Hugo Gift Set
Anyone who wore fragrance in the nineties will know the Hugo Gift Set on sight, because Hugo Boss built this one around green apple long before the material became a cliche.
Inside are the 125ml Eau de Toilette, a 50ml shower gel and a 75ml deodorant stick. That apple is tart and skin on, nothing like the sugared version used since, and mint sits next to it with a cold clarity that makes the opening feel scrubbed. Grapefruit adds a bitter edge, basil a herbal one, and lavender gives the first ten minutes a clean soapy structure. Further in, sage keeps it dry and savoury, geranium stays green and leafy, carnation introduces a dry, clove like warmth, and jasmine rounds the edges without sweetening the whole. The close is resinous and cool: fir for a coniferous bite, cedarwood for dry backbone, patchouli for earth.
Bob Aliano composed it. It is a genuinely unusual thing now, since very little on the market pursues green and herbal this single mindedly, and it wears best in spring and autumn, outdoors, and in daylight rather than at dinner. As an eau de toilette style composition it keeps close after the first hour without vanishing.
Boxed as a gift set, it makes sense for a man with established taste rather than for a first fragrance, and it is a safer bet than it sounds: nothing in it is sweet, heavy or fashionable enough to date badly.
Hugo Boss, the German clothing company that lends the set its name, dates from 1924 and a workshop opened in Metzingen by Hugo Ferdinand Boss. The group still works from there, is known for tailoring above all, and reached its centenary in 2024. Its fragrances have been made under licence since 1984, an arrangement that has passed through more than one owner.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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