1. Find your fragrance family: floral, oriental, woody or fresh. At fragrance.org and sephora.com, type in your old fave perfumes and they'll tell you which fragrance family you like.

2. Think about where you'll wear it - is it for work or play? "It's not good etiquette to wear loud, boisterous scents to work but, in the evening, go sensual."

3. Don't wear any other scent, including body moisturiser, or you won't get the true, er, scent. And don't try more than three new perfumes in one day, or your nose won't be able to differentiate. "Try them on your pulse points. Your skin will react and each note will become apparent, but it won't smell as different from the blotter than you might expect."

4. Wait at least an hour to gauge what it really smells like on your skin. "It'll take about five minutes for you to be able to smell top notes and heart notes and up to 24 hours for base notes." Oh, and if it dribbles down your wrist, you've sprayed it too close. It should be a fine mist that instantly dries.

5. You get what you pay for. Generally, the more money you spend, the better the ingredients. A good quality perfume will set you back at least $100, but anything that costs more than $300 is just taking the piss. Even expensive ingredients like jasmine and iris don't cost that much to bottle.