Honey Bear: Boucheron Pour Homme

Boucheron is not afraid to offer its men's scents as an eau de parfum, and more power to them. I don't think it's a trend that will catch on, but it's nice to have a choice, and interesting to see just how wildly divergent an eau de toilette and an eau de parfum can be: same basic template but drastically different execution.

Boucheron Pour Homme EDT is a classic men's scent: light and citrusy in the top (bergamot and bitter orange) and warm floral-herbal in the middle, with a soft, woody drydown that includes a little oakmoss for a chypre feeling. It's very pleasant; it calls to mind a number of Dior scents all at once, including Eau Sauvage and Miss Dior.

The EDP, though, is something else altogether, and that's the one that won my heart. The citrus notes at the top are stronger, with a lemony tinge. They last a while, but directly beneath them, a potent chypre is brewing like a storm; the warm, earthy oakmoss scent, even more honeyed than usual, is swirling around the flowers and herbs at the heart of the scent (mostly carnation and basil, to me, though there are other things in there). In the end, the chypre qualities are what dominate the scent; it's like having warm clover honey dripped all over you.

The EDP smells very much like a masculinized version of Estee Lauder's Knowing (which is already pretty masculine, or at least ambiguous, to begin with). More to the point, it smells expensive. You can tell instantly that's it's no drugstore scent and definitely not a mass-marketed designer scent. It was created with considerable care and even love. It's worth every penny.