Perfume is a great gift for Mother's Day. It is a wonderful, luxurious substance that few women ever buy for themselves. It says how much you value and appreciate your mother. That's great till you get to the perfume counter.

If you're not a regular perfume shopper, you're in for a major surprise. There are literally thousands of products on the market. Some of them, curiously, have similar-sounding names. (Many manufacturers will make three or four scents and market them under similar but slightly different names like 360, 360 White, and 360 Blue or Estee Lauder's Beautiful family of scents.)

How do you pick the right fragrance? It's a piece of cake if your mother has voiced opinions about perfumes, if she has one or two favorites, or if you can find out (from someone else) what perfumes she is most interested in.

We'll assume this is not your situation.

If your mom owns some fragrances, do some subtle recognizance to see what she uses or at least hasn't tossed out. Don't trust your memory; write down the names of these items. The reason you need this is that a perfume counter expert will be able to match those preferences against similar types of fragrances on the market.

(For instance, if your mom favors light florals, there are tons of them on the market and you'll also know to steer clear of the Orientals and the spices.)

If there are females in the family you can talk with, ask if they know anything about your mother's taste in perfume. Again, take notes on any names that come up.

If you still come up empty (or even if you get some bits of information), you need to think about your mother and her lifestyle.

• Does your mother normally wear fragrance? If she does, chances are good that she is a perfume lover. Most perfume lovers enjoy having lots and lots of different scents. In other words, you really can't go too far wrong buying any high-quality fragrance product.
• Does your mother only occasionally wear fragrance, say, when she's going out at night? Fragrances for night tend to be heavier than day-time scents, which are usually lighter and more floral. You should tell this to the salesperson, namely that you're looking for a classic or subtle scent for mainly evening wear.
• Does your mother only occasionally wear perfume but at odd occasions, like once in a while to the grocery store and then to work but more often than not she forgets it? This suggests that she is uncomfortable with powerful or very strong scents. Opt for something very light. Florals are great for this, since they work for almost everyone, and you can get some nice light scents.
• Is your mother basically an active, energetic, youthful kind of person who works out, travels, has outside employment or volunteer work? Go for colognes, spray on scents, and lighter things. Many of the latest designer fragrances would fit the bill.
• Is your mother an older woman, more classic in her tastes, perhaps a bit more formal and sedentary, but still having a lot of outside interests and friends? Go for one of the aldehyde scents (ask the salesperson).
• Is your mother very sedentary and more confined in her lifestyle? By all means, go with some of the florals unless she has an established favorite. Don't go with the wispy florals or the new trendy stuff. Try something like Very Irresistable from Givenchy (roses, roses, roses). By the way, and this may seem ironic, Very Irresistable is a great fragrance for young women. It's like putting your head deep into a boquet of roses in full bloom.
• Is your mother an intellectual or a scholar? Steer clear of the florals and go for something spicy, like Opium. She'll enjoy the more intriguing fragrances.
• Does your mother follow pop culture, fashion, TV and movies? She may like some of the new celebrity fragrances, partly for the name value. (Sarah Jessica Parker, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Liz Taylor, Jennifer Lopez and lots more folks have their own fragrance line, sometimes several perfumes.) Many of these scents are light and trendy, meaning they are hip and fashionable and usually work pretty well for most people.

These are just rough guidelines. Go to the biggest perfume counter you can find in your town (a large upscale department store is the place to start) and try to find the most knowledgeable perfume person you can find. You'll be surprised, but even in a department store where few people know their stuff, perfume counters often are staffed by experts. Describe your mother, any perfumes she likes that you know about, and some ideas you have (florals? spicy? light scent? heavier scent?)

The sales person may encourage you to smell some of the scents, which you should probably do, but don't take your first whiffs too seriously. Here's why:

• You're smelling top notes, that is, the first things that the manufacturer have jump out of the bottle at you. This is not really how the perfume will smell after an hour or so.
• You're going to get confused if you try to smell too many.
• Perfume will smell differently on a woman's skin than straight out of the bottle; you're getting a pretty extreme dose.

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