Review: Horace Colognes

Buying cologne should be fun. The ideal experience involves you being sent all the sampler kits from a range of brands and gradually testing through them, eventually picking out your personal scent.The reality, however, is that you are usually just given something, try to buy something at a department store awash in cologne spray smells, or just buy something special from a designer brand name that you trust. You probably don’t know that most designer perfumes license the brand name on the bottle and have little to do with Ralph Lauren or Tom Ford — but if they smell good, that’s all that matters.But men are starting to catch on, and maybe they don’t care too much about the name on the bottle and just want something that smells good. Instagram is flooded with brands hawking parfum “inspired” by the designer bottles, and though you shouldn’t buy from these brands — the smell rarely lives up to expectations or lasts long on the skin — it does open you to more options.For example, the new colognes from Horace. For the unfamiliar, Horace is a French skincare brand that has capitalized upon the dramatic increase in interest in skincare among Gen Z men, making products that uniquely appeal to their preferences, like a glowing tan look, and offering products that are essentially concealer for male skin. I’ll write more about their range in the future, but they also have fragrance offerings, with their signature &Horace bottle and the new Oud Rose.Horace Oud Rose and &Horace. Courtesy of HoraceReleased first in 2019, &Horace may be relatively inexpensive — $65 for a 50ml bottle or $98 for 100ml — but you wouldn’t know it from the design and quality of the smell. The bottle has an elegant, simple look, with chic serif Horace branding, and the scent is masculine without being oppressively heavy and aggressive. It’s light and fresh, with top notes of bergamot and white pepper, heart notes of cedarwood, and some tobacco and sandalwood in the base notes, but not too prominently. Horace markets this as fitting a white t-shirt, and that’s the attitude. It’s just a clean, easy-to-wear smell.Oud Rose is as the name would suggest, but it’s a distinctly masculine floral scent. It’s not oppressively sweet or bright; it’s a rich, deep rose smell, with the top notes hinting of rosemary and spince, the heart notes being surprisingly woody, and the base turning into a smokey sandalwood. It has a similar bottle design to &Horace, and shares its price, and both last reasonably long on the skin. Most importantly, both have earned me compliments from men and women alike; and they’re better than many designer colognes I’ve tried.

Review: Horace Colognes

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