Boss Bottled Tonic Eau de Toilette 100ml

A hundred millilitres is the right amount of a fragrance you spray without counting, and Hugo Boss Boss Bottled Tonic Eau de Toilette 100ml is exactly that kind of bottle.

Bright citrus heavy scents get worn hard and used up fast, which is the practical case for the larger bottle. You use three or four sprays in July rather than two, you top it up at lunchtime without thinking, and a small bottle disappears inside a single season, which makes the larger size the cheaper option per wearing rather than the extravagant one it looks like on the shelf.

What it holds is bright and busy. Apple sets the family resemblance, crisp and green, and bitter orange, grapefruit and lemon come in hard behind it, sharp and peely and faintly bitter. Ginger and clove then warm the middle with a dry prickle, cinnamon adds its bark like spice, and geranium cuts through the lot with a green sharpness. Vetiver underneath is the only base material, rooty and dry, and it keeps the fragrance anchored just enough.

At toilette strength expect four or five hours, which is honest for something this bright and not a criticism. Spray it in the morning, spray it again after lunch, and let the generous bottle absorb the cost of that habit. It dates from 2017, it reads male, and it belongs to heat and daylight rather than to evenings or to cold weather, where it would simply vanish.

The company behind it is German, started by Hugo Ferdinand Boss as a Metzingen workshop in 1924 and still based there, and it is known for suits above everything else. Its fragrance arm has operated on licence since 1984, latterly with Coty.