Fragrance is not a gift for a stranger. It is not a gift for a boss, the postman, your baby-sitter, the person who feeds your cat on weekends away. Partly, this is because a fragrance gift from a person not intimately known raises suspicions that the giver is either flirting or insinuating the giftee needs some freshening up. Another powerful reason is that to buy someone fragrance, you need to know two complicated things well: the someone and the fragrance.

People simply identify too much with perfumes; the person who wears one wants to inhabit it, not just jog alongside. It is entirely possible to buy your mum or best pal a fragrance for the ages, a classic beauty, only to watch her spray a wrist, then stand there awkwardly, looking for the door, as if on one of those awful blind dates where simple “what do you do for a living?” chitchat requires more energy than finding the Higgs boson. Eventually, they sneak off, scrub up and say, “It was nice, but I felt it was wearing me, not the other way around.” It ends up in the back of the closet or on eBay.

All gifts of art are privy to such rejection: the original painting that gets hung in the loo, the CD rated number 1 by all music critics this year that the love of your life rates “not my thing”, the award-winning novel that your sister won’t open. Still, if you get to know perfumes and people, occasionally one reminds you uncannily of the other. They speak in the same tone of voice; they have the same smile, the same laugh, the same warm embrace or cool demeanour; you realise they need to be introduced. All gifts should be like this — when what you say on presentation is not, “I hope you like it,” but “I thought you needed this.”

Reviews adapted from perfumestheguide.com

THE TOP NEW PICKS FOR WOMEN

1 No 5 Eau Première (Chanel), £67; 020 7493 3836. Aldehydic floral This is abstract, classical perfumery at its best, revisited by people who do not see modernisation as an excuse for screwing up. LT

2 Azzaro Couture (Azzaro), from £97, from Harrods. Fruity chypre What makes it novel is a clever accord that is reminiscent of ripe mango and elegantly joins together the creamy, fruity and resinous sides of the fragrance. LT

3 Ma Dame (Jean Paul Gaultier), from £25, available nationwide. Lemon vanilla Cheap, brash and perversely catchy, like a throwaway pop song with terrible lyrics you’re embarrassed to find yourself and everyone else singing when it plays at the shopping centre. TS

4 Insolence eau de parfum (Guerlain), from £36.50, available nationwide. Godzilla floral The most deliciously vulgar perfume on the market today. LT

5 Rose Alexandrie (Armani Privé), £70; 020 7318 2486. Resinous tuberose This rose-tuberose chypre is Beautiful revisited, with most of the ballast cut out, giving a new transparency. TS

6 Un Jardin Après la Mousson (Hermès), £43.50, available nationwide. Floral pepper A mix of melon, capsicum and peppercorns that adds up to the fruity note that distinguishes habanero chillies from mere hot ones. LT

7 Scent 79 Woman (Jil Sander), £85; 0800 652 7561. Fruity galbanum Much in the way that Chinatown refurbished the old Givenchy III with a glorious dose of peach and vanilla, Scent 79 redoes Chanel No 19 with the same. TS

8 Rossy de Palma (Etat Libre d’Orange), £45, from Harvey Nichols. Edgy rose This rose is edgily uncomfortable, as if asked to sit on a bar stool while wearing a very short skirt. LT

9 Stephen Jones (Stephen Jones), £75; 020 7518 0680. Aldehydic poblano A Chanel No 22 with a top note of fried green peppers and overheated inkjet printer. So bright it makes White Linen look in need of a hot wash. TS

10 Notorious (Ralph Lauren), £30, available nationwide. Vermouth cola This new old-fashioned fragrance takes you through a gin- and-Campari top note to a whisky-cola middle section modelled on Youth Dew. TS

THE BEST A MAN CAN GET

Tom of Finland (Etat Libre d’Orange), £45; 020 7235 5000. Saffron lemon This dusty lemon has the unerring crisp dryness of the old Monsieur Balmain and brings to mind clear mountain weather with visibility to China, or the feeling of cool hands on a fevered forehead. TS

Escale à Portofino (Dior), from £40; 020 7216 0216. Almond cologne A lovely cologne with a mouthwatering citrus top note, a strange bitter-almonds note in the heart and an excellent fresh-waxy, aldehydic dry-down in the grand manner. LT

Scent 79 Man (Jil Sander), £85; 0800 652 7561. Cigarette fougère A languid, cool smell of damp, leafy, green notes, dry wood and unsmoked cigarettes that could make you nostalgic for the days people smoked in bars. TS

Guerlain Homme (Guerlain), £29, available nationwide. Rum wood Though too close in structure to the wonderful Yohji Homme — the fresh-warm balance, the presence of rum, mint and an anisic note — since Yohji is now discontinued, I would rather have GH than nothing. LT

Incense Extrême (Tauer Perfumes), £52; tauerperfumes.com. Citrus incense The clever accord with petitgrain and iris is old-fashioned in a soap-and-water cologne way and brings to mind grand hotel bathrooms: black and white tiles, brass fittings and abundant hot water. LT

Dior Homme Sport (Dior), from £36, as before. Ginger soap Combines a sports- fragrance feel intended for the presentable young buck with a touch of the reassuring middle-aged torpor of the old Paco Rabanne. LT

L’Eau de Jatamansi (L’Artisan Parfumeur), £80; 020 7486 3435. Floral spikenard The structure, though not wildly original, is subtle: fresh, woody citrus up top, a caressing dollop of soft rose and a background of, among other things, spikenard and incense. LT

Times recommends

• Live chat: Thrifty ways to update your winter wardrobe
• Is anybody out there really listening?
• Nutrition Q&A: Will eating late make me fat?