You want a new scent. But the counters full of seemingly endless bottles makes your head spin. In the past, you’ve simply gone with what they were promoting that day, or what the salesperson recommended. But if you go in with a little bit of knowledge about the world of fragrance, the process of finding the right scent for you can be a smooth shopping experience and you can be confident you’ll be happy with what you choose.
Understand your fragrance families
At its most basic, men’s scents usually fall into three categories: citrus, spicy and green. Citrus, as the name suggests, would include lemon, lime and orange, and overall the fragrance will be refreshing in nature. Spicy fragrances are more sultry, think leathery and musky types of scents. Green scents are more clean and sweeter; these might venture into gourmand-type scents, such as fig. If you don’t feel you can differentiate between those categories, then consider how and where you’ll be wearing it and how you want to feel, and a good salesperson will be able to steer you in the right direction based on that and your personal style.
Go to the fragrance counter with your fragrance family in mind
The salesperson will be able to direct you to the fragrances that fall within your preferred fragrance family and you can narrow it down to a handful of choices starting from there. The bottle design and the name on the fragrance will play a role, too. If you’re sporty, chances are you’ll gravitate towards more uplifting scents than, say, one from a luxury fashion label.
Try a fragrance on
You can’t just go with the cologne your buddy wears that you like because it may not smell the same on you. Fragrances react with the warm of our bodies and it will smell different on different people. With that in mind, this means you also can’t trust what the fragrance smells like on the fragrance strip. Ideally, put on the scent (and get a sample if they have any) and try it out for a several days to get a true sense of how you feel in it. You’ll want to apply it at pulse points where the fragrance will be warmed by your body, so try your wrists, or at your elbows. After testing out your short list, you should have a good idea which scent felt most right on you and you can go ahead and make the buy.
