GROOMING
Fragrances reviewed by Lee Kynasten.
LIKE FASHION, fragrance is the ultimate ref lection of personality and mood. Each morning you make a conscious (sometimes subconscious) effort to dress how you feel.
What’s more, you tailor your look to suit everything from the weather to the occasion. You wouldn’t dream of rocking up to a formal dinner wearing hotpants, a harness and tube socks. So why would you spray yourself with the world’s most seductive fragrance when heading to work (unless you’re after that hottie in accounts) or wear something strong and heavy on a hot summer day when, ideally, you want to smell crisp, clean and fresh?
Here’s how to stock your fragrance wardrobe so that you’re always wearing the right scent – whether you’re at a desk, the gym or on the dance f loor.
FOR WORK…
Wearing fragrance to work is always tricky. In a work context you want to smell good but not too good. Leaving a pungent fragrance trail as you waft past your colleagues will get you noticed but probably not for any of the right reasons and in a packed lift it’s positively lethal. So you might want to lay off nuclear scents like the woody patchouli of Thierry Mugler’s A*Men, Paco Rabanne’s spicy 1 Million or the aromatic Bleu de Chanel at work. Opt instead for crisp, light, citrusy fragrances (which are
Heat tends to intensify fragrance, turning heavy, sweet or musky evening fragrances into overpowering monstrosities.
generally associated in people’s minds with freshness), herbaceous, old-fashioned colognes or barely-there fragrances like Comme des Garçons Odeur 53.
You should still go easy on them, though. A couple of sprays aimed at your chest, where the fragrance will be trapped against your skin, is enough. Ideally, nobody should be able to smell your fragrance unless they enter your own personal “scent circle” which is about an arm’s length from your body.
FOR THAT HOT DATE…
You only have to look at today’s fragrance ads to know what fragrance is all about: sex. And while there are lots of guys out there who prefer the smell of armpits to perfume, there are plenty who are intoxicated by the scent of a decent cologne. And there are certain ingredients that are particularly effective for creating that elusive “nuzzle factor”.
Vetiver, extracted from the root of a grass, is one of them: it has a sexy, dirty and slightly earthy smell (but not in a used jock kinda way) and musk is another. The smell of the latter conjures up the aroma of warm skin in bed and intensifies as you get hotter and sweatier. How you achieve that is up to you.
FOR SUMMER…
Passions aren’t the only thing that rise when temperatures soar: your fragrance does, too – off of your skin. That’s because heat tends to disperse fragrance faster. It also tends to intensify it, though, turning heavy, sweet or musky evening fragrances into overpowering monstrosities.
In the same way you dig out your shorts in summer, when the mercury rises, it’s time to reach into your fragrance wardrobe for a cool, fresh summer fragrance. Perfumer Azzi Glasser suggests, “Ones featuring fresh, citrus notes or ones with ‘marine’ accords work well in summer as we associate them with freshness and coolness.”
Look out, too, for special summer versions of your favourite fragrances. Remixed and reworked to perform in the heat, they’re the fragrance version of cut-off jeans – allowing you to keep cool but stay sexy.
FOR SPORTING OCCASIONS…
When packing a gym bag you choose clothing that’s cool, light and aids in performance. And when packing a fragrance your criteria should be the same. So if you’re an active, sporty type then think about adding a sports fragrance to your gym kit.
Re-worked versions of already-popular signature scents, they’re packed full of zingy, spicy, energetic notes that make them refreshing, invigorating and give off a vibrant, energetic edge – just what you need after an hour’s torture with your personal trainer.
FOR ANY OCCASION…
Some items of clothing never go out of fashion (a good pair of jeans and a classic white T-shirt among them) and they become the building blocks around which you construct your wardrobe. It’s no different with fragrances: there are a few tried-and-tested classics that are worthy of a place in any man’s fragrance wardrobe.
Their enduring popularity makes them sure-fire bets when you have one of those annoying days when you just don’t know what to wear. A bottle of Boss Bottled, for example, is sold every eight seconds so it’s sure as hell doing something right.