The funny thing about fragrance is, how it smells on one person can be totally different to how it smells on another. That’s actually down to some macro beauty chemistry, the way a formula reacts with the acid mantle on a person’s skin, but it's Valentine’s Day and that’s not a very romantic notion is it, so let’s just park that for one moment.

The crux is, perfumes are designed for women. To appeal to men. Similarly, men’s scents are blended with a gentleman in mind, but actually required to work on a woman’s subconscious on some base, psychological level to trigger their deepest, darkest desires. Unless you’re in a same sex relationship that is, and then this whole area gets very, very grey indeed. Sorry.

The point is, the lines are so blurred now, it feels almost old fashioned to stick within the male or female boundaries of fragrance. Perfumers are definitely feeling this too, we've lost count of the number of new 'unisex' fragrances that are breaking out of their gender role confines. It makes perfect sense.  If we love to smell a certain fragrance on somebody close to us, or even a passing stranger for that matter, why wouldn’t we want to capture a piece of that all for ourselves? Some of us already do…

Click through the gallery above to see the men’s fragrances that have a weirdly hypnotic effect on us.