Men's Perfume

Most men would not accept that there is such a thing as men's perfume, but men have been wearing perfume for hundreds of years or more. Nowadays, we call everyday men's perfume 'after shave' and give it a raison d'etre, but there is also men's perfume not to associated with shaving.

Men's Perfume

We tend to think of men's perfume as being a modern idea, but perfume was worn by men and women alike quite openly until only about 150 years ago, when it fell out of fashion with Victorian men. Perfume has a very long history. The word 'perfume' we use today comes from the Latin "per fumum", which means 'through smoke'.

Perfumery, or the art of making perfumes, began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and was further refined by the Romans and Persians. There was also perfumery in India, but it used incense as its base rather than distillation or alcohol.

The world's first recorded chemist was a woman named Tapputi, a perfume maker who was mentioned in a cuneiform tablet from the second millennium BC in Mesopotamia. She distilled flowers, oil, and calamus with other aromatic substances, filtered them and put them back in the still several times, draining every last molecule of essential oil from the constituents.

Men's perfume is generally weaker than women's perfume and is usually less floral, but not always. Most men's perfume is sold with pictures of open beaches and open skies, whereas most advertisements for women's perfume depict intimate, romantic scenes.

Below is a list of the five most commonly used industry standards for the types of fragrances:

A] Perfume extract (Extrait): 15-40% (IFRA: typical 20%) aromatic compounds

B] Eau de Parfum (EdP), Parfum de Toilette (PdT): 10-20% (typical ~15%) aromatic compounds. Sometimes listed as "eau de perfume" or "mill?sime".

C] Eau de Toilette (EdT): 5-15% (typical ~10%) aromatic compounds

D] Eau de Cologne (EdC): Chypre citrus type perfumes with 3-8% (typical ~5%) aromatic compounds

E] Splash and After shave: 1-3% aromatic compounds

Men's perfume is rarely sold as Eau de Perfum or perfume extracts. Similarly, women's fragrances are rarely sold in Eau de Cologne concentrations. Despite the fact that this gender specific naming is a common method of assigning fragrance concentrations, it does not really have anything to do with whether a fragrance was intended for men or women.

Here are some famous names who have produced men's perfume:

Andy Roddick

This men's perfume is called Andy Roddick (“We paid a huge creative team for that name”) and yes, he does wear it.

Antonio Banderas

After the relatively large success of 2005's Zorro movie and corresponding men’s perfume called Zorro, Antonio got a taste for the art of perfumery, and has released a number of brands of men’s perfume under his own name.

Derek Jeter

The Derek Jeter cologne, called Driven, was designed to capture ambition, courage, passion and confidence. Avon Products Inc. teamed up with the New York Yankees shortstop to develop this list of attributes to be captured in the signature men’s perfume.

Donald Trump

Este Lauder reportedly grabbed Donald Trump for a men's pefume collaboration because “his commitment to excellence and desire for perfection is unparalleled.” Aiming to capture the essence of the American Dream, Este Lauder felt that men of all ages would want to experience Mr. Trump’s passion and taste for luxury.

Sean John

Larger-than-life rapper, producer and entrepreneur Sean “Puffy” Combs takes his inspirations from close to home. “My grandmother always used to say, ‘You are what you say you are,’ and she called me her little king".