Sweet, earthy and slightly leathery, saffron blends especially well with woody notes giving them extra depth, so look out for it if you like your fragrances, warm, sexy and spicy.

New offerings that put saffron at their heart this season include Givenchy Gentlemen Only Absolute, Issey Miyake L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme Noir Ambré, Ermenegildo Zegna’s Musk Gold and Roberto Cavalli’s smouldering Uomo.

Dark Knights

The fragrance industry is famous for using colour as a signpost to a scent’s mood or character. Red, for example, says fiery and hot; yellow is citrusy and summery; and blue aquatic. So as you might expect, black – this season’s favoured colour for fragrance packaging – signifies scents that are dark, intense, sensual and a bit mysterious.

The antithesis of bright, daytime fragrances, new launches like John Varvatos’ Dark Rebel Rider, Joop! Homme Black King, and Comme des Garçon’s BLACKPEPPER are meant to be worn in the evening. Keep them for special occasions, apply if you’re out partying or team with a tux for black tie events.

“In truth this is a marketing trend rather than an olfactory one,” says Persolaise, warning that not all fragrances with dark in the title or housed in a black bottle are particularly dark in character. “BLACKPEPPER is a notable exception though, because it genuinely tries to bring together the concepts of olfactory ‘blackness’ with pepper,” he says.

Boutique Perfumeries

If you want proof that niche or ‘boutique’ fragrances (those scents produced on a smaller scale, by an independent perfume house and usually touting a higher price tag) are where it’s at right now, you only need to look at the stats.

Sales of boutique fragrances costing more than £200 a bottle have quadrupled in the last five years, and according to trend analysis company NPD Group there’s been a 36 per cent increase in the number of niche fragrances on the market since 2011. Thanks to men getting increasingly discerning in their fragrance buying habits, it’s this sector of the market where growth is happening.