Jean Paul Gaultier put a corset on a perfume bottle in 1993 and, three decades on, Classique is still one of the most recognisable silhouettes on any dressing table, tin-can packaging and all. The fragrance inside earns that shelf space too: a bold, sweet oriental floral that smells more confident than almost anything else from […]
Fragrance Alternatives
Best Hugo Boss Boss Bottled Alternatives in the UK
Boss Bottled has been Hugo Boss’s flagship men’s fragrance since 1998, and it’s aged into the specific role of “the scent your dad, your boss and your job interview all smell like”, not as an insult, but because it was built to be unimpeachable in a boardroom. It’s a warm, spicy woody fragrance with none […]
Best Calvin Klein Eternity Alternatives in the UK
Calvin Klein built Eternity around a promise rather than a trend: launched in 1988 with the tagline “for the rest of your life”, it became the fragrance equivalent of a wedding vow, and the Christy Turlington family-campaign imagery cemented it as the scent people buy for anniversaries and engagements decades later. It’s a classic white […]
Best Calvin Klein CK One Alternatives in the UK
CK One turned 30 in 2024 and it still doesn’t feel like a heritage fragrance. Launched by Calvin Klein in 1994 as the first mainstream unisex scent, it built its identity on Kate Moss and a cast of unknown models in black-and-white ads, a plain frosted bottle with no gender signalling at all, and a […]
Best Initio Oud for Greatness Alternatives in the UK
Initio Parfums Prives’ Oud for Greatness, launched in 2016, helped kick off the current wave of interest in accessible, wearable oud fragrances among people who would normally never touch the note. Instead of leaning into the medicinal, barnyard character that scares most newcomers away from oud, it wraps a smoky agarwood accord in saffron, nutmeg […]
Best Parfums de Marly Delina Alternatives in the UK
Parfums de Marly’s Delina, launched in 2017, might be the single most-hyped rose fragrance of the last ten years. It’s the kind of niche release that crossed over into mainstream fragrance TikTok almost entirely on the strength of “smells like a wedding” comparisons. It pairs a fruity, rhubarb-and-lychee opening with a soft musky rose that […]
Best Louis Vuitton Ombre Nomade Alternatives in the UK
Louis Vuitton’s Ombre Nomade, part of the house’s Les Parfums line and composed by perfumer Frank Voelkl in 2018, is one of the most talked-about oud fragrances to come out of the last decade. It built its reputation almost entirely through word of mouth rather than advertising, which is a big part of why it […]
Best Chloé Alternatives in the UK
Chloe’s eponymous Eau de Parfum from 2008 might be the fragrance world’s best-kept “everyone knows it, nobody talks about it” secret: it became the unofficial signature scent of a generation of weddings without ever really trending online the way newer releases do. The rose-peony pairing is soft enough to read as bridal without tipping into […]
Best Chanel Allure Homme Sport Alternatives in the UK
Chanel launched Allure Homme Sport in 2004 as a lighter, sportier reinterpretation of the original Allure Homme, and it has stayed in constant rotation ever since, one of the few “sport” spin-offs that outlasted the fragrance trend it was named after. Part of the appeal is that it does not smell like a gym fragrance […]
Best Chanel Gabrielle Alternatives in the UK
Gabrielle arrived in 2017 as Chanel’s first major new women’s fragrance in over a decade, named after Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel herself and built around a “bouquet of light”, four white flowers layered together rather than the single-note focus most florals rely on. It marked a genuine departure from the house’s older, more powdery classics, brighter […]
