Le Male

The following is this month's Deeply Superficial column, published in the (sydney) and the (melbourne) magazines:

I wonder if the bottles of classic cologne that get wrapped and offered year after year for Father’s Day are the men’s equivalent of a woman getting a vacuum cleaner or a pair of nice socks for her birthday. Let’s face it, it’s difficult to be original here. Most men won’t venture beyond the bracing cleanness of something like Polo Black, dismissing anything more floral or pungent as girlie. For some of them, being given a bottle that has “pour homme” written on it is akin to asking them to shave their legs, an affront to their masculinity.

Like Carrie wearing men’s Jockey briefs to bed in Sex and the City, women are much more secure in their scent sexuality. Quite a few of us wear “men’s” fragrances regularly. (I have worn Geoffrey Beene’s bergamot-y Grey Flannel and a new men’s eau de toilette Kiton Black that smells quite like it.) But it can be agonising trying to get a man to move beyond Old Spice, let alone into something creative like Viktor & Rolf Antidote.

Now, I love Antidote and would happily wear it myself. It’s a men’s fragrance but it has sultry, spicy notes that smell really great on my skin when they dry down. And I think it is an antidote of sorts to the problem - why not give your man a men’s eau de toilette that works well on you? That way, if hates it or is shy about using it, you can steal it back.

Some ideas: Citrusy fragrances like L’Occitane’s Eau Fraiche Verveine Agrumes, a completely accessible light citrus verbena, L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Mandarine Tout Simplement, which smells like crushed mandarin skins or the Hermès Concentré D’Orange Verte, which is extremely uplifting and which I spray all over myself after the gym. In this vein, Aesop has released a deliciously pungent new unisex fragrance called Mystra, which draws its inspiration from Byzantium and blends exotic resins such as frankincense, mastic and labdanum.

At Jo Malone, try her innovative classic Lime, Basil & Mandarin, Wild Fig & Cassis or the almost-drinkable Blue Agava and Cacao, made from the flowers that are ingredients in the best Tequila. The Diptyque Philoskouros is the trend-setter among fig fragrances and, while it is thought of as a man’s cologne, it’s divine on women too. Malin + Goetz have synthesised natural ingredients into a collection of travel-sized bottles “for global nomads” containing fragrances that can be layered. Newest are Rum Tonic and Lotus Root.

Also at Mecca Cosmetica, the heavenly Serge Lutens collection, which includes many unisex possibilities, including Santal Blanc, a white sandalwood that my husband has already stolen from me, Gris Clair, a sweet lavender with an ashy dry down and Fumerie Turque, which has a top note of Turkish rose but base notes of leather and Balkan tobacco. And I think you can’t go wrong with Comme des Garcons 2 or 3, two eau de parfums that contain hearts of florals, wrapped in heady, spicy, exotic notes. (The beautiful silver bottle of CD2 is shaped like a whiskey flask – nothing girlie about that.)

Working on the principle that it’s a pity to waste a perfectly good fragrance on a man who can’t tell his Brut from his Burberry, why not give him Kai eau de parfum – a delicately feminine brew of white flowers that happens to be the favourite scent of Tommy Lee, who claims the fragrance calms him? (Goodness only knows what he’s like without it, if his twitchy performance on Rock Star Supernova is considered.) If you’re really bold you could give him Tom Ford Black Orchid, an OTT tropical fruit salad that’s totally scrumptious, but include two tickets to Bali in the package.

There’s another possibility – his’n’her sets, such as Prada Woman for you and the new Prada Man for him or Armani’s new masculine and feminine versions of Remix. Then, there’s Intimately Beckham for Men and Intimately Beckham for Women. Surely he can’t get upset that you think he’s as sexy as David Beckham. Of course, the downside is that he, in turn, might think you’re as sexy as Posh.