How to Read Our Scent Profiles

There's a new card on some of our product pages called Scent Profile. It tells you what each product smells like, how loud it wears, and how long it lasts. You'll find it on fragrances, aftershaves and other scented products across the store. Here's how to read it.

Smells like

The line at the top is the short answer. One plain sentence on the scent's character, written to be read in two seconds. If you read nothing else on the card, read this. "Fresh lime and lemon over a clean musk" tells you more than a list of ingredients ever will.

Top, heart and base

A fragrance isn't one smell. It unfolds in stages, and the three bands show them in order.

The top is what you smell the moment it goes on, usually the brightest part, and usually the first to go. The heart emerges over the first half hour as the opening settles. The base is the dry-down, the part that stays on your skin for the rest of the wear. Tap any band to read what happens at that stage.

Some products show fewer than three bands. A shave balm or a classic splash often has one simple scent rather than three stages.

Projection: how loud it wears

The dots rate how far the scent carries.

1. Skin scent: only someone close enough to hug you will notice.
2. Soft: noticeable at conversation distance.
3. Moderate: present without trying. Where most colognes sit.
4. Strong: people will know you've arrived.
5. Room-filling: announces you before you do.

Spray count moves these by a notch in either direction. One spray of a strong fragrance behaves itself; four sprays of a soft one won't stay soft.

Longevity: how long it lasts

The hours a normal application stays detectable on skin. Worth knowing: we rate some classics short because they are short, on purpose. A shave balm's scent is designed to fade before your cologne goes on. A true citrus cologne burns bright and brief, which is exactly why it suits hot mornings. Short isn't a flaw.

Where the ratings come from

The notes come from the makers themselves. The strength and wear ratings are ours, based on each product's concentration and on how these things actually behave on skin. We've stocked and used most of this range for years. If your experience of a product differs from our rating, tell us. We'd rather be accurate than impressive.

One last tip

Most of the classic houses make their scents across formats: the same Sandalwood or Bay Rum as a shaving cream, an aftershave and a cologne. Matching them layers one scent instead of three competing ones. And if you wear a separate fragrance, pick an unscented or short-lived post-shave so there's a clear stage for it. The scent profiles make both easy to spot.

Questions about a specific product's scent? Get in touch. Someone here has almost certainly smelt it.