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Six scents: the best luxury men’s perfumes for Christmas 2019
Like the jewellery you own or the clothes you wear, your choice of scent says a lot about your sense of style. Hence why the world of niche fragrances appeals not only to those with a lot money to throw around, but also people who want to stand out from the crowd, even in a subtle way.
Here are six surefire winners to give to the olfactory enthusiast in your life this Christmas.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
All the very best perfumes say something about their wearer. But when you buy a mass-produced fragrance, chances are you will end up saying the same thing as a load of other people.
For something more unique, master perfumers from the French boutique fragrance brand Sillages Paris will help concoct a bespoke scent, for either men or women, based on the ingredients you most like. Or if you can’t think where to begin, just name a perfume you like and the team will use that as the basis for a whole new scent.
The service is also replicated online, with a website that leads you through those same steps.
The Week Portfolio’s Sillage, based on an old perfume we love - Guerlain’s Derby - hit the spot immediately and has been on high rotation ever since. Eau yes.
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Inspired by and named after the Crown Jewels, Thameen’s Sovereign Collection launched at a glittering special event at the Tower of London last week.
Celebrities and special guests were shown to the Tower for a private viewing of the priceless crowns, robes, and other items of royal ceremonial regalia that have been stored within the complex for more than 600 years.
The pick of the three perfume collection might just be Imperial Crown, a warming blend of frankincense, leather and elemi woods.
Inspired by the world of music, Golden Serenade pays homage to the first-ever gold record that was awarded to Glenn Miller and his band on the sale of more than a million records.
Chattanooga Choo Choo, a song about a man who returns home and promises his sweetheart he’ll never roam far again, went to number 1 in the US and stayed there for nine weeks. This effortless scent in celebration of the song offers notes of pure oud oil, amber and saffron.
£250, 78ml Extrait De Parfum, exclusively at selfridges.com
Carthusia Uomo
According to legend, in 1948 the Carthusian Monastery discovered perfume formulas written by a 14th century local monk who had accidentally created Capri’s first fragrance from a bouquet of flowers he had gathered for Queen Giovanna d’Angio. While it may be apocryphal, the perfume house makes everything by hand and produces its exquisite perfumes in limited quantities.
Taking inspiration from the island of Capri, Carthasia Uomo is rich with notes of sea spray, fresh fruit, leather and cashmere. As compared with some of the other fragrances on this list, it is an understated perfume for a discreet chap, who is unpretentious, yet still likes to make an impression.
Green Cedar “marries a duo of cedars,” the Amsterdam-based perfume house Abel says on its website, “the first gathered from forests in Texas, the second collected from the wild high in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.”
Whatever its provinance, this twice-distilled fragrance offers a clean, dry effect rarely seen in a cedar fragrance. The result is a vibrant scent featuring magnolia, cardamom and smokey guaic wood.
Originally launched in 2014, Mare Pacifico was created by Mark Buxton, the self described hedonist and wine connoisseur “with a passion for antiques”.
Buxton has designed for the biggest luxurious brands such as Givenchy, Versace, Van Cleef & Arpels, Paco Rabanne, Lagerfeld and more. Here he turns his talents to the creation of a scent that is unmistakeably salty (the fragrance is an homage to the Pacific Ocean, after all), featuring cool aquatic notes intertwined with a fresh bouquet of seaweed, patchouli and French moss.
Arion McNicoll is a freelance writer at The Week Digital and was previously the UK website’s editor. He has also held senior editorial roles at CNN, The Times and The Sunday Times. Along with his writing work, he co-hosts “Today in History with The Retrospectors”, Rethink Audio’s flagship daily podcast, and is a regular panellist (and occasional stand-in host) on “The Week Unwrapped”. He is also a judge for The Publisher Podcast Awards.
