I think with summer, like try and have a bit of fun, try and experiment
with fragrance, try and get your life on track and get yourself out
there and stay away from everything that people are gonna expect of you.
Hello, hi!
How are you?
I'm Robin.
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Okay.
Summer.
Summer is my least favourite season for fragrance.
You might be thinking really like, it's my favourite.
I'll tell, like, I'll level you here.
It's my least favourite because I feel like a lot of brands, especially mass
market designer brands, who I think are amazing in terms of getting us loads
of different new fragrances constantly.
I find that they've all become a bit samey and I just, that's not what I'm here for.
Like, I want a fragrance that makes me feel something, and that makes
other people feel something that really does sort of say hi, hi!
I'm here, and this is what I'm wearing.
So I've made a point of picking out five very different fragrances.
There's one, which is kind of like, commercial-ly,
there's not all the citruses.
I think I've got like one, two, two citruses.
I've got two, which are very evening, very decadent, very sexy,
kind of smoky, but still summer.
So there is something for everyone here.
And if there's not something for you, then, ManForHimself.com,
my website, loads of fragrances.
You can go down the left, you can say you're looking for an
oriental, or citrus, or fougère.
You can search, it is all there.
Okay.
The first one I'm going to give you, yes, I am, is a brand new
one by Jo Malone, yes it is.
This is Elderflower Cau-- I was to say elderflower cauliflower.
That'd be interesting.
Elderflower Cordial Cologne.
Jo Malone have got five new scents as part of this, sort
of traditional English summer.
They do something every year.
And I think these are beautiful.
The little bottles are inspired by marmalade jars.
It's all about the sort of great British faith, and they are
inspired by jams and marmalades.
They've got another one, which is an orange peel.
I like.
But I really enjoy this one.
Elderflower Cordial.
They're small, they're 50 mils and they are £55.
Now, what I love about this one is that it's.
Hmm, hello, it's so playful.
Like citruses are fun, but this is beautiful.
This has got gooseberry in it, so it's kind of tart.
It's sour at the top.
And then it's got elderflower.
Now elderflower are tiny, beautiful little white flowers, kind of a
little bit of a powdery scent.
And then there's dried fruit on the base.
And I like this one and I've added this one in here because it's got
this sort of gourmand quality.
There's also a very fresh quality to it.
It's something which is, you just, you kind of want to bite into it.
It's those dried fruits on the base, which just it's still well on the skin.
In terms of performance.
I always think Jo Malone does lack in performance.
The sillage is there, but you kind of have to be looking for it.
And in terms of longevity on the skin, it's, it's fine.
The Cologne Intense is, do tend to last longer, but £55, 50
mils, gorgeous little bottle.
And I definitely think worth a squirt.
Okay.
Right.
That is Elderflower Cauliflower.
Let's...
Cordial.
Fuck's sake.
Let's move you into, the one that I think will be the most appealing to the most
amount of people, and actually straight up my least favourite of this five.
Now, Robin, why have you put your least favourite of the five in here?
Because, as I tell PRs, this is not about me.
This is not the Robin James show.
I mean, it may appear to be, but I want to give you guys something that
I think, "you're going to like this, if," "you're going to like this, if,"
that's constantly what's in my head.
And the fact that I don't want to wear this day in day out
doesn't matter a monkey's hoots.
That's not a thing, but now it is.
It doesn't matter a monkey's hoots.
And I think this one is so easy to wear.
It's crisp, it's fresh.
I think so many guys and girls, hello, will like this.
And it's kind of like summer, bottled.
I think that's actually the, the caption, caption line, tagline for the Jo Malone's,
but this is Neroli Sun by Sunspel.
Some of the best t-shirts I have are from Sunspel and they've taken this whole
sort of classic, fits and tailoring, it's not so much tailoring, it's t-shirts.
Classic, sort of signature look of Sunspel, and they popped it in a bottle.
And what I do like about this is, let's get a little blotting.
Neroli is an oil that comes from the bitter orange tree.
So it's actually got a slight sort of spiciness to it.
There's this like citrus to it.
There's a bit of a dance, there's a bit of a play, very, very summer,
but there's also a herbaceous note of Rosemary in there.
I like Rosemary in fragrances.
I really do, because I think Rosemary cuts through a lot of other things
and there's a warmth to Rosemary.
There's a familiarity.
There's very much like, I'm just taking a gorgeous walk through a herb
garden, how often have you done that?
I've certainly not done that but I want to be doing that.
And it's crisp, it's fresh.
It kind of cuts.
And I think this is...
this is too mass for me.
Like I do think this is quite safe.
I think it's safe.
I think it's styled.
I think it's, if I smelled this on someone else, I'd think, Oh,
you smell clean, you smell clean.
You smell good.
Do I want to rip your clothes off?
No.
Do I think you've got a bit more something about you?
Um, I'd like to see what else you've got.
But it's easy to wear, and £90, a hundred mils, is it?
Yeah, it is.
And.
It's nice.
And I, and I do, and I say this again.
I think so many of you are going to like this.
If someone gifted me this and said, Hey, I've got your new fragrance,
I would say, thank you so much.
That's really kind.
Back of the cupboard.
No, I wouldn't.
I would probably wear it a couple of days.
It's the kind of thing that I kind of want to be sitting next to a pool
wearing, sort of dousing myself in.
There you go, window to my world.
If only I could get next to a pool.
Okay.
So that is that one.
The next one surprised me.
Mmm, get that thing back on.
We're just going to pop you there.
The next one is a brand new one, a brand new one of three from Escentric Molecules.
Now, I was lucky enough to have an interview with Geza Schoen.
He is the creator of Escentric Molecules.
Escentric Molecules, say it again, Escentric Molecules are
a brand that popped up in 2006.
Geza is in Berlin, he's German.
He is a really nice guy.
He's got so many great stories.
But Escentric Molecules is all based around this one
molecule called Iso E Super.
Iso E Super is what's in all of their fragrances.
It's characterized with this sort of warming, cocooning sensation,
and something like Cedarwood.
So, there is this really great warmth.
What he did was he isolated this note and created Molecule
01, which is just Iso E Super.
And then from there, he's added in various other notes in order to sort
of create these different fragrances.
Now, something about Escentric Molecules is it's a cult brand.
If you like it, you love it.
And people go wild for this.
So the fact that he's introduced or launched three new fragrances,
there is M+ or Molecule + Mandarin.
There's M + Iris, and there's an M + Patchouli.
I've added this, I mean, any of these could go into summer, I've added this in
because M + Mandarin, it's just that Iso E Super, and it's just a Mandarin note.
There is no messing around with this, and I love this because, ooh,
Hello, it is so true to Mandarin.
A lot of fragrances are saying like, oh, Mandarin Sunrise or Mandarin
Punch or Mandarin something, something with something, something, and you're
kind of smelling it and you're like, Sorry, I'm looking for a Mandarin.
Hello?
Is there a Mandarin in there?
But this, this is pure Mandarin.
It's a juicy citrus with heart, and I'm sit's got heart because those
citruses tend to dance about, above the sort of the rest of the fragrance.
And they do all that top note stuff, and they whiff and they waft and,
and they, and they're gorgeous and they're fresh and they're fun, but
then they tend to kind of like...
and they go off.
With this, your Mandarin hangs around, you know, it's fortified,
it's Mandarin to the max.
Mandarin to the max by Man for Himself.
It is so great.
And when I've been wearing this, I'd kind of forgotten I've been wearing it.
I quite often get out Escentric Molecules.
I spray it and I'm like, I can't smell it at all.
But people say, what are you wearing?
It's a total lean in, and you get that with all of the Escentric
Molecules, £95, a hundred mils.
Is this still a hundred mils?
Yes.
And I love what they're doing.
I think they've got a really strong USP.
I liked him as a creator, which I think really does help.
He was just a nice guy who knew his shit and I just thought, amazing.
So check this one out, also, if you want more of those
deeper, darker, earthy scents.
Patchouli, gorgeous.
Iris gives you this powderiness.
It's not old women.
It's great.
So thank you very much.
I really liked that.
I just think it's great.
Juicy, poppy, summer, and not citrus in the whimsical,
like, mmm, citrus fragrances.
Right.
Now, I've given you those lights and brights.
I want to take you deeper and darker because I'm a deep,
dark, sensual, sexy scent.
That's what I'm about.
I want fragrance to welcome me in.
I want it to hug me.
I want it to empower me.
I wanted to sound sexy.
I just want it now.
And this first one, this is a brand new one.
It's so brand new that when I'm filming this, it's not even out,
it's out on May the 8th, so hi.
If this is out, I think this is coming out just before May the 8th.
This is just out.
This is a brand new one from Dunhill.
It's their signature collection, and it's called Egyptian Smoke.
Yes, it is.
What I like about this is, when I first squirted this, I got this on a sort
of press evening that I was doing with the PR agency that look after them.
And in my own time I sprayed this and thought, wow, that is so, so beautiful.
There's a sort of Amber note to it, there's a slight
sweetness of vanilla in there.
It's so rounded.
It's so captivating.
It really does sort of draw you in.
And these fragrances are all inspired by the Middle East.
So you do have a sort of spiciness, you've got this sort of exotic
scent, which just lingers and plays.
There's a lot of playing in this video.
Lingers and plays on the skin.
The sort of smokiness is less about sort of smoke of tobacco or incense.
It's more like this just sort of veil of gorgeousness that
you spritz and walk into.
It's seductive, it's sensual, it's warm.
And I think it's so summer.
It's the kind of thing that, you've had your shower after a pool day.
Your skin slightly hot, SPF 50 please.
And you've made yourself a little cocktail, maybe a margarita, or
just a, like a great red wine and you're just feeling good.
And you spritz this, you've got a great, crisp, white linen probably, shirt.
And everything's just perfect, you know, in this moment you're
so happy and this fragrance is just taking it to the next level.
It's really, really gorgeous.
And it's certainly one that I'm going to be wearing into summer.
I'm saying summer because there is a heat on it, there's a heat and
there's a warmth, which is perfect.
There is this sort of freshness, fresh and sort of spicy opening with a ginger.
There's also black tea and there's pink pepper, I'm pretty sure of it.
But that kind of plays.
I love ginger.
I think ginger in fragrance is amazing.
It's not what we'd expect in this, but ginger does give you that, that sort of
quite sharpness, a real sort of spiciness to it, but a real freshness to it.
And then into the base with the patchouli, so real sort of earthy
beautifulness, ness, and then the vanilla bean, it's just great.
I really, really love it.
And it's very much one, which is summer for me, but yeah, I
could take it into other seasons.
Right, the last one, the last one for you has been inspired by, it's been
inspired by, I could sing the whole of it.
This one is by Serge Lutens.
French fragrance brand.
I have a discovery kit here.
I did a press day with them and what press hour with them.
And they went through this.
I'm going to get this wrong, Collection Noire.
I'll link this.
I think as a little gift or for yourself, how I would do it, it's gorgeous.
It's such a great way to discover a brand.
But there was one which really sort of screamed at me when I did all of these.
And this is Ambre Sultan.
This is part of this collection.
So they've got this kind of like, limited edition bottle, I'm pretty
sure we'll get that on screen.
I will link it.
It's not the cheapest, but I think a really great, I'm pretty sure it's £120,
and then it gets slightly more expensive into the hundred mils, about a £160.
I did find it on Lookfantastic, at this very moment was £136.
It will be linked, and there are all on ManForHimself.com And if
ever a product goes on sale and I see it, if not, let me know.
I hit a little button in the backend.
That's what he said.
And then it pops up a sale.
So it just really helps.
But what I love about this is the storytelling.
Serge Lutens create just perfect storytelling moments and fragrances.
This is inspired by a piece of Amber resin that Serge found in a Moroccan souk.
I went to Morocco and I loved it.
I thought I say, I loved it.
I got really sunburned.
And I was with, two of my best mates who've got like flaming red hair.
And it was like, people were like, who are, who are these creatures?
Just because they really did stand out.
And I find it a bit stressful to be honest.
But the food is great.
The people are really, really friendly.
Also, when I got there.
So I arrived a day before them.
And I was staying in a riad, and the riad owner picked me up on a
motorcycle, right from the centre square.
So there's like a main square, can't remember what that's called.
Anyway, he picked me up and I was holding on to the back of
him riding through the streets.
It was the most fun, if not, a little scary.
But, if you have been to Morocco, then, you know, it's just a land
of like beautiful, bright colours.
There's all these spices, there's great food.
There's a hustle, there's a bustle.
There's so much going on.
And the fact that this is inspired by the Amber resin that he
found, I think is just perfect.
There is, and I always say, I love Amber.
To me, and you'll probably say this with me, there's like
this golden tonality to it.
There's just a beautiful warmth, and there's something which is just so
luxurious and it lasts on the skin.
It's gorgeous.
It's full of warmth.
It's full of sun.
There's light, there's bright.
And there's also a slight sweetness in this.
But why I've picked this one?
For the same reasons that I picked out, oh God, who was it?
The Dunhill.
It's, it's end-of-day warmth.
The sun has been spending all day beating down on that ground.
It's that warmth you're getting out off in the evening.
And it's so inviting.
It's so warming.
It's sensual.
It's sexy.
The difference, I would say with this one, and you might be thinking,
well, what's the difference?
Why should I go one over the other?
This one is, hello, this one is spicier and smokier.
I think with that ginger.
And this one is more, I would say, level and rounded.
This smells maybe a little bit more grounded.
So it's a bit like, okay, this is the fragrance.
That's where this is done.
Whereas this one, I think just plays slightly more.
Which one would I prefer?
I think if I'm just, if I'm going a bit more formal.
Okay.
Formal evening in summer, I would do this one.
If I want something, which is a bit more like, we've started at
one drink, what's going to happen?
I'd go with this one.
But I think they're so, so gorgeous and as much as possible,
I will try and link these.
But there you go.
Five different sort of fragrances for summer, not just your usual citrus, but if
you do like citrus, go wild, do what you like, wear what you like, be who you are.
And that's what fragrance should be.
Fragrance is an invitation to experiment, and to really sort of create your own
calling card and your own identity.
Amazing.
There we go.
But thank you so much for watching, everything will be linked.
Also the product pages, ManForHimself.com.
Everything is there.
If you're still new to this, you've still not pressed Subscribe, then
hey, come on, press Subscribe right now, the button is there.
There's some more video suggestions down there.
A link to the fragrance pages there, and more in the cards.
But until my next new, this is going to go old, until my next new video.
Bye-bye.