ABC’s of Selecting Men’s Cologne

When choosing a men’s cologne, personal preference is not the only rule to go by. Certainly, you should choose a scent that pleases you - and your special someone - but there are a few other things you want to take into consideration before you plunk down your credit card. Especially with the cost of men’s� fragrances reaching an all-time high.

The rise in price, though, reflects the ever-growing popularity of men’s colognes.� Everyone from Calvin Klein to Armani to Kenneth Cole to Ralph Lauren has gotten strongly into the fragrance business in the last few years. This is good news because it gives men a wider selection of scents to choose from than ever. You’re no longer stuck with a choice between English Leather and Old Spice. The bad news is the huge range makes deciding which scent to purchase harder than ever.

As mentioned earlier, personal preference should always take the lead. But it’s good to experiment. What smells good on your best friend or your brother may not smell good on you. That’s because the chemicals in fragrances interact with your own body’s scent to create something a bit different. It’s also possible that you’ll have an allergy to some chemical in the cologne. So it’s always smart to try out a fragrance before you buy it. Fine department stores and men’s specialty boutiques usually have testers for colognes so you can try them out and see if you like them first. A note of caution, though. Don’t, as many men are prone to do, put one test fragrance on one wrist and a different one on the other one. The scents can mingle to create something wonderful - or awful. Either way, it won’t give you a true scent to judge. So be sure to try one scent at a time to be certain you get the full benefit of the test.

Colognes that men generally gravitate toward are ones that have a woodsy, outdoor scent. These often contain a sandalwood or cedarwood base with a combination of other ingredients and are refreshing and invigorating. Other scents that men like contain musk and are considered sexy. Sophisticated colognes tend to be those that are light and crisp, with perhaps a citrus base that is clean and pleasant, without being overpowering. Men generally stay away from anything “flowery” that have what they consider a more feminine scent than a masculine one.

The cardinal rule of wearing men’s cologne is this: Don’t drench yourself. You may love, love, love the fragrance you’ve chosen and want to share it with the world, but the world may not have the same enthusiasm for it. Actually, the world may prefer (and usually does prefer) you enter and leave a room, leaving just a hint of fragrance in the air. And because some cologne tend to become stronger over a period of time, this can be hard to do with some colognes. So it’s a good idea to use small amounts of a fragrance at first and work up to a level of scent that’s appropriate. This is especially important in the business world. Remember that a scent that’s right for a night out with your significant other may not be appropriate for the boardroom. Which may not be a bad thing, really, since it gives you an excuse to buy several fragrances to have on hand for different occasions.

While there are really no hard-and-fast rules about applying cologne, it’s most common to apply them on the neck area, just behind the ears, as well as on the inner parts of the wrists and elbows. A quick trick that many young men are using these days is to spray the cologne into the air and walk through the mist, letting it settle on their hair and shoulders. This works well and helps distribute the� fragrance more evenly and subtlety - and subtlety, after all, is the name of the game when it comes to wearing men’s cologne.