We've all done it. Fallen in love with a boyfriend's/flatmate's/platonic male friend's scent to the point where we've considered - or better yet, actually have - purchased it. Only to leave it languishing, never-worn, all dusty and sombre, on top of a dressing table as a symbol of olfactory apprehension. Failure. 

Because, really, it's pretty hard to say when male scents are, let's say, too male to be worn by women. And yet, the whole notion of splitting fragrances in two - one for men and one for women - is a particularly modern preoccupation. Returning to original scent gender classifications, in which there are none, is an idea that has been quietly gathering pace for a while now.

Not least because male scent bottles look so inherently cool compared to women's. And anyway, it's how the French do it. And the French do fragrance well. We all know that. 

Click the gallery for the best non gender-specific scents to have passed our noses recently.