So, you’ve found your ideal cologne—it’s not too strong or weak, its scent profile is perfect for how you want to present yourself, and it beautifully harmonizes with your body chemistry. Even so, you haven’t necessarily reached your endgame of smelling your best. Sorry fellas, but there’s more to it than the purchase!

No matter how confident you are in your choice of cologne, just how you wear it can make all the difference. Without a proper technique, you’ll either end up with so little product it fades in an instant, or enough to drown in it. Learn the method, so you can stop wasting your fragrance and smell like a whole new man.

What not to do

If you want to build a stable structure, you have to make sure the foundations are stable first. Before we get to what you should be doing, let’s go over the mistakes you might already be making.

#1: The spray-and-go

The average man tends to treat cologne as a sort of afterthought: he gets spruced up and ready, then just before he leaves the house, he gives himself a quick spritz over his clothes. Mistake number one: your fragrance is never an afterthought! How you smell is an important part of your style, and treating it as anything else only leaves room for improper application.

The larger issue, though, is that you should never spray fragrance onto clothing. Not only can it leave a stain on lighter clothes, but alcohol (a common solvent used to dilute fragrances) can damage certain fabrics. Not to mention, spraying onto your clothes rather than your bare skin is a bit of a waste—we’ll cover why later on.

#2: Using it as aftershave

Aftershave has a purpose and so does cologne, and the two don’t overlap. It’s true that they both serve to smell nice, but that’s about where the similarities end!

When you shave, you’re introducing your pores and open follicles to the bacteria that’s made itself at home in your razor—and believe us, your razor will harbor bacteria. That’s why we use aftershave; it acts as a cleanser to flush that bacteria out of your pores and uses an astringent ingredient to close your pores up afterward, lowering chances of irritation and infection. Suffice to say, cologne doesn’t quite fit the bill for that.

#3: Rubbing it in

We’ve previously gone over how fragrances progress throughout the day; how the molecules break down to reveal new notes over time. This is precisely why you should never follow the cliché of rubbing your wrists together after applying your fragrance—the friction only acts to break those notes down faster. Not only are you lowering the overall lifespan of the scent, but you’re skipping out on the head notes completely! Kind of a waste, if you ask us.

#4: Masking odors

Cologne isn’t an air freshener, gentlemen. If you don’t smell alright to begin with, you aren’t going to smell any better. Instead, cologne can actually mix with body odor to smell even worse!

Remember that cologne isn’t the end all be all to gentlemen’s hygiene; you have to take care of yourself on a base level, first. Make sure to keep yourself clean and deodorized—and maybe lay off the fragrance if you’re going to be working up a sweat.

#5: Reapplying by smell

Since cologne generally doesn’t last more than a few hours, it’s reasonable to expect to reapply it at some point or another during the day. The mistake you may make though, ironically enough, is following your nose.

Humans are pretty astounding when it comes to sensory adaptation. Flash a light for long enough and we’ll forget it’s even there; we can sleep through alarms once we’re used to them, and if we smell something consistently enough we can go nose blind to it.

With our proficiency for ignoring smells, we can’t rely on our senses to tell us when our cologne has faded—chances are you’ll stop smelling it within the hour! That, of course, isn’t to say that you shouldn’t reapply your fragrance at all. Next, as we share with you our golden rules of cologne, we’ll let you in on how to actually know when it’s time to reapply.

The golden rules

Now that you know what not to do, let’s cover what you should be doing instead. Believe it or not, cologne application isn’t too complicated! You can get full professional with it of course; but for average everyday use, you can be up to code in no time at all.

#1: Aim for the pulse

Remember how you shouldn’t spray your cologne on your clothes? Here’s the other part of why that’s a bad idea.

Because cologne evaporates and unfolds throughout its wear, the best tool in getting your scent to bloom is your own body heat. Think of it like your own natural aromatic diffuser. For that purpose, cologne should always be applied to your bare skin (preferably fresh and dry out of the shower). Make sure to let it dry and absorb before you dress; you don’t want your clothes rubbing it off!

Don’t just spray it anywhere, though. A spritz of fragrance should specifically be aimed at your pulse points—namely your neck, chest, wrists, or inner elbows—where blood flow is closest to the surface and body heat is strongest.

#2: Know (or learn) your limits

At least your first few times, you should avoid applying your cologne to all of the aforementioned hotspots. To start with, just try your neck or wrists and check if your friends or family can smell it over the next few hours. If it seems to fade too quickly, adjust where or how many points you’re aiming for. 

Be careful not to go overboard, though! That sweet spot between unnoticeable and obtrusive is different for every product and every person. In general, don’t go over two to three sprays (or dabs, in the case of screw-top bottles).

#3: Touch-ups

Like we said, a cologne’s final soul notes will fade around four hours after application, so be ready for touch-ups if you want to last the full day. But you know that you can’t trust your nose on this one, so how can you tell when to refresh?

In truth, it’s really about timing. Try to estimate how long your fragrance will last depending on its dilution. Some base notes linger more than others, so if you can, double-check with a friend or family member and see if it’s actually faded (no need to be embarrassed; there’s no shame in smelling great).

When reapplying, don’t worry about strictly sticking to the application rules. No need to strip down in the office restroom. Just get a small dab of the product on your finger and apply it to your neck or arms. Don’t apply as much as you would at the start of the day; a quick touch up can reignite your fragrance entirely, and you don’t want to overdo it.

Know your stuff, and smell your best!

The world of fragrance has been shrouded in mystery for so many of us for far too long. Smell is our strongest sense, and with enough knowledge and effort, it can also be one of our greatest assets.

When wearing your cologne properly, you can head out and explore the world of olfactory expression! With Scentbox, you can have a new designer fragrance for your sampling delivered straight to your doorstep every month. Try them out and experiment to your heart’s desire. Since our service is month-by-month, you can take a break and settle with a new favorite at any time.

Smelling good is worth the investment, and with us, that investment doesn’t have to be so steep! Now all that’s left to devote is a bit of time and effort—and when it comes to becoming the sharply-dressed, put-together man you’ve always wanted to be, we say it’s no time wasted.