How To Send The Right Message With Scent

This is a guest post courtesy of Paul Agelidis, the Founder and Owner at Revolucion, a cigar, tobacco and men’s gift shop in beautiful Vancouver, BC.

There are plenty of situations in life where a man wants to send the right message. It could be a job interview, a big meeting at work, a first date, an anniversary dinner, your wedding day, etc. Aside from dressing appropriately, maintaining confident body language, and saying the right things, something few men will think of to help send the right message is their scent.

Think about it. You dress and act to convey a strong and confident message through sight, and you talk in firm and knowledgeable tones to convey a message through hearing — why not support the message you want to send through scent? Most men are aware that cologne exists and might even use it from time to time, but few men understand how to use cologne and their scent properly.

Here’s how you can use scent to send the right message.

Supporting Your Persona

If you want to create and convey the message that you’re confident, professional and capable then having the right scent will only support that to the people around you. If you dress up in a nice suit, the last thing you want is to completely ruin the persona by emitting bad body odor, wearing too much of a low-quality cologne, or wearing a scent that does not suit you.

You want to smell clean and proper, without the scent dominating people’s noses from across the table at a conference or restaurant. If your persona is of a professional in your workplace, a good musky scent with hints of leather or citrus to convey hard work is a classic combination. But if you’re on a date you might want to mix in some wood, mint, or lavender that conveys that you have a sense of cleanliness, fun, and that you like the outdoors.

Supporting the Situation

You can also convey different messages depending on the situation. You might have a regular scent when at a job you’ve been working at for months or years already but have a special scent for big professional occasions — first interviews, a big presentation in front of managers and executives, and so on. Those situations don’t require a scent or cologne that will last for the day, but for shorter periods of time.

This scent can be a bit (but ONLY a bit) stronger to cover up any nervous sweating you might have, but also to reach a bit beyond a close radius without overpowering those who are closer to you. You can pick a scent with herbal or wood scents that give a calming effect, both for you and for the people you’re speaking to. Lemon, rosemary, and peppermint are good for calming tones.

For a date or big family occasion, like a wedding, go with something a bit more expressive of you. You can stick to outdoorsy smells like wood or earth tones if that suits you, but if you love cooking or baking you can throw in some notes of mandarin, sage, fruit, cinnamon, or vanilla. If you like fishing, you can use something that brings to mind the smell of the lake.. just not the smell of the fish!

About the Author:

Paul Agelidis has been the founder and owner of Revolucion, a Canadian cigar, tobacco and men’s gift shop in Vancouver, since 2005. For the last decade Paul has worked very hard to become an expert in tobacco products, men’s care, travel & accessories, body & bath, and gifts & home. Prior to 2005, from 1997 – 2005 Paul worked in the wholesale cigar industry and travelled to the annual cigar trade show (Habanos Festival every February). He loves to share his tips with others who are looking to achieve a complete lifestyle with the finer things in life.