I want to get a perfume for my girlfriend as a gift but I am stumped. Any recommendations?
Don’t do it. Fragrance is one of those things that’s so personal it should never be a gift unless it’s a resupply of something you already know she loves.
Different fragrances smell different when they interact with your body chemistry.
If she’s like me and is very fussy about perfumes, I’d say go with something that she already has - maybe see which bottle is getting low, or get her a different type of fragrance-delivery system for a scent she already has (like a hand or body lotion or something).
Are you sure she likes perfume?
Does she wear it already?
If she already wears some, get the scent she wears, maybe something with the lotion/body wash in that scent. If not, don’t get her any.
I do wear perfume, but I’m also picky about what I wear - for one thing, perfumes smell different on different people. Also, what smells great to one person smells like bugspray to someone else.
Yeah, if you’re committed to this idea and she doesn’t already wear a scent, your best bet would be to take her shopping for something that you both like.
I’ve been given new perfume by well-intentioned boyfriends and it’s not fun to receive, seriously.
My wise older cousin once told my brother to “buy here something that you like the taste of” 
I agree with the sentiment that you should avoid picking one out. Perfume is a very personal decision for many women and many times what my bf would find nice I would find revolting. Sephora has a nice gift set of about 10 different scents, plus a coupon for when you find the one you like. This would be a good option, but I can’t seem to find it online at the moment. This is the men’s version.
Or better yet, one that she likes the taste of. Seriously. I know a woman who can tell if a perfume will smell good on her by touching it to her tongue – if it tastes nasty, it will not smell good on her.
If you know what she already wears and do want to get her something else, you could try using this online fragrance guide recommended by Luca Turin (if you know who he is). It suggests likely matches based on those you already wear. For example, I wear Cashmere Mist by Donna Karan - the suggestions are things like Jasmin and Cigarettes - not tried it but it sounds intriguing.
That being said, she could still hate it, regardless of what the Internet says, smell is very subjective.
I only wear one perfume. Get her a gift certificate for that purpose or bring her and let her pick it out. Most perfumes give me a headache and women are picky when it comes to what they like in fragrances.
Lots of people (women included) can’t stand how perfume smells. Perfume would be a terrible gift for me, for example, because perfume generally smells like bathroom cleaning products to me, and either give me a headache, make me sneeze, or both. I also don’t like strong scents on me which interfere with my sense of smell; I apparently use my nose more than other people do, and can usually identify people I’m close to by their scent alone. It’s sensory input that I’d have a hard time doing without.
So to go along with the others: if she doesn’t currently wear perfume, don’t buy her any without asking her first. If she does, get her another bottle of the scent she’s already using.
I’ll echo “DON’T DO IT!”.
The only times that I’ve been given perfume as a gift that I actually liked it was when the giver already knew what I wore. She may smile and politely thank you, but it will likely be sent to Goodwill.
Just don’t. Really bad idea. Don’t care if you’re male, female, or anything in between. Kinda like giving her/him/whom hair dye.
No disrespect intended.
Nice of you to want to give, but no, no. :)\V
'Course I’m a man, so I’m a fool to claim to know! :smack:
I’ma go with “don’t” or “take her shopping with you.”
However …
Estee Lauder Beautiful Love is heavenly.
Note: Beautiful LOVE. Not the just plain Beautiful. Gotta say “love” on the bottle.
Not only are there the issues of disliking scents the others mentioned, but there’s the message of it. You have to be careful not to send the wrong message. Buying certain scents will send the “You’re getting old, you should smell like an old lady” message. Others will send the “I smelled this on a stripper and really liked it; perhaps you should smell like a stripper, too?” And there’s the “I like the way teenie boppers smell… wear this candy-scented perfume!”
It’s waaaayyy to personal to do it without her influence and feedback.
There are three levels of perfume - Bath & Body Works sprays (inexpensive), stuff you can buy in a drugstore or grocery store (moderate) and real perfume bought at a department store (arm and a leg). I’m wondering how old the girlfriend is - if she’s really young, I don’t see anything wrong with getting her something from Bath & Body Works. If she doesn’t like apple berry, she can always exchange it for cucumber berry (save the receipt)… If the OP is talking about something like Emeraude or Curve (Walgreens) or real perfume like Chanel No. 5 or Ralph Lauren (Macy’s), I will join in and say NO.