I love fragrance, but find it hard to know what a scent truly smells like while wearing it. I usually need to smell it on someone else or wait days between testing. Is this normal?

-bsrice 

Absolutely normal! And, I would add neurologically inevitable.

Scent is one of our most elusive and complex senses. Our sense of smell is context-dependent, and that context includes what's going on outside and inside our bodies.

Consider how food smells amazing when you're hungry, but not the same after you've eaten.

Or how you never notice the smell of your own house, but your friends' houses each have unique scent.

There are real psychological and physiological reasons why it's hard to evaluate a perfume. 

For one, we become nose-blind to what we're wearing, but not uniformly—some notes fade while others persist, creating a constantly shifting experience.

Different days, moods, weather, and settings all play a part.

Even as a perfumer, I struggle to evaluate any fragrance, especially my own work. 

When I'm developing something new, I save testing on myself for key decision points. Instead, I spritz my husband with formulas in development during our evening walks, then follow behind him like a creep to catch his sillage instead of actually talking about our day. Married life! (He's very patient.) 

There's a lot of science that doesn't fit into this post, but this isn't on you; it's a fact of fragrant life.

Fragrance appreciation requires patience in our instant-gratification world.

Your relationship with a fragrance deepens over time, just like any meaningful connection.

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