Burberry Touch for Men and the Houses That Sit Around It

Thomas Burberry founded his house in Basingstoke in 1856 and introduced gabardine in 1879, a weatherproof cloth that later gave the world the trench coat. A house built on practical clothes tends to make practical fragrances, and Burberry Touch for Men is a good example. It is a men's eau de toilette, launched in 2000 and composed by the perfumer Jean-Pierre Bethouart, and it opens with violet leaf, artemisia and mandarin before white pepper, cedar and nutmeg come in. The base is white musk, tonka bean and vetiver. On skin that reads as fresh linen, a little green and a little powdery, never loud. Touch fits a shirt and a meeting equally well. Below it are the other Burberry men's scents, each a slightly different answer to the same question: Brit for Men is warmer and spicier, London leans on lavender and tobacco leaf, and Mr. Burberry brings grapefruit, vetiver and smoky guaiac wood. Start with these four if you want to understand the house.

The second grid is a tour of well-known men's houses, and it is a useful test for Touch. Dior Homme is the polished one, sitting between power and freshness. Terre d'Hermès is the one to compare first: Jean-Claude Ellena composed it in 2006, and Hermès says it rests on grapefruit, cedar and flint, which gives it a dry, mineral quality Touch does not have. Gucci Guilty Pour Homme, launched in 2011, brings lavender and lemon over patchouli, so it is sweeter and more evening-leaning. Givenchy Gentleman Boisée goes woody with sandalwood and black pepper. A practical tip: wear two of these on separate days in the same shirt, because you will learn more about your own taste than any description gives you. What I would skip is layering two of them on the same afternoon, since cedar and sandalwood together get muddy quickly.

The last four lean fresh and outdoorsy. Versace Pour Homme draws on Mediterranean ingredients, and Light Blue Pour Homme from Dolce&Gabbana leads with Sicilian lemon, rosemary and patchouli. Luna Rossa Ocean from Prada mixes grapefruit and incense over a vanilla bean accord, so it is the one with a little sweetness at the end. Armani Beauty Code goes with mandarin and cedarwood, closest in temperament to Touch. If you like the clean cedar and green start of Touch, this grid is where you will find its cousins. Put each on the back of your hand and one on the forearm, then check again after three hours. What I would skip is buying on the first spray, because citrus openings all smell alike for ten minutes and only the drydown tells them apart.

Touch is the reference point here, so I would choose from it. If you want more warmth, go to Brit. If you want more grit, try Terre d'Hermès. If you want a bright weekend scent, pick from the last grid. Whatever you choose, wear it for a full week before you decide, and keep the bottle where the light cannot reach it.

Touch is a clean, green reference point, and I would use it to test everything else on this shelf. If you like how it sits close to the skin, start with the Burberry Hero Eau de Toilette and the Terre d'Hermès Eau de Toilette, which are both easy to wear to work. For something brighter, the Prada Luna Rossa Ocean, the Versace Dylan Blue and the Emporio Armani Stronger With You are the ones I would smell. Vetiver fans can try the Malin and Goetz Vetiver and the Creed Wild Vetiver in its travel atomizer. The Dior Homme Sport and the Givenchy Gentleman Society round out the daytime end. Try two at a time, one on each wrist, and check them again after lunch. What I would skip: Spicebomb Night Vision for the office.