French Origins For Men

French Origins reaches for one of the great 1980s masculines - Givenchy's now-discontinued Xeryus, the kind of bold aromatic fougere that announced itself across a room. It opens herbal and bright: lavender front and centre, lifted by green notes, bergamot and a flash of citrus, with a soft spicy nutmeg edge. The heart carries the fougere structure faithfully, juniper and cypress meeting carnation, geranium and a dusting of cinnamon for that classic barbershop-meets-forest feel. Then comes the base, where the dupe diverges most from its muse: Xeryus famously sat on a dense bed of oakmoss, leather and balsam fir that gave it real vintage gravity, and French Origins gestures at all of it but with a lighter, smoother hand. The moss is greener and less animalic, the leather softer, the whole drydown more polished and modern than the brooding original. That makes it more wearable for noses raised on cleaner scents, but it loses some of the Givenchy's outdoorsy, mature weight. Longevity is decent for a budget oil though well short of the vintage's all-day tenacity. A handsome, old-school aromatic for cooler office and formal days, just a touch domesticated.