Why we don't show an overall rating.
A 4.2-star perfume is a meaningless object. Here's what we show instead, and why.
Open any other fragrance site. The first number you see next to a perfume is a 4-point-something out of 5.
We don't show that number. Not because we don't have the data — we have plenty — but because the number is a lie of a particular kind.
A 4.2 means this perfume is broadly acceptable to the average person on the internet. It does not mean it's good. It does not mean it's good for you. It does not even mean the people giving it 4 stars and the people giving it 5 are responding to the same thing.
Take any famous perfume — Dior Sauvage, say, or Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille. Both sit comfortably in the 4-point-something range. Both are loved by some people who would never wear the other. The number flattens that. Worse, it rewards inoffensiveness — the perfumes that climb highest on a 5-point scale are the ones that are hardest to dislike. Hardest to dislike is not the same as worth wearing.
What we show instead
Three things, in order of how much we trust them:
- What people who liked things you also liked thought of it. That's a much narrower, more useful signal — and it's why we ask you what you love at sign-up.
- Words. Real review text, written by people who are paying attention. We pull the most useful ones up.
- Shape. A perfume's accord profile, drawn as a shape you can compare to another perfume. You learn faster from comparing two shapes than from comparing two numbers.
A friend's strong opinion is more useful than a stranger's average opinion, every time. We're trying to build a site where the friend's opinion is what you see.
When ratings are useful
They're useful for the direction of your gut: when you sniff something, did your face do the 4-star thing or the 2-star thing? That's data. We collect it (privately, on your shelf) and use it to learn what you like.
We just don't put a number on the perfume's hat.