Spring is here, and all those blooming flowers might make a girlfriend’s thoughts turn to…perfume. How about a girls night to explore fragrances? Help your girlfriends find a new signature scent, seasonal fragrance, or home fragrance. You can also make fragranced products together. Smells like a fun girls night to us! We had a little help from our girlfriends in creating this awesome party plan. Read on for the how-to! Perfume bottle photo via flickr

Setting and setup

You will need a clear table and room to mingle. If you are making scented products, you’ll need a workspace and materials.

Small bowls or vials of coffee beans help to clear your nose between aromas.

Snap up a copy of Perfumes: The Guide (only $6.99 on amazon) for some background on the history of perfume, plus a rating and review for all of the popular fragrances on the market today. You can even use it to create some perfume quizzes or trivia questions (for example, guess the popular perfume by reading the description). (thanks to girlfriend Jasmine from Salud Spa Bar for the tip!).

If you are making scented products (see below) you will want to purchase the supplies.

If you are sampling scents, you’ll need to acquire a selection of fragrances. There are a few ways to do this. You can purchase sample size vials from either Salud or from Luckyscents.com. (Tip from girlfriend Rachel: perfume samples are often sold in large lots on ebay.) Or, ask each girlfriend to bring her favorite perfumes and set them up for everyone to try. You can also hit department stores and request fragrance-counter samples of the hot new scents. Start a few weeks before the party and you’ll rack up a nice selection!

Set up your fragrances on a table with plenty of room to browse. Have heavy paper strips available for sampling the scents (putting them directly on the skin is ok for your uppermost favorites, but you’ll run out of skin after awhile!). You might want to have a rating sheet or note card for each girlfriend to take notes on her favorites.

Our girlfriend Rachel also suggests making these perfume sample flowers to help set the mood and use as decorations. These are lots of fun and super easy to make using perfume ads from magazines. 

Invitations

Scented invitations are a must to set the mood for this party, and sorry, but evite just won’t cut it. You’ll need to plan ahead a bit. You might make your own invitation in the shape of a classic perfume bottle, or buy one with a girly graphic (Target usually has a decent selection). Spritz your favorite perfume or add a drop of essential oil onto a strip of paper and add it to the invite.

Food & drink

Fruit, salty nibbles, chocolate—all are apropos, but stay away from strong aromas that will confuse your noses. Save the heavy garlic and onions for another party. Champagne seems fitting, but then we always think that!

Connecting Activities

Our girlfriend Tammy suggests making fragranced bath salts together. You can use epsom salts from the pharmacy and get scented oils from a perfumery like SaludSpaBar. See simple instructions here.

Jasmine suggests dividing up the girlfriends into group names like FRESH, FLORAL, FRUITY, and WOODSY. Divide up the groups, and have each work together to create their own new scents by layering the scents that they bring to the party. You can cut strips of heavy-stock paper to use as your testers.

You might also try a blind sniff test of some popular fragrances (these might vary depending on the age of your girlfriends). The girlfriend with the most correct answers wins!

Party favors

Let girlfriends take home their favorite samples, drawing straws for the most popular ones, or use them as door prizes for the winners of perfume quiz or trivia. This set of small atomizers (5 for $3.99) would make a practical party favor; either split them up or give a set to each girlfriend. They will be able to carry their new favorite scents everywhere!

We know you’ll smell lovely after this girls night, and maybe even find a new signature scent. Have fun mingling, blending, and inhaling all those lovely aromas. Smells heavenly!

Do you like this girls night idea? Have something to add? Leave a comment!