Wearing cologne can help you feel fresh, attractive, and more confident. But is it necessary to wear it every single day?
You should only wear cologne daily if it’s appropriate for your lifestyle and aligns with your preferences.
In this post, I’ll outline some of the pros and cons to wearing cologne on a daily basis. Keep reading to determine where you fit in and what you might want to do differently.
Benefits of Wearing Cologne Daily
Selecting the cologne fragrance that you enjoy wearing the most is a big deal. It’s almost a rite of passage in some cultures.
Many young males begin trying out scents as teenagers to impress their girlfriends or feel more grown up. Over time it simply becomes a part of life.
And there are many positive reasons why you might want to continue to wear cologne daily.
Feelings of Freshness
There might be times when you know you need to freshen up but for one reason or another, you’re not able to shower or bathe. In these moments, spraying on a little cologne can help you feel fresh and clean.
Cologne won’t completely mask your body odor, and this won’t work if you have strong body odor that requires a more appropriate solution. But for those short periods of time when you need a little kick up in the scent department, applying cologne will create an olfactory distraction.
Finding the right balance is key, though. Applying an excessive amount of cologne over body odor would not help your situation.
Confidence Booster
If you are meeting with a new client or going out on a first date, wearing a good cologne can help you feel more confident.
But gaining a boost of confidence from your cologne is only possible if you really love the scent that you’re wearing. When you love your cologne, it changes the way that you interact with others.
You square your shoulders, walk tall, and speak clearly. You may even get positive feedback about the fragrance, which can cause you to walk even taller.
It may sound silly, but if you aren’t sure about the scent you’re wearing, this will show up through your body language and overall demeanor.
Seriously, though, think about any aspect of your life that’s caused you to feel self-conscious. How did you act? Maybe your shoulders were slumped, you might have avoided eye contact, and you could have found yourself stammering over your words.
The same thing can happen if you’re having second thoughts about how you smell in your cologne. So choose your scent wisely if you want your cologne to help make you feel more confident.
Shift Your Mood
It’s a well-known fact that fragrances can change the way we feel.
If you want to feel grounded, you can spray on a cologne that incorporates sandalwood. Need an emotional lift? Veer towards a citrus or oceanic fragrance.
Piney scents can stimulate your mind and help you feel more grounded at the same time.
Having nostalgic memories of a loved one? Wear a cologne that reminds you of your first camping trip with your grandfather.
While cologne can have an impact on the people around you, it’s okay if you’re the first to benefit from your use of it.
Enhance Your Attractiveness
For some women, smelling cologne on a man makes that man more attractive to them. The smell of cologne can even cause them to feel that he’s more masculine.
Your natural pheromones can affect a “woman’s mood, focus, and sexual response.” But cologne can amplify the attraction.
When you’re out on the town, you might find that women are more willing to hold a conversation with you when you’re wearing a subtle but seductive cologne.
This could be because some companies add synthetic pheromones to their cologne in order to make the wearer even more attractive, which increases the likelihood of getting advances from the opposite sex.
Whether your cologne has pheromones in it or not, simply wearing your favorite scent can help you stand out.
If It Pleases Your Mate
Not all mates are concerned with whether or not you wear cologne, but some women are more attracted to their mates when they engage in this personal hygiene practice. To them, smelling cologne on their man is a sign that they actually take care of themselves.
Another consideration is that cologne contributes to the experience when taking your partner out for a romantic date night.
Enhance Your Partner’s Scent Memory
Similar to the last point, if you wear cologne but are away from your mate for a while, scent memory can keep her thinking about you while you’re gone.
I’ve known women who would wear their boyfriend’s clothing around the house because it reminded them of that person. They wanted to feel as though the person was still there even though they knew he wasn’t.
Smelling the same cologne on someone passing by them can have the same effect by triggering a memory of you whether you’re out of town or not.
This is where having one or a few signature scents that you wear often can come in handy.
Disadvantages to Wearing Cologne Daily
Wearing cologne isn’t all leathery musk or amber oud. While the experience can be pleasant to some, there are situations in which wearing cologne every day can become a problem.
You May Offend Others
No matter how pleasant a men’s fragrance, applying too much cologne is never a good thing.
If people can smell you before they can see you, you’ve definitely sprayed on too much cologne. Would you want to be stuck in an elevator with someone with that much cologne on? Probably not.
Another thing that can be offensive is a really potent fragrance. In some cases, you don’t have to over apply the cologne; you might only put on a small amount. But if it’s a really strong or unsophisticated scent, like Drakkar Noir or Sécrétions Magnifique from Etat Libre d’Orange, then you might clear the room as soon as you walk in.
Everyone responds to fragrances differently. A scent that one person loves, another person might hate. I’m not suggesting that you choose a scent based on others’ preferences, though. Just be mindful of the setting you’re in and/or the people you’re around.
And always know that a small amount of cologne can go a long way, so use it sparingly.
It Can Become Costly
Depending on your tastes, wearing a cologne daily can get expensive.
In terms of bottle size, a 3.4 oz (100 mL) bottle can last you about a year. But if you’re alternating between one or two scents per year, you might want to purchase larger bottles of cologne because you know that you’ll get use out of them.
This is where things can potentially get expensive.
And if you’re a person who loves trying lots of different fragrances, then you’ll have to be more intentional about your cologne budget.
You May Not Get The Job
Personal fragrances are such a common aspect of life that sometimes we can apply them without consideration of others.
One such instance is for a job interview. It may seem logical that you’d want to smell nice to help make a good first impression, but it’s actually best not to wear cologne to a job interview.
Some human resource professionals were asked if job candidates should wear cologne or perfume to a job interview, all of the comments that were shared leaned towards, “Absolutely not!”
Truth is, you never know how another person will react to the fragrance that you are wearing. They may have an allergic reaction, your cologne may trigger a migraine for them, or the scent might simply create a distraction.
Some companies even have a fragrance-free workplace policy. The Society for Human Resource Management offers a template for companies that want to implement such a policy.
One line reads,
“Scented personal products (such as fragrances, colognes, lotions and powders) that are perceptible to others should not be worn by employees.”
excerpt, SHRM Template
They describe both natural and artificial scents as having potential to distract and/or irritate coworkers. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety generated a fact sheet on the same topic.
They offer a bulleted list of health problems people might encounter from smelling cologne and other scents. While everyone reacts differently, there’s no way of knowing the exact amount of exposure that can trigger a reaction.
It’s important to be mindful of this if you plan to enter the workplace. If you prefer to wear cologne daily, your first interview might be one day that you choose not to wear any at all. And if you get the job, be sure to read your employee manual before deciding whether to wear cologne on your first day of work.
Closing Thoughts
Wearing cologne every day can become part of your identity. Just be respectful of your surroundings and how your scent choices might affect other people.