Summer scents 4: Kouros EDT Tonique

On the scent of more scents (see what I did there?), and on to Kouros Eau De Toilette Tonique. This is a summer edition of the perennial lemony Kouros and if I had one issue with it then it would be that the original ain't broke, doesn't need fixing. I find this often with seasonal variants; last year Armani made a summer version of Diamonds and Code as well as a Sport version of Code, and for me the originals of both remained preferable.

Kouros EDT Tonique is a bit like that. It's certainly one of the better purpose-built summer scents and of the review samples I've been sent this season it's one of those I've used more than a few times to try. I do like this one but I wonder, other than for financial reasons, why it needed tampering with.

The opening aroma is familiar enough - you get a lot of lemons. This is what perfumiers call 'top notes' - the first scent that hits you. It's sharp, citrussy and of course this calms down eventually. This fades away to something a little more leathery; you wouldn't want the sharp lemons all day and you don't get them. They're in the background and this is an overall pleasant scent to use. It lasts a while, unlike certain  other bottles I've tried - there are a lot out there which are perfectly OK for an hour or so and then you realise they've disappeared.

It's been out almost a month according to the publicity and if I were looking to buy a new aftershave at the moment it would certainly be on my list of possibles. I just suspect I'd end up giving in and getting a bottle of ordinary Kouros if I wanted that particular niff.

Summer scents 1: Yves St. Laurent La Nuit de L'Homme

I've been sniffing around - quite literally - new scents for men for the summer season. It feels a bit of a joke to be talking about summer scents when it's so miserable outside but they're in the shops - including this one, Yves St. Lauren't La Nuit De L'Homme Frozen. It gets the prize for 'daftest name of the week' if nothing else.

This one's quite pleasant, albeit not the better of the two the company sent over for trial (more on the other one and some more I've been testing over the coming days and weeks). The company says it's passionate and seductive; fortunately it also calms down a bit and says it has lemons, bergamot and mandarin as well as a splash of black pepper to make it a bit invogorating.

I get the black pepper bit and was reminded slightly of Molton Brown's Black Pepper Recharge products, if they'd added a load of other sweeter bits into the mix. And here we have my beef with the thing; it could have been sharper, it's as if someone had decided to hit the market with something a bit different then backed off at the last minute adding all the usual oversweetened notes common to a lot of male scents at  the moment. Presumably it's me rather than the mainstream; any long term readers might remember I reviewed six Boss scents a year ago and found they were all a bit on the sickly side for my tastes.

So, pleasant as long as you don't want something with much of a kick; would probably be good for an evening rather than the day time, and frankly I suspect it would suit a younger man better than an older one. It's been out a couple of weeks and depending on the deal you can find, it will cost you around £38.

Uncommon scents 2: Who's the Boss?

Design giant Hugo Boss has released some thoughts on what goes into a 'modern classic' in terms of men's fragrances. To be honest the answer is probably a depressing mix of focus group opinion and staying power in the market, followed by a sales report.

Boss for Men (from Flickr: Odolphie's photostream)

Boss isn't quite so cynical. Its research suggests people are concerned about evocativeness, reminders of their childhood (so the Play-dough aftershave is about due), and of course durability in the market. It nominates a couple of its current offerings as classics of course, and it's been kind enough to send them over. My own favourite is Bottled Night - actually that's not quite true and I'll tell you why in a mo.

Bottled Night has note of lavender, is a bit woody and at the same time refreshing and is my idea of a good scent. My wife, crucially, also quite likes it. My actual favourite from the range, Boss Orange, is new; it has apple, vanilla and is so far from the run-of-the-mill identikit cologne (you know the sort of thing, you buy a cologne and it smells the same as the last one you had in spite of the different name).

Unfortunately my wife is one of the handful of people who has a very strong reaction to scent; I put it on and she got a headache, nausea - this isn't a comment on the scent but on some people's sensitivity (she also has trouble when she walks past a Lush shop). I like it myself and I would wear it in a minute, but I know it'll upset my partner. So that's in the back of the cupboard for when we have a row.

Boss for Men I also like, fruity and fresh, but haven't chanced it with Carol around just yet;  Hugo Man is a little spicier and I like it very much, while Hugo Boss Different has a bit of zingy mint and lemon in the mix. I'm not terribly worried about whether these are modern classics; I'd wear any of them occasionally (although the ad campaign leads me to suspect they're chasing a younger demographic - am I going to end up looking like a walking mid-life crisis? Or smelling like one..?) but if I took one lesson away from this sniffing session then it's "don't buy your colognes alone - your partner will have to inhale too".

I've also looked at a couple of non-Boss scents recently. I was favourably impressed with the cucumbery, apple-y Polo Ralph Lauren Red White and Blue, which is very refreshing indeed. Current favourite of the new crop is one from Vintage, sold to me by the guys at The Valet in Addiscombe. Called Mod, it's light, gives you a splash of spearmint and lemon to start you off and as it settles you get warm vanilla and (I think, although I can't find any other write-ups that say so) a bit of cocoa. Maybe I eat cheap chocolate with an overdose of vanilla and only think I'm smelling cocoa.

A pretty good crop then.