THEY SAY OLFACTORY MEMORIES are the strongest - and that's certainly true of fragrances. One whiff of Anateus and you're transported back to a sticky dance floor, circa 1983, with its embarrassment of pointy shoes and wedge cuts. A splash of Kouros and you start seeing great car salesmen you have known. (For some reason they always seem to hose themselves down with the stuff: does anyone know why?)
We've come a long way from the days when tweedy old duffers and frowning matrons used to say things like 'the only fragrance a man needs is a bit of soap'. Neither do you get called sissy when you put on your favourite eau de toilette - although the days when that sort of response was commonplace are in the living memory of some. (I cite my own, tragic high school experiments with expensive scent.)
We've also moved on from the days - the terrible, flare-flapping, chest-baring days - when fragrances were seen as magical aids in a quest to score. Today a fragrance is no longer some ersatz pheromone, boosting your chances of a Friday night pull. Eau de toilette is no longer about pleasing other people. No, in these solipsistic, New Age times, the business of a fragrance is to make statements about (what else?) me, me, me.
The very fact that guys now refer, with self-consciousness, to fragrances is indicative of the zeitgeist. Until now, even if it was technically eau de toilette, it was always and only known as aftershave - as though, to justify the wearing of sissy water, you had to do something manly first, like razor your beard off.
But these days, gender-blurring, unisex fragrances are everywhere, while the popularity of aromatherapy has educated us all in a wide range of exotic herbs that are finding their way into big-brand scents for men and women.
There's a lot of choice at your local fragrance bar, in short. We've road-tested four very different eau de toilettes to help you with a tricky purchase decision. Buy wisely gentlemen, and save the Kouros for the car-yard.
