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Smelling nice
Nibble
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've never really used cologne before, but I thought about looking into getting some for dates, special occasions, etc. Unfortunately, I haven't the first clue about cologne. What are some good brands or specific scents? Do I need to spend over $100 for 25mL if I want quality? How do I apply it, and how much? Do I need to worry about it conflicting with the scent of my aftershave or deodorant? For that matter, what are some nice-smelling aftershaves? Can I get all three in a set?
Help me stop stinking, Penny Arcade!
Help me stop stinking, Penny Arcade!
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personally I use something called British Sterling. I got it for 7 bucks for quite a lot of it. It is one of the best smelling colognes I have ever smelled. Several people I know have smelled it and gone out and got the exact same thing.
I got this cologne at wal-mart
the rule seems to be, the more you pay, the better it smells. But that's not indisputable. Go by what you like the smell of.
Lucky You for Men is a really nice cologne, very mild.
I apply cologne by spraying one wrist, rubbing them together, then dabbing the sides of my neck. You can really just spray most onto whatever area you wish to smell nice, but the neck is usually customary.
If you have just shaved, cologne can be much more painful to apply than an aftershave (hence the reason to apply to the sides of your neck).
As far as shopping goes: A variety of scents are available in a wide range of prices. It is really up to your personal taste, and what you would like to smell like. Bring a friend or lady friend with to help you decide which scents are best for you.
I am actually doing a project right now that focuses on scented jewelry, and my instructor referred me to this web site:
Demeter Fragrance Library.
Quick link to the cologne library.
They have colognes and perfumes in almost any scent. You can smell like a bar, a funeral home, dirt, thunderstorms and laundry mats, if you want. Theses scents are spot on, btw. More of a novelty, but interesting, nonetheless.
Agreed. I like it, and it is not overpowering like some scents - sticks to the it can't be smelled unless someone is hugging you rule mentioned earlier. I'm not the only one who likes it, either. In addition to my wife, one of my attractive female coworkers leaned past me to get something and exclaimed, "Holy shit, you smell nice!"
It is very soothing after a shave as well. It has cut down big time on occurances of "bumpy neck."
Girls go gaga over it. Plus, it gives you cred because you had to go into the shop to get it.
Bullshit. If you're using it for that purpose, you're using it incorrectly.
Read this entire page of the Fashion Thread over in DD. They discuss scents and some knowledgeable people show off, to the delight of all.
In general, I've found this doesn't work. You usually come off smelling like a combination between smoke and cologne.
Think wrists and neck, and not a lot of it. The best thing you can do is have a friend-girl over, apply the cologne, and ask her opinion. Girls have a more sensitive sense of smell than guys do, so just because you or a guy friend think you don't have too much cologne on doesn't mean you don't.
PSN: TheScrublet
Women would flock to it.
Incorrect advice
The scent has a ton of undertones. Best bet is to go to the counter at, probably, Nordstrom's and smell around until you find something that fits your personality and style.
You will never need another.
Abercrombie - Fierce, for when I'm trying to pull that "college girl, smell me" crowd.
Armani - Acqua Di Gio, for a stronger scent that is more complicated than D&G.
Polo - Double Black, just because.
Calvin Klein - Eternity, don't know, it was the first cologne I ever bought, and I always keep a bottle around.
But really, every cologne smells different on every different person. Take a girl who wants to shop with you, have her spray things on you and smell you. It'll be fun and educational.
Comment on the aftershave, sometimes that's just right and you don't have to add anything, maybe a sprits for the evening if you shaved in the morning. So um...Good Luck!
But you really can't go wrong with Old Spice. Most women I know like it, and guy's noses aren't offended by it either. Just two drops will do ya for an entire day.
Also avoid AXE, it smells like crap.
Not true. I used cologne for a long while and always thought guys who would use Axe were skeezy bastards (probably had something to do with the fact that the first guy I knew who used it was in reality a skeezy bastard).
But, cologne is expensive, so eventually I broke and gave Axe a try...I used an odorless antiperspirant and used Axe as a deodorant. It can't really replace a good cologne, that is very true, but for everyday "I don't want to smell like crap" usage it isn't so bad. And in my experience, most (younger) women aren't very sophisticated in their scent preferences - as long as you smell good, you're good to go. I've had just as much success with Axe as I did with cologne, and it is far cheaper in the long run.
I've used many of Axe's fragrances. Not all of them are great. Here's what I think:
Orion - Smells a bit soapy, so it's fine if you want to smell clean, but it's not very distinctive
Phoenix - Another "clean" fragrance, it isn't overpowering and is okay if that is your preference
Essence - Much warmer scent, and lingers longer than others
Kilo - Probably the "manliest" of Axe scents, it most resembles a classic men's cologne
Clix - Avoid, it has a bizarre smell that almost resembles bug spray to me
If you would still like real cologne, absolutely take a lady with you to a department store and have her help out, especially if she is your lady. It's for her, anyway!
PSN: rlinkmanl
the cheap ones like Axe usually give me massive headaches, but that may be because most people bathe in them instead of using them properly
If someone can smell your cologne/scented product when they are two feet or more away from you, you have put on -too much-. It should be something a person can only smell when they're up next to you, hugging you or such.
That being said, I have a wide variety of colognes for a wide variety of reasons.
Aqua di Gio - I wear this to church. I think it's a classier cologne suitable for church
Alfred Sung's Hei - Everyday work cologne. It's nice and... youngish, and cheap enough that you can wear it daily
Lacoste Red - Dates/Special occasions. I'm always complimented by women when I wear this, so I stick with it on special occasions.
Hugo Boss Hugo - For the clubs/pubs. It's a bit more in your face, which I find works for meeting people at the bars.
I accumulated all these colognes when I was traveling around europe on business. Duty Free shops are a great way to use up the rest of your per diems that you didn't use on your business trip.
I use a sandalwood eau de toilette as well as l'occitane's "eau de baux" and both smell pretty good. the fancier stuff smells more complex and lasts longer. A good cologne will generally be stronger w/o smelling bad.
Also, I don't know what these guys telling you not to apply it to your skin are saying. If you squirt that stuff on your clothes it's a great way to get a permanent dark "wet spot" that resists washing out.
This.
And cologne is all fairly cheap. At $50 a bottle, used daily, this will last you 2 years. For $.06 a day you too can smell sophisticated and gentlemanly.
The boyfriendthing got a sample bottle of Issey Miyake's L'Eau D'Issey pour homme for Christmas and it smells...mmm, delicious. Not too musky, a little spicy, kind of like good pipe tobacco.
OP, if you do want to get cologne, see if you've got a Sephora nearby. The stores nearly always have exceedingly helpful salespeople, and their return policy is extremely lenient if you discover you don't really like something. I've heard of them taking back a 3/4ths empty bottle with no receipt for full store credit, which is always a good thing when you're learning your own preferences. Edited to add: they'll give you samples like crazy, too.
Just avoid the axe cologne crap.
that stuff smells awesome
As someone mentioned though,. different scents go better with different styles and body chemistries.
Not really.
A previous poster mentioned using the Old Spice bodywash+deodorant/antiperspriant smells just like the original stuff, and not too overpowering. Thats the most important thing, not to go nuts with it. You could have any brand or scent, but too much will make you smell like the perfume department at J.C. Penny's
First one was Calvin Klein's U(You). Big orange U on the front, smelled decent.
Next I got a smallish sized bottle of Lagerfield Classic. My girlfriend said it smelled like powder. It does have some bite to it, but it's okay.
Most recently, I have a larger bottle of Burberry Weekend. It's softer, doesn't attack the nose, smells kinda citrusy, and I prefer it to the Lagerfield.
Seconding the anti Axe movement. I found that Bod works better. There's more, it's more like cologne, and people don't suffocate when you apply it.
YES.
My boyfriend uses Old Spice, and it smells delightful. I actually hate cologne because it always makes me wonder what is being covered up. However, I love the smell of Cool Water by Davidoff, for, you know, special occasions and such. It's the only cologne I have ever liked.
Hm. I should get him some of that.
QFT.
Another is Aqua di Gio by Armani. Both are very masculine scents with a smell thats bitter and sweet at the same time with the right balance.
Speaking from male locker room experience, if you smell bad, cologne isn't going to cover it up, unless you go overboard, in which case everyone knows you're covering up something. If you try and cover up your stench, you just create a cocktail of BO and whatever scent you decide to spray on. So in the end it's pointless to take this approach.
Most guys I know who use cologne use it sparingly and do not smell bed, so please don't listen to supabeast's "advice".
When I got it though, the clerks gave me some strange advice. "Don't use soap." O_o Will most soaps simply overpower the scent of cologne or prevent it from adhering or what?
No, that's weird advice. What the clerks may have meant is, don't use scented soaps, because mixing smells like than can get pretty off-putting.