I may have created the perfect job for myself. A great gift recommender has to shop a lot, and I do love that. I also like to judge. It turns out I have strong opinions.

Yesterday, my teenage daughter and I headed off to Sephora to sniff out great scented gifts for tween and teen girls. The store was packed (on a school holiday, of course), which turned out to be perfect. I leaned on my granny powers and asked a group camped out at the FORVR MOOD display what they liked. They happily spilled: favorites, good deals, the works.

Back home, I looked up the brand. Vegan and cruelty-free? Check. But when I tried to find out where the perfumes were made, or whether workers were treated fairly? Silence. Then I learned perfumers have been mysterious since Cleopatra’s day, guarding formulas and methods like state secrets.

Will I ever be able to recommend a perfume? Probably not. To begin with, a legal loophole in the Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1973 exempts fragrance ingredients from mandatory disclosure on product labels. Finding out where or who makes the scent is all very black box.

• Curious about that history of secrecy? Read how scientists recreated Cleopatra’s favorite perfume. 
• Want to see the perfume the tweens couldn’t stop talking about? Visit FORVR MOOD Fine Fragrances.