How To Smell Classy
If you want to smell classy, then you need to understand what it is to be classy. Class is associated with refinement, maturity, and good manners. So how do we apply all that to fragrance?
What is a Refined-Smelling Fragrance?
A refined person is elegant, sophisticated, and cultured. A refined fragrance is one that’s well put together. It’s well blended and balanced. There are no overly harsh notes. None of the notes stand on their own, they’re all interdependent.
Generally speaking, higher-end fragrances are more likely to be well balanced, but there are plenty of well-blended budget fragrances to choose from if you’re willing to hunt for them.
For example, Aspen for Men smells much like the more expensive Green Irish Tweed. And L’Aimant by Coty is very similar to Chanel N°5 buts sells for a much more reasonable price.
Don’t Put Too Much Importance on Top Notes
The first impression can be quite harsh with some fragrances. Top notes combined with the alcohol in a fragrance can sometimes feel like they’re attacking your nose.
Always let top notes settle down before judging a fragrance. Sometimes the opening of a perfume is just too much, but the dry down can be very pleasant-smelling.
Some Scents Are Inherently Refined, Others Are Not
A good deal of this is personal opinion, but people tend to associate certain smells with certain things. Scents can evoke a variety of feelings and mental images like ruggedness, youthfulness, or wealth.
Bubblegum, for example, is associated with children and sugary treats. This is the sort of scent an adult would wear to project a sense of fun and youthfulness.
What Smells Refined?
Refined-smelling perfumes aren’t limited to a single fragrance family. They can be woody, herbal, floral, or musky. You have a lot of options. What they all have in common is they’re not too bright or too dark, they’re not too sweet or too rich. Balance is the key theme in refined classy-smelling fragrances.
- For those who like floral fragrances, look for something in the floral-oriental fragrance subfamily. This fragrance subfamily mixes those delicate floral notes you love with warm spices for an exotic, yet refined, floral scent.
- For those who like oriental/amber fragrances, soft-oriental and woody-oriental fragrances can smell very classy. These 2 oriental/amber subfamilies are less likely to have the intense vanilla and powerful animalic notes of a true oriental perfume.
- Many members of the woody-fragrance family can smell refined. They can also smell deeply masculine, rugged, and outdoorsy. For something that smells classy and refined, look for a chypre,(sheep-ruh) which is a woody fragrance that includes oakmoss, patchouli, bergamot, and labdanum. Some chypres also have floral notes.
- The dry-woods subfamily of woody fragrances offers smoky and leathery fragrances. Leather scents are often associated with luxury, wealth, and refinement.
- For those who like herbal scents, go for an aromatic fragrance. Aromatic colognes are typically considered masculine, but many women like and wear them. These fragrances feature aromatic herbs and spices like lavender, vetiver, patchouli, sage, and thyme.
Can a Fragrance Have Good Manners?
For people, good manners go beyond saying “please” and “thank you.” A well-mannered person is respectful of others, considerate, and dresses appropriately for any occasion. A person who displays good manners isn’t too loud or too boisterous and knows what type of behavior is expected in any situation.
A well-mannered fragrance is one that isn’t cloying, harsh, or offensive. It knows how to “behave” itself. This is a fragrance that won’t offend anyone, even those who dislike your preferred fragrance family.
Your Fragrance Shouldn’t Be Too Strong
We all want long-lasting fragrances. But if we want to smell classy, we need to choose a fragrance that’s long-lasting, but not overwhelming.
More Is Not Always Better
Over-applying will turn the best-smelling fragrance into an unpleasant and offensive fog of scent. You’re not trying to choke people or trigger allergies. The goal is to have a subtle, yet noticeable, scent that will get you compliments.
Ideally, your fragrance shouldn’t project more than 3 feet beyond your body. If people can smell you as you walk in the room, you’re wearing too much.
You Probably Don’t Need To Re-Apply Your Fragrance
For lighter perfume concentrations like eau de toilette and eau de cologne, it makes sense to re-apply a fragrance because they often don’t last an entire day.
Stronger perfume concentrations like parfum and eau de parfum can last for 24 hours. Re-applying these types of fragrances is usually a bad idea.
Bear in mind that body chemistry and weather both affect the longevity of a perfume. If it’s very cold and you’re wearing heavy clothes or many layers, then you need to apply more perfume and/or wear a stronger concentration of perfume.
If it’s very hot and you’re sweating heavily, you might need to re-apply your perfume, but don’t overdo it.
You’ve Gone Nose-Blind
Your nose gets accustomed to the scent you’re wearing and you won’t be able to smell it anymore, or it’ll smell very faint to you, that’s a natural reaction. You might think you need to re-apply your perfume, but you probably don’t.
Remember, just because you can’t smell your fragrance anymore doesn’t mean that other people can’t.
How Does Your Fragrance Make You Feel?
How a fragrance makes you feel when wearing it is often overlooked, but it’s an important part of the image you want to project. Scent has tremendous power to evoke memories and to manipulate emotions. A fragrance can make you feel youthful, playful, sexy, relaxed, secure, confident and—yes, it can make you feel classy.
Some people spray perfume on their pillows and bed sheets to help them relax and fall asleep; rose and lavender are 2 of the most common scents used for this purpose.
Some people will wear a perfume that their mother or grandmother wore, or a cologne or aftershave that their father or grandfather wore because those scents have such power to evoke memories.
Scent is powerful.
Maturity is Classy
Refinement, class, and sophistication are usually associated with middle-aged and older adults. That’s not to say every older adult is refined and sophisticated and every young person is immature and coarse, it’s just that classier attributes are more common among older folks than younger folks.
Generally speaking, younger folks tend to like sweet fragrances more than older folks. They’re also more likely to wear aquatic scents and unisex scents than are older folks. Young people often like lighter brighter scents than do older folks.
Mature adults tend to prefer more sedate fragrances. Older men tend to like woods and leather, warm spices, musk, and aromatic colognes. Older women tend to prefer exotic florals, soft musk, sweet spices, and powdery scents.
Of course, everyone’s preference is different and it’s okay to indulge in whatever type of fragrance you like. But to define what is mature, we have to establish some criteria, which means we have to speak in broad generalities.
For mature fragrances, look for perfumes that are targeted at older people. Look for classic, or classic-style, fragrances. Look for the aromatic fougeres,(foo-jhairs) the warm orientals, the chypres, and the leather fragrances.
In Conclusion
If you want to smell classy, you need to avoid the too-sweet, overly bright perfumes that are often associated with youth. You want a well-balanced fragrance that’s not too strong, not too sharp, and not too harsh. You want a fragrance that’s deep, rich, and warm, without being overwhelming.
