a question about You

August 9, 2023 6:32 AM

Why is Glossier 'You' the only perfume that actually seems to stick to my skin/be smellable (?) hours after applying? What about this perfume gives it its longevity that I can look for in other fragrances too?

I like 'You' by Glossier but am also drawn to other scents, e.g.
- Issey Miyake A drop d'Issey
- Replica When the Rain Stops
- Jo Malone English Pear and Freesia
(a non-exhaustive list which probably gives you a sense of the kind of smells I gravitate towards)

But I can barely smell them on my skin even an hour after applying. 'You' is the only fragrance that I can catch whiffs of on my skin hours later, and also gets me compliments. The marketing for 'You' says that it is 'mainly made up of base notes'; I'm not sure what that means, but is that the reason it seems to be longer-lasting? What should I be looking for in other fragrances that will increase the chances of it being as long-lasting as 'You'?

I mean this is a bit of a non-problem as 'You' is an affordable scent that works for me, what I don't understand is why other fragrances don't seem to.

posted by unicorn chaser to Shopping (5 answers total)

Top notes in perfumes have a higher volatility, meaning they are strongest and most noticeable right at the start. As they break down, the heart and base notes of the fragrance come out. So after an hour it's not that you can't smell "the perfume" but you no longer can smell the distinctive top note that may be what you like best about it.

(plus you do go nose blind to your own scent after a time--not that you can't smell it at all but it will smell much less strong to you than it does to anyone else.)

Base notes are the least volatile; just chemically, they last the longest. Plus, since You is mainly base notes, those are what you smell both first and last -- its scent profile doesn't change as you wear it.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:46 AM on August 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

A perfume is a blend of ingredient molecules. The categorization of "top" "middle" and "base" notes is based on the size of the molecules of that ingredient. The smallest (lightest) molecules fly off the skin fastest (are most volatile.) That is why they hit you brightly at the start but then dissipate. Base notes by contrast can last a long time.

Part of professional perfume making is "fixing" the molecules with other chemicals to try to get the little ones to stick around longer - this is one reason you don't get the same results with just like pure essential oils or flower waters etc. But still, the light ones go much faster.

If you love base notes, you're in luck.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:16 AM on August 9, 2023

Glossier You claims to "enhances your own unique smell, instead of masking it like other fragrances". According to some tests, it smells DIFFERENT depending on who you spray it on, vs on nothing (i.e. just a spray in the air). That's probably why it's longer lasting than the other fragrances: those rely on evaporation of volatile compounds, whereas You relies less on that.
posted by kschang at 9:20 AM on August 9, 2023

That business about enhancing one's unique smell is just marketing blahblah. All fragrances smell a bit different on different people because skin chemistry is different, particularly in the drydown phase (i.e. the phase where all you've got left is base note compounds.)
posted by fingersandtoes at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

if you look for other “skin scents” with a similar musky base you should find similar types of scents—the Fragrantica page suggests you might look into Escentric Molecules Molecule 01 or Juliette Has a Gun Not a Perfume. It seems to be iris-heavy as well so you could look for iris or orris as a note in ingredients lists. Usually the base note here (ambroxan) won’t be listed as an ingredient in marketing copy, but you can use perfume review sites like Fragrantica or Basenotes to look for other scents with those notes.
posted by music for skeletons at 2:25 PM on August 9, 2023 [5 favorites]