Best Chic For Men by Carolina Herrera Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

Early morning, October 1175, Calabria

The cool night air dissipates under the sun’s first rays. The ripe citrus in the field has absorbed all the water of the morning dew and the farmers are ready to work on the misty green fields, speckled by the bright yellow of the citron. They leave their woody cabin and take a deep breath…

Santal takes its inspiration from a Sandalwood fragrance originally created in the 1800s which has then been given a distinctive contemporary edge.

Perfumer: Michèle Saramito

A new addition to Bloom’s portfolio, an elegant cologne with sweet sun kissed citruses, honeyed neroli and amber background.

With classic formulas it’s the quality of the ingredients that matters. Marie Jeanne might be a new perfume house, but it’s founded by a young perfumer from a family connected to Robertet for several generations.

Robertet is a bit like De Beers of the fine natural perfume materials - matières premières, for decades they have been dealing with the finest, purest and most precious stuff a perfumer can dream of.

This is Marcelle, a classic elegant cologne but with highly likely the best bergamot from Italy, grapefruit from Spain, neroli from Tunisia and petigrain from Paraguay among other notes in the formula.

Playground conjures the bracing nothing of cold air: crisp, clean, marine. A transparent but present blend of bergamot, jasmine and lily-of-the-valley, lightly fluffed with cashmere wood and musk. Honeydew melon lends its cool sweet flesh to this oceanic fantasy.

Named after a very old native red grape variety from the French Jura, this sophisticated gourmand iris is built on an exceptionally high concentration of Bavarian iris germanica. This iris glows with woody and fruity-floral notes — and hints of cocoa and coffee. The effect is enhanced with essential oils of cedar wood, green mandarin and cinnamon absolute, resulting in a luxury treat that feels indulgent and  comforting at the same time.

Perfumer: Antoinie Lie

This extrait is named for the archipelagic country in the South Pacific Ocean, source of the sandalwood in the base. Vanuatu is a lively, confident blend of spices (black pepper, cardamom, cumin) dappled across characterful woody materials (sandalwood, patchouli, cedar and papyrus). Putting meat on the bones is fig milk, with violet leaves adding sharp sparkle. A fragrance for unexpected adventures.

Step out into the world clean-with-a-sheen thanks to the dewy freshness of this smile-bringer. The initial grapefruit/mandarin kick opens up into creamy magnolia and tart apple, underscored with woody vetiver and cedar.

Silky citrus.

A particularly silky fragrance, where Pierre Guillaume transforms citrus acidity into a scented caress.

The kumquat-sandalwood accord seems infused with sunlight and bestows on the skin the charms of a melting creaminess, soft and fresh.

 ***

The Sniff on Sunsuality:
"[it] opens with a delicate white floral note, bolstered with a smooth citrus undertone. It doesn’t really matter if it is lemon blossom, or lemon and blossoms, either way the scent opens light, breezy, and expansive. It’s a transparent scent that conjures up images of white muslin curtains billowing in a Mediterranean breeze, all gauzy and floaty. The floral nuances are sweet, delicate, almost naive, whilst the lemon is sharper, sourer but never very aggressive."

Read the full review

Awake is Akro’s energising coffee fragrance. This EdP captures the evocative smell of a warm coffee shop on a cold day: the freshly ground beans and the steam; the bitter luxury offset by the alluring hint of baked goods.

A collaboration with Miguel Matos.

Clean, abstract and intriguing. Is it the smell of the new velvet seats in a dark cinema? Or the conditioned cool air? Or the fragrant echoes of trendy perfumes floating in between the spectators?

Cinematic is put together from an overdose of clean white musk, crisp hazy cashmeran, dry savory spices and a few drops of bitter carnation essence.