Rive Gauche Pour Homme

I am embarrassed by the fuss made over me at the men's fragrance counters. It has been suggested that many scent companies are noticing the unisex use of their carefully segregated products and are governing themselves accordingly, but you would never be able to tell from the workers in the trenches. Female sales assistants, in particular, seem almost offended that I might be purchasing a cologne for myself. Why, they seem to be asking, would I waste my time? The fact of the matter is that I often flee to Y-chromosomed offerings because I'm tired of non-descript fruity-florals and vanillic musks, and there are an unusual amount of bargins on the men's side of the store.

Take, for example, Rive Gauche Pour Homme. A classic, almost meancingly suave fougère in the 1970s style, this was released in 2003 under Tom Ford's direction of YSL and is pretty much the cheapest option at my local chichi department store. With the characteristic fougère balance between soap and lemon-pepper steak seasoning, it is a purely abstract scent that somehow manages to smell like the Platonic ideal of a heavy autumn mist. Despite the smokiness of the lavender, vetiver and gaiac wood, it smells airily clean. The packaging is a ready-to-go, black-and-silver striped metal canister, like a travel shaving foam. Stealth, campy-conservative, and insinuatingly virile, it is the perfect Christmas gift to give the no-nonsense, business-minded father who has worn Brut deodarant for his entire adult life and holds no truck with electric shavers (*ahem* that would be mine.) It is also the perfect gift to give yourself, because I am informed that it is - breathe deeply now - being discontinued in Canada to make way for the sweeter, trendier YSL L'Homme. Sob.

Check in tomorrow for my swooning review of another essential men's scent, Nicolai Pour Homme.