Father’s Day looms; better get shopping! In choosing gift suggestions for men, I’ve tried to provide a wide variety of choices for different personality types. My father was outdoorsy, sporty, and I’ve included gifts for that sort of guy. I live in an organic-loving town, so I’ve recommended products that are just about free of everything deemed harmful (see tomorrow’s post). I don’t have two-legged children, and my four-legged dependents won’t be buying me anything, but I’d be happy with any gift from my lists. If you’re still looking for a gift, here’s hoping something here will suit you and your father.

The Minimalist  

Everyone seems to love the simple designs of Malin+Goetz products. For perfume-adverse dads, ease them into fragrance with the light and bright Rum or Lime tonics (30 ml/$48). On the “hair front,” Malin+Goetz offers the Hair Gift Box with a Peppermint Shampoo and Cilantro Conditioner (8 oz each/$42) or naturally fragranced Hair Pomade (2 oz/$20) with meadowfoam seed oil, cannabis sativa seed oil, soybean, yucca and aloe. (This is a crossover product; see the “Homebody” category tomorrow.)

Mjölk (Milk), based in Toronto, represents Scandinavian and Japanese designers. The concrete shaving kit ($98) includes a shaving dish made from soft concrete, a shaving soap, and traditional beech wood brush with badger hair bristles. (Designer Iris Hantwerk employs visually impaired craftspeople to make her handmade brushes.) I think Minimalist dads, especially those who call themselves “chefs,” will appreciate the Kuro Cube too: “it purifies and refreshes the fridge naturally without the use of chemicals” ($25/Made in Japan).

To freshen air OUTSIDE the fridge, there’s Aromatherapy Associates Home Fragrancer ($64); plug it in, add some Aromatherapy Associates room fragrance or essence, and your dad’s office will smell great. Aromatherapy Associates oils include a West Indian bay, geranium and myrrh blend or the citrus and frankincense blend (10 ml/$35).

Barneys New York sells Diptyque’s sleek closet fresheners in the Ambre, Baies, Figuier and Feuille de Lavande fragrances. Scented hard wax is contained in a ceramic surround and perfumes small spaces (tiny rooms, closets, cars) for three months ($45).

Miller Harris La Fumée incense sticks (£30) are made in Kyoto from of a blend of herbs and spices that delivers a, you guessed it!, “perfumed smoke” aroma.

 

Sporty/Outdoorsmen/Dudes

Gardeners might like D’Orsay’s Feuilles de Tomate candle ($60/60 hr. burn time, at MiN New York). The spicy tomato leaf aroma conjures the scent of a vegetable garden (yes, I know tomatoes are "officially" fruits) in warm weather (luckily, sweat and bugs are not included).

MiN New York offers another garden-centric product: D R Harris Milk Cucumber & Roses Moisturizer (100 ml/$30), excellent for moisturizing skin in summer heat and humidity when skin break-outs are a problem.

After a day baking in the sun, be it in the garden, on a mountain hike, or sunbathing, Nickel Morning After Rescue Scrubbing Shower Gel ($26 at Luxury 4 Him) will wash away the grime and/or zinc oxide from ‘fatigued’ skin. The gel combines exfoliating jojoba beads with pistachio oil to clean and soothe and the scent is a “fresh fragrance with citrus and watery notes.”

Mountain men, real and faux, in Jackson Hole or Brooklyn, can find help for their unruly beards (the hairy type) with MCMC Fragrances Dude No.1 Beard Oil (25 ml/$65 at MiN New York); it contains green coriander, Virginia cedar, pink pepper, hemp seed oil and jojoba oil.

Now, a perfume recommendation (always risky, I know, but if you live near MiN New York you can get a sample for your dad): Creature Eau de Parfum by Kerosene (100 ml/$140) is full of outdoorsy "green" goodness: sweet birch, mint, lemon, jasmine, green tea, sage, violet leaves, cypress, cedar, patchouli, and moss. (A plus: it comes in a great-looking bottle.)

Literal-minded “dude dads” will appreciate Haslinger Bier (BEER!) Shampoo in a beer bottle, (320 ml/$12.95 at Smallflower).

 

Coconut is a wonderful "scent of summer"; Smallflower also sells Tropic Spa Coconut Soap ($6.95) and Coconut shave soap ($7.95). Surfer/beach dads may like Ted Shred’s Surf Wax Candles in a coconut/surfboard-wax scent (32 oz/$30, available in blue, white or pink wax with over 100 hours of burn-time).

From Aesop: a cure for surfer hair -- Rose Hair & Scalp Moisturizing Masque, intensive hair treatment (4 oz/$33).

Dandy/Arty

Sleek, well-dressed city dads might appreciate a fragrance-saturated leather bracelet (three leather strands with magnetic silver clasp) from Maison Francis Kurkdjian (€180 and scented with either APOM, Lumière Noire or Aqua Universalis).  If you think your father would prefer a bracelet scented with his own favorite perfume, Giles & Brother offers a great selection of rope and leather bracelets starting at $85; over time they’ll take on the aromas of the wearer and his favorite colognes.

Aesop botanical products, presented in sleek packaging, are favorites of urbanites who like their ‘countryside’ in a bottle, not underfoot. Aesop sells introductory kits of their skincare line: Celestial Mechanics ($135) contains: Fabulous Face Cleanser, B&Tea Balancing Toner, Camellia Nut Facial Hydrating Cream and Primrose Facial Cleansing Masque; Laws of Motion ($60) includes Geranium Leaf Body Cleanser, Rind Concentrate Body Balm and Rosehip Seed Lip Cream.

That’s it for now…more Father's Day gift ideas will be posted tomorrow.

Note: Top image [altered] via Wikimedia Commons. Middle images: left to right — Haslinger Bier Shampoo; Mjölk Concrete Shaving Kit; and Aesop Rose Hair & Scalp Moisturizing Masque. Bottom images: left to right — Miller Harris La Fumée incense sticks; Ted Shred’s Surf Wax Candle; and Creature Eau de Parfum by Kerosene.