Men's Grooming Tips And Advice

A fragrance which I have had for a couple of years is Dior Homme Intense. It was released back in 2007, and I’ve had it in my collection for around 5 years.

As the name suggests, it’s a masculine style of scent, and I think it’s quite a nice, underrated one for men. It’s an EDP, Eau De Parfum, so has a higher concentration of scent than your usual EDT would have.

First off let’s talk about the bottle. It’s a real clean and simple bottle, which keeps the style to a minimum, but does feel quite elegant with the bottle being more of a cube type of shape, chunky glass, and the fragrance sitting in the middle of it.

The top is a heavy black plastic, with the atomiser also being black plastic, and has quite a wide spray, so only a few sprays are required for good coverage.

As for the smell, it’s perfect for an evening, especially in the Autumn or Winter, as it’s quite a warm manly smell.

You get a real sense of the woody nature, as you can tell from looking at the colour, however it’s not overpowering, and the vanilla calms it down, with the lavender also toning it down with some powdery tones.

It’s a good choice if you’re looking for something masculine and woody, but something which is not too musky. If this is not for you try checking out more of my aftershave reviews and see if there’s one you can find.

REALTED: Check out the best Dior fragrances for men

Best season to wear – Autumn/Winter
Scent type – Woody, Aromatic, Floral
Age Recommendation – 23+
Best Worn – Evening, Casual, Formal

Top Notes – Lavender

Heart Notes – Iris, Ambrette seed

Base Notes – Virginia cedarwood, Vetiver, Vanilla

Other Dior Fragrances

• Dior Sauvage
• Dior Fahrenheit Absolute

A scent which has been talked about a lot in 2016 is the latest from Zadig & Voltaire, called This Is Him! I had to grab a bottle to add to my collection, but what’s this one all about?

The packaging and bottle is all about monochrome, it’s black and white. From the box to the bottle, it carries the same style over, a sleek all black style with clean white text. The bottle is a translucent black colour and is an irregular cuboid shape, with a straight edge on one side and a cracked jagged edge on the other.

The atomiser spray is wide for good coverage, and the design of the bottle is finished with the top sporting the Z&V logo to the top.

What Does This Is Him! By Zadig et Voltaire Smell Like?

The scent itself is quite a dark and mysterious one. It’s fairly smoky and warm, slightly woody and inviting, definitely one for the evening. After a while you get a sense of the sweet type of notes coming through, vanilla, and pleasant.

This fragrance is best suited for the Autumn and Winter, the warm and dark notes will work well for this time for year on a night, it’s fairly seductive so would make a good scent to wear on a night out; Probably not a one for work, Uni or College.

Best season to wear – Autumn/Winter
Scent type – Aromatic, Smoky, Sweet, Slightly Woody
Age Recommendation – 21+
Best Worn – Evening, Casual

Top Notes – Grapefruit, Black Pepper

Middle Notes – Vanilla, Incense

Base Notes – Sandalwood

What do you think of this scent? Check out more of my fragrance tips over on the directory.

One of the most acclaimed fragrances of 2016 is the first to be reviewed on Michael 84 in 2017. For Christmas I got the latest scent from the house of Burberry, simply called MR. Burberry, and it’s a good one.

Let’s start as always with the bottle, and it’s a plain and simple rectangular shaped bottle, made with clear glass, a plastic top and with the added touch of decoration in the way of a fabric fashioned bow. There’s the branding to the front of the bottle, the logo which consists of the wording in both a script and plain style.

The smell is a very pleasant one, and one which I like. I think it’s more of a fresh and citrus type of scent, with the grapefruit really coming through. It does have woody accords, however they’re not overpowering and it’s not musky, nor it is necessarily an evening-only dark fragrance.

This makes it quite an all round scent, something which can be worn during the day as well as a night, in both formal and casual settings. It’s subtle and soft, and definitely not sharp however I’d still say this is a masculine fragrance, a modern one rather than the old school musky type.

I don’t recall having a scent like this one, I don’t really think it smells like anything else, which is a good quality to have. It does not blow me away like my loved scents, however it’s a really nice and attractive inoffensive smell.

Best Season To Wear – All Rounder

Scent Type – Fresh, Citrus, Woody

Age Recommendation – 18+

Best Worn – Evening, Day, Casual, Formal

Top Notes – Grapefruit, Tarragon, Cardamom

Middle Notes – Birch leaf, Nutmeg, Cedarwood

Base Notes – Sandalwood, Vetiver, Guaiac wood

Let me know what you think of MR Burberry! If it’s not for you have a browse through the other men’s aftershave reviews and find another fragrance.

If there’s one easy gift to buy for virtually any man, it’s a new scent, or a favourite fragrance. If you’re looking for aftershave ideas, then I have come up with this very short list of my favourites which I think will be big hits. It’s really hard to narrow things down, as you’ll know if you’re a regular reader, I have lots of scents which have been featured on Michael 84, you can see them all over on the fragrance reviews page, so it’s hard to narrow things down to a manageable level. But I have tried to take on the task, and have selected seven of my highly recommended scents, along with some which deserve an honourable mention too.

I only personally recommend fragrances which I either own or I’ve tried, and there’s obviously plenty others on the market too. With that said, here’s my favourites.

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When I first properly got into fragrances and scents as I have done, one of the first ones I got was Narciso Rodriguez For Him. This was released in 2007, and I believe that I got this for Christmas of that year, possibly a year later.

It was quite a mysterious scent for me to get, it’s not the huge name that everyone in the world outside of fashion or perfume knows, and the bottle gives nothing away either since it’s dark and opaque. However once you open it and try it, you’ll know why it’s called, For Him.

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Bulgari MAN, or Bvlgari MAN as it’s stylised, has been one of my favourite fragrances since I first got it. It was launched in 2010, and I probably got it around that time, and since then, I fell in love with it.

People who like scents like me will tell you it’s not just about the smell, it’s the memories they creates. Since this is one of my favourite scents of all time, I’ve used it so many times and had so many great times while I was wearing it, usually on nights out.

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Last time out in Fragrances Revisited I was talking about Dolce And Gabbana, The One, and so I thought the next move should be to write about it’s little brother, Dolce And Gabbana: The One Gentleman.

The One Gentleman was released 2 years after the original, and people sometimes get confused between the two because of the similarity of the name. Once you’ve smelled them both, you’ll know that is the only thing in common, as they’re completely different styles of scent; Different, but equally as nice.

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I can’t believe how long I have had Dolce And Gabbana: The One scent, and I haven’t written a review for it. It’s one of the scent’s which I regard as a favourite, although that list is a fairly long one! 😉

I got this when it was released in 2008 although I can’t remember exactly when, I assume it would have been around Christmas time as a present. Since then I’ve gone on to use that bottle over the years, and then another, and after that decided a while back that I’d buy up some of my favourites in a larger bottle form, and got this 100ml bottle, which I’ve still not needed to open!

The fragrance itself is one of those real masculine styles of scents. It’s punchy, musky and woody, and is one for the evenings in the Autumn or Winter. You can tell just by looking at this colour of the fragrance the style of scent which this is going to be, the golden orange colours of a dark small, and it doesn’t disappoint.

It is almost the complete opposite of The One Geltleman, a scent from D&G which came after the success of this one, and is another favourite.

Although it’s now getting on in life, it’s still a really good fragrance to own, and is quite a classic, old school musky scent, but manages to stay refined and elegant. Check out more of my men’s aftershave reviews over here, and let me know what you think of The One.

Best season to wear – Autumn/Winter
Scent type – Woody, Spicy
Age Recommendation – 21+
Best Worn – Evening, Casual, Formal

Top Notes – Grapefruit, Coriander, Basil

Middle Notes – Cardamon, Ginger, Orange Blossom

Base Notes – Cedar Wood, Ambergris, Tobacco

Other Dolce And Gabbana Fragrances

• Dolce And Gabbana Light Blue
• D&G Masculine
• Dolce And Gabbana The One Gentleman

I am a little familiar with Trussardi, and I’ve had the original Trussardi Uomo for men for a couple of years, and really like it. The new fragrance, which is called The Red, brings similar Italian style with more added spice.

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Since it’s the Summer I go for the clean cut look for my face. If you’ve been a long time reader of my blog then you’ll know that in the past few years I decided to go for a beard in the winter months, and then keep it clean in the Summertime.

If you’ve ever done this, you’ll know that shaving can become such a chore when you’ve done the beard regime which is obviously less often.

Having said that, I really like having ultra smooth skin, so try to shave as often as I need to, and not get too lazy when it comes to grooming.

I always wet shave, I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’ve always thought that you get a far better finish, and it’s always a much nicer experience when having a wet shave. Wilkinson Sword asked me to try out their brand new Hydro 5 razor and put it through it’s paces, so I did.

First of all as the name suggests it’s a razor which has 5 blades, which gives a really close shave. One of the most important factors for using these razors is how well it works on your skin. It glides over the skin with ease and feels really nice.

This can be attributed to the technology behind the blade, which is a water activated gel reservoir, which they say delivers 40% less friction than a lubrication strip.

The back of the reservoir also has a handy flip-trimmer, which is there for hard to reach places, or to get that extra precision on smaller areas.

After shaving there was no irritation, and my skin is smooth. I am really happy with the results of the shave from the Hydro 5, it is a really good razor which gives a really nice shave. You can check it out over on the Wilkinson Sword website here. Let me know what you think, and check out more of my men’s grooming tips and see what works for you.

Written in collaboration with Wilkinson Sword