Three wise mens fragrance buys for Christmas

This started out as a piece purely about Lalique's new fragrance for men, Hommage à l'homme. But that was before I got a whiff of Roja Dove's beguiling Fetish and became hooked on that. Then, just to complicate matters further, a sample of Le Noir, from the perfumer Lyn Harris's collection of scents for Marks & Spencer, landed on my desk. Now which one was I going to write about? That's the thing about fragrances for men: you wait ages for a half decent one to turn up and then three fairly outstanding ones come along at once.

So what you have here is a micro round-up of new and newish men's scents, any of which would make an inspired Christmas present for the gentleman (or woman, if she's the slightly bold, Marlene Dietrich type) who's happy to smell just that little bit different.

First up, then, Fetish by Roja Dove , which might just have the edge for me. The clue to what this one's about is in the name. "I wanted," Dove tells me, "to create an unapologetic leather men's scent." Inspiration came during a trip to Paris and the Hermès leather exhibition, which set him thinking how "for many men leather is one of the few ways they can express themselves". There's certainly nothing namby-pamby or apologetic about the finished article, a chypré so complex and layered it seems to reveal something quite new and different - from soft leather to woodsmoke to the forest floor - with every sniff and spray. And you'll find yourself sniffing and spraying it a lot. I've been doing so at my desk in work and have already managed to get three of my neighbouring colleagues hooked, too. It has that effect on men and women. £195 for 100ml from Roja Dove and the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie at the Urban Retreat at Harrods.

Lyn Harris, the olfactory genius behind the Miller Harris fragrance house, has created two scents for men, and one unisex, for M&S. It comes as no surprise at all to learn that Le Noir , by far my favourite, is the best selling of the lot. I've been completely bewitched by this one, too. At first I thought there was something distinctly leather-and-smoky to it, but my nose must have been malfunctioning that day because I now find it almost soapy, especially alongside Fetish, while at the same time having real warmth. And since reading the notes (always a help!) I learn that that's all down to the patchouli and amber base. Whatever, I like it a lot. £25 for 50ml eau de parfum; marksandspencer.com .

Hommage à l'homme , launched by Lalique to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its fragrances arm, is an altogether different proposition. On first whiff it appears to conform to the fashion for oud scents, of which I'm not usually a fan, finding them cloyingly sickly and astringent. This, however, is the exception because it is redeemed by a powderiness and muskiness. My verdict: subtle and refined. (For sake of balance I should perhaps direct you to the Sniff Box , a new scent blog written - and beautifully illustrated - by Christopher Stocks, a friend and journalist. He detests it. We're going to have to agree to disagree about this one, Christopher.) The 50ml eau de toilette is available from Brummells of London and Selfridges .

If you were feeling particularly flush or generous, you could buy the Lalique crystal flacon bearing the bas-relief of Pan playing with his, er, pipe. It's a copy of one of the panels René Lalique created to decorate a mahogany panel on the Orient Express.

For the illustration above I owe a huge thanks to the lovely Ruth Lewis, a very talented artist whose work some of you will recognise from my previous postings about scent and from Bee Wilson's excellent food column in Stella magazine. See more of her work here .

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