Did you know that Winston Churchill favoured heavily floral fragrances?

Earlier today I was lucky enough to have a guided tour of the Perfume Diaries exhibit at Harrods by curator Roja Dove. Now, admittedly, i’m not a huge fragrance buff  but I found the history of fragrance Roja painted to be fascinating, not to mention all the rare perfumes and manuscripts everywhere! I was especially interested to hear how tastes in scent changed according to periods in time. The idea of selling a perfume as a story was only thought of post-Freud, after the wars you always had very lively, uplifting fragrances and the simple, unisex offerings of the 90s like Calvin Klein One were born out of a turbulent period of recession and high profile aids-related deaths. As I said, even to the uninitiated, it’s all fascinating.

A 1960s Aramis shaving mug and face mask for men.

However, there was one particular thing Roja pointed out to us that instantly struck a chord with me – skincare for men! There was an entire display of products made by Aramis in the 1960s for the male skincare market. If you think skincare for men is a relatively new phenomena, think again. The range featured not only shaving oils and creams but moisturisers, eye creams, treatments, a face mask and even a very detailed skincare guide!

"Tough beard, rowdy hair, weary eyes and weathered skin - these are the difficulties our grooming agents deal with..."

The Aramis Schedule for All Day Grooming was quite illuminating too. Click to enlarge the picture and see if you can read any of it, apparently 6pm is when it’s time for an ‘office shave’ and at 6.15? Eye pads and a face mask.

It was intriguing to see the display since a lot of people assume skincare for men is a new idea that’s taken hold of a post-Beckham ‘metrosexual’ (hate that word) generation. Well, apparently not! In fact, your own dad may have had an Aramis eye cream floating around in a drawer somewhere…  Something plainly apparent not only in the 1960s section but throughout the exhibit is that men have always cared for their appearance. As Roja said, ‘they’re trying to tell us that skin care for men is new, but it’s not!’.

I highly recommend going to the exhibit if you can, you have until the 2nd of October! Click here for details.

Oh and, bonus shot, a Tom Ford suit worn by the man himself! You can see me in the reflection willing that glass to disappear… Didn’t work.