Issue # 3 - Scents and Sensibility

Issue #3 - Scents and Sensibility

Ok gents, it's time to touch upon a much needed topic: Upgrading your fragrance wardrobe. Some of you are ok in this department...but some of you are so far off base it's depressing. Many men still think that you should only have one cologne and stay with it forever. That's about as ridiculous as saying you only need one pair of shoes. Your scents are you, and need to be treated as such. Wearing an outdated scent tells people you don't care how you smell. But before you can properly construct such a new way of looking at things,we're going to start with a list of things you need to do before you can begin building your new fragrance wardrobe.

#1 - If you own/wear any of the following colognes, STOP IT RIGHT NOW:

Hummer, Mustang, Ferrari, Tim Mcgraw, Adidas, Brut, Old Spice, Gravity, Drakkar Noir, Preferred Stock or ANY other fragrance made by automobile companies or country singers.

#2 - If you are still wearing Swiss Army, and have been since high school, Please retire the bottle. It's a scent as outdated and overused as they come, and you smell like millions of other men that haven't retired their bottles either. It's time to grow up. You're not 18 anymore.

#3 - Change your perception of what men's fragrances are. They've most likely changed since you bought your last bottle. Keep an open mind.

#4 - If you don't wear any scent at all, Start.

Now that those are out of the way, we can begin. For those of you offended by #2, you may want to stop your whining and become a real man. Yes, Swiss Army was a great fragrance in its time. This was obvious by the massive number of guys that bought it and wore it in insane amounts until the hallways of their schools were covered in a cloud of it. I wore it. You wore it, we all wore it. I will admit i still have 3 bottles of it. Why? Because i got 3 bottles as gifts one year. I don't think i will ever go through it, but i can't let it go to waste. So if you don't want to throw it out, don't. But stop wearing it. You're not 18 anymore, and the girls you're trying to impress (hopefully) aren't either.

So now, it's off to the fragrance department. Shoppers Drug mart has a surprisingly decent selection, and it's a good place to start to find out what you like. Spend some time, grab a stack of tester cards and go to work. You should only test 3-4 per day since after that your nose gets tired and everything kind of blends together. Also, bring a pen since most places don't have tester cards for every individual fragrance, so they usually put out a stack of all Lacoste, or all Hugo. Which is fine, but are you going to remember which was which on the way home if you didn't write it down?

The trend in men's colognes right now is the sporty/aquatic/fresh scents which can be found almost everywhere you look. These are usually "Sport" fragrances, and are designed as lighter scents for summer, etc. One or two of these in your collection are ok. You need to find out your preference however. Do you prefer the sporty scents? do you like strong, dark scents? something in between? Or are you looking for a good solid everyday cologne to wear...figure that out first, then proceed.

Take your time, and take a couple trips to the store and keep track of what you like. Ask the clerk if she has any samples of anything that you can take home. The most important thing is to NOT rush into a purchase. Just because it smells good at the store doesn't mean it will smell good on you, and even more so an hour later. So take your time. Choose 3 colognes out of all of them as your top 3.

Once you have your choices go online to Fragrancex.com and search for your choices. Research them and find out their top/heart/base notes. What does it smell like? What are the ingredients? Read the customer reviews and make your own decision. If you STILL can't make up your mind, then go into the store, spray your choice on you and wear it out. Ask people their thoughts.

Once you've made your choice of your top 3 (Tip: pick one for cold weather, one for hot weather, one for in between. I will get to this in a moment), Pick one to purchase and go and get it! FragranceX has cheaper prices than most stores so if you have a credit card, you should start there. Or if you're an impatient one, go buy it wherever you can. It may take you a few days to get used to it, but you will.

Overwhelmed, and not sure where to start? Here are my go-to scents and the times i wear them. I highly recommend each of these:

Summer/warm weather:

Lacoste Essential, Lacoste Red, Boss XY, Hugo Elements

Autumn/cooler weather:
John Varvatos, Burberry, Burberry The Beat, Lacoste Pour Homme, Kenneth Cole RSVP

Winter
Burberry Brit, Polo Black, Dolce & Gabbana The one

Now this is just a guideline for you, as these scents work well, but you have to find one you absolutely love. I have left out what i consider to be a signature fragrance of mine because as you will discover, once you find one you LOVE, you don't want anyone else to know about it.

Also, don't feel as if you need to be constricted to when you can wear these. I find that once evening arrives, no matter what season you are in, you can pull off almost anything if it's paired with the right attitude and attire of course. I often wear Lacoste Red in the dead of winter and Burberry in the heat of summer just for a change. It all depends on your mood and the look you are trying to acheive.

On a final note, once you have found your scent...or multiple scents in my case, resist the urge to throw it on like you've showered in it. Less is more guys. You want people to be able to smell you a maximum of three feet away, and for those intimate moments, you want the right places to smell amazing. Rule of thumb: Spray on your pulse points, (neck, wrists, heart) and maybe a soft spray on your shirt or jacket. Let it air out a little bit and be stingy...this stuff is expensive remember? And you want to attract women, not repel them with your overpowering cologne fog.

All in all guys, experiment, have fun and above all, OWN YOUR SCENT. Make it work for you.

Sincerely,

S.G.