Perfume vs Deodorant

Chapter 1: Basics

First off, let’s get the basics right.

• Deodorant’s (let’s call deo) purpose is to kill bacteria and minimize & mask our body odor.
• Perfume’s purpose is to project its fragrance.
• Deo shouldn’t project fragrance and perfume shouldn’t (won’t) mask body odor.
• Congratulations, you have learned the basics.

Chapter 2: Deodorants

Have you ever watched those cheesy deodorant ads? All those ads in which a guy attracts wild women just by spraying a deo is BS. Why you ask?

1. Women are not pokemon.
2. Deo sprays project fragrance which doesn’t last longer than half an hour. And if you are a person whose body odor is on higher side, then your smell blends with the deo’s and the resulting smell is disgusting. With such smell, forget about girls, you will even repel guys.

So, what should we do?

1. Use deo sticks that have minimal fragrance, not the sprays. I found the $3 Old Spice ones to be good. You can pick whatever you like, I’m just trying to say you don’t really need a fancy one.
2. Deos just mask the body odor but antiperspirants prevent sweating as well. So, no more wet under arms. If you are in colder regions or if you don't sweat much, then opt for just the deodorant and not antiperspirant. Antiperspirants leave white residue, deos don’t. (Knowledge check: If you find Old Spice Swagger deo stick and Old Spice Swagger deo + antiperspirant stick, now you know which one to choose, don’t you?)

Hurray! You have unlocked the Deodorant Hacks:

1. Use a deo stick, not the spray.
2. Deo should have minimal smell. Remember, its purpose is to kill bacteria and minimize & mask body odor, not project fragnance and attract opposite sex.
3. Don’t even think of sharing a deo stick with your siblings/roommates.

Congratulations, you have learned all you need to know about deodorants!

Deodorant recommendations:

• I’ve only used Old Spice products because they are bang-for-the-buck kind and most importantly they keep me odor free for 8+ hours. You can pick a deo of any brand as long as it performs for more than 8 hours.
• For women, I definitely have to recommend Old Spice Wolfthorn. This is actually men’s deo, but it smells like candy, and I think women will like it.

Chapter 3: Fragrances

Moving on to perfumes. Actually, use the term fragrance and not perfume. Hang on a bit and you’ll know why. Unlike deos, fragrances are not meant to mask smell, their purpose is to project their own smell. Every fragrance has smell, character and style. If you collect fragrances, you will realize that certain fragrances don’t work the way we expect them to, some of them are mysterious.

Fragrances are usually classified into four types, based on concentration of essential oils.

Name (short name) - Essential Oil Content

1. Eau de cologne (Cologne) - 2–5%
2. Eau de Toilette (EDT) - 4–15%
3. Eau de Parfum (EDP) - 10–20%
4. Parfum or Perfume - 15–40%

See? Perfume is one of the categories, that’s the reason we shouldn’t categorize all into perfumes.

The more essential oil content, the stronger the smell and the longer the smell lasts. But that doesn’t mean perfumes are the best of them all. Colognes are good for indoors and work, EDT and EDP are for outdoors/clubs/parties, etc. Perfumes are very expensive and hard to find.

In US, people refer women’s fragrance as perfume and men’s as cologne. Maybe to avoid ambiguity since not all people know what is what. But now you know that a women’s fragrance can be a cologne and men’s can be a perfume based on the concentration of its essential oil.

So, here are the Fragrance Hacks:

1. Fragrances are NOT for underarms.
2. Wear both fragrance and deodorant. Deo (stick) just for the underarms and fragrance one puff behind each ear and one on the back of the neck just below the hairline. If your fragrance isn’t strong you can spray once on each shoulder and once on each wrist. And never rub/pat your wrists, that will mess up the composition of the fragrance.
3. Always use deo directly on skin. Fragrances can be applied both on skin as well as on clothes. Fragrances last for longer period when sprayed on clothes but do a patch test before spraying on clothes to make sure it doesn’t leave stains, especially on light colors.
4. Choose an unscented deo or one with minimal smell, otherwise its smell will blend with the smell of fragrance which we do not want.
5. If you work/go to college and have to sit by a desk for a long time, avoid spraying fragrance on your wrists and chest. Otherwise you will end up inhaling a lot and that will give you a nasty headache no matter how good the smell is.
6. Some fragrances don’t smell good and can be sharp and heavy when you directly sniff them, but when they linger around in the air they smell breathtakingly beautiful.
7. Every perfume has two phases: Opening and Dry down. The Opening phase is the initial smell that lasts only for a short time (5–30 mins depending on the fragrance), after that it’s all dry down phase until the end. So, do not judge a fragrance based on just the opening. You might love the opening but it will be gone by the time you get ready and leave the house. And then you will only project the dry down smell for the rest of the day.
8. Moving on to actual composition of the essential oil, fragrances have 3 layers of notes (ingredients) used in the essential oil. Imagine a triangle horizontally cut into three sections. The top section is called top or first notes, middle section is called heart or middle notes and third section is called base or bottom notes. Let’s look at a simple example to understand how this works. Suppose we have Rose as the top note, pineapple as the middle note and Cedar Wood as the base note, then as soon as we spray the fragrance, we get the top notes first (i.e., we will get rose smell for like 5 mins) and then the top notes slowly gives way to the middle notes (i.e., we will get the combination of rose and pineapple for 10–20 mins). This is where the opening phase ends and dry down phase begins. Middle notes ultimately gives way to the base notes (i.e., we will get the combination of pineapple and cedar wood for anywhere between 20–60 mins and then only the cedar wood for the rest of the day or until the fragrance completely fades away)
9. So if you are testing a fragrance at a store, don’t judge it based on just the opening (i.e., top notes). Spray it on a paper and take that with you; smell occasionally to check how the smell changes and how long the fragrance actually lasts.
10. As mentioned earlier, if we spray the fragrance on our wrist, rubbing/patting the wrists will mess up the top notes and middle notes making them evaporate immediately, and we will be left with just the base notes or lose some of that as well.
11. This one is for girls - you can actually spray the fragrance on a comb and brush your hair, or you can directly spray it on your hair (not on scalp.) By doing this, you will leave a scent trail when you walk and people walking behind you will instantly be attracted to you without even looking at your face.

Image source

If you want to smell nice, get compliments and attract opposite sex then you should let go of your deodorant sprays and start the fragrance game.

Congratulations! You are now one the those few people on the entire planet (yes, on the entire planet) who understand the nuances of fragrances.