Since both the perfumes and colognes trigger our sense of smell with almost equal skills, the huge section of the general flock tend to consider the two distinctive concepts synonymously, which lead them to wrong selection. People often tend to pick up the colognes instead of the perfumes and make mistakes in this regard time and again. In order to get rid of the possibilities of such mistakes, it is important to understand the basic points of differences between the perfumes and the colognes.



As a matter of fact, the alcohol water base ratio is the pivotal point of distinction between the two. Perfumes have high concentration of essential perfume oils, while the colognes tend to have a high concentration of alcohol. Naturally, as compared to the colognes, the fragrances in case of perfumes usually retain for comparatively longer span of time. Moreover the fragrances of the perfumes tend to be more prominent and more effective as compared to those of the colognes.

Perfumes And Features

While dealing with the discussion regarding the right selection of perfumes it would be great to have a glance on France – being the industry of perfumes. Although invented by the Egyptians, the French had carried out extensive research works on the perfumes and developed the concept of layered fragrance. This has today become the salient point to distinguish an original perfume from rest of the perfumery items such as colognes, eau de toilettes, eau de perfumes and lotions. An original perfume usually has three distinctive layered fragrance called notes – the top notes, middle notes and the base notes.

Colognes And Features

Colognes, on the other hand, are entirely different stream of the subject. These are usually the single-note fragrances with much feeble effectiveness and less prominence as compared to the perfumes. Colognes never come with the property of layered fragrances. Since the colognes are comparatively milder, they can be over-sprayed to make the bolder whisper of note.

Other categories

The subject does not come to an end with just these two categories. Eau de toilettes and eau de perfumes are also there, making the issue father critical. Since eau de toilettes contain less percentage of perfume oils, they prove to be quite milder. The most aesthetic category is eau de perfumes. These prove to be much cheaper than the original perfumes but the retains the fragrance almost as long as the perfumes do.

Hence it is advisable to spend as much time as possible while shopping for the perfumes and fragrances. Making too much haste will be a fool's errand on your part. Shopping for perfumes requires the attention to be paid on your pocket as well as on these categories.