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. Still, I never anticipated receiving a crash course in cologne from teenagers, let alone two teenage boys. Clive and Joan, my subjects for the day, accompanied me to Sephora and Bond No. 9 as part of SheKnows’s “Be a Man” series, which looks at modern masculinity through the unique lens of the teenage boys navigating it. 

According to a recent survey by Piper Sandler, teen boys’ annual spending on fragrance has increased by 26 percent since last spring. Watching Clive and Joan in action, this information doesn’t seem surprising. Teen boys — or at least these two — are genuinely invested in how they smell and as a result, have become fragrance experts. What does surprise me was that the boys already seem to have expanded their noses beyond the Sephora cologne section. Standing next to a seemingly vast collection, with some bottles costing upwards of $200, Clive admits, “My colognes aren’t really in here.”

The boys also mention that they don’t necessarily gravitate towards especially masculine fragrances. “All my colognes are unisex,” Clive says. They’re not alone in feeling that way: a recent McKinsey report looking into the beauty industry found that roughly 40 percent of Gen-Z consumers prefer gender-neutral beauty products, compared to around 30 percent of older generations. When I ask how they choose what cologne to buy, Joan responds, “It’s the one that smells like you,” — sage advice that I squirrel away for my next fragrance purchase. 

Seeming to tire of my consistent shock at the price tags, the boys reveal that they typically find a scent that they like in person and then search for a discounted version online before opening up their wallets. Bottles damaged in production are often significantly cheaper, even though the fragrance itself is untouched. Free samples are also at the boy’s disposal, allowing them to build their cologne arsenal without breaking the bank. “You know how people collect wine and don’t drink it? It’s kind of like that,” Clive says of his own collection.

They know a ridiculous amount about fragrance, pulling phrases and names out of thin (and heavily scented) air. I had to google what “EDC” meant after hearing it so many times, and then promptly felt like an idiot (it’s Eau de Cologne). They also mention a cologne store that, in their opinion, is even better than Sephora, and naturally, I’m intrigued.

After a 20-minute walk and some increasingly excited commentary from the boys, we arrive at Bond No. 9, a boutique that offers a variety of scents, many of which are named after New York neighborhoods. With the help of a sales associate Clive had met during his last trip to the store, the boys spritz and sniff and ask various questions such as, “What are your favorite beach scents?” What followed was a discussion about the merits of coconut in a fragrance (considered a plus).

It’s a decidedly less hectic experience than the one we had in Sephora, and the boys seem right at home in this luxurious setting, which was a testament to their fragrance preferences. We leave with hands full of samples that are wrapped up like candy and make promises to return. Honestly, I think I will. My outing with these teen boys was educational, and I now know where to look if I want to smell like lychee, cassis, mandarin… or all three!