Sample on skin, then wait

A blotter is useful for sorting a counter into “maybe” and “no.” It is a terrible way to buy a bottle.

Spray the same juice on the inside of your wrist or the side of your neck. One spray. Then leave the store. Citrus and aldehydes are loud for ten minutes and then they leave. What you are choosing is whatever is still there when you get to the car, and again after dinner.

A few rules that save money:

• Do not test four colas on the same arm. You will smell soup.
• Coffee beans at the counter do not reset your nose. Fresh air does.
• “Lasts all day” on a box usually means the base is loud, not that the pretty opening stuck around.
• If you only like it on paper, you like the top. Wait.

Decants exist so you can wear something three times before you own 100ml of a mistake. Use them.