I Took Two Teen Boys Cologne Shopping — Here's What I Learned

Fifteen-year-old Clive is patiently teaching me about fragrance notes. We’re standing in Sephora, in front of an array of sleek glass bottles as pop music plays softly from the speakers and shoppers browse nearby. “Gourmand smells like something you could eat, like chocolate,” he explains, holding a bottle of Maison Margiela’s ‘By The Fireplace,’ a cologne that promises to evoke the “warmth and coziness of a crackling fire.” I nod attentively.

I’m a 21-year-old woman who’s admittedly not a fragrance aficionado.