Do you desire to bring the rejuvenating smell of ocean waves everywhere you go? Nautica is a perfume house known for its exceptional marine scents at affordable prices. To enjoy fresh and aquatic fragrances, we’ve rounded up the best Nautica colognes for both men and women.
Even if Nautica focuses on providing aromatic, aquatic fragrances, it also makes use of other scents to create different kinds of aromas to suit different personalities. These Nautica colognes can make you bring the smell of the sea close to home.
The Top Nautica Colognes Reviews
Best Nautica Cologne Overall: Nautica Island Voyage Eau De Toilette
- Nautica Island Voyage by Nautica is a Citrus Aromatic fragrance for men
- Nautica Island Voyage was launched in 2007
- The nose behind this fragrance is Maurice Roucel
- Eau De Toilette Spray
Suppose you’re looking for an everyday scent that gives a calming, refreshing effect. In that case, the Nautica Island Voyage Eau de Toilette will remind you of the serenity you feel when walking across the beach with salty waves and sand caressing your feet.
This is the best Nautica cologne if you want changing aromas from opening spritz to dry down. The top notes combine melon, lemon, bergamot, and pepper, resulting in a spicy-fruity opening. The chilled citruses will emerge before hints of spices tone down the juiciness.
This cologne gradually transitions to floral-zesty notes by introducing iris, lavender, and jasmine. For a surprising twist, the dry down comes from musky notes of sandalwood, musk, and cedar. The musky notes also enable the cologne to have better sillage, making it a perfect cologne for daytime and summertime use.
Despite a strong projection, the aquatic components ensure that the overall scent isn’t offensive. Hence, the aroma is suitable for those who want to make an impression without getting too much attention.
What We Like
- Moderate sillage and longevity
- Summer staple for both men and women
- Aquatic-fruity-musky fragrance with a hint of spicy and floral notes
What We Don’t Like
- Citrusy notes may smell a bit feminine for some people
- Simple, watery notes
- Bottle sprayer can be a bit complicated to use
Best Nautica Cologne for the Money: Nautica Pure Discovery Eau De Toilette
- This product is made of high quality material
- It is recommended for romantic wear
- This product is manufactured in USA
If Nautica Island Voyage makes you want to relax, the citrusy yet clean notes of the Nautica Pure Discovery Eau de Toilette aims to help you energize and move even on a sunny day.
The fragrance starts with intense orange accords, leaving trails of orange up to the dry down. It also has hints of Amalfi lemon and clary sage. Despite the sharp fruity opening, the middle notes tone down the smell using zesty ingredients such as coriander, lavender, and ginger.
Like Nautica Island Voyage, this cologne also uses sandalwood and cedar for the base notes. If Island Voyage creates a musky dry down, the Pure Discovery results in a creamy, vanilla-like dry down. However, fewer ingredients at the base notes result in a weaker projection.
Nevertheless, this fragrance is suitable for those who would like to reminisce about the smell of running water in forests. Because of its light composition, you can wear the cologne even if you need to do high-intensity outdoor activities.
What We Like
- Combines woody, zesty, and citrusy accords
- Mixes well with the body chemistry within an hour
- Light, casual, and safe scent
What We Don’t Like
- Has a synthetic feel
- Citrus notes tend to overpower the clean, aromatic scents
- Shorter projection than Nautica Island Voyage
Best Cheap Nautica Cologne: Pure Nautica Eau de Toilette
- This product is made of high quality material
- It is recommended for romantic wear
- This product is manufactured in USA
One of the best things about Nautica is that they make cologne accessible to people by developing quality fragrances at affordable prices. Among those is the Pure Nautica Eau de Toilette, which is perfect if you prefer a natural marine scent with a more unisex feel.
True to its name, the cologne combines various scent notes while still creating an overall pure aroma. Similar to the first two colognes, this fragrance opens with citrusy notes using bergamot and mandarin, resulting in a watery opening.
The only difference is that it uses saffron and amber in the middle notes instead of the base notes. The surprising factor is that despite the use of suede, patchouli, and driftwood for the dry down, the cologne retains the fresh, clean notes from the beginning.
If you want a more attention-seeking cologne, without the need for high oil concentration, this fragrance’s mixture is the right one for you. Because of the light composition, you can wear Pure Nautica Eau de Toilette to add depth on an otherwise plain, humid day.
What We Like
- Citrus, marine, and aromatic scents
- Significant quantity at a low price
- Has a louder effect than Island Voyage and Pure Discovery
What We Don’t Like
- Spicy notes may overpower the marine scents
- Tends to be watery
- May smell a bit bland to some people
Features to Consider for Nautica Colognes
Finding the best Nautica cologne requires careful consideration of the ingredients, concentration, and scent preference. With several options to choose from, checking these factors can help you find the perfect Nautica fragrance.
Concentration
Cologne concentration identifies the number of perfume oils mixed with alcohol. It creates what we think of as “too strong” or “too light” fragrances.
- Cologne: It has 2-3% aromatic compounds, making the scent last for only up to 60 minutes.
- Eau de Toilette: Contains 5-20% oils, causing the aroma to linger for 6 hours or more, depending on the body chemistry.
- Eau de Parfum: Uses 10-30% of aromatic compounds, resulting in a staying power of 12 hours or more.
Since we’re dealing with cool, aquatic Nautica colognes, we’ve chosen eau de toilette fragrances to balance light concentrations and longevity.
Scent Evolution
Nautica colognes release various essences by layer: top notes, heart notes, and base notes. These three lets you experience multiple scents in a single spray.
- Top notes: These contain the scents that you can smell as soon as you apply the cologne. These notes generally feature shart or assertive aromas to set the cologne’s initial impression. However, the body heat causes these scents to evaporate after 15 minutes or so.
- Heart notes: The middle layer that serves as a transition between the opening scent and dry down. Depending on the cologne, the heart notes may have mellow or stronger scents than the top notes. Either way, the middle notes aim to add depth to the cologne’s aroma.
- Base notes: While the base notes develop the slowest, these scents tend to linger the longest, even throughout the day, because of heavier components or ingredients. This part gives the cologne a well-rounded finish.
Marine Scent
Nautica colognes are famous for their marine fragrances. While aqua colognes made waves onto the fragrance market in 1988, cool water scents continue to send splashing aromas in the modern-day. Whether through natural or synthetic materials, Nautica colognes provide fresh, clean, and marine-like scents.
Since there’s no particular way to capture the smell of sea breeze or mountain air, perfumers develop concoctions that result in cool, ozonic fragrances. Some colognes may make you think of just-washed linen or beach waves.
Depending on the ingredients, a marine-scented cologne can be sporty like Island Voyage, watery and airy like Pure Nautica, or have an icy, unisex appeal-like Pure Discovery. For this reason, it’s best to pick the scent group that suits your taste.
Other Scent Families
What makes Nautica colognes smell great is their ability to combine different types of raw materials and turn the scent into a unique smell when mixed with your body’s natural chemistry. These are some of the scent families you can consider when deciding what cologne to wear.
- Fougere: Derived from the French word ‘fougère’, this aquatic group makes Nautica colognes combine cool scents with zesty or grassy aromas. Ingredients like cucumber, geranium, moss, rosemary, and lavender make colognes, such as Island Voyage and Pure Discovery, have a hint of greens.
- Floral: This category covers everything from white florals to violets, peonies, and roses. The use of gardenia, ylang-ylang, and lilies bring a more feminine vibe to the otherwise masculine scent of most Nautica colognes.
- Fruity: This classification mixes fresh fruit essences with revitalizing and aromatic scents. The addition of peach, lemon, or oranges makes the Nautica colognes on this list smell fresh yet moist and exotic.
- Spicy: The fusion of spicy ingredients and aquatic scents result in gourmand-like Nautica colognes. This category makes use of spices like pepper, cinnamon, cloves, saffron, and oregano. Much like in Pure Nautica, the addition of spices add depth to the body of the fragrance.
- Musky: Musky notes bring a sensual aroma to make aquatic colognes smell more mature. While ingredients such as musk, sandalwood, and vetiver may sound counteractive, these notes add a hint of richness to every spritz of Pure Discovery and Island Voyage.
Packaging
Choosing colognes means having a lighter concentration. In effect, you’ll need to reapply the cologne on your skin at least twice a day. Therefore, it’s essential that your desired cologne uses a space-saving bottle, so you won’t have problems bringing it around.
Fortunately, all of the Nautica colognes we’ve chosen use transparent glass bottles to let you see the content easily. Additionally, they have easy-to-use atomizers to turn the liquid cologne into a fine mist.
Conclusion
The best Nautica colognes reflect adventure and exploration perfect for an ocean-loving person like you. With every spritz, you will feel refreshed and relaxed, like basking from the sun’s warmth and the ocean’s waves.