Earned Their Spot: 3 Best Perfumes for Men

Most lists of the best perfumes for men are just whatever launched last month, dressed up. The ones men actually keep buying tend to be older than that. They stay in rotation because somebody bought a second bottle, then a third.

So here are three instead of thirty. One for work, one that gets you stopped in a lift, one for when you feel like spending properly. Does the price buy you anything real? Sometimes yes, sometimes almost nothing, and I’ve said which is which. Longevity and how far each one reaches are in the tables.

Office to Dinner Montblanc Explorer Eau de Parfum

Explorer arrived in 2019 and quietly turned into the bottle men buy once they have looked at the price of Creed Aventus and closed the tab. The bergamot and peppery scents at the top are bright for maybe twenty minutes, then it turns dry and slightly smoky, with vetiver perfumes fans getting the note they came for and a faint cocoa thing sitting underneath. Seven to eight hours, close enough to the body that nobody in a meeting will suffer.

The catch is that it is openly built in the same lane as Aventus and people who own both say Explorer is the drier, less fruity one. If you wanted the pineapple, this isn’t it. The leather sleeve on the bottle is better looking than most perfume bottles at this price, which isn’t a reason to buy a fragrance but it doesn’t hurt.

Compliment Magnet Rasasi Hawas for Him Eau de Parfum

Wear this to a mall on a Friday evening and someone will ask you what it is. That’s the whole reputation, and it’s mostly earned. Apple and cinnamon up front, a watery plum thing in the middle, then ambergris and musk that hang around for nine or ten hours.

It’s also very sweet and it goes a bit synthetic in real heat, which is worth knowing if you live somewhere that hits 45 degrees in August. Reviewers who dislike it use the word bubblegum, and they’re not entirely wrong. Two sprays, not four. It’s cheap enough that it turns up constantly in gift perfume sets, so check what is already sitting in the cupboard before you buy another.

Cold Nights Out Xerjoff XJ 1861 Naxos Eau de Parfum

My cousin wore Naxos to a June wedding and was quietly miserable about it by the second course. Wrong month. In December it is a different fragrance altogether, honey and tobacco leaf over vanilla and tonka, with a lavender opening that stops the sweetness from tipping into dessert. Ten hours is normal and people will smell it before you sit down.

Then there’s the money. Naxos costs several times what the other two do, and the honey turns thick and waxy on some skin, which is the complaint that comes up again and again from people who tried it in warm weather. Sample it first. It shows up in advent calendars and discovery boxes fairly often, and unlike a lot of niche houses Xerjoff doesn’t do refillable perfumes for it, so a full bottle is a real commitment.