Perfumes for Men
Perfumes for Men: The 4 Olfactory Families of Men's Perfumery
Among the most important olfactory families that make up men's perfumery, we highlight the woody family, the aromatic family, the oriental family, and the citrus family. Each is divided into subfamilies, allowing for numerous combinations of aromas. In each family, we will find the raw materials that compose it, enriching the olfactory character of that family.
Woody Fragrances for Men:
The woody family is a grouping of predominantly masculine tones. It comprises fragrances with a primary accord of woods such as cedar and sandalwood. Woody notes impart a warm and enveloping character to the composition and blend well with other olfactory families.
Aquatic-Woody Fragrances:
Including essential oils of wood, cedar, sandalwood, patchouli, or vetiver. Aquatic notes add marine or oceanic tones, refreshing the woody notes.
Woody Fragrances:
Offering warm and enveloping tones, combining wood notes with masculine aromatic notes like lavender, sage, basil, or thyme.
Woody-Chypre Fragrances:
Powerful and imposing, these fragrances blend the warm notes of the woody family with strong and luxurious chypre tones, leaving a lasting impression.
Woody-Floral-Musk Fragrances:
Blending warm tones with softened floral notes, often combined with musky notes, especially white musk, adding beautiful sensuality to the perfume.
Spicy-Woody Fragrances:
Spices bring strength and power to the composition, enhancing the initial woody notes with ingredients like pepper, coriander, or cinnamon.
Aromatic Fragrances for Men:
Under aromatic fragrances, we group aromatic herbs like sage, rosemary, lavender, or thyme. It is a highly popular family in men's perfumes, emanating great masculinity. Lavender, widely used in men's perfumery, takes center stage in this family.
Aquatic-Aromatic Fragrances:
Formulated with noble plant materials like lavender, sage, tarragon, gentian, or star anise. Associated with aquatic notes, the composition is both light and very masculine.
Aromatic-Fougère Fragrances:
Combining aromatic notes with fern family notes, highly popular in men's fragrances. Often, a heart with geranium and oakmoss as a base note creates ultra-masculine fragrances.
Aromatic-Fresh Fragrances:
Alongside aromatic notes, often vegetable, we sometimes associate fresh notes. This freshness is usually provided by the citrus family composed of citrus fruits like orange, grapefruit, lemon, or bergamot.
Green-Aromatic Fragrances:
Notes combining with lavender or basil. Among the notes providing more greenery, we find galbanum, lily of the valley, mint, or violet flower. Green aromatic scents are particularly appreciated in summer.
Citrus Fresh Fragrances for Men:
The citrus family is the oldest olfactory family, mainly composing men's cologne. It offers fresh and light tones, sometimes spicy. Here, you will find grapefruit, orange, bergamot, and lemon. Widely used in men's perfumery, citrus fragrance notes blend perfectly with other olfactory families.
Oriental Fragrances for Men:
The oriental family emits warm and sensual notes of vanilla or spices. This family gains its richness from powerful and oriental notes such as cinnamon, precious woods, vanilla, amber, or resins. With its powerful character, the oriental family combines with many tones to offer intense and original fragrances.
Oriental-Fougère Fragrances:
The Oriental family is one of the most popular in perfumery, primarily comprising warm notes. Common oriental notes include resinous smells, balsam, or spices. Fern notes bring great virility to the composition.
Oriental-Spicy Fragrances:
Oriental-spicy fragrances are attention-grabbing scents with strong, potent, and imposing spices that pair well with other spices or various balsams and resins.
Oriental-Woody Fragrances:
With very warm oriental notes, seductive tones like cedarwood, sandalwood, vetiver, or tonka bean are added. Chic, warm, and ultra-seductive, orient
Perfumes
Understanding Perfumes: Types, Composition, and Families
Understanding Perfumes: Types, Composition, and Families
What Are the Different Types of Perfumes?
In a perfume bottle, there isn't just the fragrant substance; the perfume is primarily composed of a carrier whose role is to dissolve the fragrant substances well. There is a finisher, usually a fixative, which helps strengthen the fragrance's tenacity. The fixative is often in the form of iris root powder.
There is an abundance of perfumes, fragrances here and there that fill the shelves of perfumeries worldwide. But what's most impressive is that each of these aromas is unique. So, it's natural to ask the following question:
What are the differences between these fragrances based on?
We can differentiate perfumes based on various criteria. Firstly, there is a difference based on the nature of the medium.
There are 3 types of perfume according to this criterion:
1. Alcoholic fragrances are the most common; the carrier is pure ethanol. It has the advantage of being very volatile, leaving only the scent on the skin.
2. Oily fragrances are particularly gentle on the skin.
3. Solid perfumes, commonly called "perfume concrete," where the perfume components are diluted in a "balm." These scents are applied in small quantities to selected areas.
Furthermore, a distinction can be made even in alcoholic perfumes, according to the content of fragrant compounds. In fact, in our perfumes, we see different names like "eau de parfum" or "eau de toilette." That's where the difference in quality lies, often related to the price difference between perfumes.
• There are sweet waters or colognes that contain less than 8% fragrant substance. Fixation is about 1 hour.
• Eau de Toilette has a concentration of 6 to 12%, for a fixation of about 3 hours.
• Eau de parfum is part of this concentration growth with between 10 and 20% fragrant substance, for a period of several hours.
• Finally, there are the perfumes themselves, which are composed of 15 to 40% fragrant material and ensure fixation for several days.
Perfume Composition: The Notes
When we talk about perfume, we often talk about notes: top, heart, base notes. They correspond to the composition in fragrant substances of the product:
• Top notes: these are the first notes, those you feel as soon as the product disperses in the air; fresh notes of citrus fruits or herbs;
• Heart notes: these are the ones that will smell for several hours, it's the character of the perfume; powerful notes of flowers, fruits;
• Base notes: these are the notes that will last for several days, that will remain; warm and powerful notes of wood, moss.
Fragrance Families
When we go to a perfumery, we are usually asked what kind of perfume we like: more floral, woody, amber, etc.
There are seven main fragrance families:
1. Citrus aromas: composed of fruit peels: orange, bergamot, citron;
2. Floral fragrances: composed mainly of flowers: jasmine, rose, violet;
3. Fern aromas: woody notes, lavender, oakmoss;
4. Chypre scents: accords of oakmoss, patchouli, bergamot;
5. Woody aromas: warm notes of sandalwood, patchouli, cedar;
6. Amber aromas: oriental, sweet, powdery fragrances with vanilla;
7. Leather perfumes: composed of dry notes of tobacco, smoke, burnt wood.
It is possible to distinguish perfumes based on the nature of the fragrant compound.
• Most often, it is in the form of essential oils, which are concentrates of volatile molecules from the plant. They are obtained by distillation.
• There are also many perfumes made from so-called "absolute" plant raw materials. Like essential oils, they are found in alcoholic, oily, and solid perfumes.
• The third type of fragrant compound relatively present in the perfume market corresponds to CO2 extracts, which allow obtaining an odor closer to the plant than its essential oil. CO2 extracts are 100% natural and very ecological.
It should be noted that, with the industrialization of perfume and the progress of chemistry, synthetic processes emerge that allow the production of artificial fragrant compounds. Synthetic smell is sometimes more faithful than that of natural raw material, as in the case of rose.
