Last Updated October, 2017: Prices and links have been updated.
The word perfume originates from the Latin word perfumare, meaning “to smoke through.” It alludes to the process by which we swiftly extend ourselves into the spaces we choose to occupy. Your choice scent is a nonverbal statement; it defines presence and personality, telling the woman sitting across the bar the things you no longer need to say. But the market is awash with new scents for men, with many more on the way. Plenty of these fragrances smell somewhat familiar, if not completely identical, and that new perfect scent is now the needle in a haystack. The safe road to finding a new fragrance leads back to those favored of men since passed, time-tested and gramps-approved. All of these vintage scents are still in production, proving that some things truly never go out of style.
Santa Maria Novella Patchouli
The beloved products of Santa Maria Novella date back to early 17th century Florentine monasteries. Production remains in Florence, where every fragrance is still bottled and sealed by hand. Their signature cologne, created for Catherine de Medici, is their most famous; but this scent is an elegant alternative, breaking patchouli’s more recent association with your LSD-addled uncle raging to Hendrix at Woodstock. Like vetiver and sandalwood, patchouli refines with age, and will continue to impress for many years to come.
