Question:
Japanese girls all seem to have a fondness for a certain bright red, heart-shaped fragrance called "Angel Heart", to my experience. It's very sweet, sugary, citrusy, and light - not my sort of scent, but... normally what you would expect from Japanese women, I suppose. As for Japanese men, in my experience, many seem to tend to Bulgari. I suppose it's because most of the Bulgari scents have a certain lightness to them (perhaps it's that green tea accord?) - or go for Issey Miyake... or perhaps other Japanese designers.
As for China - I live in Vancouver now, used to live in Shanghai (and was born there, hence my nickname)... fragrance is pretty predominant. It's a huge city, filled with both foreigners and locals; both demographics seem to have no aversion to perfume. Seeing as perfumes are very popular gifts, every household I go to has at least two or three stacked in the washroom. For the women, there's a more traditional Shanghainese magnolia scent you can't buy here, but is actaully very wonderful... "big" designers like Chanel, Dior, Hermes - also popular, but more for status than for actual scent (musky orientals quite a few!). As for the men, I've seen Ralph Lauren everywhere in middle-aged households - but for the younger men, it's L'eau D'Issey just about everywhere. Armani is also hella popular; as long as its reputable designer, it's very acceptable. However, there are a great many people who don't wear scent as well. Oh, but young girls adore citrusty, floral scents like Anna Sui and Baby Doll, that sort of thing. At least to my knowledge!

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In Thailand, for ladies, almost all have one or two scents. But in the lower class like farmers they cannot afford any. In Bangkok, I always get a whiff of perfume from women.
For men, I think one out of 100 have a bottle or two. Men here rarely wear fragrance. Our culture is different. Men are taught to be indifferent to the physical outlooks. For example, 8 out of 10 who wear fragrance or go to work out in the gym are considered "gay". Ladies and men like to suspect these people who know how to take care of themselves. It is ridiculous. And in my country, the yogurt advertising always uses slim women (no men) to do the ad and claim that yogurt can help you lose weight, which is wrong. Men who buy yogurt are also considered "gay." I don't know if the advertising agencies or the dairy companies are blind? Why not use both genders? This way more men would consume yogurt and the only positive result they would get--money!
As this is the male board, I have to say that I feel, as a man in this country, a little uncomfortable wearing fragrance here. I have never got a wonderful, mysterious smell from Thai men (if I did those were Davidoff, Hugo Boss, Armani and mass market scents), but tourists. That is what your cultures are (Americans and Europeans).

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I really find this topic interesting. I'm here in Toronto Canada, a very multicultural city. Overall, I don't notice people using personal fragrances very much or they use fragrances sparingly. I notice that black people, smokers, and Francophones (french speaking Canadians) tend to wear scents more than others. People usually wear scents when they go clubbing or on a evening date/event (women and men). I find people scent their homes with candles, glade plug ins, aerosol cans, air freshener in car, etc much more often than they scent themselves. I work in the financial district and find that the men tend to wear scents more than women. There are lots of perfume shops here, but some of the niche scents are harder to find. Summer here is quite hot and in a crowded TTC bus, the BO is quite pungent. I dread public transit in the summer. On two seperate instances, I notice men from Middle east?/Indian? wearing something quite delicious with a dark plum?/rose? note. I was wondering what it was and I think it's was a common east asian perfume.

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till the restoration of the independence of Lithuania (in 1990), in the soviet period french perfumes were "deficit" items
it was superb if you could get from somwhere perfumes which were made IN FRANCE
as I remember (I was born in 1980) there were no french perfumes for men
women scents: the most popular in soviet times was Lancome Climate;
also - Lancome Magie Noir, Dior Poison, NR L'air du temps
nowadays we have the same brands as in the rest europe countries. we do not have niche at all
the largest shop's top 10 at the moment is :
Chanel - chance
Chanel- Coco mademiselle
Chanel Allure sensuelle
CK Euphoria (women)
DG Light blue
Chanel Allure Sport
L'eau dissey pour homme
Dior pour homme
etc.
if you see a stylish young guy - he will smell something sexy, synthetic
girls - sugary fruity

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So many more interesting responses. Thank you!
Herb Lady

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I think most of my American brothers in here would agree that the question is really hard to answer --- due to the USA's geographic size and mix of rural, suburban and urban environments. I would expect fragrance in metropolitan New York City to be a sine qua non, but here where I am (Milwaukee, WIS) I'm guessing that most would wear Old Spice or Brut splash. So, my answer is it's a product. You use it. How's that for vague?
I will say this, though. If my buddies knew I had 17 bottles of cologne, their eyes would bug out!

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What a fascinating thread for me to have found on a casual Saturday with a couple of hours to spare roaming around BaseNotes! Many thanks to Herb Lady for the thought!
"My culture" - narrowly defined - includes being brought up in NYC in a small nuclear family of professionals in which no lady was properly dressed without gloves and fragrance and gentlemen wore discreet "colognes" (read: Knize, Bay Rum, 4711 - remember I'm talking about the thirties here). Segue into high profile careers in NYC and Philly and now very low profile beach life in a Southeastern middle class resort area.
General population is half retirees and half "hospitality industry" (And the worst half of both!! Just kidding). Contemporary ladies are pretty much in the obligatory Lauder/Arden camp - gentlemen are indifferent. Among the younger set, the guys are into D and G (!!) Lauren and Klein and Boss. Not an important issue all around.

Thank God for BaseNotes!!!

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Originally Posted by Duncan I will say this, though. If my buddies knew I had 17 bottles of cologne, their eyes would bug out! Congrats, Duncan. That proves strong personality! I peeked into your wardrobe, too.

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Hi all! This is my first post here. I found basenotes.net a while ago, but only tonight stumbled onto the forum, and what a great thread this is!
Here is a little about my experience:
I grew up in the countryside between Philadelphia and Lancaster, PA. As others have noted, most men didn't wear anything but after-shave back then. My dad was Greek, and played in a Greek band and a lot of the men in that community did wear cologne. I also remember many men wearing colognes in Philly during the 1970s. My dad remarried to a Greek woman when I was 14 and she definitely cultivated a love of good scents in me as well as letting me know that there was nothing wrong with a man using scent. One of the first I remember is Eau Savage. Definitely not a scent for a 14 year old boy living in the countryside, but something to learn by
At 22 I moved to Poland (c. 1992). I lived there for 14 years and finally found true scent freedom. There weren't many knowledgeable assistants in the stores, but my nose knew what I liked, and eventually I could pick scents for others with an uncanny accuracy.
Men in Poland wear their scents freely without shame, as long as they can afford them. A good scent is still expensive there in comparison to other countries, and definitely in relation to what people earn. For ten of those 14 years I ran a coffee house which was an "in" spot for a lot of trendy types and well to do guys. They definitely wore whatever they felt like wearing, and many carried something along during the day to freshen up with. I'd say that many of them had at least five scents they used on a regular basis, but they were probably the exception to the rule. An early experience I had with the clash of scents and the American mindset was during a visit with my mom (who works in the food industry in the US). We talked about my passion for scents and she was shocked to find out that I wore them at work, "How can you wear cologne in your cafe?!? Don't your customers complain?" I was stunned by the thought that someone would even mind my wearing a decent scent in their presence.
I returned to the US last August with my family. There is definitely a different attitude here than in Poland or the rest of Europe. Many men obviously get their olfactory kicks mainly from whatever flavor anti-perspirant they're wearing. I feel uncomfortable about going around locally with my better scents on - like I'm wearing a tuxedo at a gas station, but I also feel undressed with no scent (and no, Right Guard doesn't cut it ). On a daily basis for work (construction at the moment) or doing shopping, I use a light Roger & Gallet Vetyver so I don't feel naked and every once in a while I'll shock them with some Dolce et Gabana or Cipresso Di Toscana. When I can wear what I want, I pull out the stuff I feel good in like Platinum Egoiste, Lanvin, Vetiver (Guerlain) or Gucci Pour Homme.
Overall, I'd say there is still a real problem for guys to feel comfortable about wearing scents here in PA outside of the big metropolitan areas like Philly, and definitely no one I work with uses any scents. Maybe it's time to get out of those SUVs and over to the men's counter to re-examine our masculinity
--
Petros

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Great post Petros, that was interesting.