Sillage (pronounced roughly "see-yazh") is French for the wake a boat leaves in water. In perfumery it means the trail of scent that stays behind you as you move through a room.

Three different things

People conflate these constantly:

Sillage — the trail left behind you after you pass.

Projection — how far the fragrance reaches around you at any moment.

Longevity — how many hours it lasts on skin.

A fragrance can be long-lasting with almost no sillage — a skin scent that stays present all day but is noticeable only within arm's reach. Another can announce itself from across a room and be gone in three hours.

What creates it

  • Heavy base notes — resins, amber, oud, vanilla
  • High concentration — parfum and eau de parfum over eau de toilette
  • Certain families: orientals, gourmands and leathers have the most; citrus, aquatics and musks the least
  • Warm skin and warm rooms, which release more

The etiquette

This is the part worth taking seriously, because a trailing fragrance affects everyone near you rather than only you.

Your own nose adapts within minutes. You genuinely cannot judge your own sillage after the first ten minutes, which is why overapplication is so common — the wearer reapplies because they can no longer smell it, while everyone else can.

Two sprays is enough for most eau de parfums. Three for something light. Four is almost always too many.

A useful test: if someone can tell you have entered a room before they see you, that is too much. If someone leaning in to speak to you notices, that is right.

Where sillage is unwelcome

  • Offices and shared workspaces
  • Public transport
  • Restaurants, where it competes with food
  • Medical settings, where many places ask for none at all
  • Around anyone with asthma or migraine, for whom heavy fragrance is a genuine trigger

Where it is the point

Evening, occasions, cold weather, and anywhere you want to be remembered. Sillage is not a fault — it is a property to deploy deliberately.

If you want less of it

Choose musks, light florals, citrus or aquatics. Apply to skin rather than clothing, on the wrists and throat rather than the chest, and use one spray fewer than feels right.

For the families with the most and least, see the perfume section.