Beauty Products: Perfumes, Designer Fragrances and Colognes
WHEN you mention colognes, most women are either confused – “aren’t they for men?” – or immediately call to mind memories of the old-fashioned scents they used to sneakily spritz on when rifling through their grandmothers’ dressing tables.
But colognes are ditching their fusty image and a modern crop of fresh fragrances has hit the shops.
But what exactly is a cologne? Nowadays, the term is often used to conjure up a citrussy fragrance.
But, in the most technical sense, it’s a reference to the fragrance-oil- to-alcohol ratio within the scent – a true cologne is less than 10 per cent essential oil suspended in alcohol, compared with up to 40 per cent in an eau de parfum.
It’s a simple equation: the more alcohol, the lighter the effect, which makes these often-unisex offerings the most appropriate choice if you’re a fan of splashing yourself, your pillows and your clothes liberally.
It’s also why I reach for a travel-sized cologne to refresh and revive when I come off a long-haul flight, or to make a not-so-homely hotel room feel more familiar.
When I was a teenager my father used to complain about the heady fug of fragrance that used to suffocate him whenever my friends, my sister and I piled into the back of his car to be ferried about to endless hormone-infused discos.
If only we had known then about colognes, which are great when heavy perfumes are not the order of the day – it would have kept everyone happy.
Fragrance preferences are so personal: what suits one wearer can sit entirely differently on another as the notes mingle and react with the oils in their skin.
And scents are so subjective: you can’t say one is better than another.
So, until the day we create the first scratch-and-sniff issue of S Magazine, I can only suggest you take this list of colognes – each delightful, zesty and fabulous in their own way – and head to your nearest department store to work out which will sit most comfortably on your dressing table.
This selection is just a drop in the ocean of the endless options out there, but a good starting point if you’re looking to narrow down your choices.
Hermes Eau d’Orange Verte Eau De Cologne Spray (£40.50; 0844 800 3752)
Acqua Di Parma Colonia (£43; 01932 233861)
Diptyque L’Eau des Hesperides Cologne (£60; 020 7224 4948)
Chanel Eau de Cologne (£160; 020 7493 3836)
YSL Belle D’Opium (£39; nationwide)
Guerlain Eau de Cologne Imperiale (£56; 01932 233 887)
Dior Eau Fraîche (£68; 020 7216 0216)
Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Cologne (£64; 0870 034 2411)
Maison Francis Kurkdjian Paris Cologne Pour le Matin (£130; 020 8740 2085)
Zizan Cologne by Ormonde Jayne (£64; 020 7499 1100)
Atelier Flou Katana Cologne (£75; 020 7893 8797)