The 15 best perfumes to gift in 2025, tried & tested

This is perhaps the most unique scent I own. It screams sophistication. Noor Eau de Parfum opens up with smoky black pepper with a hint of floral notes from french rose.  As the fragrance dries down, you get an inviting waft of lavender. When the bottle is placed on my dresser it looks like a piece of art. The curved bottle and marble topped lid will wow anyone you hand this to as a gift. 

This is a true long lasting scent. An extrait de parfum is nearly 30 percent fragrance oil that melts into the skin for over 12 hour wear. Retrospect is a rich fragrance that opens with soft notes of floral and settles with warm moss for a second-skin finish. 

This is a true floral perfume. It is composed like a bouquet of flowers with peonies and creamy, lush, velvety Rose. Miss Dior is the scent that carries me from day to night. On the dry down, there is a surprising hint of musk. 

Initio adopts is a very unique scent. Mysterious, but inviting impulse-awakening aromas. With each spritz you get a thrilling concoction that leaves you wanting more. The seductive, spicy yet floral scent is the perfect complement to a sultry date-night look.

There’s a reason why Frédéric Malle’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ has amassed a cult following. Mature, compliment-inducing and bold, it layers mystical, velvety rose over a woody base, with a fruity depth. 

Carolina Herrera are known for their divine high heel perfumes and Good Girl is no exception. Both sweet and alluring, this scent is designed as an empowering everyday spritz for the bold and unapologetic.

Part of Chanel’s Les Exclusifs line, ‘Misia’ is a total joy for iris obsessives. Inspired by the heady anticipation of opera dressing rooms, the scent is powdery, fizzy and a signifier of imminent excitement. It’s giving palatial parma violet.

Above all else, Ormonde Jayne’s ‘Ormonde Woman’ is such a thoughtful, interesting creation, that I can’t help but mentally applaud Linda Pilkington with each spritz. Uplifting and radiant, this scent combines the rare black hemlock with musky jasmine – I think of it as an olfactive protective shield.

An unexpected favourite, the amber in Bvlgari’s ‘Magnifying Myrrh’ has a lovely resin-like quality to it. Aromatic and soft, it floods the skin with warmth and this scent never fails to elicit a compliment.

An outlier in the fragrance world, vegan independent perfume house Sana Jardin is the proud creator of some extraordinary luxury scents. A discovery set would no doubt go down a treat with any beauty fanatic, but this is the fragrance I constantly come back to, featuring hypnotic patchouli layered over come-to-bed rose.

Diptyque’s ‘L’Ombre dans l’Eau’ has strong summer associations, but I have no qualms about wearing it all year round. The tartness of the blackcurrant alongside the plush, dense rose feels romantic and in Toilette form it has a certain easy-breezy levity. 

The intention behind ‘Rose 31’ was to transform the traditionally feminine Grasse rose into something more “virile”, but for me, its prettiness is its superpower. Creamy, spa-like and with a lathery appeal, I love the inclusion of non-disruptive spices that run through the base.

Comforting and creamy, Vilhelm Parfumerie’s ‘Poets of Berlin’ is directly inspired by David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy. Call me musically challenged, but I’ve never listened to them, and I lapped up the scent all the same. The lemon is completely devoid of sharpness and the vanilla feels flat and purry rather than sickly sweet. Obsessed.

With ‘Tudor’, Liberty’s new fragrance label LBTY pays tribute to the building’s rich heritage. Steeped in history, this woody floral scent aptly reminds me of my beloved Hampton Court’s Great Hall, evoking architectural extravagance. 

Herby and fresh, Bastille’s ‘Pleine Lune’ combines green tea with jasmine, the standout tuberose and a hint of pink pepper to form a pleasantly sexy daytime fragrance.