Two Friends, One Quiz: How Hawthorne Taught Men to Wear Two Scents

Hawthorne began with two childhood friends, Phil Wong and Brian Jeong, and a launch in 2016. It was a direct-to-consumer brand, meaning there was no counter and no salesman, just a website and a quiz. The quiz was the clever part: it tailored two scents to you, one for Work and one for Play. That is a smarter idea than it sounds, because most men own one bottle and wear it to a wedding, a gym and a funeral.

The growth followed the idea. The brand grew from an online storefront to more than 1,000 US retail stores by 2023, and in December 2018 the quiz went beyond fragrance to body wash, soap and deodorant. I like brands that let a small, specific idea expand slowly, and this is one of them.

The first grid is the fragrance side, so I will stay away from claiming notes I have not verified and just describe how I would pick. Dark Suede Eau de Parfum sounds like the evening one, and Canary Diamond Eau de Parfum sounds brighter and made for daytime. Double Dare and Desert Runway are the two names with the most attitude, so try them on skin before you decide. Night Swim Cologne Body Spray is the lighter, lower-commitment format for the gym bag or the car.

Spray on clean skin, one or two spots, and give it an hour before you decide if you like it.

The second grid is where the brand becomes a routine, and where I think most men's grooming shelves fall apart. A bottle of cologne is a purchase, but a shampoo you use every day is a habit, so this is the section I look at hardest.

Night Swim Body Wash echoes the body spray name, which makes matching easy: wash with it, then wear the spray afterwards and the two will sit well together. That is the same trick the two-scent quiz relies on, only applied to the shower.

For hair, All Day Shampoo is the plain daily option, and Curl Bounce Shampoo is made for hair with some wave or curl to it. Avocado Seed Thickening Clay and the Water-Based Hydrating Pomade are the two styling products. The clay is the one to try for texture, while the pomade is the option for a neater, hydrating finish, and its water-based name suggests it rinses out easily.

A quick test for any styling product: work a pea-sized amount between your palms until it disappears, then put it in dry hair from the back to the front. If it looks heavy, you used too much. Start smaller than you think, because you can always add more and you cannot take it back without a second shower.

Not every shower shelf has to be one brand, and mine never is. The last grid is a selection of men's body washes and a deodorant from other names, and it is a nice way to see how different a plain wash can feel.

Harry's Body Wash in Stone is the restrained, understated one. Dove Men+Care's Clean Comfort Hydrating Body and Face Wash is sulfate free and is made to be used from face to feet. Irish Spring's Original Clean Body Wash for Men is the familiar bar-soap smell, now in liquid form. Old Spice's Deep Cleanse with Deep Sea Minerals is the mineral-named option with a more classic feel. Duke Cannon's THICK Midnight Swim is the thick one in the group, and the Midnight Swim name puts it in the same after-dark territory as the Hawthorne wash.

Salt & Stone's Santal & Vetiver Extra-Strength Deodorant is aluminum-free, and it is the one that I would put next to a warmer, woodier fragrance.

What I would skip: layering a heavily scented wash, a strongly scented deodorant and a fragrance all on the same morning. They will compete, and you will end up smelling like a locker room with opinions. Pick one loud thing and let the other two stay quiet, or choose fragrance-free basics for the days you want your cologne to do the talking.

If you want a simple way to use all of this, think of your week as two halves. On workdays wear the one that sits close to the skin, and on weekends wear the louder one, just as the quiz suggests.

Keep the routine short enough to survive a Monday, since a routine that takes ten minutes will be dropped by Wednesday: wash, shampoo, deodorant, one spray, a dab of pomade. The shower is where most of the work happens, so buy the body wash first and the bottle second.

Try any new fragrance on a Saturday, not before an interview. If it still smells good six hours later, you have found a keeper. Write the name in your phone, and skip buying a backup bottle until you have worn it for a full month, because a scent that seems right on day one can feel very different by week three. Wear the second scent for the same stretch, then compare notes with yourself on which one got the compliments and which one you actually reached for.

The two-scent idea falls apart unless the shower and the spray agree with each other, and this last stretch has a few ways to build that. For the body spray end, Bravo Sierra Suede Musk, Marine Salt and Smoked Orris are the ones I would try first, with Tom Ford Signature Ombré Leather as the warmer option. In the shower, Malin and Goetz Eucalyptus Body Wash, C.O. Bigelow Bergamot Body Wash and Wonder Valley Hinoki Body Wash are easy to live with. For hair, Oribe Gold Lust Dry Shampoo, Jack Black Body-Building Hair Gel and Philip B. Nordic Wood Hair + Body Shampoo cover the styling side. What I would skip: a strongly scented wash like Creed Aventus under a fragrance that clashes with it. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Sol de Janeiro 71 and the Brand That Names Its Scents After Years in Brazil and Summer Scents.