The 16 Best Perfumes for Women, Tested by Editors

Fragrance is incredibly subjective—what smells good to me might smell like New York City street trash to someone else, and vice versa. Not only that, but asking people to pick their favorite fragrance can be equivalent to asking them to pick their favorite child. Some people are fragrance loyalists and never stray from their signature scent, while others (like me) match their fragrance to their mood, cycling through different perfumes on a whim.

But even with everyone’s different scent tastes, there are a few fragrances that always make the top of every list of best fragrances. These scents are universally loved, even by the toughest critics. So we decided to put the most beloved fragrances to the test. After whittling down a list of 67 top fragrances, 11 Who What Wear editors blind tested 24 vanilla perfumes, sweet perfumes, fruity perfumes, and more from top brands such as Byredo and Maison Margiela Replica, rating each on a scale of one to 10. Curious what scents are up to snuff? Keep scrolling!