Even if you’re a perfume enthusiast or beginner to fragrances, choosing a scent that you enjoy can be an overwhelming task. Once you reach the perfume shelf, the only detail you can get from the surrounding smells is how the container looks, which doesn’t tell you much.
If you’re shopping for men’s cologne online, here are a few simple tips from perfume experts to help you get a fragrance that you’ll cherish for years.
Know Your Notes
There are so many things to learn on how perfume is crafted, but here are the two most essential items you need to understand.
One, notes presents itself in three layers: top, heart and base. The top notes may be most prominent at first, but they then dissipate and make room for all the others. Heart notes are usually floral — something that evens the fragrance and connects neatly to the end.
The base notes are typically the most prevalent, and often the most long-lasting. Two, these notes can also shift for each season.
Learn Fragrance Families and Seasonality
You should learn what kind of family of scents you like to choose from. If you’re searching for something different every season, choose something heavy like a perfume for winter or fall, like woody and oriental. Find more herbal, tropical, green and even floral for warmer seasons. Check the product description when buying men’s cologne online.
Here are the main scent families; the first two are usually stronger, popular for “cold-weather” months.
Oriental: This word is still in usage, and people include musk, vanilla and precious wood notes in this classification, but it usually refers to notes of “amber” fragrances.
Woody: This family refers not only to woods, but anything that captures the wilderness and its humid earthiness: sandalwood, rosewood, cedar, juniper, and pine fall into this category.
Green: In stark comparison to woody, green is more of the freshness of the forest, grass, tea leaves, juniper and vetiver.
Herbal: Sometimes referred to as “aromatic.” which includes rosemary, thyme, mint, tarragon, and marjoram.
Floral: Most are typically found in top notes and heart notes such as roses, jasmine, orange blossoms, gardenias and carnations.
Ask People Who Smell Good
When you understand the basics of scent families and notes, the next best step to choose a new perfume is to ask other people about the fragrances they wear and why. You will discover what they like about a specific brand or scent, or they’ll explain how they tried a lot of other perfumes and only stayed with this one since people around them like it. They could also suggest a shop with a particularly well-informed worker who will be ready to help you in trying a few perfumes.
Check the Classics
If you know the finest classic fragrances, then you already have a blueprint from which to choose your own. You’ve also got a monster lineup of perfumes from which to choose. Just go to a perfume shop and ask yourself about the most popular men’s scents.
Remember Your Purpose
What’s your ultimate goal with a new perfume? What’s your attitude like, or what persona are you looking to gain with this elixir? How is it going to attract your peers, your partner, your friends? They will all identify the smell with you, so you have to seek something that matches everything you put out. You need something which doesn’t overpower you, but instead, makes other people want to be close to you.
Shopping for a men’s cologne that you will enjoy may be daunting. However, if you know what you’re searching for and how to hunt for it, the exposure can be exciting. Don’t forget to have fun!
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Author Bio: Elsa Finkbeiner is a freelance writer who offers to ghostwrite, copywriting and blogging services. She works closely with B2C and B2B businesses providing digital marketing content that gains social media attention and increases their search engine visibility.