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Helpful Tips for Buying and Wearing Cologne

Last week I asked a friend of mine who works as an expert for a major upscale store that specializes in things like make-up and colognes why my Gucci cologne stays on so much longer than the other three that I occasionally wear (Marc Jacobs, Bulgari's Aqua and Kenneth Cole's Black). Her response was very lengthy, but if you are interested in knowing how colognes are made and how they work, also very informative. So I figured I would post it here in case any of you have wondered the same thing, or would soon be doing some holiday shopping and wanted to enter stores better informed about what it is that you are really looking for. She has some helpful shopping tips, both in terms of offering some informative insights into the ones I wear, and in terms of simply knowing what you need to be careful of when you shop for cologne, how to shop smarter, and what you should definitely avoid.

The following is the note from Expert X:

A fragrance is traditionally comprised of three notes, those being the top, second, and base notes. It can be more or less than that, but most perfumers and professional noses stick with the three per fragrance rule. A note is the essence of what made up the fragrance. So a note can be a class(white flowers is a common one), a single ingredient (tender pink rose), or a blend of many different things (musk, sandalwood, and patchouli).

Your top notes are what you always smell first in a fragrance, and most people choose their fragrance based on what the top notes are. This is actually not the best way to chose a fragrance, but it is the most common. Spraying a fragrance strip and smelling it two seconds later - that's all top note. The top notes are what is going to fade away fastest as well - usually within the first hour. So even though the things in a top note might be pretty or clean or whatever, decades of experience has taught the perfumers that these scents do not last much over an hour (some considerably less). In the top note category would be almost all white flowers, all citrus.... most anything that would be described as clean, fresh, or crisp.

Your second note is what many perfumers consider to be the true essence of the fragrance, or the heart. This adds a little mystery to the fragrance, because these are the things that will last the longest and will remain in your memory where you don't think they are. Perfect example of this - rose. Rose is a second note, and even though you can smell it initially, it gains momentum in the 1-3 hour range. It settles down and deepens to a different scent, and pretty much all people around our age thing of our grandmothers when we smell it. It is for that reason that the second note, or the heart, that most perfumers are concerned with. Lots of ingredients fall in this category: light vanillas, vetyvier, apple, pear, blackberry (most all fruits except citrus), heartier flowers like iris, rose, honeysuckle; water based scents (like sand and salt and other things of the ocean), butter, sugar, chocolate, grass...... lots of shit.

The base note is what gives a fragrance it's depth, and once again, even though sometimes you will smell it initially, it will deepen and expand as the hours go by, and by the 4th hour this is usually all you can smell. For me, this is the most important part of a fragrance, mostly because I like spicy scents and they are in this category. Strangely enough, if a fragrance has enough base notes, it can hold the second note (or the heart) of the fragrance longer. They have to work together though. So... some base notes are patchouli, sandalwood, most all spices, musk, amber, that sort of stuff. Things that make you think of a heavy fragrance are probably loaded with base notes.

You asked about a chemical reaction - I am assuming you mean the reaction when a person sprays something on their skin, and how their skin accepts the fragrance. This is sometimes called the fourth note - the one that cannot be planned for! Every person has a different Ph balance to their skin which can affect a fragrance, as well as the foods they eat, the products they use, etc. There are some fragrances that can be very different on each person as a result. This can be a good or bad thing. Romance from Ralph Lauren for women is like that - it's good because it smells different on every woman, but it always smells like a classic floral. Angel for women is just the opposite - this pungent atrocity is made up of chocolate, patchouli and something that smells like a dirty vagina. Lots of women love this fragrance, and most men hate it. It's strong and almost vulgar (perhaps because it smells like a dirty vagina). It doesn't matter what a womans chemistry is - this fragrance smells the same on everyone. It smells like you work at a brothel.

Now then.... this whole lesson brings us to the question you posed: what makes one fragrance stay longer than another? Now that you know what makes up a fragrance, you should go check out what each of them smell like again and see what is going on there. You said that Kenneth Cole Black fades the fastest - this doesn't surprise me. Many mens fragrances are made up of top notes with no base notes at all (or very little). Lots of mens stuff is very light, clean, crisp... not the sort of things that will last. I am actually not that familiar with Black, but it must be a lot of top notes (which is weird to me because of the name).

I am familiar with Marc Jacobs. That is one of the only mens fragrances that is almost entirely floral, and mostly white flowers at that. It's pretty unusual to make a mens fragrance with nothing but flowers, but we usually don't tell men that when selling it because they would never buy it. So, white flowers and some other deeper flowers.... only top and second notes.

Aqua by Bulgari is a pacific note, so it has lots of the salt, sand, and other oceanic things in it. It also has grass and other second notes. But Bulgari has been making fragrances for years, and they have a really good nose working for them (that's the professional smeller - what an awesome job). Traditionally their fragrances smell light and fresh, but have lots of undetectible base notes so they last for a pretty long time. That is a great quality to have in a fragrance - longevity without being heavy.

Gucci is made up of lots of base note fragrances, which is why it's lasting all day. It is loaded with woods and spices, particuliarly white pepper. It has amber and papyrus wood in it as well, which are other base notes. Personally, I think this is a very manly fragrance - which is why Brian wears this one. Also he had to like it, but you know. It's all about me.

So there you have it - that's why some of your fragrances are lasting and some are fading. Lots of people consider some fragrances winter and some summer, and also some are considered night and day. Day fragrances are lots like summer fragrances - the lighter, crisp, fresh ones. So when you are going to teach all day, you might wear the kenneth cole or the marc jacobs. Night or winter fragrances are spicier woodier ones. So if you were going on a hot date, you might wear Gucci or Aqua. And of course, never change fragrances throughout the day - whatever you started the day with you have to end it with, or you'll just smell like a big ol mess.