Beauty Dictionary: Sillage

 

 

[see-yazh]

 

1. French: Literally, wake, as in that of a boat on the water; or the vapor trail of an airplane.

 

2. Your perfume’s tendency to make friends (or enemies).

 

Want to make your presence known? Choose a fragrance with a strong sillage. Perfumers and fragrance connoisseurs use this term to describe a scent’s ability to diffuse in the air around its wearer. Fragrances with strong sillage are more noticeable to others’ noses, which (hopefully) means you’ll get more compliments on your own personal vapor trail. Fragrances with minimal sillage are said to stick “close to the skin,” meaning that you’d need to lean in close to get a proper whiff.