10 Best Men’s Cologne
Colin Dempsey
Table of Contents
You’d be surprised how few people grasp how important it is to smell good. Not only is it a sign of good hygiene but it’s one of the easiest ways to make a great first impression.
That leads most people to look into the best men’s colognes only to be faced with a daunting mountain of fragrances and extracts they don’t understand. They ask themselves questions like, “What is a fruity smell?” and “Do I really want to smell musky?”
Thankfully, I’ve put together a list of the best men’s colognes that can be your shortcut to finding what’s right for you. You’ll read through the fragrances that I’ve deemed worthy of your dollars for their prices, their scents, their ingredients, and their overall vibes.
What Makes A Good Men’s Cologne?
You can tell the best men’s colognes apart from the middle-of-the-road colognes by how good they actually are and if they truly smell like real ingredients.
Here’s what I mean: the best colognes will usually include either whole ingredients or ingredients extracts to give them a more pure scent.
Lesser colognes or sprays smell like chemicals. Rather than smelling good, they just cover up the fact that you might smell bad. The best men’s colognes operate totally differently.
Finding The Best Men’s Cologne
Finding the best men’s cologne for you involves a good degree of self-awareness. Unlike deodorant, cologne is designed to project a certain scent.
That scent may or may not be worth your time depending on its strength, its notes, how it matches your personality, and its price.
Before pulling out your wallet, it’s important to figure out how much you’re willing to spend on a fragrance, where you’ll be wearing the cologne, and how often you’ll wear it. Doing so will help you decide which cologne is the best for you.
The 10 Best Men’s Cologne
So, you’ve learned what makes a good men’s cologne worthwhile and how you can determine which colognes best suit your lifestyle. Now it’s time for you to look through my top-10 picks of the best men’s colognes and see which ones appeal to you.
1: Polo Blue Parfum
Ralph Lauren Polo Blue Parfum features a fresh woods accord that combines with sparkling Mandarin, clary sage, and smoky vetiver. The result is an enveloping and seductive fragrance that adds a new intensity of rich sensuality to the iconic fragrance collection.
Price: $116.00
2: Polo Cologne Intense
A new classic for a new generation. The iconic men’s Polo scent is reinvented with the fresh intensity of grapefruit and cooling sage balanced by the signature smooth tones of intense patchouli.
Price: $124.00
3: Boss The Scent Aeu The Toilette 100 ml
A 100ml bottle of BOSS The Scent eau de toilette. Exquisite notes of ginger, exotic maninka and leather unfold in BOSS The Scent over time, awakening and seducing the senses. Spritz it on for an irresistible fragrance that lasts the day.
Price: $91.00
4: Hugo Man Eau de Toilette 125 ml
A 125ml bottle of HUGO Man eau de toilette. This modern fragrance is an energizing hit of crisp green apple combined with smoky fir balsam and vibrant aromatic notes. Ideal for those with a free-spirited nature, HUGO Man is presented in a sleek flask with a bold logo.
Price: $84.00
5: Dior Homme Eau de Toilette
Dior Homme Eau de Toilette is intriguingly powerful and appealingly fresh.
Dior Homme redefines a new, masculine sensuality with its composition of smooth and raw wood. In the heart notes of tender wood lies the virility of Atlas Cedar embracing the enveloping warmth of Haitian Vetiver tinged with spices. The wood is chiseled in-house at Dior.
Dior Homme conveys all the facets of modern masculinity. A man, yes, but a man of many nuances: confident in both his strength and his tenderness.
Dior Homme Eau de Toilette’s bold scented trail leaves a sensual imprint.
Price: $104.00
6: Dior Sauvage Elixir
Sauvage Elixir is an extraordinarily* concentrated fragrance steeped in the emblematic freshness of Sauvage with an intoxicating heart of Spices, a “tailor-made” Lavender essence and a blend of rich Woods forming the signature of its powerful, lavish and captivating trail.
Francois Demachy, Dior Perfumer-Creator, created the Sauvage Elixir fragrance like a fine liqueur made of exceptional ingredients. This concentration was made possible by the exceptional quality of the raw materials: Sauvage Elixir is a fragrance as unique and rare as a red moon in the night sky.
Sauvage Elixir concentrates all of its power in a midnight blue lacquered glass bottle in Dior’s unique 2.0 oz size. This precious bottle, shaped like a vial, features multiple sophisticated designs: the magical name of the fragrance is inscribed in shiny silver on a label engraved right into the glass. The dome-shaped bottom engraved with the CD logo marks its silhouette.
Price: $159.00
7: Dior Oud Ispahan
Oud Ispahan elegantly embraces a warm identity: it is the olfactory translation of a warm palace, where shimmering hues meld with intoxicating scents to become one.
Sophisticated charm and a traveler’s soul influence the powerful character and accents of Oud Ispahan. It is an uncompromising fragrance that highlights its woody force with the spicy, decisive character of Damascus Rose.
Oud Ispahan is a fragrance that arouses curiosity and invites you on an olfactory journey with its warm soul tinged with a floral softness.
The ochre hue of the warm palace that inspired the fragrance and the intense red of the Damascus Rose.
Oud-floral. It is the member of the Maison Christian Dior family of precious Ouds with a floral signature. A captivating fragrance with a powerful identity, based on an Oud accord adorned with the softness of Rose.
Oud Ispahan is an intense fragrance that cannot be forgotten.
Price: $260.00
8: Prada Luna Rossa Ocean Eau de Toilette
What it is: A fragrance for men augmented by the cutting-edge technology of molecular distillation, expanding the field of naturalness.
Price: $80.00
9: Bleu de Chanel Eau de Toilette Spray
A woody, aromatic fragrance with a provocative blend of citrus and woods that liberates the senses.
Fresh, clean and profoundly sensual, BLEU DE CHANEL unites the invigorating zest of grapefruit with the power of an aromatic accord with the woody whisper of dry cedar. New Caledonian sandalwood lends the fragrance a warm and sensual trail. A meeting of strength and elegance.
Notes: Grapefruit, dry cedar, sandalwood.
Price: $90.00
10: Polo Earth 100 mL Eau de Toilette Spray
Consciously designed for all genders, Polo Earth brings together luxury, nature, and sustainability with this 97% natural-origin fragrance formulated with plant-based alcohol and no animal-derived ingredients, sulfates, phthalates, artificial preservatives, or colorants.
Polo Earth includes seven sustainably sourced ingredients from communities around the world to create a sheer, light fragrance that is refreshing and easy to wear. Designed with an FSC-certified wood cap and label, the fragrance’s innovative bottle is responsibly packaged with 20% post-consumer recycled glass and is refillable.
Price: $106.00
What Are The Most Popular Men’s Colognes?
The biggest brand name men’s colognes are usually the most popular. These fragrances are often less intense and so they make fantastic all-purpose colognes.
Colognes like Ralph Lauren’s Polo Black and Hugo Boss’ Boss fall under this category.
What Types Of Smells Are Popular In Men’s Cologne?
Most eau-de-toilette smells are the most popular though not all of the best men’s colognes are that light. Fruity top notes are evergreen because they smell so delightful, but smokey finishes and musky scents like cedar are many men’s go-to colognes.
How To Wear Men’s Cologne
Styling the best men’s colognes is a matter of situational awareness. There’s a correct time and place for nearly every scent. For example, the gym is neither the time nor the place for cologne.
However, you should wear a lighter cologne if you want to smell fresh throughout your daily activities. Go with a cologne with a fruity scent and a less distinct aroma. The people you cross paths with during the day will thank you for your subtle yet refined scent.
Another option is to wear a more pungent cologne when you’re engaging in an intimate activity like a date. These are scenarios when you want to broadcast a stronger fragrance to leave a lasting impression.
Many people smell before they see, after all, so spritzing yourself with a good cologne can make your date much more open and relaxed.
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