There's a specific genre of men's fragrance that never really goes out of style: lavender, cedar, a clean shot of citrus, maybe some spice or moss underneath. It's the scent of a proper barbershop rather than a drugstore aisle, and the houses that do it best — Creed, Tom Ford, Guerlain's most exclusive line, Xerjoff, and Penhaligon's — don't make it easy or cheap to try before you commit. We built the Sunday Best Collection as our own hand-blended impressions of five of them, at extrait de parfum strength, so you can wear a full day of each before deciding what earns a spot on your shelf.
As with our other collections: these are impressions, not clones. We build each one to get as close to the original as we can — same core accord, same opening, same drydown character — without claiming molecular identity to a formula we don't own. Here's an honest look at what each original actually is, what it costs, and how ours compares.
Unicoi — inspired by Creed's Viking
Viking runs about $345 for 100ml and is one of Creed's more aggressive modern releases: bergamot, lemon, pink and black pepper, and mint up top, rose in the heart, cedarwood and Haitian vetiver in the base. It's spicier and colder than most Creed fragrances, which tend to lean softer.
Unicoi keeps that cold-spice opening intact — the pepper and mint hit first, same as the original — and settles into a cedarwood-vetiver base that runs a touch warmer than Viking's does. The rose is quieter in ours, which shifts the balance slightly more toward "spiced wood" and slightly less toward "spiced floral." Close in structure, warmer in the finish.
French Broad — inspired by Tom Ford's Beau de Jour
Beau de Jour is priced around $280 for 100ml and is genuinely one of the more classic fougères in Tom Ford's lineup: lavender up top, mint, geranium, rosemary, oakmoss, and basil in the heart, amber and patchouli in the base. It's aromatic and green rather than sweet, which is part of why it reads as "barbershop" more than most modern designer releases.
French Broad follows the same lavender-forward structure, with the rosemary and mint carrying most of the mid-composition freshness. The oakmoss comes through a little softer in ours than in the original, which trades some of Beau de Jour's mossy depth for a slightly cleaner, more contemporary finish. Recognizably the same fragrance, a notch brighter.
Cashiers — inspired by Guerlain's Le Frenchy
Worth knowing upfront: Le Frenchy (also sold as Frenchy Lavande, part of Guerlain's L'Art & La Matière collection) appears to be discontinued — it's showing up on resale sites as sealed, rare stock rather than through normal retail channels. When it was in production, it opened with bergamot, lemon, and petitgrain, moved into lavender, sage, and vervain, and settled into ambergris, vetiver, and tonka bean. Created by Thierry Wasser in 2017, it's citrus-forward and green rather than sweet.
Cashiers is built on the same bones: citrus top, lavender-sage heart, tonka-vetiver base. Since the original is genuinely hard to find at this point, this is one case where our impression isn't just a cheaper alternative — for a lot of people it'll be the more practical way to actually experience the profile at all.
Holston — inspired by Xerjoff's Mefisto Gentiluomo
Mefisto Gentiluomo runs $261 for 100ml direct from Xerjoff: bergamot, grapefruit, lavender, and lemon up top, iris and rose in the heart, amber, cedarwood, and musk in the base. It's a quieter, more restrained composition than a lot of Xerjoff's louder releases — closer to a well-tailored suit than a statement piece.
Holston keeps that same restraint: the citrus-lavender opening is close to identical, and the iris-rose heart gives it the same soft, slightly powdery quality as the original. Ours runs a bit more citrus-forward through the middle of the wear, where Mefisto Gentiluomo leans a little further into the iris. Close overall, with a brighter middle stretch.
Coupe Nette — inspired by Penhaligon's The Cut
The Cut retails for $240 for 100ml and is Penhaligon's modern, "sharper" take on the fougère — mint up top, cypress, sage, and lavender in the heart, fir balsam and cedar in the base. Penhaligon's markets it around Savile Row tailoring, but the note list (lavender especially) puts it squarely in barbershop territory regardless of the marketing angle.
Coupe Nette goes after the same crisp, green profile: mint and clary sage first, into a lavender-cypress heart, finishing on fir balsam. Ours is a little less cedar-heavy in the base than the original, which keeps it leaning green through the whole wear rather than warming up as much at the end. Of the five, this is the one that wears closest to a fresh haircut.
The honest summary
Five originals, five price points from $240 to $345, all working the same territory: lavender, citrus, wood, and just enough spice to keep it from reading as generic "clean." We build each of these to get as close to the original as we can — you're paying, beyond that accuracy, for the format: extrait strength, poured into 2mL vials, so you can figure out which one actually earns a full bottle before you spend real money finding out.
Try the Sunday Best Sampler — five 2 mL extrait de parfum vials, plus a $10 credit toward any 30 mL bottle or $5 toward any 15 mL bottle if one of them earns a spot in your rotation.
Maison Appalachia is an independent fragrance house. Our fragrances are inspired by the originals we name and are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced by those houses.
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