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I've never worn colognes or aftershaves or any of that stuff, being a natural dude (here you should be thinking of Kevin Kline's character in A Fish Called Wanda steeling himself for action by checking the pheromone levels in his armpits), but for quite a while now I've been thinking of it for my work. There's a practical thing here, too, I guess, in that a few hours in a jumpsuit in sometimes-hot conditions does pump up the old homeostatic release of coolant and a little covering scent couldn't hurt. Mainly, though, I've been checking out women's reactions to my co-Elvis, who wears cologne, and quite a few comment on how nice he smells. Seems to kinda add a little something, and that can't hurt.
But there's more. A couple of nights ago, before we started our work, he offered me some of his cologne (not his usual stuff...forget what it was called, but maybe something like Paul Litchfield or whatever) and I thought I'd give it a try. I had absolutely no idea what to do with it, of course, but I sprayed a couple of little misty squirts around my throat area and upper chest and decided the stench wasn't too putrid and that I'd see what the night brought as a perfumed sorta-King. Now, there were undoubtedly other reasons at play here, but what happened that night was I got me a woman. :D
Holy shoot, that cologne is powerful stuff... :o
So now I'm kind of in love the idea of drenching myself in what I'm beginning to imagine as some kind of flowery. musky aphrodisiac that will break down any last resistance left by the mere sight of my radiant self and Help Me Make It Through The Night. Or something like that. And, of course, I can sweat all I want and not worry about how far I spread my arms when I'm around people.
Now, Elvis, in the '70s, preferred -- for all his wealth -- Brut and Old Spice. What my partner's told me he usually uses is Fendi for Men and Paco Rabanne. I've found good prices on both (eBay offered me, by a slim margin, the best deal) and was thinking of just buying one 3.4-oz bottle of each, sight unsmelled. His reasoning is that we shouldn't use colognes that are especially widespread (he reeled off a bunch of names, none of which I remember) because we want to stand out from regular dudes (hey, we're Elvis) a little, olfactorily, and from watching reactions to his scent I have to say that he's probably got a point there. If he wore Polo or Calvin Klein, or whatever else is especially popular, I doubt he'd get any remarks, at least regaridng his scent. Last year, when I toyed with the idea of splashing cologne on myself, I checked out a few and the one I really did like (I'm generally not a huge fan of any scent, whether on a male or female) was one of the Burberry brand, a real citrus-y smell that appealed to me.
If any of y'all happen to be experts on such things -- or even if not -- I'd really appreciate any guidance on potential colognes for me. I don't know what sort of criteria you'd be looking to match, but I guess what I want is something that is not very common (by which I mean, not a thing too many men wear), obviously something that smells good, and that is strong (as in strength) but not overpowering (for one thing, I've got to wear the stuff) or too insistent, but potent enough that at least most of the fragrance lasts a few hours fairly coherently. If it has any bearing at all on cologne choice, my physical type is tall and broad (so a robust undertone is good) but I'm also decked out in flashy clothes and jewels and wearing mascara (so a feminine hint's also good) -- think Elvis, I guess, and although he was hardly androgenous he had definite feminine characteristics along with the more macho. And I'm not really serious about wanting something with pheromones or musk that somehow magically drives women nuts, if there is such a thing, because we have enough problems with that already.... :scared: (one woman damn near smashed my nose into oblivion a while back and I've more than once taken a loaded purse to the groin from ladies who were a little overly enthusiastic and/or inebriated and incapable of properly handling such instruments of gonadal destruction)
I can always try it his way and go for Fendi and Paco (I take great pains to be authentic regarding Elvis' raiment and all of that, but I think I'll pass on the Brut and Old Spice, if only because the idea of trying to be more distinctive, scent-wise, probably has merit) but if anyone has any better ideas I'd love to hear 'em...
Thanks.
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