FragDNA / The Language of Scent / Wearing It
Sillage, Projection, Longevity — and the Skin Chemistry Myth
Wearing It · 7 min
Three terms, frequently confused. Projection is how far a fragrance carries from you right now — the radius of the cloud. Sillage, French for wake, is the trail left behind as you move, noticed by others after you have passed. Longevity is how long it remains detectable at all. They are independent. A fragrance can be enormous for two hours and gone by lunch; another can sit against your skin, invisible at arm's length, and still be there at midnight.
What determines them is mostly the formula. Heavy, low-volatility materials — musks, woody-ambers, resins, Ambroxan, Iso E Super — provide length and diffusion. Concentration contributes but, as covered earlier, less than the label implies.
Now the folklore. Skin chemistry is the standard explanation for everything unexplained in perfumery, and it is a mixture of one real effect and several false ones.
What is genuinely true: skin hydration matters a great deal. Dry skin holds fragrance poorly — oils and moisturiser measurably extend wear, and this is the single largest controllable variable. Skin temperature matters: warmer skin volatilises material faster, so a fragrance projects more and dies sooner. Diet can have a mild effect. And specific anosmia means different people genuinely perceive different things from the same bottle, which explains a great many disagreements.
What is largely folklore: the idea that everyone has a unique chemistry that transforms a fragrance into something different. Skin pH varies within a narrow range and does not restructure a formula. If a fragrance smells different on you and your friend, the likely explanations are dose applied, hydration, what else you are wearing, when in the wear you are smelling it, and — most of all — that you are two different perceivers with different sensitivities and different vocabulary. That is a real phenomenon; it is just not chemistry happening on the skin.
Two practical notes. Anosmia to your own fragrance is universal and rapid — you stop smelling what you are wearing within about fifteen minutes, which is why over-application is so easy. Trust a mirror check, not your nose. And a fragrance that seems to vanish may be present and simply below your adapted threshold; ask someone else before spraying more.
The useful reframe: stop asking whether a fragrance performs, and ask whether it performs at the distance you want. A quiet, close, long-lasting scent is a legitimate goal and often a more considerate one.
Key terms
- Sillage
- The scented trail a wearer leaves behind in motion, distinct from how far the fragrance projects while stationary.
- Projection
- The radius at which a fragrance is detectable around a stationary wearer.
- Skin hydration
- The moisture content of skin — the single largest controllable factor in how long a fragrance lasts.
Smell this
Page updated