As a scent obsessive, I’ve always rotated my fragrances with the seasons. And the best spring colognes are the optimal way to brush off the winter chill to usher in the warmer months. Spring is all about fresh, verdant, mossy woods, herbs, citrus, and florals, often blending notes from every season. It’s a season when fragrance fans of all types can find something to suit their nose, and the best spring colognes are just as intriguing and intoxicating as their cold-weather counterparts.
But spring doesn’t mean retiring woody notes—instead, they blend beautifully with florals and citruses for compositions that highlight the best of both. ’Tis the season of fougères, with their herbal, earthy, and verdant notes like eucalyptus, lavender, violet, and moss. Green is the overarching theme, but the MVP of spring—and our favorite—is vetiver. Practically a category unto itself, vetiver’s smokiness, fresh greenery, and woodsy sweetness have inspired countless perfumers.
All this is to say: there are spring colognes for every guy. And with intersection of artisanal and luxury, there’s no shortage of unique compositions. Whether attending outdoor soirees, needing a new weekday scent, or browsing records on the weekend, spring is a season of renewal—best paired with a fresh spritz of something just as vibrant.
The Best Spring Colognes, According to GQ
Best Vetiver Colognes for Spring
Best Veitver Cologne for Spring Overall: DS & Durga St. Vetyver
Leave it to the maestros of luxe indie aromas, D.S. & Durga, to put an artisanal twist on the iconic spring note. While vetiver plays a role, this scent feels more like an interpretation of it—less about the root itself and more about setting a scene. Picture yourself aboard an old schooner, sailing toward the Caribbean with a stash of rum below deck and a salty breeze filtering through your straw hat, only to step ashore for a cocktail soirée. It’s a wildly unique yet very wearable take on vetiver: slightly sweet (thanks to pink pepper and rum), subtly tart (with a hit of sour orange), and aromatic (with clove and seagrass). This addictive scent keeps you coming back as it reveals something new with each wear. Wear it all spring and well into summer, no Panama hat required.
Best Vetiver Cologne for Day-to-Night Wear: Frederic Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire
Frédéric Malle’s Vétiver Extraordinaire is for the sophisticated vetiver wearer: woodsy, sweet, fresh, and complex. A hefty dose of Haitian vetiver and fresh citrus come through from the first spritz. But it’s the complexity of the drydown that gives this fragrance its tuxedo appeal. The bitterness of orange complements smoky vetiver, while oakmoss and musk add verdant depth. A base of sandalwood, cedar, and a hint of clove adds warmth and a slight kick. All this makes for an aromatic, vetiver-centric composition with a refreshing zest. Not to mention the crazy good projection and longevity will take you from workday to evening soiree with ease.
Best OG Vetiver Cologne for Spring: Guerlain Vetiver
When someone asks me where to start with vetiver, I usually point to the timeless, bare-bones classic: Guerlain’s Vetiver, an OG vetiver that has influenced every other since its inception in the 1950s. Its blend of citrus, spices, and tobacco was crafted to capture the verdant essence of early dawn, so think dewy greenery bathed in the pale morning light (yes, it smells as gorgeous as it sounds). The blend creates a fresh, woodsy, subtly spicy cologne that’s unmistakably Vetiver. Timeless, refined, and made for spring (read the liner notes above), it’s a cologne that once lived in your dad’s and granddad’s medicine cabinets and deserves a spot in yours.
Best Citrus/Woods Colognes for Spring
Best Citrus Cologne for Spring Overall: Arquiste L’Or de Louis
I’ve never been one for heavy citrus fragrances, but L’Or de Louis by niche aromatic stalwart Arquiste changed my perspective. This 2024 Indie Fragrance Winner imbues historical reference we cologne obsessives love to nerd out about, this one inspired by Louis XIV and his visits to Versailles’ Grand Orangery, where citrus trees basked in the glow of bonfires. As a history buff, that intrigued me, but the scent is just as compelling: a luminous orange blossom opening, tinged with smoky warmth and woodsy undertones. Subtle gourmand touches of pomegranate and honey add just enough sweetness to round out this gem. If straightforward citrus colognes aren’t your normal go-to, this artisanal citrus-woodsmoke composition is a must-try for spring.
Best Citrus-Forward Cologne for Spring: Perfumehead Somewhere
Since 2022, Perfumehead has become a trendsetter in the indie-luxe fragrance world, super buzzy and recognizable by its sleek black-top bottles. I love all their colognes, especially the richer amber scents, but this list is about spring, and Somewhere is sultry. It’s a lush, effervescent citrus fragrance with a sparkling quality, grounded by a woodsy-floral base. The opening is a citrus bomb—bergamot, neroli, and blood orange bursting forward—but the dry-down is, as usual, where the magic happens. Jasmine, musk, orris, vetiver, sandalwood, and oakmoss weave into a radiant composition. Depending on your skin chemistry, it settles into a citrusy-floral dream, like biting into a ripe orange while stepping into a sun-drenched garden. Will this be for everyone? No. But will citrus fans be obsessed? Likely.
Best Citrus Cologne for Date Night: Hermes Terre d’Hermès Eau de Parfum Intense
Terre d’Hermès is a stone-cold woodsy citrus classic that smells like it should cost far more than it does. New for 2025, Terre d’Hermès Intense builds on the original’s citrus, pepper. and vetiver DNA, but introduces a richer twist with coffee and licorice. The most interesting facet, though, lies in the base where notes of lava and stone give it an almost mineralistic quality. While you could wear this during the day, it feels tailor-made for spring date nights, where the crisp citrus opening melts into decadent gourmands—just as dessert arrives.
Best Floral / Woods Colognes for Spring
Best Floral Cologne for Spring Overall: Diptyque Orpheon
Diptyque has so many classics that choosing the best spring cologne is trying, but their latest limited launch, Orphéon, is a 2025 standout. Bright yet mysterious, it’s inspired by the lacquered, smoky 1960’s Parisian jazz club of the same name. To me, it infers rocking a Mod suit at a hip, underground lounge, with live jazz humming in the background and a glass of something interesting in hand. It opens with sweet juniper berries and heady jasmine before settling into warm tonka bean, cedar, and a faint whisper of tobacco. Best worn on spring nights for those dimly lit, intriguing spots where fascinating people gather, the air is thick with possibility, and you don’t quite know where the night will take you. But wherever that is, you’ll smell fantastic getting there.
Best Floral Cologne for Warm Weather: Artem Flos Novis
I first heard about Artem from a colleague at Osswald NYC, one of the city’s best perfumeries and always ahead of the curve on olfactory trends. But beyond the recommendation, the storytelling behind the scents piqued my interest, many based around themes of Southern life and music. Floral and fresh spring air on the first spritz, Flos Novis shifts between citrus and woodsy tones as it evolves. It opens with daffodil and bergamot, mingling with a white floral accord before settling into a creamy base of sandalwood and vanilla. A faint green tea note adds an herbal edge that immediately caught my nose. With wedding season approaching, this floral-woodsy cologne beckons to complement a crisp linen suit.
Best Floral Cologne for All-Day Wear: Maison Francis Kurkdjian APOM
Francis Kurkdjian—one of the most celebrated perfumers of our time (ahem, Baccarat Rouge 540, the omnipresent socialite signature)—is known for his unconventional takes on aquatics, musk, and woods. Last year, he merged his APOM pour Homme and Femme into a single unisex scent, and the result is nothing short of regal, a complex floral musk tailor-made for spring. Lavender, orange blossom, and cedarwood intertwine over a sweet amber base for a fresh and sensual scent that’s floral and subtly musky. It radiates quirkiness and quiet confidence, but then again, nearly every FK fragrance carries that chic, distinctive aromatic swagger.
Best Fougere/Verdant Colognes for Spring
Best Verdant Cologne for Spring Overall: Creed Green Irish Tweed
The renowned Parisian fragrance house Creed is a gateway into luxury scent for many. When I first experienced the brand, I was struck by how complex, unique, and elevated a cologne could be, a far cry from the mass-produced fumes I’d grown up with. The house boasts multiple icons, from Aventus to the opulent Millésime Impérial, but allow me to wax poetic about the cologne that first drew me in (and just so happens to be perfect for spring): Green Irish Tweed. A noble take on the fougère category, it’s essentially “a walk through the English countryside” in a bottle—subtly sweet, fresh, and unapologetically green. It opens with lemon and bergamot, balanced by galbanum (my favorite incense note), lavender, and geranium, before settling into a base of cedarwood and oakmoss. Best reserved for spring black-tie affairs, Green Irish Tweed is a masterclass in gentlemanly, verdant sweetness.
Best Verdant Cologne for All Seasons: Le Labo Eucalyptus 20
I always look forward to a new Le Labo launch as the brand has a way of taking a familiar note and twisting it into something artisanal, unexpected, and fantastically new. We’re not here to talk about the ubiquitous NYC elevator fragrance, Santal 33, or the new cool dude standard, Thé Matcha. The latest release, Eucalyptus 20, is Le Labo’s take on the medicinal plant. but in true Le Labo fashion, it’s not the star of the show.. This cologne is for heady incense, galbanum, and cedarwood aficionados who want to carry some of winter’s resinous depth into the warmer months. I keep smelling my shirt when I wear this. Subtly green, smoky, mysterious, and addictive—this one is for the artsy spring cologne wearer.
Best Balanced Verdant Cologne for Spring: Aesop Virere
Aesop has been on a fragrance spree lately, rolling out seasonal launches almost quarterly, and it rarely misses. One of the few grooming brands to successfully cross over into fragrance with high-quality, distinctive scents, Aesop consistently delivers something unexpected. I’m not usually a fig fan, but Virere’s interpretation changed my mind. This fougère balances herbaceous spring notes, opening with bergamot for a bright citrus tone before settling on green tea and cedar as it dries down for a fig-like warmth. Virere is (elevated) fresh-cut grass and haystacks in a bottle. Wear this one as your daytime weekend driver.
Best OG Verdant Cologne for Spring: Santa Maria Novella Quercia
Founded in 1221, Santa Maria Novella is a Florentine institution that embodies the history and artistry of perfumery like few others. Known for their bare-bones aromatic ingredients and ethereal colognes, I’ve written about them more times than I can count. One of their latest, Quercia—a tribute to the towering oak tree in the Medicean Villa di Castello—is far from your grandmother’s lavender. It takes that familiar, comforting note and layers it with herbal, woodsy, medicinal elements, all rounded out by sweet vetiver and the grounding earthiness of patchouli. With its handsome translucent green bottle, this fragrance feels straight out of an ancient apothecary and wouldn’t look out of place in an Italian cathedral—or your medicine cabinet.
Best Fresh Colognes for Spring
Best Fresh Cologne for Spring Overall: Parfums de Marly Percival
Parfum de Marly strikes that rare balance between high-end luxury and niche appeal, but if I had to sum up their colognes in one word, it would be regal. While the Parisian house boasts plenty of classic Spring scents, Percival is a woodsy citrus blend that leans fresh and clean- think old-school barbershops with that timeless “cologne” aroma. Lavender, mandarin, and bergamot lead into a heart of violet, jasmine, coriander, and cinnamon before resting on a musk, woods, and balsam fir base. Fresh, confident, and undeniably gentlemanly, it carries a nostalgic edge that makes it a fragrance bound to earn compliments at the office, on date nights, or anywhere in between.
Best Fresh Cologne to Last All Day: Horace &Horace
I’m skeptical when men’s grooming brands venture into fragrance, not out of pretension, but because the result often leans low-brow locker room. A brand specializing in moisturizers doesn’t necessarily need to dabble in olfactory artistry. The buzzy French grooming brand Horace is not trying to be the next Creed, but the stellar brand has created a super fresh, woodsy citrus cologne that is far more intoxicating and complex than its price suggests. Bergamot and white pepper bring crisp linen vibes before settling into a velvety base of sandalwood, tobacco, and iris. Formulated for the guy who wants to smell subtly fresh (and good!) this spring, Horace nails it with this universally appealing spritzer.
Best Floral Cologne for the Timeless Man: Tom Ford Beau de Jour
Tom Ford has a fantastic fragrance for every season. In summer, Neroli Portofino is an obvious spritzer, and in winter, you can’t go wrong with Oud Wood or Tobacco Vanille. But for my money, spring is when the slightly under-the-radar Beau de Jour blooms. Fresh, aromatic, and just a little spicy, it leads with lavender (noticing a theme here?) atop a fougère mix of rosemary, mint, basil, geranium, and oakmoss before settling into a base of patchouli and amber. With its clean, retro barbershop vibes, it nods to the gentlemanly colognes of the past but with a more modern and sophisticated composition that is very much 2025.