As a Gentleman who is fond of a good Men’s fragrance I was very taken by the new Penhaligon’s Juniper Sling, and who wouldn’t be. It’s a fresh light fragrance with a very pleasant memory of gin and tonics of old. Penhaligon’s style it as “playful, chilled and mysterious paying homage to the bright young things of the roaring twenties”. So it is obviously meant to capture the mood of the newly released Great Gatsby.
The sample I applied liberally received full approval from those closest and most important to me and this set me thinking, did I need a new scent and if I did spend £78 on this fragrance how and when would I use it.
So having consulted my Perfect Gentleman colleagues and Adam our ‘Organised (IT) Gentleman; we sent out our first short questionnaire to our friends and readers to establish a little more detail about the use of scents. We were delighted with the results and they paint a fascinating picture.
The first questions we asked were about the first scent and the age at which they were first used. It is likely that the choice of first scent was influenced by that used by our father’s (I know mine was). By far the most commonly used first scent was Old Spice followed fairly closely by Brut and Aramis, both heavily advertised in my youth. 63% of our respondents confirmed that they started using a scent between the ages of 10 and 17.
27% of those surveyed bought their scent at Duty Free and having spoken to Deborah it is clear that a snap decision at an airport is probably not the best way to make a decision on a new scent but offers a considerable saving on a replacement bottle.
The vast majority of our friends who responded had two or more scents in their bathrooms with just over 25% owning more than 3 bottles. With 75% of respondents paying over £30 for their scent it suggests that investing in companies making fine fragrances may be a sure thing. Penhaligon’s obviously know what they were doing having been making fine scents since 1870.
Deborah’s advice on the use of scent was clear, that using a scent directly on a newly shaved face is not a good thing and we clearly have some well educated and groomed Gentleman readers as just over 80% use their scent on either their body or body and face.
What was something of a surprise was that 85% of respondents said that they wore their scent for themselves, not at all what I had expected. The array of scents being used by our Gentlemen readers was quite astounding. With 24 different scents being listed and only 4 with more than four users. The most common was Terre d’ Hermes very closely followed by Channel Bleu, Aqua di Parma and a carryover from the list of first used scents; Armani.
So Gentlemen, with a wealth of scents to choose from and with expert advice from Deborah there is no excuse for not smelling absolutely wonderful.
