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Coffee Tips

Why Are Coffee Beans Used in Perfume Stores?

Do you like perfumes? If so, you never let a chance to enter a perfumery and sample or buy some perfumes pass you by.

You may have noticed coffee beans on the perfume store countertops and thought they were just decor. Or probably an attendant made you smell coffee beans while testing different perfumes. What were your thoughts about that?

coffee beans perfume stores

Well, coffee beans at a perfumery are not a random decor item. Neither are you given coffee beans to smell for no reason. These beans are used in perfume shops as an olfactory palate cleanser to activate your nasal receptors and enable you to appreciate the unique notes of each scent. Otherwise, your nose would get confused after smelling one or two perfumes.

 

Can Coffee Beans Clear Nasal Fatigue?

The other name for that feeling you get after smelling too many perfumes when you can’t identify one smell from the other is nasal fatigue. It is also referred to as nasal blindness.

If you’ve smelt the coffee beans in perfumeries, you know they give off a strong aroma similar to what you get from a pot of freshly brewed coffee. That jolt to your senses is enough to revitalize your nose and enable it to pick up the new scents you expose it to.

Otherwise, you will feel like every perfume in the shop smells the same. That occurs because the nasal receptors are too tired to differentiate between smells. They remain stuck at one perfume aroma as they struggle to identify the new scents you smell.

That leaves you with two options. You may recharge your nose by smelling something as strong as coffee beans to clear its palate or find another day to shop for perfume.

The attendants at the shop insist on asking you to smell some coffee beans to allow you to smell as many perfumes as you like and make the best perfume choice.

It’s important to note that coffee beans are not the only thing you can use to overcome olfactory fatigue. Some people use citrus fruits like lemon, lime, or oranges.

Your nose needs anything strong smelling that will shift it from the perfume it’s stuck on deciphering. That refreshes it and opens the way for you to test other fragrances.

 

What Other Things Can You Do to Reset Your Nasal Pallet?

What if you want to buy perfume with some notes of coffee? Will smelling coffee beans help you to separate three or four scents smelling a bit like coffee, enabling you to choose the best? That seems highly unlikely. In fact, that would only distort your options.

There is another way to overcome nasal fatigue if you feel smelling coffee messes with your sense of smell when buying perfume. That is leaving the perfumery for a few hours and then returning to try again. But that will reduce the time you have to shop for fragrances. Which makes it a waste of time.

Some nose experts say the smell of coffee beans is too strong to clear the nasal palate. It also removes some odorants from the nasal nerve cells used to detect smells which further interferes with your capacity to appreciate the perfumes you smell.

The experts advise perfume shoppers to walk away from the perfumes while in the store for a while. Just stepping to the doorway and back to the counter will refresh your nose.

Others suggest that a whiff of your skin, such as at the elbow, will restore your smell. While some perfume experts feel smelling a cashmere scarf or woolen sweater made of pure lambswool helps to clear the nasal cavities.

Smelling fragrances with different aroma notes, such as oriental or fruity, can also release your nose from fatigue. All the nose needs is a change of scent to refresh its nasal passages.

These simple steps will help to refresh your sense of smell and allow you to shop for a perfume successfully.

You could also ask the assistant at the shop to spritz some of the perfumes you like on cards with their individual names. Then you can sort out the unique smells of each perfume when you get home at your leisure.

Once you make a choice, you can simply rush to the perfumery for a short while and ask for the fragrance you like from the test cards given by the attendant.

 

Tips on How to Buy Perfume

It seems like perfume buying is a highly complex exercise, but it’s not. Once you learn a few tricks on buying perfume, you’ll be able to pick the scent you like at the store quickly without suffering olfactory fatigue. Here are a few.

  • Learn to identify the four fragrance categories to make it easier to choose a perfume while shopping for a scent. These are floral scents that smell like flowers, spicy oriental scents, woody fragrances that are reminiscent of forests, or fresh scents that remind you of the ocean.
  • Focus on the base notes of the perfume, which always give you its authentic scent. You can only smell these notes after a fragrance dries on your skin once the top and middle notes have evaporated.
  • Always test a perfume on your skin to identify its true notes. The warmth of your skin will activate the individual notes of the fragrance, allowing you to find out how it reacts with your personal scent.

 

Conclusion

Now that you know more about those coffee beans you see at the store, do you think they serve a good purpose? We think they do for any shopper interested in really appreciating the perfumes they smell.

But we’re also informed enough to know that coffee beans are not the only solution. In fact, many coffee beans in perfume stores aren’t changed for weeks, losing their aroma. They are unlikely to revitalize the nasal palate of any shopper due to their staleness. That’s why we’ve given you a few other options you can try to overcome olfactory fatigue.

Therefore, if smelling the coffee beans at the store is another source of fatigue, you have many more ways of dealing with your nose blindness. You don’t have to smell the coffee beans at the counter. Do whatever you can to ensure you enjoy your shopping experience.