I don't fully understand the difference between masculine and feminine when it comes to smell.

Fragrances that are considered "male" tend to have notes that are more challenging treatment of nodes (animatic notes, bitterness, earthiness) and/or notes that are evocative of traditional male activities. (wood, moss, pine, smoke, tobacco ). Compositions have more ragged edges and are less smooth. Florals and fruit notes are tightly controlled. No lush roses and very little jasmine. If used, they tend to be a secondary player in the composition.

Now this is all clearly sexist and stereotypical, but I guess that's show business, baby.

For example:

• Polo Green, Caron's Yatagan and Puig's Quorum all, to me, have a similar themes of pine, tobacco, leather, and moss. They're bitter and harsh. They are very suggestive of outdoor activities.

• YSL's Kouros: the musk of a rutting deer.

• Caron's pour un Homme sounds like, on paper, it should be unisex. Vanilla and lavender. But the lavender hasn't been managed or softened; it's natural and herbaceous. The vanilla is also unusual: medicinal and does not evoke baked goods or comfort. The whole composition is austere and little distant, like a father's love.

• Aromatic fougeres like Azzaro pour Homme and Aramis' Tuscany are a happy hodgepodge of herbs and citrus. They're a little bitter, a little syrupy, and a little sweaty (I think that this is the anise). They're also just very strong and direct. These two are Mediterranean in feel, and the sweatiness makes me think of a man wearing under-buttoned linen shirt on a sunny holiday.

• Clean soap-y fragrances like Paco Rabnane's pour Homme and many barbershops are allegories to a masculine shaving. You can can practically hear the straight razor being stropped and shaving soap being whipped up when you smell these.

• British stiff-lipped citruses like Trumper's Extract of West Indian Limes or Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet. Crisp, and a little hygienic. Like a gin and tonic in a fragrance, you suspect that these might be good for keeping malaria at bay. Best worn by men in suits trying to ignore the elements.

I tend to like and own masculine fragrances, especially outdated or old fashioned ones. I like bitterness or discordant aspects of fragrances. But I also like flowers because I'm a human with a nose. I tend to like fragrances that retain the "masculine" attributes of bitterness and angularity while reaching across the aisle to borrow "feminine" qualities. Grey Flannel, for example, has a suspicious amount of florals for a masculine. Maurer & Wirtz's Tabac is basically an extended aftershave, but it's a floral aldehyde bomb that could have been a scrappy flanker of Chanel No. 5.