If you missed it, Paul’s been experimenting to see how his life will change when he gives it a new scent.
So far, I’ve gone through smell detox, picked up some Creed Green Irish Tweed
- Cary Grant was in North by Northwest
, and I should watch that movie (according to Adrian L.).
- If you’re in-the-know, Green Irish Tweed is referred to as GIT by the cool kids (Patrick R. and odinbearded and sator and Ryan and Michael R. and others). Not to be confused with Git, the source code management software, nerds (like me).
- GIT supposedly smells like Cool Water. After reading this and having smelled both, I agree that they’re similar, but I never would have come to that conclusion without a prompt.
- Supposedly, there is no fairy tale magic potion in Creed’s cologne. Thanks a lot, Douglas W.
- But GIT was the right choice, at least according to Shawn R., IjN, and yoyorobbo. Phew.
Wearing Cologne
Application of cologne is tricky. Everybody seems to agree that it should be subtle, but one man’s “subtle” is another man’s smell-bomb. It’s a sliding scale at best.
I’ve definitely over-done it on days, and I hate it. I’m not ready for that. I want to apply, smell it briefly, and go on with my life. I don’t want to noticeably smell my cologne constantly – I just want it to be there in the background. In college, I remember a guy down the hall borrowing my roommate’s cologne before heading out for the night. Five sprays. He used five sprays. He fogged his entire body and our room along with it. “Do that shit in the hall,” I gasped at him. Luckily, I was able to retreat to a bar that smelled like urinal cake.
While we’re telling college cologne horror stories, I should at least mention to our collegiate readers that if you forget to empty the strawberries you put in your dorm freezer for frozen cocktails before break and you come back to find that the dorm cut its power and that your strawberries are a rotten mess instead of a delicious daiquiri ingredient, clean the mess up with soap and water. Do not just give it a spritz of Hugo Boss thinking it will “cover the scent.”
But as I was saying, application has been tricky. If I’m a drop off, it’s a disaster. I’m getting better.
Testing on the Ladies
The day I got my Creed in the mail, my wife and I were both home. I was downstairs with my package. She was upstairs with hers. Now, perhaps I’ve been led astray by those smell pheromone ads in the back pages of magazines (not to mention the Axe ads), but I was kinda hoping for immediate pant removal as the logical, reasonable response to my new, wonderful scent. Mine or hers – either way – her choice. Instead she shouted/asked.
“Did you open that cologne?”
“Yes,” I said while straining to listen for the sounds of dropping pants, racing heart, etc. etc.
That was the end of the conversation.
Later, when we were in the same room together, she asked, “Did you put some of that cologne ON?”
Sigh. Of course I had.
Full disclosure: When I first told my wife the idea for the article, she thought it’d be entertaining and funny. Then she realized a critical piece of what I was saying. “YOU’RE doing the experiment?” she said. “I thought you talked JOE into doing it.” No, I was doing the experiment, I reiterated.
So there’s a bit of that.
Cologne, like how we dress, is our way of presenting our best-possible self to the world. It’s our way of declaring our taste, affluence, and genetic fitness among other things. I may not have a Bentley parked out front, but I can smell like I might. Or dress like I could. My wife, however, knows that the theoretical Bentley is a very real Toyota Sienna. What I’m trying to say is that the experiment was flawed and I needed to find another woman. For science.
Woman #2 is a Bartender
Our local bar has been a bit of a let-down. We recently moved to small-town America, and I can’t explain how much I miss the bars we used to go to in Chicago. They were just better. They were welcoming. They learned what we drank and knew what to pour us. The bartenders were chatty and friendly and generous. We’ve been to our local bar now nearly a dozen times and there’s still no welcoming feeling, no acknowledgment of our city-level tipping, no chit-chat. It sucks. Until …
“Yuengling and a glass of red?” the cute blond bartender says to us as we sit down at the bar. It’s a wonderful thing. We’ve become regulars – finally – she knows our drinks! Problem is, that happened the last time we went to the bar. It was pre-Creed. Now that I’m living in a post-Creed world, I can’t even begin to imagine what my new smell will bring. A conversation longer than a drink order? A comped appetizer? A free shot? Maybe a threesome?
Turns out: none of that. We enter, me smelling like a billion dollars, and what happens? Nothing. We’re somehow back in the shit shack, just another pair of customers. Our regular status has been revoked. We’re commoners again, dammit, and we order our drinks like ordinary chumps.
Can I blame the Creed? Maybe. Maybe I smelled too city, too out-of-town, too sophisticated, too outsider. It’s a lie I tell myself while I drown my sorrows in a non-pre-poured-like-Norm’s Yuengling.
However, science is all about repeatability, so I grudgingly head back to the bar days later. Creed-scented attempt number two turns out the same way. There’s no conversation, no free anything, no friendliness, no threesome. The couple that arrives after us gets the full-on regular treatment: “How are you? Haven’t seen you in a while! Cold isn’t it?” Bastards. I attempt to sniff them.
But I do notice one thing, and it’s not something I was expecting. I catch myself shopping for suits again, eyeballing a three-piece one day, then a casual linen one on another, and a new blazer after that. Something is going on.
Coming up:
- Will wifey warm up to my new scent?
- Can I find a third woman that will have a positive reaction to my scent?
- And is the right cologne more powerful than a pile of airline miles at the airport?
Got a cologne success or horror story? Share it in the comments. Want to try GIT for yourself? Get a bottle on Amazon.
so GIT, yes it is a great scent, but not Creed’s best.
That belongs to Aventus! You will get noticed wearing Aventus.
Also check out Spice and Wood from their Exclusives line.
Magnificent scent, actually come to think of it, better than Aventus, but
much more costly.
If u really really want to be noticed, wear anything in the Amouage line.
Its the fragrance house for kings and princes!
Cologne has absolutely no effect on one’s game. If anything it can work against you because not every girl is going to like every scent.
La Nuit De L’Homme by Yves Saint Laurent is great. So is Spicebomb by Viktor Rolf.
I agree. If you choose to wear cologne, you do it for yourself.
Agreed. It can help you if you know the scent that a particular woman likes. Otherwise, it’s pointless. That’s why I let my wife choose my cologne. That way I wear the ones that that she finds attractive.
I have over 50 bottles of cologne. Over half of those are high-end, niche. My entire collection probably costs $2-3,000.
Cologne isn’t going to improve your game. It will give you confidence that you at least smell nice, but even that isn’t guaranteed.
I wear cologne for myself, not for others. It’s the same thing with dressing nice. I don’t dress nice to impress others, I dress nice because I have self-respect. If “smelling good” is all you care about, then there’s very little difference between a $200 bottle of Creed and a $20 bottle of Cool Water from Marshalls. The high-end stuff (usually) is more artistic, however. They have lovely transitions, from the top to the middle to the base notes. Especially with GIT, I catch myself sniffing my arm every so often throughout the day to see how it has progressed. It’s not linear. It’s interesting. At least to me.
Amouage may be a bit too Sword in the Stone for a serf like me. Might not be able to pull it off or out — but I’ll give it a sniff when I get the chance.
I absolutely love this mini-series. When I get to the part that says “coming up,” I imagine the suspenseful organ music you might here on a radio mystery show…
I’ll have to give these a sniff when I get the chance.
cologne wear gets noticed. just like dressing nice gets noticed. just because they don’t comment doesn’t mean they don’t see/smell you. its a help, but its not the gamechanger I think we’re looking for here
I think a scent should be barely noticeable at all. Only there for someone
you let get very very close and in that case it can be an advantage
because they know you are the type of guy who cares enough to wear a
scent but wants to make it available only to someone special.
Can cologne enhance your game? That’s a tough one. I believe a woman should not be able to smell your cologne until she is intimately close. Good cologne shouldn’t draw any attention to you, but it should definitely seal the deal, when you attempt to lean in to whisper in her ear, go for a kiss.
FYI, I never spray directly on my body, I dab onto areas such as the neck, shoulders, wrists, and sternum area (Places where a woman are likely to come in close contact with).
I just want to mention that I’ve heard each cologne does not always have the same exact effect on a person’s skin. It reacts with your oils and sweat to create a distinct scent. Apparently if you are shopping for a cologne, it is recommended that you test it on your skin, smell it at different points in time while you go about your business. As someone has already mentioned, there are transitions in the scent.
There are sites that sell sample packs of different top 10 scents from basenotes.
So Paul, do you like the GIT? You didn’t give your opinion of it. I remember when I wore it for the first time I was surprised how floral it was. I think it is unisex in many ways. My wife thought it was a woman’s perfume.
Cologne has definitely affected my life. I smoked for 19 years, and lived under the impression that a spray of cologne and a stick of Trident could cover any trace of my addiction. The last five years of being smoke free have enlightened me. The subtly applied scents that are easy to appreciate are all new to me. I have found myself actually enjoy the cologne that some use when their proximity is close, which is something that I never noticed before.. perhaps people were avoiding me.
Mostly though, I enjoy the lingering smell certain women can leave. For this reason, I try to incorporate knowing what scents a woman likes on me so that I can smell favorable to her. When a woman says that I need to come over because my smell is fading from her pillow… I take it as a good thing.
This is the most gripping series I’ve read in recent memory. This is such a gripping series, I can’t wait for the next post; will Paul get that threesome for which he so desires? The emotional investment he has made will surely destroy him if he fails. With only the subtle wisps of GIT trailing from his coattails, supporting him as a lone wingman, he is off into the night and we can only cheer him on: Get that threesome! Do it for all the readers of Dappered! Do it for GIT!
I would say that if one’s goal is to get noticed by strangers, you actually have to apply it more heavily (note: not dump) . Seeing as these people aren’t typically up in your face, they can’t smell it in my experience when walking by a couple feet away etc. Granted, this does force you to think about where you are going, travels anywhere that include multiple strangers in your friend zone render this trick useless, and may suffocate those extra sensitive (e.g. shoulder to shoulder in church pews, concerts, on transit). Also, ask trusted friends, I used to think I was applying it too heavily until i started asking friends what they thought, and most said they could rarely, if at all smell anything besides externalities such as atmospheric pollution/cooking odors etc. lol. Just listen to the cologne and your body chemistry.
There are *some* batch variations with GIT (maybe you know this already), but it’s not as widely variant as a few others (Aventus, especially; MI too). My batch is a 2011 P02 (from Walgreens – if you can believe it – they’ve had some amazing BOGO deals in the past, with even further discounts – and it’s all legit juice). The 2011 batches have been reportedly awesome. Mine sure is! It has a big green blast up front, and then mellows out so sweet in the drydown with that ambergris. Not sure I’d say heavily floral, but green for sure. Any clue on your batch/lot, Michael (and also Paul)?
Heya Paul, thanks for the shout-out in the header (jokingly or not, it’s cool to see myself mentioned in a post here at the super-cool Dappered.com). I’m no parfum expert, but I am certainly a dabbler in the fragrance game. I’m curious as to what *you* think of GIT. Maybe if you have any certain specific feedback on it, a few of us could help point you in another direction, if you think you’d like to try a few others too. But as noted, GIT is a very safe and very classy choice. It certainly can be your one-and-only, if you so choose. Loving this series!
Mr 5 sprays, AKA “The Asphyxiator”, and his ilk are the reason some colognes are repellant. People associate certain smells with past experiences. In the ’70’s it was Old Spice and Brut that was choking out the females, in the ’80’s it was Polo and Drakkar that was clearing out dance floors, now it is Acqua di Gio that the ladies are making bad decisions while smelling. Also, many colognes get copied, GIT has a Walmart copy called Aspen and to me Dial Spring Water body wash leaves a GIT ish scent on my body. So, to me GIT is played out.
I decided to spend the cost of a good bottle of cologne on a bunch of samples and establish my signature scent. Sephora will give a sample or two at a time but I like ordering unusual things from http://theperfumedcourt.com/ Doing so will teach you a few things, as in, some scents smell better when it is hot and some better cold. Some you can smell from far away and some stay close to the skin, and some change scent as time goes by. Also, many steal from one another (L’Instant Guerlain Extreme, Dior Homme Intense, and Hanae Mori HM all smell of chocolate) and after the body wash/shampoo/underarm deodorant/pomade scent bleed over, there isn’t a great deal of difference between them.
It turns out that Guerlain Vetiver (hot), Philosykos Diptyque (close) and Serge Luten Chergui (cold) are my front runners.
I was eager to hear how you actually applied said GIT cologne. I”ve been told to not spray it directly on your person, but spray it in front and you move through it. And it’s one squirt, not two to five.
Summer is approaching, which means it’s time to order another bottle of Escada Sunset Heat. It brings forth the positive comments, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Green Irish Tweed is kind of boring and ultra-safe, in my opinion. It’s a safe choice for safe people. It’s certainly not a wow.
I own about 25 bottles and another 50 decent sized samples ranging from the common (Fahrenheit, Tom Ford For Men, and John Varvatos original) to the lesser common (L’Air du Desert Marocain, Rose 31 and Sombre Negra).
Cologne will not change your life, but if well chosen, it can make you appear a bit more intriguing. It’s like a new pair of glasses or a new pair of shoes. It’s one piece of the style puzzle. People without the gift for this particular element of style tend to go for well known names like Bleu de Chanel, Acqua Di Gio and Green Irish Tweed. What you SHOULD do is spend some serious time shopping and sampling in order to find a smell that inspires you. Do online research, sure, but use that as a guide for choosing colognes to sample. When sampling, if you find something you really like, you need to wear it and find out how it is after a few hours or even try wearing it for a few days.
Sampling one boring niche scent from the 80s and coming up with a determination about anything more than that one boring scent just does not work. It’s like driving a station wagon and deciding that no cars are sexy. It’s like eating a piece of chicken and deciding that you don’t like meat.
Geez, try sone variety! 2 Man. Chergui. Terre D’Hermes. Bvlgari Aqua. Grey Vetiver. Hanae Mori HM. Egoiste. Interlude Man. Bvlgari Black. Lalique White.
You tried going ultra safe with your first pick. Try again, minus the ultra-safe approach.
I second Aventus. I’ve literally had random women come up to me and ask what I’m wearing, and my past few dates have all commented positively on it.
Of course, it’s not the scent by itself that women like–how you dress, groom, and carry yourself are equally, if not more, important.
I’m just shocked that you picked one bottle and came to overall conclusions about scent as a whole based on that one choice. For a site about men’s style, that’s showing a lot of ignorance on the topic. I’m not meaning to be rude. I love dappered, but when you’re outside of your knowledge base, you need to seek someone who knows the subject at hand. With that, I’m off to write a five part series about how skiing isn’t much of a workout. I should know. I tried a bunny slope for the first time this morning.
“Mr 5 sprays, AKA “The Asphyxiator”, and his ilk are the reason some colognes are repellant.” So true.
“I decided to spend the cost of a good bottle of cologne on a bunch of samples and establish my signature scent.” YES! That’s a very wise way to go. It’s a million times smarter than how I got started.
By the way, if you feel comfortable wearing Chergui, that’s an excellent choice. It’s not for everyone (no scent is or even should be) but wow does it smell amazing on some people. I haven’t sampled Philosykos yet, but it’s on my list to try.
No no no, Furious. Do not do the spray and walk through method. Spray it *on* you; best at or near pulse points (side of neck/under ear, chest, wrist (but you may wash that off), or even inner elbow (that sound weird, but whatever it’s called).
The number of sprays of a fragrance all depends on the person, the purpose, and often most importantly the fragrance in question. Some of them will be BEASTS with one single solitary spritz. Others require a couple more to get things going. I’m not talking about overtaking a room, I’m just saying that some of them are quite weak and will perform (in terms of projection and longevity) better with more sprays.
Of course some dudes just like to knock everyone over in their wake. I don’t mean for you to do that at all. Just experiment. Start light at first and see how it goes. With GIT, I tend to go 3-4 sprays (usually three with the incredible atomizers on the Creed bottles will do the trick). My three sprays of GIT are one on the chest/heart vicinity, and one on each side of the neck/under the ear. Works for me and doesn’t knock people out. GIT is a fairly safe scent anyway, so the front-end may seem harsh/strong (depending on the batch/year), but it will quiet down pretty quickly and smooth out sweetly throughout the day.
IMO, weaker scents, and in general many EdTs, EdCs often require a couple extra pumps (whoa!) – sometimes simply for longevity purposes – unless you decide to go with a travel atomizer for touch-ups later in the day – not a fan.
However, still IMO, most niche EdPs such as Creeds, Bond No.9s, etc and some unnatural BEASTmode designer fragrances like say A*men, Pure Malt, Le Male, etc are better played with less, in my experience.
That is another good thing about samples, you have to wear it to know if you like it. Chergui smells good on me but Heritage, which smells good on a card, turns sour and funky on my skin.
Philosykos Diptyque is a very mild scent that doesn’t project very much. Perfect for when someone is deep in your personal space.
In my experience, quantity equates to intensity but not time.
In other words, for me, more sprays makes it stronger but lasts about the same time. Each cologne has it’s own peculiarities, though. There doesn’t appear to be any hard rules, just guidelines.
THIS. More sprays may last a little longer, though not much. But more sprays will make it smell stronger, which means to everyone else, your stench is overpowering and you become Mr. Too Much Cologne Guy (“WHOA!!!”). Wearing more of a scent that doesn’t last is NOT the answer. It’s like giving more money to somebody who doesn’t know how to save. They’ll burn through the extra money just as fast and they’ll still be broke before payday. If it doesn’t last on your skin, stop wearing it and find something that DOES last.
So this guy is trying to increase what chances? He’s married. Can you get a single guy to try this? Cologne is a closing act, not a conversation starter. Unless Paul stops giving a fuck and tells us if his mistresses enjoy his new scent this was an excellent waste of time.
That’s an interesting question … maybe that should be post 3.
Yes. I should have said “simply for *projection and* longevity purposes.” Projection is impacted the most, for sure. However, I *do* feel that I get more longevity out of some frags with additional sprays at the initial application, but nothing overly remarkable. Maybe it’s due to say two hits on the neck (pulse) vs just one – dunno. Anyway, the projection for sure is ramped-up with more sprays – sometimes that’s what I desire. I try *not* to be “the cologne guy” – LOL – but I may fall into that trap once in a while. If I find that I have, I make a quick attempt at reducing the effect (i.e. hit the washroom), and adjust future applications accordingly.
I think it would be informative for us, and possibly helpful for you as well. Thanks for the reply and the consideration.
i never bought a bottle of GIT. My only creed bottle is MI and I love it. I have definitely heard of the leathre vs pineapple batch variants with Aventus, but I never heard it about GIT. I just had like 3 vial samples a year or two ago from the Creed counter at my local Saks. i have tried original vetiver by Creed and that is also very green.
My next purchase will be Acqua di Parma “Colonia”. I tried some on at a department store in Paris before Christmas, and it just kept smelling better. Unfortunately we never got back to that part of the city, and I didn’t subsequently find any elsewhere, or Duty Free on the way home.
Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be widely available or discounted, but I crave it now – so I’ll buy it and wear it for me (and if anyone else appreciates it, that is just a bonus!)
MI is so choice! I only have about 30 ml or so left from a 50 ml decant that I bought from a fellow fraghead online. It is an older batch (from 2009) and it is simply amazing. Heavy melon note and very good longevity, something that many folks have issue with their MI. Wear that stuff in good health, Michael!
Solid gold advice.
This is what immediately came to my mind while reading this post guys….
Brian Fantana: No, she gets a special cologne… It’s called Sex Panther by Odeon. It’s illegal in nine countries… Yep, it’s made with bits of real panther, so you know it’s good.
Ron Burgundy: It’s quite pungent.
Brian Fantana: Oh yeah.
Ron Burgundy: It’s a formidable scent… It stings the nostrils. In a good way.
Brian Fantana: Yep.
Ron Burgundy: Brian, I’m gonna be honest with you, that smells like pure gasoline.
Brian Fantana: They’ve done studies, you know. 60% of the time, it works every time.
[cheesy grin]
Ron Burgundy: That doesn’t make sense.
Brian Fantana: Well… Let’s go see if we can make this little kitty purr.
I think it can improve your game a bit. I would say that it couldn’t hurt your game but unfortunately that is not true. Wearing a scent is like walking a fine line and can be high risk because people overdue it.. And in this diverse world, what one girl might perceive as delicious another could be offended by the scent. So with that said, that is why I wear just enough for people in my comfort zone to smell. It is definitely worth it when you get the compliments though. And it is funny because the scent that never fails for me is le male. And people have VERY strong opinions about that scent. I don’t even like it much and rarely wear it, but for some reason women love it.. If there was a scent that came close to being a “panty dropper” I think gaultiers might be it.
I enjoy the articles – a little bit of mind candy I say while at work. I do not think for a second that Paul is naive to really think this will change his life. But it seems like some of the comments are needlessly toasting toasting his efforts. Clearly I’ve been under a rock, since I’ve never heard of GIT but Paul has inspired me to look into this as well as many of the community’s comments gave me some ideas for other scents. But criticizing the series for picking what appears to be a very classic scent (that’s what I’ve read) is poor form.
Shockingly similar piece on NPR yesterday: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/04/173461841/cologne-cultural-choice-or-necessity