Touch for Men

When I posted my first review on this site — Burberry for Men — I was positively beside myself with praise for it, yet I offhandedly noted that it might not even be my favourite men’s release from Burberry. How could that be the case? Burberry Touch for Men right here. It does so many things right in a refined, well balanced, unique package. It’s listed as a violet dominant fragrance, and that’s not entirely inaccurate; you’re going to get that soapy, powdery thing right off the bat. To my nose, though, it isn’t the predominant DNA of the fragrance; that would unmistakably be the white pepper that lies in the heart of it. Granted, my collection is probably of a modest size compared to some of this site’s more veteran contributors, but to my nose, it’s actually somewhat esoteric. Astringent isn’t the right word for it, but it’s close; it tickles the nose in the same way that ground peppercorns do. It’s evocative of brushed nickel minimalism, sharp angles, and a white tee shirt so well tailored it nearly elevates beyond casual wear. It’s a fragrance for those weirdos among us that have a strong sense of nostalgia for the scent of pencil shavings. The white pepper and omnipresent ozonic notes make for a fragrance that is unmistakably spicy, but not with any of the braggadocio of peppery icons like Sauvage or the numerous Spicebombs of the world. Esoteric, yes, but by no means pretentious or hard to appreciate; by my own anecdotal experience, this is one of the most frequent compliment magnets on my shelf, if you can believe it. Like a lot of Burberry’s masculine releases, it performs admirably without drowning a room. I always say that I prefer fragrances that are discovered, not announced, and this one feels like it’s in the Goldilocks zone in that regard. It has enough staying power to survive an eight hour work day and is both accessible and restrained enough to excel in that environment. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how this might accidentally be one of the greatest sleeper androgynous releases ever. It’s strange in this regard, too. I’ve shared sprays of this among close friends, and when you smell this on a woman, you’d almost never guess it’s actually a men’s fragrance. On the other hand, when you smell it on a man, it does all of the work you’d want a men’s fragrance to do. I’m sure there are intellectual, sociological reasons for this that people much smarter than I can figure out. 😅 All in all, a super intriguing spring/summer daytime pick; a refreshing, interesting take on fresh scents for those looking to branch out and away from the ubiquity of prototypical citrus-y blue aquatics; a different option to fulfil a largely similar role. It wouldn’t be my first reach off the shelf for colder weather, but I’ve done it before on lazy reach days and it makes a shocking amount of sense in that environment too. An all time classic in my opinion, and it’s practically ubiquitous at this point, which means you can get comically large quantities of this for basically no money whatsoever. 10/10 for me. Cannot in strong enough terms recommend this one.

I have always been intrigued by a gorgeous fragrance's enchantment - a scent that characterizes a moment and narrates a story about the individual who wears it. I’m thrilled to present my review of Touch For Men, a timeless fragrance from Burberry that I have come to appreciate over the last few weeks. TOP NOTES Touch opens up clean and fresh and gives a 90s vibe. Close to barber powder after you have a nice shave or a haircut; as soon as you spray the first spray, you’ll know what I’m talking about. A somewhat cold and metallic scent provided by a big burst of violet leaf and a touch of citrus reminded me of one of those long discontinued Dsquared fragrances with a bottle decorated with a wooden texture. HEART NOTES As the fragrance settles on the skin, a certain spiciness starts to break through the hefty dose of powderiness present in the top notes. Since this is an affordable fragrance, and the materials inside aren’t of the highest quality, saying that this comes from white pepper or nutmeg would be a stretch, but the overall feeling is spicy. BASE NOTES The drydown is the best part of this composition for me and a star of the show. Along with the residues of violet from the top and spicy kick from the middle notes, we are introduced to gentle musk and tonka bean. I’m not surprised that so many people love this scent and have worn it as their signature fragrance for over two decades. OVERALL Touch remains a timeless and versatile fragrance that perfectly encapsulates understated elegance. I still cannot believe that it took me so long to check it out, which confirms that just because something is affordable doesn’t necessarily mean it is not worth sampling. Read the full review at scentgrail (.) com

Funny story. This was my ultimate favourite perfume. Signature even. Since 2019, I've been learning to become a perfumer. Learning raw materials, aroma chemicals, naturals et al. Some molecules are harder to smell on their own, you can smell what they are doing in a blend, but sometimes never on their own. Sanjinol, is a molecule from sandalwood. And I could not smell it on its own, I mean at all! No matter the dilution I made it. I knew what it was doing in the mix of other things which was creating a sandalwood accord. Anyway, last year I got COVID, and lost my sense of taste and smell, for a couple of days. Once my sense of smell came back. BAM!! Sanjinol was so strong I could smell it a mile away. I hated it. It smelled aweful, like sweaty, stinky feet, or wood soaked in body odor. Now to my point. I bought a 100ml of touch I found at a perfume store here in Toronto, that sells old stock and discounted, discontinued perfume. I was so excited to wear it, since it had been a year or so that I had any. And what happened? All I could smell was the sanjinol. Not the soft, crisp, spicy aromatic beauty I remembered. I was like this has to be a dupe, or it's gone bad! Anyway I've come to appreciate sanjinol as material, and realize the value of it in perfume. And tho I can still smell it (quite strongly) in Touch. I still love this perfume very much.

One of the most complimented in my collection. So many compliments! Here's a few I got from the fairer sex: "you smell so good" "you always smell so clean and put-together" "you smell like an old bloke. wait no don't get offended I mean it as a compliment. you smell like an old bloke in a good way. what do i mean by that? oh shit yeah. yeah I mean you smell like good but you smell like an old man but like a good one. yeah." As you can see from my track-record, this fragrance is very popular with the ladies. Very professional smelling. Very clean. Good lasting power, nice scent bubble. It frustrates me when people want a fragrance that will knock everyone in the room out. Look into my eyes — you do not want massive projection. You want a soft-medium projection but for people to actually like it. You want that so badly. You want people to think you smell good in an understated way instead of being that pillock who revs his engine at night-time in a cul-de-sac till people are red-eyed. Ok you can look away now. The main notes I get are violet leaf, a big amount of pepper, drying down to some tonka and clean musk. If you want to be a man-who-smells-like-good-but-who-smells-like-an-old-man-but-like-a-good-one like myself, dear reader, look no further than this fragrance.

Ahhh. I'm surprised that I've never reviewed this fragrance. This is one of my all time top 5 scents since I started wearing designer EDTs twenty years ago in my teens. Probably due to it's affordability. This, CH 212 and Boss in Motion were my main rotation for going to teenage discos and chasing italian girls around. It's a very mild refreshing scent. For me it's reminiscent of fresh laundry, warm weather. It's fresh in a non citrus kind of way. I think Ozonic used to be listed as a note or accord and that makes a lot more sense to me than some of the current notes. I get zero vetiver, pepper, orange. Maybe Tonka bean but tbh I've no idea what that smells like on it's own. Nobody's going to swoon and want your babies first time they meet you if they smell Burberry touch on you, but it's a pleasant every day kind of scent making it a very accessible signature. Maybe it's my skin chemistry but this lasts days on my clothes and projects / produces a scent trail all day for me. I want something with a bit more punch for my true sig scent. But this is my every day splash for when I've no meetings or special events.