Creed Aventus

This is one smells like magic.  Very masculine, and addictive, you just want to keep smelling it.

You’re going to pay the price for such a good scent though, it’s going to be more than $300.  This may be out of people’s budget, but if I was only going to own one cologne it might be this one.

The only downside I can think of for this is it is the best seller for Creed, at least at one location I asked.  But at the price point, you don’t run into people wearing it so often it should be a problem.

It has a combination of fruits, flowers, woods, musk, moss and others.  They blend together so well it’s hard to make out the specific notes.  It creates a new unique smell.

Joop! Homme

Joop! is probably the most unique scent I have come across. It’s very fruity and flowery. The flowery notes are tropical, deeper thick smells, and there is a warmth behind all that brought in by sandalwood and cinnamon.

This is something you will want to wear outdoors.  It smells great, but indoors it can be too much of a good thing.  This isn’t great for a date, or an office setting.  Concerts, sports events, things of that nature are where you want to wear this.

One warning, the shelf life on this isn’t infinite.  Most of the colognes in my collection you can keep for years and they still smell pretty much the same as when you first got them.  I don’t know the chemistry, but something seems to break down and changes the scent.  It doesn’t become terrible but it loses it’s magic.  I would recommend getting a smaller size bottle for this reason unless you’re the type of person who wears the same scent everyday.

Don’t let that last warning stop you from adding this to your collection however.  It’s something you should have if you’re looking for a diversity of scents in your collection.

Fahrenheit

My girlfriend at the time told me this was one of her favorite colognes.  I went over to the mall to try it on.  I always like to wear a cologne a while before I buy it because it can change overtime, or smell different with my own body chemistry.

After trying it on I walked over to the food court of the mall to try it out and the girl helping me told me how good I smelled.  Right after I finished my meal I went back and bought it right there.

Citrus, wood, leather, musk is what most associate with this, but like most of the cologne I will talk about, it’s very unique and hard to describe  with just those scents.  I would wear this on a date, there is a kind of seductive feeling to it.

Jean Paul Gaultier – Le Male

I try to find scents that are both good and unique and this is high in both categories.  It’s got a sporty smell, but it smells sweeter than most sport scents.

It has a very masculine smell, with mint, vanilla, some citrus with a hint of cinnamon.  It’s not subtle, I would suggest wearing it if you’re planning on doing something outside.  It’s also long lasting, you can pretty much go the whole day and it is still going pretty strong by the end of the day.

My friend’s girlfriend had him buy it as it was her favorite cologne.  This one the first cologne that really left a big impression on me.  It’s probably the scent responsible for getting me really interested in cologne for the first time.

What’s the difference between a perfume and a cologne?

The word perfume comes from ‘perfumare’, Latin meaning “to smoke through”.

If you look at the bottles they will often have specific names on them.  The different names of perfumes relate to the concentration of aromatics in the solvent.

eau de Cologne is 3% – 8% aromatics.

eau de toiletteis 5% – 15% aromatics.

eau de parfum is 10% – 20% aromatics.

esprit de parfum is 15% – 30% aromatics.

parfum or extrait is 15% – 40% aromatics.  This is considered to be an extract.

Cologne has several contexts, a Cologne can be a fragrance from or based on the style developed in Cologne, Germany in the early 1700s.  Second is the designation listed above of less concentrated versions of scents.   Last is the term generally refers to men’s fragrances.

I’ve found most department stores and places like that, calling something a perfume vs a cologne makes it clear to who you’re talking to you’re looking for women’s or men’s fragrances.  Sometimes in the higher end perfumeries cologne is more acknowledged as the percentage of aromatics.

Eau de toilette, translating to English as toilet is not as disgusting as it sounds.  It was originally intended to be sprayed on right after taking a shower, and usually had a flowery scent.

None of these terms are precise, there isn’t any official designation of terms, amounts, or anything like that, but this should give you an idea of what you’re looking at.