Scent is a deeply personal sense. A single whiff of something sweet in the air can transport a person to a different place and time, or send another sniffer into GagLand.
Discovering a signature scent is more than a simple shopping endeavor. It traditionally requires a much more hands-on (nose-on?) approach than shopping for something like a new laptop or appliance.
The cost of colognes and perfumes can be eye-watering, potentially turning a simple transaction into a high-stakes guessing game where failure can result in quite the funk for your bank account and your body odor.
Here’s how to use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT to find your perfect signature scent without sacrificing a single spritz or suffering through samples and sour notes. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Start with how you want to feel
There’s brain science to suggest smell is the sense most closely associated with memory. You can use AI to potentially hack into happy memories by requesting recommendations for scents containing notes associated with specific places and things that make you feel all warm and fuzzy.
ChatGPT offered some excellent options for scents that matched the vibe of summer camp perfectly.
Take your lifestyle into account
Some scents aren’t for everyone. If you’re partnered or spend a lot of time in close quarters with others, you might need to strike a balance between what moves your olfactory system into ecstasy and what won’t offend the people around you. Make sure to offer some don’ts, dislikes, allergies and sensitive considerations around the recommendations.
ChatGPT excelled at this task, immediately understanding why someone would want a perfume or fragrance that didn’t have a spray application and offering some solid smells that met the negative criteria laid forth.
It had five suggestions but here are two of them — as well as some tips it gave me on what else to look for:
Break the bank or keep it cheap and cheerful
AI tools like ChatGPT can easily categorize products by cost, and you have the added benefit of setting parameters around the sneakier details related to fancy fragrances, like how much actual perfume or cologne you’ll get and a cost-by-ounce breakdown instead of a total bottle price.
You’re then free to decide if that designer smell is worth the price or if a cheaper alternative is truly the better option. Because the chat was consistent with ChatGPT, it kept my previous preferences in mind when it offered a range of scents that made for good value.
Working within your rewards
Beauty e-commerce sites like Sephora and Ulta have rewards programs you might want to take advantage of when deciding on a fragrance. ChatGPT can search these sites for inventory in the area of your suggested scents, making it easier to stack those points towards freebies and fat samples.
Get a little something extra on the side
Perfumers will sometimes offer gifts with purchase when shoppers plunk down cash for their carefully designed smelly goods. You might use an AI tool to check department store sites for free-with-purchase goodies that come with your newly discovered signature scent.
Avoid sneaky stinkers with the wisdom of the crowd
AI tools like ChatGPT can comb through reviews across the web for key details on scent profiles, how long the smell might last and how much you might need to douse yourself to get the full effect of the scent.
Also, if the notes are off or sour in the smell, a set of reviews by real humans with real noses could be the canary in the coal mine that keeps you from making a stinky mistake.
One cited Reddit review revealed one fragrance «as having a scent reminiscent of burning trash,» a tidbit better discovered from afar than after a brave, hefty spritz IRL.
Bon chance on your AI-assisted scent journey and, no matter which perfume or cologne you select, keep in mind that masking something gross with a fragrance spritz will never beat a solid scrub with good old soap and water.
