Smell yourself before you Check yourself

Selecting a great cologne can be a rather difficult process. All that sniffing

will leave you confused after a while as the signals sent to your brain

become less significant with each new smell. Ergo, this leads you to

think that something might not have a great scent when in fact it smells

better than a previous selection. Often times this approach will skew your

ultimate decision in what cologne to purchase.

This is why I’ve put this short post together on how to pick out a great

cologne for you, the reader. Instead of having a cocaine crazy

snort fest sans the mirror and the actual drug, do it right. The key to a good

decision in what scent you will decide to wear for the next year or so is

patience. This is an important point, because this is how most people will

remember you for the foreseeable future, either as the guy who always

smelled great or that musky smelling dude with the truck stop cologne.

So, without further ado:

Pick five colognes that you think may be of good quality. Out of the five

select two favorites and spray one on each wrist. Walk around the mall or

store with it for an hour or so and then smell your wrists once again. This is

fail proof.

After one hour the heart note develops and it is only then that one really

knows how the cologne’s fragrance will coalesce with the particular

chemistry of your skin.

For your reference, a fragrance has three notes/layers:

1. The head (top) note is what one smells first; it contains a lot of alcohol,

and a perfume/cologne should not be bought based on this.

2. The next one is the heart (middle) note which develops about one hour after

applying the fragrance.

3. The third one is the base note which is what you still smell at the end

of the day

If you are looking for some starter colognes, there are two which

are a staple in most guy’s bathroom cabinets. Acqua Di Gio and Cool Water

are somewhat similar and are both quite affordable making them very

mainstream fragrances. A mid-range fragrance I would recommend would

be Bleu de Chanel. This scent a bit heavier and more pronounced and

is best worn during an evening or night out on the town. The quality

is fairly decent as its scent will last a while before it

dissipates.

Now, my ultimate favorite scents are ones from Creed. These are advanced

fragrances that do not come cheap. They are made in France and have

been around for quite some time. Many powerful and prominent people

such as politicians, CEOs and movie stars tend to wear these. My favorites

thus far from Creed are:

1.Green Irish Tweed

2.Millesime

3.Aventus

4.Santal

The first two fragrances should be worn during the day time as they

are lighter and crispier than the latter two. They have a citrus like scent

which is fresh and quite enchanting. The Aventus cologne is truly a great

smelling one and in my opinion is best worn during an afternoon or early

evening outing. It blends in quite well with the Fall weather and it reflects

the beautiful climate experienced during this season. Santal offers a

mysteriously sexy scent which clearly entices those of the opposite sex. I

have had many compliments from this cologne. This one is strictly a night

cologne as it carries a smell that is consistent with a night out at a bar/

club or special event. It is a sports coat, black tie, tuxedo appropriate

scent. There you have it, a short and concise guide to colognes. Now go

out and pick a winning fragrance that reeks of success, drive, sexiness and

sophistication.

Smell ya later.