Oh dear, Father’s Day is around the corner –  buying presents for fathers is notoriously difficult. They buy what they want for themselves, unless they can’t afford it in which case you can’t either. However, one thing they are unlikely to buy themselves is perfume!

Men’s scents are no longer solely the preserve of eccentric obsessives like Huysman’s aesthete hero Des Esseintes, brewing up complex aromatic compounds like a composer creating a symphony. In fact Morgan Spurlock’s latest documentary, Mansome, brings the subject to centre stage.

The application of an attractive smell can be done in many ways: soap, shower gel, aftershave, eau de cologne; and can serve different purposes: masking or accentuating one’s natural scent, as a freshener or a supposed aphrodisiac.
There is an increasing number of products on the market…

At the sporty end of the scale is Eau de Lacoste, masculine and energetic in tone. Be assured that although it contains cardamom, pepper and ginger, it does not make the wearer smell like a curry.

Also definitively macho are the Hugo Boss eaux de toilettes: Boss and Boss Sport. These too feature peppery notes, combined with sharp citrus and in the former an attractive woody air.

For that gorgeous holiday vibe, L’Occitane’s Eau Captivante cologne and gel call to mind Provencal aromas of fig, lime and bergamot. They are very good value too.

If you would like your dad to emulate the apparently ‘radiant complexions’ of the Japanese inhabitants of Yuzuri Hara then the Kyoku range of shaving sundries make an original gift: the shave creme contains sake and silicone particles to make shaving a pleasure rather than a chore and to follow the razor repair balm soothes his traumatised visage.

For his hair, how about Nicky Clarke‘s texturising clay, a lovely coconutty fudge to give his hair a ‘runway hold’.

Who doesn’t love a dad who makes an effort to stay cool, or at least presentable?

Written by a Thoroughly Modern Mister (and my dad), Chris Kenny.