Uncommon scents: Molton Brown

I've been receiving a fair few men's scents just lately - I'll be looking at the Boss range sometime next week (I like quite a few of these but they give my wife a headache - never, ever buy a scent unaccompanied by whoever is going to have to sniff it). Today I'm looking at the new range from Molton Brown (pictured).

As you can see the bottles are pretty much identikit and look very expensive. There's a reason for this; at up to £60 for 50ml this isn't cheap stuff.

The good news is that it doesn't smell like it either. Certainly at the luxury end of the market, it's called "navigation through scent" and the idea is that it all comes from far-flung places. Like you're going to care - my own view is that marketers are bound to put some sort of spin onto any new fragrance, but the fact is you're either going to like it or you're not. So here's my take on all five of the (unisex) range:

Singosari: I'm wearing it now and it's a little overpowering at first. Apply sparingly and give it an hour to settle. You're left with a bit of incense, bit of ginger and some nutmeg - blended very skilfully. Not my favourite but I've been catching wafts of it and it's very pleasant stuff indeed.

Iunu: Bit of ginger, smattering of black pepper. Reminds me of a more complex version of the company's Black Pepper Recharge shower gel and eau de toilette. One of the more masculine in the unisex set, as long as you agree with me about what's masculine!

Lijiang: Probably the most floral of the scents, light scents of white tea and berries. Nice but for me a little on the feminine side of "unisex" although my wife found it more like a bloke's aftershave because of a slight alcoholic tang.

Apuldre: Wood, berries, maybe a bit of gin (actually that's made of berries now that I think of it). Think very, very upmarket men's barber (I wonder what my pals at The Valet would make of this...)

Rogart: Leaving the best till last, if I were to splash out (pun intended) £60 on any one of these then it would be this one; elements of warmth, berries, wood, skilfully combined. I felt as if I'd really spoiled myself wearing this one a couple of days ago.

In fact of all the scents I've looked at just lately this last one's one of the few to make it into my mental shortlist of stuff I might buy when the sample runs out (and sensibly, other manufacturers please take note, Molton Brown sends out little sample phials rather than whole bottles - it's generous but a blogger doesn't like what you've sent, they're stuck with rather a lot of it!) or even put on my Christmas list.

A good crop and more subtle than a lot that's on the market. And yes, you pay rather a lot for it, but it's probably worth it.