Picture this: It’s post-pandemic, and, like the rest of the world, you’ve started buying the majority of your beauty merchandise online, frequently inspired by your favorite influencers, content creators, editors, and industry experts. And today, you’ve bought a perfume, a perfume that’s supposedly so freaking fantastic, one whiff could be comparable to Romilda Vane’s vial of Amortentia. You’re feeling confident, a bit euphoric, and the anticipation of your new perfume’s arrival is at an all-time high. You’ve never been so sure you’ll love something in all of your life! Until—womp, womp—you actually smell it. If you, like so many of us, have experienced that remorseful “What the fuck?” moment post-perfume purchase, you’ve come to the right place.
Even though we do our best to never lead you astray when it comes to fragrance here on Who What Wear, perfume is probably the most personal and polarizing product you can buy within the beauty arena. You might hate what your best friend loves, and something that smells good on your sister might make you smell like a rotting corpse. (That’s not me being dramatic—that’s me telling you what I smell like on Kilian Paris’s Rolling in Love $250.)
Since we’re not psychic, we can’t always recommend your most perfect perfume, but what we can do is recommend some of our all-time favorite brands that have a ridiculously impressive number of delicious, best-smelling perfumes, and tell you to buy their discovery sets. From there, you can test drive an array of options and land on a personal favorite. Sound like a plan? Cool, 12 of the best discovery sets on the market (plus our fave from each) are just below. Keep scrolling!
