Menswear with Paul McLauchlan: Your guide to masculine winter scents
Dior Homme Eau de Toilette 100ml - RRP €93
As winter’s bite approaches, it comes as no surprise that we tend to lean into warmth, comfort, and indulgence. It marks all aspects of our lives, including fragrance. Yet the scents set to define this winter are not only intended to reinforce your perception of the season at hand but to rethink it too. Whether to douse yourself in woody richness or opt for bracing freshness remains a personal conclusion but brands have some options for either discretion.
They are masculine options — though as gender conventions relax, most are branded genderless. His, hers, who cares?
From Dior’s winter staple to Diptyque’s car companion, here is your guide to winter scents.
It should come as no surprise that , traditional in the masculine sense and fronted by star of the upcoming Batman film, Robert Pattinson, is a decadent and sultry composition. The no frills directness of its woody potency are compatible with winter nights offering a confident blanket of heady spice.
Meanwhile, an offbeat approach to fragrance with Comme des Garçons Parfums' Rouge involves pairing ingredients with barely-used raw materials and creating an obvious sense of scent overdose. Rouge, as someone with even the most rudimentary French might guess, is all about the colour red. The scarlet-tinted oblong glass bottle is filled with a fragrance that begins with a vegetal foundation of beetroot which was modified with spicy ginger and woody notes.
Christian Astuguevieille, the creative director of Comme des Garçons Parfums, said: “Rouge is both comfortable and confusing.”
If ever there was a scent to capture the times, perhaps this is it.
Another proposition, inspired by French modernist Charlotte Perriand who championed functional design, Aesop’s Rozu Eau de Parfum is bottled crispness — a reliable addition to your repertoire. It opens with a burst of Japanese garden rose and quickly gives way to fresh Shiso (a Japanese herb in the mint family) and a blend of floral and spicy notes. The fragrance is complex yet carries a dignified freshness that can suitably find a place in your cabinet.
The refined sensibilities of are an ideal start to one’s day. The velvety foam emits a potent mintiness softened only by notes of geranium flower providing a livening sensory experience before dawn has even cracked.
Where the home is concerned, filling your space with comforts will define the season. Winter has always been a time to seek refuge in our homes but this year it looks like we might find it harder and harder to escape the four walls around us. Turn to the re-release of Altar, a candle from Byredo, the cult brand by Ben Gorham, on November 5. With a smoky base of vetiver and Palo Santo tree wood, the candle is balanced with floral ylang ylang and clove bud. It evokes a warming richness in spaces that will count on it the most.
The same can be said for Aesop’s Ptolemy candle whose main mission, according to the brand, is to provide “refuge from workaday concerns". Named after Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek-Egyptian astronomer and mathematician, the masculine scent echoes similar sensibilities involving a mix of dry, mossy wood and earthier, smokier vetiver.
Yet it is Jonathan Anderson, the Irish fashion designer, who truly throws the curveball of all winter scents with the daring , potted in a glazed terracotta holder. His objective was to capture nature’s most authentic and pure scents. Will you fragrance your space with the sweet, bitter, salty scent of childhood memories? Anderson hopes you do. For the less adventurous, might provide the lush green blend so commonly associated with this time of year.
‘New car smell’ receives an overdue update courtesy of Diptyque. Why not try the latest from , a scent named after their flagship store in Paris. With accords of moss, blackcurrant leaves, and sun-dried fig leaves, the woody scent is adaptable for cooler days spent commuting. The diffuser is attached to the ventilation grill, where it will release its perfume whenever the ventilation is used.
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