Designer houses offering 'Parfum' strength for men - the new trend

[Varanis Ridari]

Money money money money

moooonneeeyyyyy

 

[Zenwannabee]

Adding D&G The One EDP (2015) to the list here as it’s a favorite of mine.

It also seems part of this trend that the EDP or Parfum (or Elixir, etc.) versions may have components or DNA of the original but be very different scents (not just an amped up version of the EDT), and be hit-or-miss with regard to greater sillage or longevity (e.g. TdH Parfum). Or additionally you have Parfum versions that have nothing in common with the original EDT version (e.g. Cool Water Parfum). The designations start to lose their moorings a bit. I often really enjoy the multiple versions, but it definitely pays to sample first.

 

[tspencer]

The thing is, I already find some of these designer frags, in their original strength, to be 'more' than sufficient to get noticed by other people. For instance, Dior Sauvage, the EDT original, is plenty powerful enough to get picked up by people in an elevator. I imagine the Parfum strength could be offensive to sensitive people. I already worry that I over-apply. Finding that proper application amount to be "just enough strength to get some sillage, but not too much to offend" takes sometimes months of wearing a fragrance intermittently and in different weather and hopefully getting feedback from people in public that they smell the fragrance.

 

[Renato]

Seriously? I consider any fragrance that lasts a whole 16 hours to be a marathoner.

You may be thinking of women's EDPs. I've bought heaps of those over the years and some have barely lasted four hours on the women I bought them for, although most lasted longer. Men's EDTs last longer than many women's EDPs because their wood and leather basenotes just seem to last a lot longer than the floral basenotes in women's scents.

Also, a lot of powerhouse scents from 20 years ago have been reformulated and don't last anywhere near as long their new versions now. My bottle of Joop Homme from then would last for many days - till I had a shower and good scrub ( it was a good beach scent as sea water didn't get it off). The shirt it was on smelled out my bedroom for 13 days straight till I threw it in a washing machine. Joop Homme Aftershave splash from then lasts two days - longer than most EDPs then and now. CK Eternity back then I'd have to hang out the jumper I wore it with for five days before the scent disappeared. Annick Goutal Sables lasted four days on the back of my hand. And the new release Aqua Di Pino Fougere that I bought recently is an exception to the trend of shorter lasting scents, lasting about two days.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[milkbaby]

I'm confused why Le Male Le Parfum is an "eau de parfum intense", Bad Boy Le Parfum is an "eau de parfum", and Sauvage Elixir is a "parfum concentré"... 😮

From now on I'm not gonna buy any designer fragrance until the Parfum Elixir Priveé Ultime Vrai flanker gets released.

 

[saminlondon]

As cacio and others have pointed out, the 'parfum' trend is an excuse to release yet more flankers rather than an accurate reflexion of the contents. I'd be amazed if they were actually parfum strength.

 

[woodnotes55]

Interesting observation. What jumps out to me is there are only two in the whole list of any interest (TDH, Pasha)..... obviously not in the market segment they are targeting.....

 

[Borzoi]

I think it mostly boils down to money. I’m guessing the big designers see it as cheaper to tweak half a dozen ingredients and change the Eau de toilette designation to Parfum. In a way it’s low hanging fruit for them, but they’ll soon run out of the low risk, cheap releases and have to put out something original in the way of a new pillar.

The other side to it is what happened with music production a few years back when many of the big boys (ahem and girls) would keep compressing their mix for loudness until all high and low notes were squished into a narrow bandwidth with much of the air, finer points and subtlety of the music being lost.

One last thing is an idea being espoused of real men having to be spoonfed new behaviours by the big boys (ahem and girls) like put on a perfume, put on a dress its manly GRRR as opposed to splash on some aftershave after you’ve shaved your face, or spray on some Eau de toilette before going to meet with the lads at your local bar or to meet a woman. Make of that what you will..

I definitely concur with the idea of a loudness war in perfume like the loudness war in music.
And frankly, both are as bad. It’s ridiculous how many people (especially new people in the fragrance community) believe that a scent that lasts for days and projects like a nuclear bomb immediately equals “quality ingredients”, as if the super loud 1997 CD remaster of Iggy’s “Raw Power” made the music sound better just because it was louder (hint: it didn’t)

 

[hednic]

In the last century, the word edp or parfum for a product marketed to men would have been unthinkable.

Quite true!

 

[PrinceRF]

It's a trend that I am perfectly happy with.

 

[StylinLA]

The thing is, I already find some of these designer frags, in their original strength, to be 'more' than sufficient to get noticed by other people. For instance, Dior Sauvage, the EDT original, is plenty powerful enough to get picked up by people in an elevator. I imagine the Parfum strength could be offensive to sensitive people. I already worry that I over-apply. Finding that proper application amount to be "just enough strength to get some sillage, but not too much to offend" takes sometimes months of wearing a fragrance intermittently and in different weather and hopefully getting feedback from people in public that they smell the fragrance.

Not positive and others can weigh in and shout me down.

Plus, some of the "old rules" may no longer apply to these modern "parfum" launches.

My base understanding is that the higher the concentration, the projection factor drops but the longevity increases.

So theoretically, the EdT version gets more noticed, but the EdP version lasts much longer though wearing closer to skin. Not sure where the "parfum" versions fall in this spectrum. I think they are supposed to be higher concentration than EdP.

I also don't know if there are any hard and fast rules about what can be called an EdT, EdP or Parfum. The cynic in me wonders if some of these companies pay little heed to the concentrations and are just tinkering the formula slightly and printing "Parfum" on the label.

 

[Andrewthecologneguy]

Hi Andrew,
As I own none of the parfum strength scents and haven't tested any either. My interest is how long do they actually last in practice?

The very few EDP strength scents I've owned only had performance of about 16 hours before becoming faint - which was about double the endurance of their EDT strength counterparts - and I've owned plenty of EDTs that lasted much longer than those EDPs.

So I'd be satisfied if Parfum strength scents lasted at least a day to a day and half with moderate strength, else I'd think them a bit of a con-job. In your opinion, have any of the Parfum scents you listed and have tested achieved that endurance please?
Regards,
Renato

Hi Renato,
I have so far tried Joop! Le Parfum, Sauvage Parfum, Sauvage Elixir, Stronger With You Absolutely and TdH Parfum.
None performed to the expectation of lasting the entire day and longer.
Instead, I got a denser, deeper version of the original, with nuances and 'dark' facets.
The all did last over 12 hours but the projection and sillage fell at around 8 hours.

Not accounting for skin chemistry and environmental effects, my conclusion thus far is that these 'parfum' options while containing mor perfume oil are more about a less fleeting initial blast than they are about monster sillage and long lasting projection.
In the end, they are just another flanker, with mostly stronger scents.

 

[Andrewthecologneguy]

I'm confused why Le Male Le Parfum is an "eau de parfum intense", Bad Boy Le Parfum is an "eau de parfum", and Sauvage Elixir is a "parfum concentré"... 😮

From now on I'm not gonna buy any designer fragrance until the Parfum Elixir Priveé Ultime Vrai flanker gets released.

I am just as confused.
Never thought 'EdPi' would ever be a thing.
It would have been better if they all got together and agreed to what 'Le Parfum' means concentration-wise

 

[Renato]

Hi Renato,
I have so far tried Joop! Le Parfum, Sauvage Parfum, Sauvage Elixir, Stronger With You Absolutely and TdH Parfum.
None performed to the expectation of lasting the entire day and longer.
Instead, I got a denser, deeper version of the original, with nuances and 'dark' facets.
The all did last over 12 hours but the projection and sillage fell at around 8 hours.

Not accounting for skin chemistry and environmental effects, my conclusion thus far is that these 'parfum' options while containing mor perfume oil are more about a less fleeting initial blast than they are about monster sillage and long lasting projection.
In the end, they are just another flanker, with mostly stronger scents.

Thanks very much Andrew,
Interesting assessment. Having less fleeting top notes seems like a good idea.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[PrinceRF]

My base understanding is that the higher the concentration, the projection factor drops but the longevity increases.

So theoretically, the EdT version gets more noticed, but the EdP version lasts much longer though wearing closer to skin. Not sure where the "parfum" versions fall in this spectrum. I think they are supposed to be higher concentration than EdP.

I also don't know if there are any hard and fast rules about what can be called an EdT, EdP or Parfum. The cynic in me wonders if some of these companies pay little heed to the concentrations and are just tinkering the formula slightly and printing "Parfum" on the label.

I agree, you are correct. Alcohol is what makes the scent project, and a less-concentrated fragrance will have more alcohol, thus projecting more but lasting less. Parfums are higher concentration than EdPs.

There are specific guidelines regarding strength. EdT is typically 5 - 15% oil, EdP 15 - 20%, and parfum (AKA extrait, AKA pure perfume) 20 - 40%. As for whether companies entirely truthful with their marketing in this regard, I'm not sure, but I doubt it.

 

[Redneck Perfumisto]

There are specific guidelines regarding strength. EdT is typically 5 - 15% oil, EdP 15 - 20%, and parfum (AKA extrait, AKA pure perfume) 20 - 40%. As for whether companies entirely truthful with their marketing in this regard, I'm not sure, but I doubt it.

Roja Dove hints that you are correct here, on pp 80-81 of his 2008 book.

Here are the percentages of ‘jus’ (concentrate that may already contain some alcohol as needed) that he quietly says are actually used.

Eau de Cologne: 2-4%
Eau Fraîche: 3-7%
Eau de Toilette: 3-8%
Eau de Parfum: 7-14%
Perfume: 20-40%

There’s a lot of room for nomenclature and tricks in that overlapping and broken scale.

Those pages of his book are fascinating because he spends much more time and graphics on the volatility pyramid differences between the categories, and those are substantial. The percentages of components going into top, head, heart, base, and deep base vary.

Top+Head / Heart / Base+Deep_Base

Perfume 20 30 50
Eau de Parfum 40 30 30
Eau de Toilette 50 30 20

You can see how, depending upon the specific components and their volatility, tenacity, and perceptibility, one can have a powerhouse EDT or a quiet perfume.

In general, Dove says EDTs are for scenting the atmosphere, and perfumes are for scenting the wearer!

ISBN 978-1-906155-49-0

 

[slpfrsly]

Part of it is the need to bring more products - and more new products - to market than in the past. So now Bleu de Chanel has 3 versions, Sauvage 4 (5 if you include the body spray). Brand recognition is a big deal, and branding in general has become much less risque in the last 10 years, so we end up with different formulas of fragrances where in the past it might have been flankers or even totally new fragrances. Think about something like TdH, for instance, and how it straddles this - it has 'Fraiche' and 'Vetiver' flankers, but they're still ostensibly TdH. BdC and Sauvage have done away with this and simply market them as different concentrations - when, obviously, we all know they are slightly (sometimes more than slightly) different formulas as well. Even 10-15 years ago, this was uncommon: you'd still get flankers that marked themselves are related yet different perfumes. Like Guerlain's Ideal line, for example (a case of being behind the curve, I think, as they missed the fact the market had changed and you need one really good/recognisable scent like the dark blues instead of a variety of different ones). But this no longer seems to be the way designer houses sell their fragrances. They put a lot of effort in to making a safe/sure thing their main release, and then release different concentrations of that. Whether this continues, who knows. We'll have to wait and see but it's defined the market in the 2010s.

It would be interesting to see how much truth there is behind the EDT, EDP, and Parfum concentration in the product titles. Is there any legal compulsion to ensure there's truth behind the naming?

 

[slpfrsly]

Good post @Redneck Perfumisto

Not surprised by those %s either. Eau Fraiche, EdT, and EdP can all be 7%. Not particularly useful when there's so much overlap!

 

[Redneck Perfumisto]

Good post @Redneck Perfumisto

Not surprised by those %s either. Eau Fraiche, EdT, and EdP can all be 7%. Not particularly useful when there's so much overlap!

Thanks! And exactly. I suspect the true differences in the categories are deep, mostly qualitative, and much more obvious to perfumers than to us. Quantitative guidelines thus being more of an annoyance than a constraint to them and their creative and evaluative handlers.

 

[Borzoi]

Is there any legal compulsion to ensure there's truth behind the naming?

As far as I know, no.