In a man’s world as a general rule it could be argued that the word “perfume” does not sound quite right. However, regardless of this men’s perfumes make up a very important part of the men’s fragrance world andare at the high end.
Along with perfumes you have aftershaves, colognes, eau de toilette along with many other lotions and reduced concentration formats of perfume.
In all there are nine differing fragrances that can be blended in various amounts to attain what we have today in the men’s perfume range. These are fruity, leather, spicy, floral, powdery, woody, herbal, citrus and musk.
High end men’s fragrances tend to be made up of layers. There is the top or head notes, the middle or heart notes and the base notes. The first aroma you will smell when initially applying a fragrance will be the top note which very often will be fresh or spicy. The mid notes will often be spicy or citrus which provides for an undertone to the top notes. Finally the base notes can be produced from a variety of blends. The top notes fairly typically in a high end fragrance will last for 3 to 4 hours, the mid notes for a bit less and the bottom notes will stay for longer. A good perfume can last the whole day.
Citrus gives a perfume a sense of freshness, confidence and acuteness when used as a head note. Citrus comprises such smells as grapefruit, oranges, lemons, limes and pomello. As an example of the citrus head note men’s fragrance there is Calvin Klein’s Truth which has a real emphasis on freshness.
When used as a top note, citrus will provide for a sense of freshness, acuteness and confidence. The term citrus encompasses fragrances such as orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit for example. Calvin Klein’s Truth is a fragrance with citrus head notes.
Sandalwood, cedars and patchouli – a bushy herb of the mint family – come under the umbrella term of woody. Again, often to be found in mid or base notes. An example of a woody fragrance would be Gucci’s Envy.
Fragrances once out of the bottle and applied to the skin will take on a different aroma in short time. If you smell one fragrance on a gentleman and smell the same fragrance on someone else you will find that they actually smell a little differently. This is nothing to do with an aberration in the fragrance but rather it depends on the skin of the wearer, their surroundings and such things as stress levels to name but a few reasons why there is variance in aroma.
The actual manufacturing process is highly complex and even if a recipe for one of the top men’s fragrances were to be made public, it would be very difficult for this to be copied by the layman, if not near to impossible. It can take many months of work to get a high end men’s fragrance just right hence one of the reasons why they are expensive.
Tags: Perfumes