Best perfume for men: 18 picks by style, and the aftershave question answered

No list can crown one winner for every man, and the ones that try are guessing about your taste. A good shortlist does something more useful: it turns a wall of bottles into five small groups, so you can find your lane and then compare within it.

How to choose a men's perfume

Most men's fragrances fall into a handful of styles. Knowing which one you like narrows the field to a short list.

• Fresh and citrus. Lemon, bergamot, grapefruit and other bright top notes. Easy in warm weather and at work.
• Aromatic. Lavender, sage, herbs and pepper, usually over a woody base. The classic men's profile, clean and confident.
• Fruity and woody. A bright fruit opening over woods and moss. Lively by day, polished enough for dinner.
• Warm and sweet. Vanilla, tonka bean, cinnamon and amber. Rich, at home in cold weather and in the evening.
• Woody and powdery. Iris, sandalwood, cedar and vetiver. Quiet, grown-up and good in a small room.

The aromatic style has deep roots. It grew out of the fougère family, named after the French word for fern: lavender over oakmoss and coumarin, a material that smells of fresh hay. Wikipedia notes that fougères are especially popular in men's fragrance, which is why so many men's scents today still open on lavender or sage.

If you already own a fragrance you like, start in its style. If you do not, start with one fresh scent and one warm one: the contrast tells you a lot about your taste. Our guide to choosing perfume without smelling it explains how to read notes before you buy.

Fresh and citrus

Imagination by Louis Vuitton

Imagination opens with citron, Calabrian bergamot and Sicilian orange, then warms up with neroli, ginger and cinnamon before settling on black tea, ambroxan, guaiac wood and olibanum. It is fresh without being thin, and the tea gives it a calm, polished finish that works from spring into winter.

L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme by Issey Miyake

L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme is yuzu, lemon, bergamot and mandarin with tarragon, cypress and coriander, then a watery floral heart of blue lotus and lily-of-the-valley with nutmeg and saffron, over vetiver, musk, cedar and sandalwood. It launched in 1994 and still reads clean and bright, a summer and office classic.

Torino21 by Xerjoff

Torino21 is a herb garden in the morning: mint, lemon, basil and thyme, then black currant, rosemary, lavender and jasmine, over musk and vervain. Green, sharp and very fresh, an easy choice for hot days and the office.

Aromatic: lavender, sage and pepper

Sauvage by Dior

Sauvage pairs pepper and Calabrian bergamot with Sichuan pepper, lavender, geranium and elemi, over a base of ambroxan, cedar and labdanum. Bright, peppery and mineral, it is one of the easiest men's scents to wear anywhere, and a light hand is enough.

Y Eau de Parfum by Yves Saint Laurent

Y Eau de Parfum starts with apple, ginger and bergamot, moves through sage, juniper berries and geranium, and dries down to amberwood, tonka bean, cedar, vetiver and olibanum. Fresh at the top, warm and ambery underneath, it moves easily from day to night.

Terre d'Hermès by Hermès

Terre d'Hermès is orange and grapefruit over pepper, pelargonium and a striking flint note, with vetiver, cedar, patchouli and benzoin in the base. Citrus and stone, dry and earthy. It launched in 2006 and suits someone who finds most fresh scents too sweet.

Explorer by Montblanc

Explorer is bergamot, pink pepper and clary sage over Haitian vetiver and leather, finishing on ambroxan, akigalawood, patchouli leaf and cacao pod. Woody, fresh and easy, and a sensible first bottle for someone new to perfume.

Fruity and woody

Aventus by Creed

Aventus is bergamot, black currant, apple, lemon and pink pepper up top, pineapple, patchouli and jasmine in the heart, and birch, musk, oakmoss, ambroxan and cedarwood in the base. Fruity at first, then smoky and woody. It launched in 2010 and remains the reference point for this style.

Hacivat by Nishane

Hacivat puts pineapple, grapefruit and bergamot over cedar, patchouli and jasmine, with oakmoss and woody notes underneath. Sharper and more mossy than Aventus, with the same bright fruit.

Cedrat Boise by Mancera

Cedrat Boise opens with Sicilian lemon, bergamot, black currant and spicy notes, moves through fruity notes, patchouli leaf and water jasmine, and settles on cedar, leather, sandalwood, vanilla, white musk and moss. Citrus and leather, with a soft sweetness at the end.

Warm, sweet and spicy

Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier

Le Male is lavender, mint, cardamom, bergamot and artemisia over cinnamon, caraway and orange blossom, with vanilla, tonka bean, amber, sandalwood and cedar in the base. Clean lavender meets warm vanilla. It launched in 1995 and still sets the tone for sweet lavender scents.

Eros by Versace

Eros opens with mint, green apple and lemon, then tonka bean, ambroxan and geranium, over vanilla, cedar, vetiver and oakmoss. Minty and sweet, bright and warm at once, made for nights out.

Stronger With You Intensely by Giorgio Armani

Stronger With You Intensely is pink pepper, juniper and violet, then toffee, cinnamon, lavender and sage, over vanilla, amber, tonka bean and suede. Sweet, spicy and cosy, better on cold evenings than in a warm office.

Layton by Parfums de Marly

Layton blends apple, lavender, bergamot and mandarin with geranium, violet and jasmine, over vanilla, cardamom, sandalwood, pepper, guaiac wood and patchouli. Fresh at the start, spicy and creamy later, an autumn and winter favourite.

1 Million by Rabanne

1 Million is blood mandarin, grapefruit and mint over cinnamon, spicy notes and rose, with amber, leather, woody notes and patchouli underneath. Spicy, sweet and bold, a party scent rather than a desk scent.

Woody, powdery and quiet

Reflection Man by Amouage

Reflection Man opens with rosemary, pink pepper and petitgrain, then a soft floral heart of jasmine, neroli, orris root and ylang-ylang, over sandalwood, cedar, vetiver and patchouli. Clean, floral and woody, a refined choice for work.

Prada L'Homme by Prada

Prada L'Homme is neroli, black pepper, cardamom and carrot seeds over iris, violet, geranium and mate, with amber, cedar, sandalwood and patchouli in the base. Powdery, soapy and very clean, the scent of a freshly ironed shirt.

Oud Wood by Tom Ford

Oud Wood is agarwood, Brazilian rosewood and cardamom, then Sichuan pepper, sandalwood and vanilla, over vetiver, tonka bean and amber. Smooth, dry and warm, an easy introduction to oud. Our guide to what oud is explains the note.

All eighteen, side by side

Here is the whole list in one place. The "when" column is our own suggestion based on each scent's notes, not a rule: citrus and aromatic scents for summer days and the office, sweet and spicy ones for winter nights. The last column shows today's cost per ml when you buy the 10ml decant.

The spread per ml is wide. Most of the designer classics sit close together, while Imagination, Oud Wood and the niche picks from Creed, Xerjoff, Amouage and Nishane cost noticeably more. Those are the ones where a 3ml first saves the most if the scent turns out not to be you. Our guide to niche vs designer perfume explains what the extra buys.

If you wear this, try that

The fastest way to a second favourite is to step sideways from the first. Each line below starts from a scent many men already own and points to one from this list that shares its character but changes one thing.

• If you wear Sauvage and want something drier and more grown-up, try Terre d'Hermès. Same pepper and citrus spirit, with flint and vetiver in place of the ambroxan glow.
• If you wear Aventus and want the same bright fruit with more moss, try Hacivat. If you want it with leather and a softer finish, try Cedrat Boise.
• If you wear Le Male and want it sweeter and spicier, try Stronger With You Intensely. If you want it fresher, try Y Eau de Parfum.
• If you wear Eros and want more polish for dinner, try Layton: apple and lavender again, with cardamom and creamy woods.
• If you wear a fresh citrus and want something for colder months, try Imagination. The black tea and olibanum carry it into winter.
• If you wear anything sweet and want a quieter office scent, try Prada L'Homme or Reflection Man.

Aftershave, eau de toilette or eau de parfum?

In the UK, "aftershave" is often used for any men's fragrance. Strictly, an aftershave is a skin product for after shaving: traditionally an alcohol-based splash, often with an astringent such as witch hazel to calm the skin, and sometimes a balm. It usually carries far less fragrance than a perfume. So when someone asks for the best aftershave for men, they almost always mean an eau de toilette or an eau de parfum.

The words on the bottle describe concentration, from the lightest eau de cologne through eau de toilette and eau de parfum to parfum or extrait. A richer concentration tends to sit on the skin for longer, but the notes matter as much as the label: a citrus eau de parfum can fade sooner than a woody eau de toilette. Our guide to eau de parfum vs eau de toilette explains the ladder, and for staying power by style, see our shortlist of long-lasting perfumes for men.

How to find yours before buying a bottle

A shop strip tells you about the first minutes of a perfume. What you wear all day is the heart and the base, and those only show up on your skin, over hours, on normal days. So try before you commit.

1. Pick three styles. Choose one fresh or aromatic scent, one fruity or woody scent and one warm scent from the list above. Start with a 3ml of each: around 60 sprays, enough for a week or so of real wear.
2. Wear each for a few days. Spray in the morning, check at lunch and in the evening, and notice what you reach for without thinking.
3. Move the winner up. A 10ml decant is around 200 sprays, weeks of daily wear in a bottle that fits a pocket. When you know it is the one, a 30ml decant is around 600 sprays and the best value per ml.

Our men's perfume collection has every men's scent we carry in 3ml, 10ml and 30ml, and our comparison of decants and full bottles explains when a small size makes more sense. If you like the warm style, the note pages for tonka bean and lavender list more to try. For fresh scents, start with bergamot and vetiver. As a gift, our perfume advent calendar for him puts Sauvage, Aventus, Layton and Oud Wood from this list among its 24 perfumes, with a 3ml decant behind every door.