This post is based on the video – A Man’s Introduction To Fragrance | Why & How To Wear Cologne Perfume Eau de Toilette
Hi. I’m Antonio Centeno. I’m the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, gentlemen an introduction to fragrance. This is in support of my article over at the Art of Manliness.
In addition, I’ve got an article over at Real Men Real Style complete with charts, complete with more information. Guys, the goal of this video is to get you excited about fragrance, not to give you everything.
Honestly, this is something that you can dive deep into. And, in the support articles, I’m going to give you more information to go off and check out and to reference and to discover.
And, I promise here at Real Men Real Style, I’ll be getting into more and with that said, guys let me start this off with a story.
So, I’m in Atlanta, Georgia at the airport about to head out and I am handing the woman there, I’m the last person to get on the plane. I like to be the last person I just don’t like to sit on the airplane.
But, I’m going in and I give her my ticket as I’m entering and we got a little bit close. And she immediately said, “You smell wonderful.” And married gut, but I appreciate a compliment and, she was an attractive woman. And, you know, stuff like that is why you want to wear fragrance because it does matter. People do notice.
And, when we get down to the why, gentlemen, I can tell you I’ve put tons of articles out there. I’ve talked about how smell and fragrance is the number one indicator that women use when selecting a mate. I talked about how fragrance can have an effect on job performance, it can make you come off as more trustworthy.
Really, it has a very strong primal reaction to people. It also is immediate, so fragrance is one of those things that in a split second, people can smell it and they instantly like it. And, again, they’ve engineered a lot of the fragrances, so most of them especially if it works with your natural fragrance, most people are going to like it, assuming that you don’t violate the number one rule of fragrance.
The number one rule is do not douse yourself, do not overuse it. Less is more when it comes to fragrance.
I recommend any time a man starting out to use fragrance and 80% of us don’t use it on a regular basis, that you start off with one spray in the chest area, that way you can cover it up with your clothing and it’s just to barely.
The quote goes that fragrance should be discovered, it shouldn’t be announced. So, follow that quote and make sure whatever you take from this video that you don’t overdo it.
“Like a bullhorn, your cologne announces your every arrival four blocks before you get there.”
So, there’s a number of reasons and number of barriers that are keeping a lot of men out of fragrance. And, I think the number one is we don’t want to look like a fool, we don’t want to smell bad. And that’s – that’s something that a lot of us just simply there’s a steep learning curve when it comes to fragrance.
If you look out there, you’ll look at notes, you’ll hear a word terminologies such as, you know, what is the difference between cologne or toilette or perfume, fragrance. I mean you hear all of this stuff in trying to make sense of it. Perhaps you didn’t learn it from your father, you didn’t have any friends that introduced you to fragrance, so there is a steep learning curve.
There also, when it comes to fragrance, a lot of misinformation. So many people out there they think that fragrance somehow isn’t for men that to appear — to use fragrance, you’re actually trying to cover something up. And, guys, I can tell you that the goal of fragrance is to enhance your natural smell. Does that make sense?
So, let’s go ahead and let’s get into some of the terminologies. So, the word, fragrance, what does that mean? That is the general catchall term and fragrance simply is what we have is a concentrated perfume oil that’s dissolved in a solvent usually alcohol and you’re going to see three main types. Now, there are other types out there and I’ll go into that into more detail over the article at Real Men Real Style and Art of Manliness.
But, if you hear cologne or EDC eau de cologne, basically we’re talking a 5% solution. Then, up there we’re going to see toilette or EDT eau de toilette and basically what we’re seeing is a 10%. Now, these percentages can adjust, you’re going to see toilettes out there that are 11%, 12%, 13%, 14%, but in general, it’s going to be 10%.
Then, we see EDP which is eau de parfum and, this is going to be anywhere from 15% to in some cases 30%. This percentage and the concentration is going to have a big factor on how long the fragrance is going to last. It’s also going to affect the cost. Usually, the higher concentration the higher cost we’re going to see.
So, let’s go ahead and now, let’s get into the perfume life cycle. The keyword here and you probably heard it before are notes. You’ve got top notes, middle notes, and base notes. I’m going to start off with the top notes. So, initially top notes are a light, it’s a very light fragrance and it’s going to hit you the first fifteen to a hundred and twenty minutes of the – of the fragrance being applied to the skin on your body. And citrus aromatic, you’re going to see, and again, I give you a chart over at Real Men Real Style.
But, after the top note after that’s worn off, we go into the middle notes and that’s going to be anywhere from thirty minutes and it can last up to five hours.
So, what we’re going to see here in the middle or the heart notes are this is going to be a bit heavier, we’re going to see florals, we’re going to see greens, we’re going to see fruity, we’re going to see spicy fragrances. And, there are thousands of different fragrances out there.
At the bottom of the pyramid is the base note. And this is what everything is build off of depending on what base note they choose, it depends on how long the fragrance is going to last, but these are going to be oftentimes the boldest notes and they’re going to come from the woody and the balsam family.
With these, you’re going to see oftentimes lengths of two, in some cases almost twenty four hours. Twenty-four hours is extreme, usually at the most we’re going to see probably about six to eight hours on average. Again, depends on the concentration and the type of perfume it is. So, that’s the perfume lifestyle.
Now, let’s get on to how to apply. This is something a lot of guys are embarrassed to ask and they’re curious. Now, but the general rule of thumb is the warmer the area of the body, that’s where you’re going to want to apply. The exception to that rule is I say you shouldn’t probably be applying it to your crotch area.
That’s not normally where we’re going to be going around and smelling each other, but it is something I think the chest is a great place to start, then we can go to the neck, the lower jaw, your shoulders are an option, but many guys ahead of that are going to put it on the wrist and they’re going to put it on the inner elbow. Those are all great locations.
Now, you don’t want to hit them all. You want to initially choose one, that’s why I like to choose the chest, you can move up and get the neck, that’s going to basically project stronger. For men that like to apply perhaps two – two squirts, they’re going to apply one to each wrist or one if you want to keep it a bit more damp, then you’re going to keep it on the inner elbow. Does that make sense?
Again, there are couple of rules though and these are things I see guys doing. Don’t apply it to your wrist and think you can rub it around. This is called — basically it’s called killing the note and you don’t want to do that. Another thing you’ll see some men do is they’ll spray and they think they can walk through it. Don’t do that, all of the fragrance almost always falls to the floor and it’s a complete waste. In addition, don’t spray on your clothing.
The key with fragrance and one of the barriers that a lot of men, you know, get scared with fragrance is every fragrance reacts differently to every single body chemistry. So, you need to apply directly onto your skin and, again, this is how you’re going to choose the right fragrance for you. So, that’s going to be the next part I’m going to get into.
Okay. So, first off, a man should choose his own fragrance, don’t let other people choose it for you. Don’t let women choose it for you. The biggest mistake men make is they just accept the fragrance as a gift and what happens is that they get something that they wear to thank the person and they never wear it again because they don’t like it. A man can naturally select the fragrance which will enhance his natural smell.
Part two is use others’ opinions to basically reinforce your own decision. And, take it with a grain of salt, some people aren’t maybe going to like the fragrance, but pay attention to how many people notice what people say about it. If a lot of people are repulsed by the fragrance, you may actually want to rethink your strategy there.
Point number is to try and don’t do what’s called a blind buy. Don’t just buy and hope, you know, based off reviews because, again, you want to try it. You can try up to four fragrances at a time. The way to do that is to go into a department store and actually know what you’re doing, don’t let them pressure you into a sale initially, you want to apply one on each wrist, one of each inner elbow, use coffee to kind of reset your palate and smell them at various points; the one-minute, five-minute, thirty-minute, two-hour marks. You get the picture.
Another way is there are some pretty cool services out there that are coming up that are going to enable you and I have to admit I’m building one over at Real Men Real Style. So, if you’re curious about a service that would deliver some fragrances to you and basically be able to help you select so you can do this at home. I live in a small town, I don’t have access to a lot of great department stores in my area. Definitely go check out Real Men Real Style, I’ll link to that down below and you can check it out. But, guys the key is you’ve got to find the right fragrance for you.
So, last question I’m going to end this with is, how often to wear a fragrance, when to wear a fragrance? I think you should wear a fragrance every single day, and why? Because you want to get used to it, you want to understand it, you want it to become a habit. If fragrance didn’t matter, you wouldn’t deodorant, right? You wouldn’t care if you smell bad. We have to think this is a negative way, actually try to use it in a positive way. Actually, have a fragrance that is about who you are and really is something that becomes part of your style.
So, guys let me know what you think in the comments down below. This is just a primer, I’m going to get into more fragrance over at Real Men Real Style. I’ve already got a number of scientific studies and, if you want to learn more about fragrance, go over to Real Men Real Style and the article over at the Art of Manliness over at Real Men Real Style. I’m actually going to have where you can give me – you can basically give me some information about you and get access to an early version of an entire eBook that we’re putting out on how a man can understand a fragrance.
That’s it guys. See you in the next video. Take care.
This post is based on the video – A Man’s Introduction To Fragrance | Why & How To Wear Cologne Perfume Eau de Toilette
