Boss The Scent for Him
Hugo Boss (2015)

This was one of my first pickups when I got back into fragrances as an actual (earlier 40s) adult. To be fair, at the time, I still would have called them “colognes.” My thinking was pretty basic back then (way back like 5 years ago): colognes were for men, perfumes were for women, and “unisex” basically meant CK One and whatever the top-40 crowd was into. I was not in this hobby the way I am now.

I am pretty sure I found this at some rack store, maybe Ross or somewhere similar, for around $45 or $50. At the time, that was enough for me. It was Hugo Boss. I liked the bottle design, it was cheap, and that was that. Into the cart it went.

Back then, my frame of reference was also very different. I mostly had the original fragrances I had owned in the late 90s and early 2000s — Boss Man, Boss Number One, Cool Water, things like that. I was not collecting, comparing, or breaking down compositions. Most of what I had were fragrances that women in my life had either bought for me or told me to buy. This one was more of an impulse pickup than a considered choice.

The funny thing is that I probably had not smelled it in a year before revisiting it recently. That alone tells you something about how far I have gone down the fragrance rabbit hole. But as a newer member here, I have been adding my collection and reading reviews as I go, and I was honestly surprised by how much hate this one gets.

I sprayed it on a test strip to refresh my memory, then had to double-check the review page to make sure people were talking about the same fragrance. One review felt more on target than the others: this is actually sort of blue. Surprisingly so, but yes. It opens in a way that somehow reads blue to me, even if I cannot fully explain why. That is not where it stays, though. As it dries down, it becomes something more distinctive — a little leathery, pleasant, and more interesting than the opening suggests.

Are there more groundbreaking fragrances out there? Of course. Is this some overlooked masterpiece? Probably not. But I do think some of the criticism is overdone. To my nose, this is not offensive, harsh, or confused. It is mild, pleasant, and easy to wear, with enough of a twist in the dry-down to keep it from being forgettable.

Reading other people’s thoughts on it was also a good reminder of just how differently we all smell things. Some reactions made me wonder if they were reviewing the same fragrance I had in front of me. That is part of what makes this hobby interesting, I guess.

So no, I would not call it groundbreaking. But I also would not dismiss it. It is a perfectly pleasant fragrance with a blue-ish opening, a more unique and slightly leathery drydown, and far more hate than I think it deserves.

The Scent uses Maninka Fruit in the top note which is rarely used in perfume. To me this smells like the Baobab fruit tastes which is sort of a bit like citrussy lemon\orange with the sweetness of pear. On top of this you have a sweet ginger note, but nowhere near the potency of Gucci Envy for Men (1998). This is really pleasant and easily the best part of the fragrance. This part lasts about 20-30 minutes.

The drydown is very similar to Baldessarini Ambré (2007), so much so The Scent could even be a flanker. Both use a synthetic leathery amber note which is a bit powdery. Ambré is much sweeter and cloying, but at the same time a bit more inviting. The Scent is more dry and musky.

Longevity is about average for a designer fragrance at around 4-6 hours. Sillage is average, it's not a loud scent.

I found this to be a fairly average scent. It is nice, but isn't bottle worthy in my opinion.

One of those blue, sweet and fresh cucumber fragrances that young male individuals smell like. It's positive because it's slightly different from the ton of others which smell like it.

I guess if I'd try most of the 5,000 scents out there I'm pretty sure I'd find something similar to this. But being I've only tried about 100 I can say this is different in a good way. Really safe. Won't run people out of the room if you go 1 or 2 too many sprays. Good combo of leather and sweet. I'd say bottle worthy to a collection that already consists of 40+. 7.5/10

One of the worst fragrances for men that I have ever encountered, the EDT 200 ml version is super aggressive, one does not understand the idea of its composition, irritates the respiratory tract quite a lot, it's like dozens and dozens of other fragrances. I've never been a Hugo's Boss fan, but this one goes beyond the limits - I bought by impulse in a promotion but I do not recommend it, it is not worth the money, there is nothing new here. Absolutely nothing.

Boss The Scent by Hugo Boss (2015) is certainly interesting on paper, and the execution rather novel, almost contrarian in the face of what has otherwise been popular in the masculine realms of designer mall scents, but I don't really know if I can do more than acknowledge the creativity here. In principle, Boss the Scent is a men's fruitchouli. You heard that right, and I'm not joking. There's a rich leather, patchouli, and labdanum base underneath a heart made from an intensive singular exotic fruit note coupled with lavender, giving Boss The Scent a love-it-or-hate-it sweetness which is evident by the division in opinion on it online. I'm not gonna lie, I miss when Hugo Boss took risks like with the debut Boss/Boss Number One (1985) or Boss in Motion (2002), but the fact remains that risks seldom pay off in the beaten-to-death demographic-driven world of middling designer fragrances, aka anyone under Dior, Chanel, YSL, or Tom Ford trying to compete in the same market space. Azzaro, Versace, and a few others manage to stay creative, but many have just given into following rather than toying with whatever new aromachemical playthings they're given. Well, it's nice to see Boss doing something bold after so long, but they couldn't have picked a more disagreeable and ubiquitous feminine perfume subject to try making masculine.

Boss The Scent opens with a nice citrus and ginger accord that eases you into what is to come within just a few minutes: The Manika fruit. This ingredient comes from the oncoba spinosa tree, colloquially known as the snuff-box tree. The fruit is most commonly used for medicinal purposes and is not something that has been used before in perfumery, but here it takes on a dried apricot and peach kind of smell, which reminds me a lot of Miyako by Auphorie (2015) which coincidentally came out in the same year. I suspect zero collusion with Auphorie and Hugo Boss because one is a two-person artisinal perfume operation, and one a multi-national fashion brand, but boy do they smell similar! The Miyako is built up to be more floral because of the osmanthus, while the Boss has lavender for a more traditionally barbershop feel, but both have leather in the base which is all but smothered by the fruit up top. Cistus and patchouli join that leather, and there are probably some aromachemical amplifiers here too because this stuff just pushes and pushes like an old-school powerhouse, reaching levels of cloying close to Joop! Homme (1989). I love fruity, dandy, genderbending scents, but stuff this candied scares even me away, although I applaud its sassy approach for a supposed masculine. Longevity is 10hrs+ and sillage is nuclear, so be careful wearing this one. I see this being an excellent club scent in the right setting for somebody into fruity smells, but this will never touch my skin for any purpose again beyond this review..

I couldn't pull this off, but that doesn't mean I can't respect somebody who can. I have a standoffish relationship with fruity florals and fruitchoulis as it is because they are mostly unrelenting sweetness and body wash/shampoo notes that drive me into a flashback of days spent stocking the Wal-Mart health and beauty aisle, so I won't touch them unless they are particularly dry or complex for their genre. To see one hammered out for men is surprising, especially coming from a "tow the line" designer like Hugo Boss, but when they go out of the pocket, it's always interesting even if not always wearable. I'm still of that crotchety mindset that their first masculine fragrance is still their best, so everything maybe gets unfairly compared to it, but overall, I'm pleasantly surprised by Boss The Scent. This is a far cry from the generic aquatics or woody amber bombs they could otherwise be unleashing on department store counters, but also a far cry from anything most CISHET men would feel comfortable wearing, so in that regard it is very unlike a typical Hugo Boss scent. If you can wait it out long enough, that leather note does start to dominate the fragrance and make the fruit pipe down, but we're talking late in the dry down enough that it is a skin scent by then, so I still can't give this a thumbs up (and neither could I for the Miyako as well). Bizzare, divisive, and unforgettable, Boss The Scent by Hugo Boss gets kudos for going in very unique direction, but kudos don't equate to a thumbs up, at least from me.