Sillage vs. Longevity
When first learning English, it’s common to find people having a hard time distinguishing homophones like coarse and course. Even when continuing learning this language, there are some vocabulary words that you automatically assume have similar meanings, but you later figure out that they don’t. This can happen to one in perfumery with sillage and longevity.
For a person who is inexperienced in perfume, it’s possible to think that sillage and longevity have similar meanings. However, they describe two distinct functions of a perfume. Sillage describes the scent trail a perfume leaves when evaporating. On the other hand, longevity describes how long a perfume lasts on the skin.
Both sillage and longevity are influenced by personal factors, though. For example, longevity is affected by a person’s skin and where you apply. Sillage can be affected by multiple factors, including the weather and even your mood. It's a unique smell of yours that you leave while the perfume evaporates. This is often the scent that dogs follow when trying to track someone.
The next time you read a perfume description , try to find the words sillage and longevity to see if you can remember the difference. It might even be in this blog!
