You'll see various names when shopping for fragrances, including eau de cologne, Initio Parfums, perfume, and eau de toilette. How are they different from each other? Why are other fragrances more expensive compared to others?

Today, let's discuss the difference between these fragrances.

When shopping for perfume or cologne, many things need to be considered – the type, brand, and price. Worse, we don't fully understand the terms regarding these scents. To learn the basics about men fragrance, some sites define various times to help make it easier to understand the differences between things like perfume and toilette.

Finding the ideal concentration is as essential as determining the perfect fragrance. For instance, the scent will quickly fade if it's too light. On the other hand, if it's too strong, you'll feel as if you're suffocating. You can always go for a Niche Perfume if you can't decide.

You must first understand how these scents are produced to determine what you're looking for. Manufacturers mix natural and artificial oils responsible for the smells of perfumes and colognes when mixed with alcohol.

The purpose of alcohol is to stabilize the scent and to modify the oils. This process will balance the ingredients of the fragrance. Thus creating that lovely scent.

Fragrances have different mixtures of perfume oils, alcohol, and even water. Sometimes, you can check the ingredients on the back of the perfume bottles.

Parfum, Extrait de Parfum, or Pure Perfume

The names used are quite ambiguous as they don't refer to the pure form of the most popular perfume oil. If they were, the perfumes wouldn't smell nice and will likely cause skin irritation.

However, pure perfume still has the highest concentration compared to others. It is usually between 15% and 30% perfume oil. This makes the fragrance potent and can last the whole day.

How far the scent of pure perfume you apply to your body is quite strong. People around you will surely notice. You will see that this kind of smell is thick and dense, with clouds of fragrance you can walk through and almost taste.

The scent is so strong that if you hug someone wearing pure perfume, you will likely smell like them for several hours.

Eau de Parfum

Eau de Parfum also contains a high concentration of perfume oils, between 15% to 20%. They're designed to last on the applied area the entire day without making nearby people dizzy. This category is the most common and used by almost all new fragrances today. If you check the perfume section in the department store, most are eau de parfum.

Eau de Toilette

Perfumes from the eau de toilette category have low concentrations, usually between 5% to 15%. They are made to have a lighter effect on our skin. However, they typically fade away before the day ends. They say that eau de toilette perfumes are ideal for day use only, while Eau de perfumes are suitable for nighttime.

But, all will still boil down to what you prefer. It's always about personal preference.

Eau de Cologne

Cologne is typically used to cover different masculine fragrances in North America. However, the correct definition of cologne is a fragrance that contains very light concentrations of perfume oils, which usually range from 2% to 4%. As you may have noticed, it contains more alcohol than perfume oils. As a result, they fade after a few hours of wearing.

Colognes are excellent for freshening up but are not helpful for a long-lasting effect. So, if you're planning a long day, you should wear a more pungent perfume.

Eau Fraiche

Eau Fraiche fragrances are similar to colognes. They also have low perfume oil concentrations, about 1% to 3%. The difference is that colognes have high alcohol concentration while the eau fraiche is primarily water-based.

Perfume sellers and counters are arranged according to their brand, not by type. However, you can always inform the attendant what scent you want. You can also show them an empty cologne bottle if you're looking for the same perfume type. However, it's recommended that you try out different kinds because they have unique features depending on how and where you will use them.