- Acqua di Parma Essenza di Colonia ($115-$186)
- Creed Green Irish Tweed ($215-$1,180)
- Bottega Veneta Pour Homme Extrême ($85-$115)
- Chanel Pour Monsieur ($90)
- Tom Ford Tuscan Leather ($225-$595)
Ahhh, summer: sun, beaches, festivals, and…weddings! Yes gentleman, with summer right around the corner, there’s another season that comes right along with it—wedding season. And while we no doubt hope you have your wardrobe in order, we thought it might be of use to get your odor in order too. After all, finding a scent that suits your style and taste is hard enough throughout the year, let alone having to find a more formal one that’s rich enough for an elegant black-tie affair yet light enough not to make you pass out during said affair in the thick of summer.
Thankfully we know a thing or two about fragrances, and we took the liberty of recommending five of our favorites that offer just the right amount of formal cachet without making you (or the lovely blonde next to you) choke in suffocation.
1. Tom Ford Tuscan Leather ($225-$595)
When it comes to formal wear, nobody does it better than Mr. Tom Ford. The man who holds sway over the red carpet tuxedo for the better part of the past decade also holds sway over everything it represents, so it’s only fitting that one of his signature scents made it to our formal wear fragrance list. Inspired by his love of fine leather, Tom Ford’s Tuscan Leather evokes our most primal, animalistic instincts with notes of leather and wood mixed in with olibanum, “night blooming” jasmine, and black suede that all combine to give it a distinctive, sensual scent. One that somehow manages to be both raw and refined, all at the same time.
2. Bottega Veneta Pour Homme Extrême ($85-$115)
A richer remix of the tailoring house’s first fragrance, Bottega Veneta’s Pour Homme Extrême retains all the ingredients that made the original so popular— fresh bergamot, juniper, and fir—but adds richer notes of leather and wood amplified by labdanum and pimento, which all unfold into a new richness and character. As The fragrance’s perfumer Antoine Maisondeieu puts it, it’s simply “a more intense, more sensual, even more masculine” version of an already winning fragrance.” And hopefully you’ll be winning too once you slap—er, dab— it on.
3. Creed Green Irish Tweed ($215-$1,180)
A bottle of Creed should be a staple in every gentleman’s fragrance collection, and their Green Irish Tweed makes for the perfect place to start. Like an impeccably tailored suit, Creed’s Green Irish Tweed continues to be worn by confident men at the peak of their fields, and for good reason—with notes of sandalwood and ambergris combined with Indian verbena, lemon, and peppermint, the fragrance elegantly combines woody freshness with pure masculinity, making for a scent that’s equally suited for a stroll through the Irish countryside as it is for a strut down the red carpet. No wonder it remains one of Creed’s best-selling scents to date. A date that goes all the way back to 1760. Talk about classic.
4. Chanel Pour Monsieur ($90)
Created in 1955 as an eau de toilette, Pour Monsiuer was Chanel’s first men’s fragrance. A fresh, citrusy burst of lavender and Sicilian lemon reveals a deep heart with spicy notes of nutmeg complimented by a woody trail of vetiver, which is then all enhanced with a touch of vanilla from Madagascar. A rather bold scent, to be sure, but one that offers an understated elegance that’s bound to be appreciated by those with a nose for the more finer things in life.
5. Acqua di Parma Essenza di Colonia ($115-$186)
A remix of Acqua di Parma’s 1916 classic Colonia, the new Parma Essenza di Colonia takes the vetiver-amber-citrus base that made the original so timeless and adds neroli and cloves for a smokier, warmer undercurrent. The result? A woody, citrus-scented fragrance with a strong personality. Now let’s just hope yours can match.
