There’s a famous line from the 1985 novel Perfume that I’m going to paraphrase: Scents have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. This is true, and it’s why fragrances are such a crucial part of a man’s routine. That’s also why we carefully selected the greatest colognes of all time, which you’ll find below. —Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief
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Time to find that new signature scent.
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The concept of a signature scent is a dangerous but necessary one. Dangerous because where do you start? How do you go about identifying a blend of smells that perfectly captures the multifaceted nature of your sense of self? And what if you want to take a day off your signature? But it’s necessary because, well, like a uniform it creates a baseline for you to start at, play around with, and come back to. So how do you go about finding one?
You can go in two directions. You can go backward; this is how I got into fragrances. Think of one real-world smell you love—tobacco leaf, smoke of all kinds, and tomato vines for me—and figure out the colognes that call those ideas to mind. Or go forward and start with colognes. Find a bottle you love and follow your nose to similar brands and bottles you think smell good on you; figure out what it is that you like about it. Both methods make it pretty easy to figure out what you like—woods, spices, freshness, booze, or florals.
But even with that knowledge, the most important thing you need to do is put that nose to the bottle.
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New York City has everything you could ever need. Have dinner at a table that took you three months to book. Follow it with a Broadway show where someone famous is sitting two rows away, and top it off with a midnight bagel and lox. You know you wouldn’t trade it for the world, but part of living here is accepting that every once in a while you have to get out of the city and breathe some fresh air. The problem is physically getting out.
The good news is that once you’re out of the five boroughs, you don’t have to go far, and you don’t have to settle for second-rate. One of the greatest things about choosing to live here is that the city is surrounded, east and west, by beautiful landscapes, and the past few years have seen an abundance of new properties popping up, along with plenty of world-class renovations. Whether you’re choosing the Catskills or something out east like Southampton or Shelter Island, map out your summer stay with these ten new hotels that are within a few hours’ drive away from it all.
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The other day, someone asked me whether I wanted to drive over to the Sunset Tower Hotel and drink Scotch with Harrison Ford. I said yes.
“Want to get my friend a drink?” Ford said to his publicity squadron, and swiftly I had at my knee a glass of amber liquid. I breathed it in. I drank it down. For anyone familiar with the consistent quality coming out of the house of Glenmorangie, it should come as no surprise that one taste dispelled any of the usual skepticism regarding celeb collabs.
A polite exploratory sip led to undainty gulps and thirsty swigs, both because I was nervous sitting across from Harrison Ford in a kilt and because the whisky was seriously delicious. It turned out that when Glenmorangie approached him, Ford knew exactly what he wanted his signature spirit to taste like, but he had to locate the words to express that, which led to a questing transoceanic dialogue between him and Lumsden.
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