The Smell Test
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

If New York smells a little better in the next few days, don’t be alarmed: It’s Fragrance Week. Created by the Fragrance Foundation and sponsored by Estee Lauder, the week is an opportunity for perfume peddlers to spread the word about their products and educate consumers.
But as anyone who has ever walked through a department store cosmetics section knows, not all fragrances are created equal. To find out what’s smelling good this year, The New York Sun asked one man and one woman to test several fragrances – five for women, four for men – introduced to the market recently. The winner in the women’s fragrance category was Island Michael Kors. And on the men’s side, it was a tie between Corduroy by Zirh International and Polo Black. But of course, the results were not all wine and roses.