What Is Sillage? Projection and Scent Trail Explained

Sillage is the trail of scent a perfume leaves in the air as you move. The word is French for the wake behind a boat. A perfume with strong sillage lingers in a room after you leave it; one with soft sillage stays close to your skin and is noticed only by people near you.

Sillage, projection and longevity: what's the difference?

The three terms are related but describe different things, and a perfume can score high on one and low on another.

Three ways to describe how a perfume performs
Term	What it describes	How you notice it
Sillage	The scent trail left in the air behind you	Someone smells it after you walk past
Projection	How far the scent radiates from your body while you stand still	People at arm's length or across a table can smell it
Longevity	How many hours the scent stays detectable on skin	You can still smell it on your wrist in the evening

Many skin scents last all day without ever filling a room, while some bright, airy perfumes project loudly for an hour and then fade. On Aromifo, members vote on sillage and longevity separately for this reason. For how long scents stay on skin, see the guide to perfume longevity.

What gives a perfume strong sillage?

The materials

Some aroma molecules spread through the air far more readily than others. Ambroxan and similar ambery-woody materials, many modern musks, synthetic woods and oud accords are known for radiating far from the skin. Sweet gourmand notes, white flowers such as tuberose, and dense amber blends also tend to leave a noticeable trail. Soft iris, skin musks and many citrus compositions sit closer.

The concentration

More fragrance oil usually means more presence, but not always more trail. Parfum and extrait versions often sit closer to the skin than the eau de parfum of the same name, because their richer base evaporates slowly. The EDT vs EDP vs Parfum guide compares how the concentrations wear.

How much you apply, and where

Sillage grows with every spray. Spraying clothing and hair spreads the scent with each movement, while a single spray on the chest under a shirt keeps it close. Warm skin and warm air both increase sillage, which is why a perfume can feel louder in summer.

How strong are most perfumes?

Aromifo members rate sillage from 1 (stays on the skin) to 10 (fills a room). Across 34,716 perfumes with at least 10 ratings, the most common average is 7/10 (strong), and 90% of perfumes average 6 or higher, the range wearers describe as strong or enormous.

Perfumes by average sillage score
Item	Perfumes
1/10 (intimate)	0
2/10 (intimate)	2
3/10 (intimate)	38
4/10 (moderate)	512
5/10 (moderate)	3,030
6/10 (strong)	10,198
7/10 (strong)	14,161
8/10 (enormous)	6,252
9/10 (enormous)	516
10/10 (enormous)	7

How many sprays is too many?

Your nose adapts to your own perfume within minutes, so it is easy to overspray. The scent you can no longer notice is often still obvious to everyone around you. Use the sillage of the perfume to set the dose:

Intimate or moderate perfumes: three to five sprays on skin and clothing are usually fine for most settings.
Strong perfumes: two or three sprays are enough for the day, fewer for an office.
Enormous perfumes: one or two sprays, ideally on skin rather than clothes, so the trail stays manageable.

Sillage etiquette

A strong trail suits evenings out, open-air events and cold weather. It is less welcome in shared, enclosed spaces such as offices, elevators, planes and hospitals, and in restaurants, where it competes with the food. In those settings choose a softer perfume or apply it lightly a while before you arrive, so the loud opening has settled. For warm days, lighter fresh and aquatic scents keep their presence in check; the best summer perfumes are a good place to start.

How to find perfumes by sillage

Every perfume page on Aromifo shows how members rate its sillage, with the full spread of votes. To find perfumes that project a certain amount, filter search by minimum sillage, or start from the list below.