What Women Want: 10 Reasons Why Guys Shouldn't Overlook Their Fragrance

Artwork by Sophia Chang.

In case you haven’t given much thought to developing a signature scent before now, we rounded up a variety of women who were willing to share their thoughts on the subject and, hopefully, lead you to a better state of smell. If there was ever a time to take a true interest in your fragrance choices, it’s now. Start taking notes.

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“I adore the scent my dad used. He wore it, along with an impeccable suit, to work every day. Whenever I smelled that, it meant Dad was driving me to school in his Porsche (drop me off right out front, please); or it meant he was home from work for the evening, which meant food, fun, and relaxation. I equate the scent with ambition, hard work, and success.”

—Nicole Tondre, Courtshop

“Ladies can tell when you’re trying to pull off your body wash as a signature scent. That doesn’t count—the jig is up. If scent is the strongest sense tied to memory, trust that it’ll be worth it for you to invest in a real fragrance.”

—Brittnee Caan, Refinery29

“I love a guy who wears a good fragrance. With that said, I definitely don’t need to know how much he spends on it. I kid you not, I went on a date with a guy who took me to Bergdorfs for the day and told me how much money he drops on clothes. Then, he had us visit the fragrance counter and sample the different scents, making a big deal out of finding out how much each scent cost. Of course, he made sure to purchase the most expensive bottle. For the record, it smelled awful.”

—Madeleine Roberts, Attention PR

“I was just having a conversation with a friend about this the other day. The context: She had gone on a date with a guy who smelled so strong—she described it as smelling like the fragrance section at Saks—that she couldn’t help but think that he was compensating for not having showered in three days.

The question was whether this was enough to stop seeing him, and for her, it was. I was lucky in that my husband was and always has been very into smell. The first time I visited his house he had vanilla incense all over. I’ll never forget that. Loving his smell (and his apartment) really made me feel like we were compatible.”

—Sari Azout, Bib + Tuck

“While there’s not a story that jumps out in my mind about a particularly great or terrible scent-related date, I will say that I always suggest guys looking for a new scent consider lesser-known or more niche brands. Wearing a more common scent almost ensures that a girl will be reminded of a past boyfriend who wore the same. Picking something more obscure means you’re more likely to be an original…at least to her olfactory senses!”

—Megan Collins, Style Girlfriend

“In high school and college, I dated guys too slacker-y to wear a scent, which was fine by me—I don’t ask much of a guy’s grooming past a daily shower. At 26, I started dating a guy who wore a sharp, ozonic scent I can only describe as frozen pears and cold metal. It gave me a major headache—not least of all because the bottle had been a gift from his previous girlfriend! Needless to say, I upgraded him to a less migraine-inducing niche scent. Truth be told, that may have been more of a territory-marking than a kind-hearted gift.”

—Leeann Dugan, Refinery29

“My boyfriend in high school was great except he doused himself in some kind of off-brand concoction that had to have been manufactured with the leftover dredges at a nail polish remover plant. He only wore it on “special occasions,” but still. Acetone. Acetone everywhere.

So I did what any good girlfriend socialized by the questionable morals of a Disney Channel original series would do: I went to Sephora and got him something I could stand. The sales associate told me it was something like “woody with cedar notes.” Whatever. Smelling like a tree is better than smelling like paint thinner. I gave it to him for some random holiday. (“Oh, just got you this because it’s Veterans Day, support the troops! Know what I mean?”) He ignored my gift-hint and we broke up shortly after. Not blaming anything in particular here, but my passive trickery—plus his inability to take a hint—didn’t bode well for the relationship overall.”

—Kenzie Bryant, Racked

“Fragrance can be a wretched thing, or at least a dangerous one. In college, I used to take t-shirts from the men I was dating because t-shirts hold a man’s smell so well. I would never wear them because then they’d lose the scent, but instead I would wear them as... well, I guess they were sort of like the questionably-named, as-seen-on-TV product ‘Turbie Twist.’

So I’d sort of sit in my room in my little makeshift Turbie Twist, daydreaming about whatever whiny humanoid I was seeing. Usually this had very little to do with the actual fragrance and everything to do with a divine biological bouquet.”

—Rachel Seville, Pizza Rulez

“They say a woman notices a man’s shoes first. Lies. She notices his smell, whether consciously or subconsciously—we are inhaling you, always. If I bought you a certain fragrance gift set in the early 2000s, I probably loved you. If you wore anything remotely smelling of that today, I’d hate you. Just like with board shorts, no post-collegiate male over the age of 22 should be wearing a scent with a ridiculous name.”

—Nic Screws, Esquire

“About three months ago I answered the door to the FedEx guy, but something was different that day. I instantly went red and started to perspire when he handed me the pen to sign. When I shut the door, I was like, ‘What was that?!’ He was wearing the scent of the ’90s bad boy in my classroom. And it obviously had the same effect on me 15 years later. It has always gotten to me.”

—Katie Eary, Designer