How to Build a Fragrance Wardrobe for Less Than $150

As a long-time fragrance blogger and collector with well over 100 scents, here’s my advice: Don’t collect over 100 scents.

Starting in 2020, I’ve spent a small fortune on fragrances, possibly enough for a down payment on a home, not just because I liked them, but because I was curious about way too many smells.

I view fragrance, much like fashion, as wearable art. You can use scent to define your mood and energy for the day. You can create characters with it. One day, you’re a femme fatale cloaked in black coffee and pink pepper. The next, you’re a precious darling who smells like sugar cookies and fresh-picked strawberries.

That’s truly what attracted me to fragrance in the first place.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably new to the world of scent and aren’t sure where to start. Let me break it down for you.

According to perfumery taxonomist Michael Edwards, fragrance falls into four main families: floral, amber, woody, and fresh.

A floral fragrance is your stereotypical rosy scent, or what you’d expect from a flower garden. Amber fragrances are warm and sometimes spicy, with notes like vanilla and cinnamon, often leaning into what major fragheads would call “gourmand,” which is code for smelling like (ideally sweet) food.

Woody fragrances are what you’d probably like on a guy: think pine or freshly chopped firewood on a cold day. Lastly, fresh scents are airy and clean, like the smell of the ocean or your skin after a nice shower.

This isn’t to say a good perfume stays within just one family. A well-made fragrance tends to pull elements from different families to create something unique and artful, sometimes even telling a story.

As a fragrance beginner, you can use these four scent families as the basis for building your fragrance wardrobe.

But how do you build one for about $150 when the average designer scent can cost more than that?

My dear reader, I’m glad you asked.

Let’s go category by category and dive into what you need without breaking the bank.

Floral: Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb Eau de Parfum Travel Spray, $35

I always advise fragrance newbies to start small. If you’re unsure about a scent, especially when buying it online without smelling it first, buy the travel or rollerball version.

And Flowerbomb is an absolute floral classic.

Not to be a little biased, but this was the first fragrance I invested my own money in. The mix of peony, rose, and freesia with just a hint of vanilla is flirty, feminine, and a crowd-pleaser.

My ex loved it on me so much that he bought me a full bottle with my name engraved on it.

If that isn’t love, I’m not sure what is. 

Amber: Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 Intense Perfume Mist, $34

I have so much praise for Sol de Janeiro because the brand makes high-quality scents accessible to younger people without being too expensive or overly mature-smelling. And Cheirosa 62 has earned its spot in my fragrance hall of fame.

This ambery gourmand vanilla is summer in a bottle, with notes of pistachio, salted caramel, and patchouli. I especially love the Intense Perfume Mist because it’s long-lasting without making me feel drenched in a heavy, cloying scent.

All you need is a light mist in your hair and on your clothes if you like to be enveloped in a soft cloud of warmth and vanilla cake.

It’s an award-winner for a reason, and I’d recommend it to girls ages 13 to 73 if I could.

Woody: Dossier Woody Sandalwood, $49

Dossier, my angel, my beloved.

I love what you’re doing to democratize the scent industry. No, I don’t think you’re making cheap dupes of designer scents. I think you’re making designer-inspired scents more accessible to people who can’t afford the originals (yet).

I was gifted a Dossier scent years ago, and I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the Dossier scent and the original it was inspired by.

Yes, Santal 33 by Le Labo is a classic, but we don’t all have Le Labo money ($250!).

Santal 33 smells amazing in the bottle. It’s an earthy, woodsy palette of scent with a hint of floral and skin musk, making it an androgynous dream. But I’m not going to spend the full $250 until I know I like the general scent profile for $49 first.

So, while I would recommend Santal 33 here, let’s go with its fairly priced twin, Woody Sandalwood.

Someone’s going to ask if you’re wearing Santal 33 anyway.

Fresh: Skylar Salt Air Rollerball, $33 ($23 member price)

Skylar has had an interesting rebrand to reintroduce itself to the Gen Z crowd. It was “refounded” by Leah Kateb of Love Island USA Season 6 fame. Leah, in a way, is the brand’s new creative force and face, bringing her style and influence to a company that was fairly faceless before.

Usually, when brands go through massive changes like this, I cringe. But Skylar didn’t give up the earlier scents that put it on my radar in the first place, like Salt Air.

Salt Air is a quintessential fresh scent that reminds me of my early days living in Boston, feeling the sea breeze along the harbor while wrapped in a beige fisherman-knit sweater.

It’s perfect for those days when you want to smell like “I don’t know what,” but still mostly like yourself. It’s soft, comforting, and especially clean.

You can wear this to the office or on a plane and know you’re not offending anyone while still smelling chic and refined.

And there you have it: a fragrance wardrobe for about $150 without committing to four full-size bottles. Start small, figure out what you actually love, and build from there. Your nose (and your bank account) will thank you.