If you want a scent that is still there after dinner, look at the bottom of the note list, not the top. Amber, woods and musk are the notes that cling, and these eaux de parfum are built on them.

Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille, launched in 2007, is the classic example. It opens with tobacco leaf and ginger, then settles into vanilla and tonka that clings to a scarf long after you take it off. Azzaro's The Most Wanted Intense is cardamom and toffee over amber woods, a warm, easy evening scent. Mugler's Alien is jasmine over cashmere wood and amber, bright at first and very persistent.

On the softer side, Prada's Paradoxe uses neroli over white amber and white musk, clean but noticeable across a table. Chloé's Eau de Parfum is rose and peony over honey and cedarwood, powdery and pretty. Burberry's Her is blackcurrant and jasmine over white woods, musk and dry amber, fruity at first and warmer as it wears.

Valentino's Donna Born in Roma Intense pairs jasmine and vanilla with benzoin, a resin long used in incense and perfume because it holds everything around it in place. Kayali's Freedom Musk Santal is freesia over musk and sandalwood, the one to pick if you want to smell warm without smelling sweet.

A small note about your own nose. After a while it stops noticing a scent you are wearing, which is why people keep reapplying. That does not mean the perfume is gone. Ask someone close to you before you spray again.

The easiest way to make any fragrance last longer has nothing to do with the bottle. Perfume holds on to moisturized skin much better than dry skin, so a lotion or oil underneath gives it something to grip.

A fragrance-free lotion is the safest base, because it will not argue with your perfume. Nécessaire's Body Lotion is unscented, with peptides and niacinamide. Moroccanoil's Body Lotion is light and fast absorbing, with a blend of moisturizing oils and the brand's own soft scent. Rare Beauty's Find Comfort lotion hydrates for up to 24 hours with a warm scent of its own, and L'Occitane's Almond Supple Skin Body Oil is rich and softening, lovely under anything with vanilla.

If you want to layer scent on scent, match families. OUAI's St. Barts mist is dragon fruit, orange blossom and tuberose, and the matching body cream goes on first. Sol de Janeiro's Cheirosa 40 mist is plum, vanilla woods and jasmine, and it works on hair, which holds fragrance well. Tom Ford's Soleil Blanc body oil is pistachio, cardamom and ylang ylang with a little shimmer, the one for bare shoulders in summer.

Hair and clothes are the other trick. A mist on the ends of your hair or one spray on a scarf often lasts longer than it does on skin, since fabric does not warm the scent and send it off the way your body does. Just keep oils and dark perfumes away from delicate silk.

Spray on pulse points, the inside of the wrists, the base of the throat and behind the ears, where skin is warm and the scent rises toward your nose. Then leave it alone. Rubbing your wrists together feels like the right move, but many perfumers say it roughs up the top notes and makes them fade faster.

Store your bottles somewhere cool and dark, not on a sunny bathroom shelf, because heat and light break perfume down over time. And be honest about the dose. Three sprays of a parfum can be plenty, and the people sitting next to you at dinner will thank you for it. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Sandalwood Perfume After the Santal 33 Decade and Rose Perfume Has Never Smelled Less Old-Fashioned.