Hey, even though that mean blogger lady thinks we are stinkers, we want to smell good and Palladian has the straight poop! So to speak.

Hey our buddy Palladian has some advice about colonge for your stinkers in a comment I want to headline.

Palladian said...
Thanks, Trooper. It's funny that the word "cologne" has evolved to mean "perfume for men". "Cologne" was one of the first alcohol-based fragrances, Eau De Cologne, so named because it allegedly originated in Cologne Germany. Eau de Cologne was worn by both men and women, as indeed were most fragrances up until the 1930s, in the sense that there was no specific "men's" fragrances marketed until 1934's "Pour Un Homme" composed by Ernest Daltroff, the genius perfumer behind the classic French perfume house Caron. Of course the majority of perfumes produced in the 20th century were composed and marketed for women, but it was never explicitly stated before as it was with "Pour Un Homme" (For A Man). Some of the great classic early modern perfumes, such as Guerlain's "Jicky", Houbigant's "Fougère Royale" and Coty's "Chypre" were ambiguously gendered creatures as well as being absolute, genre-defining masterpieces.In fact, many men's fragrances today descend from "Fougère Royale" (Royal Fern) which was composed in 1881. I have 2 bottles of it from the very early 20th century and in them you can smell the basis of the genre: an accord between a lavender material or materials and coumarin (1-benzopyran-2-one to you chemists). This was added to and manipulated to make a zillion variations and very few fougères today are simple enough to glimpse the purity of the original. About the only two I can think of are Dana's "Canoe" and "Brut", but both of those smell cheap, without the richness of the ancient "Fougère Royale". Brut used to be a lot better but unfortunately some key ingredients (nitromusks) were removed in the 80s or 90s because they made some European bureaucrats develop a mild rash or something. There's no good replacement for the nitromusks (one of which, musk ketone, smells as much like natural animal-sourced musk as any other single-moleculed material) so of course Brut today smells truncated, as do a lot of other classic perfumes.Another great, hairy shirtless fougère fragrance is "Azzaro pour Homme", an "aromatic" variation of the basic accord, which makes it spicier and complex. It's still wonderful, but definitely for a certain kind of man."Old Spice" was originally a women's perfume called "Early American Old Spice" made by the Shulton company, a purely American invention. This was a big flop and so it was given hormones which caused it to grow a mustache and become the classic "Old Spice". Sadly, this great scent has lost a bit of its oomph from facelifts and nanny-state interventions and cheapness. I have a bottle from the 50s and it smells fabulous, just like my grandfather. It's the same basic bottle of today, except better-made opaline glass with some ships printed on the side in blue. The stopper is a cork with a lead (!!!) cap that's the originator of the little plug on the bottle today.

"Stetson" is also surprisingly good, if a little cheap smelling (well, it's cheap!). Some perfume journalist friends of mine made the amazing discovery that "Stetson" is basically the same as Estée Lauder’s "Youth Dew" except with pictures of cowboys on the box. Smell them both... it's hilarious.I also think it's perfectly acceptable for men to wear "women's" fragrances and vice-versa. For instance some of my favorite fragrances to wear are marketed as "women's perfumes" : Guerlain's "Mitsouko", Dior's "Diorella", the aforementioned "Jicky". The right man in the right situation could even get away wearing "Angel".Dior's "Eau Sauvage" is a great masculine, composed by one of the greatest perfumers who ever lived, Edmond Roudnitska (he composed "Diorissimo", Rochas "Femme" among others). If you like it, "Diorella" is an even better variant on the theme. Hide the bottle if you're embarrassed to be wearing a "women's perfume", don't put on too much and people will compliment you.The aforementioned "Pour un Homme" by Caron is a great one too, a rich but simple combination of lavender and ambery vanilla notes. Sadly its producer, the once-great Caron has changed hands a few times and has basically destroyed most of their classic perfumes through incompetent reformulation in the service of cheapness. Perhaps they spared "Pour un Homme" from the carnage. It's a great, and manages to smell like you just put it on after a close morning shave for hours.Other fragrances for men that I recommend but don't have time to write about in depth: Chanel's "Pour Monsieur"; Guerlain's "Habit Rouge" and "Vetiver"; on the citric side of things, Guerlain's "Eau de Guerlain" and Balmain's "Eau de Monsieur Balmain"; Davidoff's "Cool Water" is very good but it is harmed by its association with its millions of terrible, cheap, offensive clones and the sleazeballs who wear them. "Azzaro Pour Homme" also shares this affliction, but not as much as "Cool Water" since most of the sleazeballs who wore Azzaro with gold chains and banlon shirts back in the day are dead.My other general advice for men regarding perfumes: don't wear too much of anything, don't try to be something you're not, and do not buy or wear anything whose name contains the words "energy", "xtreme", "blue", "sport", "turbo", or "fresh"