The Scent of a Man

This other day I was walking down Rue de Rivoli on a windy Saturday morning, when a whiff of Hugo Boss on a passerby brought me gushing memories of a distant break up. By the time I registered who the guy in question was and turned around to see maybe a familiar face, he was already gone.

At that point I realised the extent to which we tend to associate large parts of our lives with something as elusive as a fragrance.

Fragrances pack emotions. Every memory is after all a scent. The smell of musky classrooms and rainy playgrounds encompass entire childhoods.  The scent of laburnum trees and icy popsicles remind us of our teenage springs. I grew up to detest Elizabeth Arden because my Hitleresque class teacher who wore it, had once left us out in the scorching sun an entire summer afternoon. Funny how no matter how up or down the corporate ladder we might be, our adult lives will always smell of the office cafeteria coffee and printer paper. Infact, Maison Martin Margiela launched an entire fragrance range aptly called ‘Replica’ inspired by these very associative smells.

Maison Martin Margiela's perfumes inspired by familiar smells of flower markets, funfairs and beaches.

Isn’t it amazing that there are people subconsciously making a lifetime of impressions and associations with how we smell even as we speak to them for the very first time?  Or that lovers will cling to the scents we left in their beds (ok mom, skip this) long after we are gone?

Perhaps it’s important to smell good. And thankfully, perfumes are little luxuries.

I almost never pick a perfume because of its scent, atleast the first time. Perfumes offer us a gamut of intangibles to interpret and create the person we would like to become by wearing them.  They vary in proportion in our at-the-counter decision making but broadly speaking here are a few intangibles that can help us pick a good fragrance.

The name. It normally seals 30% of my perfume buying decision. D&G Imperatrice has a very appealing citrusy scent but well, that’s not why I bought it. Or Dior Homme Eau Sauvage – savage water, could there be a sexier sounding male perfume? Gucci’s Guilty is a brash declaration of sins we are not guilty of. The importance of a fragrance’s name is the reason why (in an ideal world) you’ll never buy a Paris Hilton Heiress or a Britney Spears Fantasy. While choosing perfumes, sometimes we needn’t go as far as the scent.

In fragrances, names define lifestyles and personalities.

The bottle. How they fit in our hands and on our fragrance counter. Guerlain has by far the most iconic perfume bottles since 1928. The royal perfumer of French aristrocracy, Guerlain pays painstaking attention to detail in their ornate bottle designs, collaborating with the best crystal makers and embodying elements of historic and cultural significance in their packaging. Whether it is the beehive of the Aqua Alligoria representing the Vendome column in Paris or the heart-shaped stopper of the Shalimar, a typical Mughal motif, Guerlain bottles are collectors material you would like to preserve. Or the dark, minimal bottle of Bleu de Chanel which simulates a classic man but with a streak of defying convention, as visible in the Oxford blue hues of its deep black bottle.

Guerlain's beautiful collector bottles

Spare, elegant design of Bleu de Chanel

The identity, or how cool, long and expensive the ad film is. Fragrances render themselves to beautiful advertising with the potent space available for imagery creation to any creative director. Perfume ads are always larger than life as there exists no reality in the magical world they call us in. Did you see Chanel no.5’s magnum opus featuring Gisele Bundchen in a world of Chanel skateboards and charms while the perfume is only incidental? And Robert Pattinson’s complete transformation from vampire to sex-god in the edgy Dior Homme Sport film where he is racing cars and kissing women to Guns n Roses Whole Lotta Love?  Big budget, big director, big celebrity, big music and you have created an unforgettable image – one that we buy or endorse when we pick the perfume.  

And at last, the scent. As with all other things of luxury, a few rules apply.

• Personal taste is important and not what everyone is wearing, so for perfumes trends don’t matter.
• There is definite value in having a signature scent, and smelling somewhat familiar all the time. That doesn’t mean wear only one perfume, but choose a few with similar notes.
• Less is more. You don’t want to smell like a literal floral bouquet or cedar tree so stick to a few sprays at pulse points and the nape of the neck. No rubbing.
• While choosing a perfume at a counter, keep a few hours spare. Make sure you smell upto the base note when you spray and walk around with it long enough to get used to how it smells on you.
• For men, choose fresh and aquatic in the day, musky and woody in the night. For women, light floral in the day, oriental in the night. Safe, trusted and interesting bets.
• Carry travel size. Because the duration a perfume lasts on you has a lot to do with your body and skin type and there’s nothing better than smelling freshly showered at all times.

But most importantly, have fun with them.  Perfumes like songs have a strong ‘mood of the day’ element and so there should be no stopping you from smelling musky and sexy on that big review day or playful and citrusy on the mornings you don’t quite feel too chirpy. Just spray on and enjoy the transformation.

Expert Tip :

My top 5 fragrances/colognes on men or the ones that make me go all va va vroom :

1. Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille (rich, exotic black tie perfume in a beautiful bottle from the designer’s private blends)

2. Creed Green Irish Tweed (the one with the cult status, a celeb tribe to match and maximum magnetism)

3. Armani Mania (so fresh and kissable!)

4. Dior Homme Eau Sauvage (timeless summer classic, the word 'sauvage' (savage) and that you won’t ever go wrong with it)

5. Hugo Man (it will stick long after you go!)