5 Simple Things You Need To Know About Men's Cologne

In today’s article, we’re going to go over 5 helpful tips that we believe are important for you to know when choosing, buying, and using men’s cologne.

Table of Contents

1. Niche vs Designer

Once you start your fragrance journey, you’ll frequently come across the words ‘niche’ and ‘designer’.

Niche fragrances are those that have been created by a niche brand. Niche brands are those that focus exclusively on creating fragrances. Examples of Niche brands include Parfums de Marly, Amouage and Creed.

men's cologne niche and designer — Parfums de Marly Layton & Dior Sauvage EDP

Designer fragrances, on the other hand, are those that are made by designer brands who focus on the creation of other products too – such as clothing, shoes, bags. Examples of designer brands include Dior, Versace and Yves Saint Laurent.

Usually, niche fragrances are more expensive & often higher quality compared to designer scents.

At BestCologneForMen.com we review both niche and designer scents. Parfums de Marly Layton is a great niche scent you should check out, and Dior Sauvage is a popular modern designer scent.

2. Concentrations

A higher concentration means a higher percentage of perfume oil and ingredients is in the fragrance which generally makes it stronger.

Men’s cologne is normally sold in 4 different concentrations – Eau de Cologne (EDC), Eau de Toillete (EDT), Eau de Parfum (EDP) and Parfum. EDC is considered the lowest concentrate, whilst Parfum is the highest. EDT, EDP, and Parfum colognes make up the bulk of scents on the market today.

Notice before I said generally makes it stronger? Just because a fragrance has a higher concentration, does not always mean that it’s stronger than its lower-concentration counterparts. For example, Bleu de Chanel Parfum also comes in EDP and EDT concentrations yet I think they all perform similarly.

With that said – power, projection and potency of a fragrance isn’t everything! There are some notes in scents that you don’t want projecting strongly off your skin, else they may cause offense.

Sometimes, you just want a scent that isn’t too loud and sits close to the skin, beckoning others to come closer. Regardless of the scenario, we’ve got you covered.

3. Right notes, right occasion

As you may already know, there are some colognes and notes that are better suited to certain occasions or weather.

For example, there are many fragrances better suited to either summer or winter. Great summer scents may contain citrus, green or water notes. In contrast, winter scents may be loaded with pepper, woody or floral accords. However, keep in mind there are many exceptions to the rule.

Furthermore, you will also see a lot of fragrances that work better in casual situations, and many that are tailored made for formal events.

The apple, lotus, and green notes in Nautica Voyage make it a perfect summer scent. Comparatively, the woody, nutmeg, and saffron notes in Oud for Greatness make it a stunning winter scent.

Regardless of the situation, we have reviews on men’s cologne that are appropriate for a range of occasions and versatile across any circumstance.

4. Where do I spray?

This is an interesting one. You don’t really have limitations when it comes to where you should spray your cologne.

Some of my favourite locations to spray are the back of the head & neck area, back of the hair, wrists, and chest.

The only thing we would recommend is not spraying too much at the front of the neck or anywhere near your nose. This is because you don’t want to overload your nose with your fragrance, else you will temporarily overload your senses.

Remember – if you’re spraying on your wrists, don’t rub them together after you’ve applied your fragrance! This is a myth – instead, you should let the scent settle and dry on its own, don’t disturb it.

5. Do men’s cologne expire?

This is a common question and we’d like to provide you some assurance. We often get people coming to us, wanting to buy men’s cologne, but worried they will expire before they can use it all!

Technically colognes do expire, however they last a long time, often many years. If you keep your scent out of direct sunlight, it’s not uncommon to see fragrances last decades before they expire.