How To Find The Right Scent For You
Perfumes are an olfactory dress that reveal the personality and character of its wearer. The different characteristics of perfumes for men can sometimes cause a difficulty when deciding which one to purchase. With hundreds of aromas on offer, it is not always easy to determine ‘the one’ when trying to find the right scent.
It is well believed that the grace of perfumes lays precisely in their ability to personalize and leave an ethereal memory of the wearer. However, even that one fragrance that shines above the rest may not be suitable for every occasion. It’s just like dressing up: you wouldn’t think to put on a suit, tie and loafers to a beach party nor would you wear a Hawaiian shirt to an important company meeting with the board of directors?
A good perfume will change subtly depending on the type of skin you have (with a pH more or less acidic), what you have eaten or the environment in which you live. Getting to grasp the greater complexity of the different facets of an aroma will also depend on how educated your nose is. If you are after the best perfume to suit your personality and taste, here are our top ten tips to help you find the right scent. You will then understand what you should take into account when skimming through the best men’s colognes or beard oils. This also goes for deodorants and body sprays.
1. Consider Your Personality
Some guys prefer an opulent scent, others prefer to wear it light and fresh. If you know what type of fragrances you like the most, it will be much easier for you to choose among the hundreds stacked out there in the department stores. The following are some of the most commonly used scents for men:
- Citrus: these scents contain a much higher percentage of components such as tangerine, grapefruit or orange. Zen forMen by Shiseido is a good example. It is versatile and works well at all times of the year.
- Herbal: these types of aromas are often defined as a forest smell; leaves, stems, and trees come to mind. A good example is Polo by Ralph Lauren which offers a structured smell of freshly cut grass that lasts over time.
- Oriental: these colognes are based on spices such as vanilla, pepper, and cinnamon and they are usually more suitable for a night out. The Ck One Red Edition for Him offers a surprising mix of pears, peppers, ginger, and tonka beans.
- Fruit trees: although this type of scent offers a sweet spot, they do not stop being refreshing. Among the most common notes are peach, apricot, berries, and even melons. The Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir Cologne offers a sweet fruity fragrance based on pomegranates
- Woody: these colognes often contain notes of wood, moss, incense, amber or resins. Although very intense, the Invictus by Paco Rabanne offers a long lasting smell that triumphs among many other woody scented perfumes out there.
A perfume also has a structure conceived in the form of an olfactory pyramid divided into three parts: the high notes (those perceived from vaporization are fresh and volatile), the middle notes or heart of the perfume (they are often more voluptuous, and appear after ten minutes) and the low notes (which are heavy and tenacious and are the ones that fix the perfume). You will only know the true smell of a perfume one hour after applying it when all the notes come to light.
2. Opt for Quality Only
A memorable and attractive fragrance is an excellent way to leave a mark in your surroundings; be in the office, or outdoors, you can’t go wrong smelling ‘so fresh and so clean’. What’s more, if you have a face that can easily be forgotten (no insult intended), certain aromas can refer to specific moments or people, which means a catchy scent will have you noted in everyone’s books. But how do you detect a quality perfume?
Choosing a good perfume not only has to do with what suits your personality and pH, but also with its quality. A quality fragrance should last about six hours on the body, so the maximum number of applications should not exceed twice a day. And if two different colognes are used throughout the day, they must be applied at least six hours apart so that the aromas do not mix.
Initially, the best way to know that you are acquiring a real cologne or solid cologne is to buy it in authorized places. This means department stores, pharmacies and reputable online sites such as Amazon. So a backstreet seller who sets up shop in the middle of the street and runs when he spots the ‘old bill’ is a no-no.
3. What About the Occasion?
Many people find it difficult to commit to a perfume. Most have extra perfume for the summer and one for the winter. Many also distinguish their everyday scents from those for special occasions. Fragrance families are often crucial – light, citrus or floral fragrances are very suitable for everyday use, while oriental perfumes or gourmand fragrances are something for special occasions. As mentioned earlier, the most important fragrance families to keep in mind to help you pair up with an occasion is Citrus, Floral, Floriental, Oriental, Chypre, Fougère, and Gourmand.
4. For What Time Of the Year?
There are powerful fragrances that smell fantastic in winter, but if you put them on in summer, they tend to saturate. This is due to the fact that both the change in the environment and heat increases our body aromas. So it is preferable not to overload the olfactory stimuli more than necessary. To have a good idea, what to opt for, stick to fruity or herbal fragrances in summer, and woody and oriental scents in winter. But that is not all! Unless you are short for a change over time, try to switch up your scent – wearing the same cologne to go to the office and out to dinner is not ideal. Rather, choose the freshest morning fragrance for the daytime and at night, intensify the aroma a little.
5. Test It Out Yourself
When choosing a perfume, it is normal to try it on the skin itself; depending on the degree of acidity you have, the resulting aroma noticeably varies. Physically testing it out on your skin is fundamental not merely by going with word of mouth. Just because it smells good on one person is not a guarantee that the same thing will happen with another. That’s because we all have different acidity levels. The same advice goes when someone says ‘I smelt the aroma in the jar and I loved it, but when I put it on, it does not smell the same’. This does not happen because of the fixation of the product, but because of the pH of the skin, which determines the fragrance of the person.
It is also ideal to try four to five perfumes at most if they are all very different from each other. However, only go for two or three at a time if they all offer the same intensity. Start with the lightest ones and – above all – apply them in places that are not close so as not to saturate or mix the aromas.
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