Scent-sational time travel: from Sauvage to Bleu de Chanel, DDW unravels the captivating journey of male perfumes.
In mid-2019 it would be difficult to hop onto the London Underground and not get a whiff of Dior’s Sauvage perfume. It was part of the age-less male perfumes which felt equally well suited for a university graduate as it did for a full-time father of six. It smelled good, it lasted, and it was the only thing we saw of Johnny Depp in his post-Pirates of the Caribbean scandal trial days. There was a time when the coveted male perfume was Paco Rabanne’s One Million. A time before that when everyone wore Diesel’s Only The Brave.
The thing about smells is that they have a particularly interesting relationship to how we perceive and recall memories. The way our brain is built, smell signals can zip over to the limbic system in a flash. Experts say that memories tied to scents tend to be from way back and don’t cross our minds often, which explains why they come rushing back with such vividness when they do. We start to associate perfumes and smells with specific moments in time (the 2019 Sauvage craze, for instance), and it quickly becomes apparent just how important it is to perfect one’s fragrance. So take a whiff, and lets see if these ever-so-popular male perfumes spark your limbic system.
Bleu de Chanel
Image courtesy of Saj HZ
Relatively new to the team, this aftershave entered the game in 2010. Both opulent and aromatic, “the fragrance contains top notes of lemon, mint, pink pepper, and grapefruit; middle notes of ginger, Iso E Super, nutmeg, and jasmine; and base notes of labdanum, sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, incense, cedar, and white musk.”
Issey Miyake L’Eau D’Issey Pour Homme
First born in 1994, Issey Miyake’s L’eau D’Issey perfume is a summer one, and even its light bottle (have you ever noticed how male perfumes often opt for darker branding?), seems to convey it. It’s a reported favourite of British actor Hugh Grant, and smells like yuzu, mandarin, fresh verbena, nutmeg, cinnamon and saffron.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male
Image courtesy of Phillip Baotic
Le Male is another cult classic, which has undergone a myriad of variations over time. Presented in a sculpted male torso bottle, its ingredients include hints of bergamot, geranium, tonka bean and amber.
Versace Pour Homme for Men
Bringing to mind a mediterrranean breeze with woody undertones, you’re quite likely to find a Versace’s Pour Homme in your man’s beauty cabinet. Primarily citric, it is the male perfume for lovers of the Italian household name.
One Million Paco Rabanne
Image courtesy of Micha Lehmann
You thought this one would get off the list? Think again. Everyone knows One Million, and it is perhaps one of the most-sold male fragrances of all time. Coming in its iconic golden bottle, men of all ages bought into this cologne’s feisty smell, and sensual undertones.