It’s understandable why someone would be shopping for the best cheap colognes. At the same time, “cheap cologne” sounds more like an insult after a bad Tinder date than something you’d actually want to spray on your body. But whatever you call it (inexpensive? affordable?), for those of us paying rent, feeding a family, or still in school, that price tag on fragrance matters a lot.
Fortunately, you don’t need to take out a loan in order to get a great scent. Yes, $100 is still an investment, but you can spend that money intelligently—and judiciously apply the scent, for that matter. (We always err on the conservative side: a single spritz on one wrist, patted on the opposite wrist and on your neck’s pulse points.)
Here are the best fragrances under $100, picked with value in mind. We didn’t want to lean into sample-sized vials, though, even if they’re a terrific way to discover new fragrances. Instead, these are all scents that will last you months and months with continued use. If you truly fall in love, then the best way to save money on fragrance is to buy a larger bottle. But if you’re anything like us, it’s hard to fish off even a smaller bottle before moving on to the next thing.
The Best Cheap Colognes, According to GQ
The Best Affordable Summer Fragrance: Vacation EDT
Vacation is an instant cult-classic developed by the genius noses behind the boutique brand Arquiste. It blissfully emulates a day at the beach with notes of coconut, banana, and pineapple, supported by an essence of pool water, sea salt, and—*checks notes*—swimsuit spandex. It might smells a little out of place at the office, but few scents feel more perfect for a sunny weekend relaxing by the ocean.
The Best Affordable Verdant Fragrance: Hawthorne Green Cypress EDP
Hawthorne
Green Cypress EDP
Imagine walking through a forest just after it’s rained, and that’s pretty much the scent that’s bottled up in Green Cypress. It’s reminiscent of a hot, humid day minus all the sweat and stickiness, offering up fresh and earthy aromas that tickle the nose like the air in a steam room.
The Best Affordable Unisex Fragrance: CK One EDT
With clean notes of green tea and jasmine, with a little tang from lemon, this is the fragrance you’d want to share with pretty much everyone. Its universal appeal comes from the fact that it can be worn by pretty much anyone for every situation, and it’ll never feel out of place the way a more dominant scent might.
The Best Affordable Leather Fragrance: Malin+Goetz Leather EDP
If leather is more your speed, Malin + Goetz’ Leather eau de parfum creates a subtle and less heavy handed way to smell like a great pair of dress shoes. It offers a sex appeal that doesn’t veer into kinky, complemented by light florals and earthen notes just to round things out.
The Best Affordable Vanilla Fragrance: Snif Vanilla Vice EDP
The thing about a good vanilla-forward fragrance is that it doesn’t smell aggressively like vanilla. Snif’s Vanilla Vice evokes the feeling of having walked out of a scoop shop smelling like a sweet waffle cone, but it’s made less aggressive by adding a hint of musk to complement that sweet vanilla sugar note. Be careful, because some might say you smell good enough to eat.
The Best Affordable Nighttime Fragrance: Dior Sauvage EDT
Moms, partners, and besties take note: Sauvage might be the surest no-brainer gift on the market right now, especially if the fella you’re giving it to is a first-time cologne-wearer. It’s got a nice bit of bite to it thanks to licorice, but it’s supremely wearable and highly desirable.
The Best Affordable Spicy Fragrance: Noyz Love Club
To truly craft a winning scent, brands need to balance various fragrance notes, even if it means combining two starkly different aromas. For Noyz’s Love Club, that means complement spicy peppercorns with floral rose, all of which is gives way to patchouli and black amber. While we’re crowning this as a spicy fragrance, it’s the rollercoaster of smells you’ll get from this that can make it pretty much anything you please.
Understanding Cologne Types
Ever wondered about the difference between an EDT and an EDP? It’s not actually all that complicated. The primary differentiator comes down to the percentage of perfumed oils used in the product, which dictates how brands classify their scents. These days, we tend to treat “cologne” as a catchall term for any men’s fragrance, but technically speaking, the term is just one of many you should know about. These are the rest.
1-3% perfume oil concentration. Very few fragrances are true eau fraiches these days; those that are classified as such will last for just an hour or two.
Cologne/Eau de Cologne/EDC
3-5% perfume oil concentration. We tend to refer to the broader category of men’s scents as “colognes,” even when they don’t fall in this range.
5-8% perfume oil concentration. Shop in this range or higher if you want a scent to perform past lunchtime. (And yes, the translation from French is literally “toilet water”. We promise you’ll still smell great.)
8-15% perfume oil concentration. This wide range of concentrations makes EDPs the hardest category to predict in terms of longevity and performance. Either way, an EDP should be noticeably stronger than an EDT.
Parfums tend to be in the 15-30% perfume concentration range, but they can climb up to 40% before a brand switches to “pure parfum oil.” Some extraits and parfums are described as “eternal”—but remember, that’s not necessarily what you should be looking for.
The classifications above aren’t an exact science, of course, but the concentration levels they allude to are a solid indicator of where to set your expectations, and how much a fragrance will cost.
Common Fragrance Notes
Meaning “wood” in Arabic, oud smells exactly like you think it would: woodsy. It’s a commonly beloved fragrance note for men, but when paired with something sweeter or more floral, it helps to add a depth that’s great for all people.
What’s bitter in taste is actually quite sweet and delicious on the nose. Bergamot offers a fine citrus note that’s fresh on the nose, and when it’s paired with something like oud, there’s a wonderful dissonance that makes you think about your fragrance all day long.
Often considered a “manly” scent, vetiver has a distinct smoky aroma to it that’s often compared to incense or cigar smoke.
Why would you want to smell like leather? The same reason that “leather” is a positive attribute when describing wine. Think more vintage sofa than ratty old handbag though, and that’s what you’ll get when you douse yourself in this intoxicating scent.
Musk, which was once harvested from the glands of the musk deer, is now created artificially, and it’s often described as earthy and sweet.
Another citrusy scent, neroli offers more of a “green” tinge than bergamot, so it smells like freshly cut grass that might’ve seen an accident of spilled orange juice.
With a bit of a spicy-sweet aroma, patchouli is often associated with bad smells. But these days, patchouli-forward scents are a complex blend of wood, musk, and spice.
One of the more floral fragrance notes there is, orris has a sweet flower-like aroma that can be balanced out by some darker, heavier notes to cancel out any reminders of grandma’s old perfume.
We describe a lot of scents as sweet, but between florals and citruses, that can mean anything. When it comes to tonka bean, you’ll get something that leans more vanilla, with a hint of baked goods.
