Hugo Boss Hugo

Hugo is your run of the mill fresh aquatic that doesn’t bring much to the table and doesn’t leave with much either. The tide of aquatics has petered out in the latest years as the incoming flood of fruity florals starts dominating the scenes. Some of these are works of olfactory art in their own respect while others are forgettable. And some even regrettable. Unfortunately for Hugo, it was one of the less notable aquatics of its time. Hugo

In Bottle: Green and blue aquatic. Fresh, sharp, and a little bit spicy. The herbal notes up front are paired with pine and citrus.

Applied: The green flare, just a touch sweet before it settles into its spicy woodsiness where the pine is predominant on me. I smell kind of like one of those pine-shaped air fresheners you use for your car. Not unpleasant, I just have a strange association with anything pine scented. Well, perhaps not strange, just persistent. The scent stays with pine as it introduces a few spicy herbal notes into the mix. Hugo takes a turn for the interesting near the complete dry down stage as it leaves its fresh pine-scented herb garden and veers toward a darker, murkier, funnier funky note that’s reminiscent of the blast of aquatics upon application. It’s fleeting though, a one or two second moment that could just be me. Hugo dries down to a benign woodsy, spicy, fresh accord that doesn’t make any presumptions and doesn’t even want to think about standing out.

Extra: Hugo Boss fragrances have largely been a miss for me. The only one I can say I actually like is Deep Red. Even then, I don’t particularly like it that much. I can say nice things about it though. But this fragrance, it’s the generic men’s scent with the all too familiar aquatic citrus opening, the woodsy spicy middle, and the miasma of leftover freshness at the base.

Design: I could give or take with this design. It’s clean and simple and functional. Holding it is easy. Spraying it is easy. Kind of looks like a water bottle which is a bit cheesy but overall, not bad.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Woodsy

Notes: Grapefruit, green apple, pine needles, thyme, spearmint, basil, cedar, rum, jasmine, sage, geranium, clove, lavender, cedarwood, moss, fir balsam, sandalwood, vetiver, suede.

Yeah, I definitely cannot get past the predominant evergreen scent in this. Too much pine, maybe, or maybe I’m just not the kind of person who likes that in a scent.

Reviewed in This Post: Hugo, 2000, Eau de Toilette.


Hugo Boss Boss Femme

Boss Femme is like the amalgamation of fresh floral women’s scents. It’s like Love Etc. in that it pretty much smells like a category of scents without too much to discern it from the rest. But in a way, that could also be where its success lies. Boss Femme

In Bottle: Floral with a hint of fruit. I’m smelling a bit of rose but there’s a stronger jasmine note in this that’s vying for attention. This smells flowery, clean and feminine. Very generic but entirely enjoyable.

Applied: Goes on with a light citrus and slightly tart opening as it spreads into the mid-stage with that pleasant, breezy rose and jasmine combination. There’s a faint hint of sweetness in this too to make it more feminine  than it already is. I like this, it’s nice. It’s not great. It’s not groundbreaking. It’s just plain old nice. As Boss Femme heads into the dry down, you get a little bit of smoothness wandering in as it mixes with the lemon and for a brief moment, I thought I smelled plastic but the dry down is a predominantly sharp lemon, layered with a bit of smoothness and soft wood. Boss Femme is just good, clean, nice, and no nonsense. Kind of like soap–except better.

Extra: I think I’ve said it before, that Hugo Boss seems to be really good at keeping their fragrances on the lowdown and less offensive side of things. And it works out okay for them. It’d be quite the day when this house puts out something so awesome it eclipses the sun. But for now we have nice things like Boss Femme and Deep Red.

Design: Boss femme is an interesting little glass bottle that’s slanted at the top part with a cap that slants down to cover that portion up. It’s an interesting little design decision that makes my need for everything to be straight twitch just a little bit. The name of the fragrance is written in cursive font on the glass. The bottle I used had “femme” running along the dip of the curve and the house name etched into the metal sprayer. The bottle is easy to hold though, has a good weightiness to it and the color of the juice is just adorable.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Tangerine, blackcurrant, freesia, jasmine, fleur de lys, Bulgarian rose, apricot, lemon, wood.

There was a woman who worked briefly for a doctor I used to go to who wore this scent. I remember her rather well–not so much for her perfume–but for how the smallest things could make her laugh.

Reviewed in This Post: Boss Femme, 2008, Eau de Parfum.


Hugo Boss Deep Red

Hugo Boss has never really grabbed my attention in the fragrance department probably because their marketing is so geared towards men that I kind of gloss over them. They’re something of an invisible entity to me as I neither see their brand around nor smell it. But Deep Red is a fragrance worth investigating because it is a lovely perfume. Deep Red

In Bottle: Sharp and astringent. I detect some woodsy notes with a smooth vanilla coating. There’s definitely a large floral element here, sweet and light and just a touch of powder. In the bottle, it reminds me of black vanilla tea. It’s that sharpness and astringent quality doing it, I think.

Applied: Sweetness amps immediately upon contact as the florals and vanilla get sweeter and sweeter, eventually overcoming the powder as the fragrance begins its dry down. I get sweet vanilla flowers and blond woodsy notes with a really light and easygoing citrus topper. The citrus is battling with something a little musky in this scent and I wish it wouldn’t. It gives Deep Red a bit of a personality complex because it can’t decide between being sharply clean or musky. The fragrance eventually disappears, entirely too soon I might add, into a sweet vanilla before fading away completely.

Extra: Vanilla is derived from an orchid. More specifically the vanilla plant that’s a pretty flowering type of orchid whose fruit is harvested and cured into the dried vanilla pods we see in little jars at the supermarket. Outstanding.

Design: The bottle is presented in dark red glass in a tapered flask shape. The cap is a very nice weight that pops off very easily to reveal the sprayer. The design elements on the glass are simple but effective, which by looking at Hugo Boss’ other fragrance offerings, is on par with their design course. The one problem, and it’s a pretty major one, is the sprayer on my bottle. Perhaps it’s just me but my sprayer distributes a ridiculous amount of product. One spray visibly reduces the amount of perfume I have left in the bottle. The mist also gets everywhere because of this and liberally coats anything in its way. It’s a nice fine mist, it’s just that I wish the spraying mechanism would be a little more frugal.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Pear, blood orange, clementine, freesia, ginger flower, woods, musk, vanilla.

I slotted Deep Red in the floral department because of the dominance of sweet flowers in this scent. Evidently, I was supposed to smell fruits too but wherever those were I couldn’t find them. Sorry, pear, you’ll have to hide somewhere less obscure next time.

Reviewed in This Post: Deep Red, 2009, Eau de Parfum.