email with your order. However, you may have to purchase it separately. In either case, the small investment or effort is well worth it in the long run.

Imagine opening up the packaging only to discover that you or the person receiving the gift hates the fragrance? As they’re often quite expensive, it would be both a painful and costly disappointment.

Of course, some retailers may accept returns on opened packages, which is quite rare. The safest way to know beforehand is by checking out their site’s return policy.

Avoid Fake Fragrances

Despite promises of genuine articles, some retailers may sell counterfeit fragrances. Unfortunately, this is becoming more and more common when buying colognes online.

Although fakes can be found at excellent prices, their performance is often lackluster and may contain harmful chemicals. Additionally, many fakes are made by simply watering down the original product. Therefore, you’ll actually be losing out with an impure product.

If the price is too good to be true, it’s a safe indicator that the fragrance isn’t genuine. However, fragrances prices can be as volatile as their contents. Occasionally, some retailers do offer some great deals and discount prices.

Therefore, another reliable way of checking that the product is authentic is by reading the reviews. Should the reviews be quite low with lots of complaints of poor performance, you may have a fake on your hands.

Conversely, if they’re too high, check whether they’re verified purchases, which some sites will indicate. However, if there’s a good spread of ratings with feedback that looks genuine, you might be in luck.

Nevertheless, you can avoid these steps by making sure that you only buy from reputable websites. Not all of them are necessarily expensive and places such as Notino offer great deals on authentic products.

What Next?

Enjoyed our list of the best fragrances to buy? Maybe you’ve made it all the way down here because you haven’t seen something that you like? Remember that we have other lists of the best fragrances according to seasons and occasions. Just jump back to the top to see all that we offer.

Alternatively, check out our other fragrance resources below:

• Latest Men’s Fragrance Reviews
• Fragrance Guides Homepage
• How To Apply Fragrances
• What Is A Perfume Pyramid?