How many minutes for each "note" of a cologne to emerge ?

[Bass301]

What is the usual timetable for the dry down of a cologne ?

How many minutes does the top note last before the middle note emerges , and how many minutes does the middle note last before the bottom note emerges ?

Does each note last equally long and in succession , or are all notes present to the nose from the beginning ?

Does a cologne lasting two hours have a different dry down timetable than a cologne lasting five hours ?

 

[tehtimmeh]

I'm not sure there are set rules for any of this. Different notes appear at different times and dry downs will occur at different times for nearly every fragrance out there.

This would be a hard one to standardize. Each one is unique in it's own right.

 

[vertigo12314]

Top notes usually last less long than middle and base notes in my experience but this varies with each fragrance.

 

[Austin]

The particular note will determine how long it lasts. Citrus generally lasts less than florals. Florals last less than gourmands. Etc. It's hard to tell.

However, synthetic notes can last longer than anything else.

 

[Trendkill]

I'm no expert on this, but I would assume that how the cologne reacts with your skin would contribute to how long the note(s) last.

 

[arghblech]

You are making this more difficult than it actually is.

Sniff.
Wait.
Sniff again.
Different?
Wait.
Sniff.
Different?
...

 

[The Knize]

Great, thoughtful questions!

As others indicate, it varies hugely. Knize Ten is an interesting teaching example, for instance. I am not sure it ever stops evolving, and I do not think I could pick out middle notes from basenotes in it. Also, its top notes, to me, kind of resurface in the scent over time.

Montale Black Aoud on the other hand, while not exactly completely linear, does not evolve much to me through dry down. Or it may be more like the top notes, middle notes, and basenotes are all very close to the same.

Dunhill 1934 to me has some of the most distinct phases of evolution, but its top notes seem to linger an exceptionally long time, and the transition into middle notes, and then not basenotes is gradual. I would say it is two hours before it is a final dry down at least.

<all notes present to the nose from the beginning >

Some yes, some no. In Pen's Douro, for instance, everything else seems masked to me by the lemon/citrus blast that is the top notes. Fairly promptly other, quite strong notes, start to present themselves, but I would say that it would be had to say one could smell them from the beginning. Whereas for Lolita Lempicka, I would say that all notes are there from the beginng, but the scent still evolves quite a bit.

 

[StylinLA]

No scientific answer. It varies from scent to scent.

Generally, I find most top notes in the 10-20 mintues range. It generally takes close to an hour to really know what the scent will smell like during most of the day's wearing. But even that is a generalization.

Main point to me though is to know that when you're in a store, the smell on the card if you're spraying samples is not a good reflection of how the scent will resolve unless you wait it out.

 

[DFrancis]

For me a good example of a changing scent is Trumper's Lavender Water, the floral fades quite quickly and it morphs into a sweet/spicy scent, the sweet trails off a bit and it gets more spicy and near the end of the day, 16 hours later, it's more musky that anything.

 

[The Knize]

<Main point to me though is to know that when you're in a store, the smell on the card if you're spraying samples is not a good reflection of how the scent will resolve unless you wait it out. >

I do not find that even if you wait it out, that a spray on a card tells me much about what a scent will seem like on me, and I am not as big a "varies with body chemistry" guy as some folks are. I think scents vary some, but not all that much based on body chemistry. Luca Turin at one point argued that any variation is a myth, but I would say that is wrong!