Niche line Byredo has launched Seven Veils:

A spicy oriental composition built around the warmth of the vanilla flower and Indian sandalwood...

Byredo has launched Mister Marvelous, a new fragrance inspired by hair stylist Christiaan Houtenbos...

Byredo has launched two new oud-based fragrances, Oud Immortel and Accord Oud.

The duo OUD IMMORTEL and ACCORD OUD are both created around Oud, a certain type of wood...

As the “publish” button was pressed for this post, I heard the frantic, desperate opening words of Etta James’ Stop the Wedding swirling in my head: “Wait!…WAIT!”

But it was too late…there was no turning back.

Choosing ten men’s fragrances that have been released in the last couple years and deeming them “the best” was difficult. I’ve certainly owned and sampled more than my share of perfumes over the years, and I’ve reached a Perfumed State of Grace (i.e.: I’m jaded), but I’ve certainly not smelled every masculine fragrance released in 2009-2010. Has anyone? (Many of these unsniffed perfumes loom large in my imagination: Miller et Bertaux Om, Christian Dior La Collection Couturier Parfumeur, Honoré des Prés We love NY scents, and The Different Company De Bachmakov.)

My list of best new fragrances for men is personal, and it isn’t categorized with available spots for citrus, chypre, sport, “dressy,” mainstream, or niche perfumes; I've simply included what I like. If you can’t believe a certain fragrance is on, or is missing from, the list: GOOD! I’d hate to think I’m predictable.

Please comment if you feel a great fragrance is absent from this list, but if “top 10-type” lists drive you crazy and keep you up at night: "Wait!… WAIT!" ... don’t torture yourself by reading mine...

How you feel about Byredo M/Mink Eau de Parfum might depend on your thoughts about Dada clothing — say, Elsa Schiaparelli's shoe hat.¹ The hat is awfully clever. Who would have thought to take something you wear on your feet, flip it heel up, and put it on your head? But the hat isn't particularly flattering, and, face it, when you wear a shoe on your head, people notice the shoe and little else. Schiaparelli called herself an artist, but some may have thought of her hat less as art than as gimmick. I'll let you decide where M/Mink falls.

M/Mink is a collaboration between Byredo and a French design firm called M/M, after its founders, Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak. In a press release, M/M says:

In 2009, reversing the usual idea of receiving a brief from a client, they invited Ben Gorham of byredo to their studio in Paris and presented him a creative direction and concept — a block of solid ink purchased in Asia, a photograph showing a Japanese master practising his daily calligraphy, and a large utopian formula that Mathias drew on Korean traditional paper.

It is rare in our days to find objects with a soul that perfectly fits in the trivial world we’re living in. Even though perfume is totally useless, these seemed to fulfill a kind of spiritual function[...]

Next week, Byredo will launch M/Mink Eau de Parfum, a new fragrance made in collaboration with French creative team M/M. The scent was inspired by "Asian ink, a photo of a Japanese calligrapher and a utopian concept drawn on traditional Korean paper, by Mathias Augustyniak"...

Byredo has launched Palermo:

With clacking oars the Phoenicians arrived millennia ago to found their center of ancient exchange. Under golden Roman yoke the port gained gleaming palaces and mosaics...

La Tulipe is the latest from niche line Byredo. Contrary to popular belief, there are fragrant tulip species, but it doesn't much matter in this case — La Tulipe is "built around the idea of the tulip" and isn't meant as an exercise in photo-realism. Just as well, because what it mostly smells like is freesia.

Freesia is a funny thing. I love freesia as a cut flower, but as a perfume it does not suit me — most freesia scents are so much daintier than the real thing. The only straight-up freesia scent I ever bought was Diptyque's Ofrésia, and I did not own it for long: turns out that I like the smell of freesia just fine in a vase, but not following me around all day on my own person. La Tulipe is not so heavily freesia-d as all that; it's more like a mix of spring flowers...

From Laduree, scented candles in Caramel au beurre salé...