The best men's fragrances as a gift

With men's fragrances, choosing a gift is easier than with women's because the range is narrower: the vast majority sit between fresh citrus-woody and warm sweet-spicy profiles. The same rule still applies — if you don't know what the recipient wears, don't buy a bottle, buy a choice. Below are five picks sorted by price, with notes and prices from our database, so you can fit the gift to your budget and not the other way round.

Chanel Bleu de Chanel: The safest gift we have: grapefruit, lemon and mint up top, ginger in the heart, incense with cedar and sandalwood underneath. A name everyone recognises and a profile almost nobody rejects. €150 for 100 ml, so €1.50 per millilitre.
Hermès Terre d'Hermès: A more mature safe pick: grapefruit and orange up top, pepper with pelargonium and flint in the heart, vetiver and cedar in the base. Dry, not sweet, and suitable even for someone who rarely wears fragrance. A 5 ml decant costs €13.
Azzaro The Most Wanted Parfum: For a budget up to €130: a pyramid of three notes — ginger up top, woody notes in the heart, vanilla in the base. That simplicity is an advantage for a gift, because there's nothing in it that could bother anyone. €130 for 50 ml, while a 5 ml decant is €14.
Xerjoff Naxos: A gift for someone who follows fragrances: honey, cinnamon and jasmine sambac in the heart, tobacco leaf with vanilla and tonka in the base. A well-known name in niche circles. According to community ratings very strong sillage, so it's more an evening gift than an office one. €240 for 100 ml.
Parfums de Marly Layton: The most popular niche pick for men: apple with lavender up top, geranium with violet in the heart, vanilla, cardamom and sandalwood underneath. €290 for 125 ml is €2.32 per millilitre — a big bottle that looks more expensive on the shelf than it is per millilitre.
Lattafa Asad: For a budget up to €30: pineapple, black pepper and tobacco up top, patchouli, coffee and iris in the heart, vanilla, amber, benzoin and labdanum underneath. According to community ratings 8–10 hours and very strong sillage. A 10 ml decant costs €15.

A gift by budget: (1) Up to €30: a 10 ml decant of something the recipient wouldn't buy themselves — Asad, Terre d'Hermès or Bleu de Chanel. Ten millilitres last months of daily wear, which is more than enough for a gift. (2) €30 to €60: three 5 ml decants from three directions (fresh, warm, woody). It's the best gift for someone whose taste you don't know — instead of guessing, you give a choice. (3) €60 to €160: a bottle with a well-known name. Bleu de Chanel at €150 is the most reliable move in this bracket. (4) Over €200: a niche bottle, but only if you know what the recipient already wears. Layton and Naxos are popular, but both are distinctly warm and sweet — someone who wears only fresh fragrances won't use them. (5) Don't buy by what's "masculine". Our database has a number of unisex fragrances men wear more often than the so-called men's ones — Ganymede and Erba Pura, for example.

Which men's fragrance is the safest gift?

Chanel Bleu de Chanel or Hermès Terre d'Hermès. Both are citrus-woody, not sweet and so widespread that they practically have no detractors. For a bolder pick, Xerjoff Naxos — but only if you know warm and sweet is their thing.

Is a decant a suitable gift?

Yes, and for someone who follows fragrances it's even more interesting than a bottle. The content is original, decanted from the original bottle. It comes without the original box, so for more formal occasions it makes sense to add a themed discovery set, which is gift-packed.

Is it better to give less of an expensive fragrance or more of a cheaper one?

Ten millilitres of something good is almost always a better gift than a full bottle of something average. A fragrance isn't worn by volume but by whether the recipient picks it up at all.

What do I give someone who has everything?

Something they wouldn't buy themselves. Marc Antoine Barrois Ganymede with its mineral notes and suede, or Xerjoff 40 Knots, the only marine fragrance in our range — both are unusual enough not to be in every collection.

How many decants make the right gift?

Three, at five millilitres each. Fewer looks modest, more gets diluted — with three, the recipient actually wears each one and you get useful feedback on what suits them.