Scent Smackdown: Bon Monsieur vs Beau de Jour
Rogue Bon Monsieur vs Tom Ford Beau de Jour
Two of my favorite houses going toe to toe, err, scent to scent against each other. In my own personal grading system, I have both ranked at a B+. The idea is to see if I could decide which is the better scent to me. Now, obviously this is my own personal contest and doesn’t mean a thing in the grand scheme of things, but I love doing this type of stuff. I used to do these little battles with bourbon, so let’s go with fragrances!
Tale of the Tape
Round 1: The Top Notes
Bon Monsieur: Green and herbal. Dry. Some lemon here tucked away. Young green wood (plants, twigs).
Beau de Jour: Lavender. Smooth. A soapy vibe here. Minimal but very enjoyable.
Winner: Tie
Round 2: The Heart Notes
Bon Monsieur: Some oak moss brings in an earthy touch. Floral notes sneak in here keeping the middle from being too grounded. A slight wood note is present.
Beau de Jour: Lavender still prominent. Slightly green and even more slightly piney bush. Smooth and creamy.
Winner: Tie
Round 3: The Base Notes
Bon Monsieur: Dry and earthy. Some animalistic musk with some tamed moss.
Beau de Jour: Creamy and clean. Vetiver shows up to round out musk and moss which fall to supporting roles.
Winner: Tie
Thoughts: This was way too close to pick a winner. Each phase of the contest was a tie. I just could not pick one over the other. I was absolutely sold on one until I smelled the other. Both are excellent and are unique enough from each other than I don’t know if I would consider it redundant to own both, provided you have room for these in a collection.
If you've read this far, I am sorry this wasn't more dramatic as I wanted it to be, but I cannot pick a winner and it ends up a tie during every single phase. I was sure going into this that one would come out on top. I guess the real winner is me since I love both it just gives me more options to use!
The take away is basically this: If you want drier, more punchy scent, Bon Monsieur is your bottle. If you want a creamier smooth scent, Beau de Jour is your scent. It really comes down to what you feel like and I feel like equally are great. However, with Tom Ford discontinuing Beau de Jour, Bon Monsieur would be a nice option to fill that hole on your shelf, although not exactly a 1:1 match.
If they tied each round, that just speaks to the quality of both haha - no harm in that!
Thanks for sharing, fun to see how others do these too!
I agree it's very fun to practice comparing notes against others!
My battles often focus on categories with 5+ fragrances at a time, so I just focus on overall blend comparisons to see which comes out on top.
But can be satisfying to dig down into the details more like you did, and that's neat you even have your own weighted scoring system too - looking forward to more! 🤗
I really enjoy being able to detect notes when they are against each other and it really makes it more obvious what I am smelling. I would recommend everyone do it at least once. It's amazing how good or bad you think a scent is until you do this.
I also developed/copied a weighted scoring system and plan to post more "battles" in the future. :)