Brut Parfums Prestige

Brut was launched in 1964 by the American firm Fabergé Inc. as one of the first mass-market fragrances explicitly targeting men rather than the traditional female consumer. The formula — an aromatic fougère built on lavender, geranium, ylang-ylang, oakmoss, and coumarin, composed by Karl Mann — became a defining scent of working-class masculinity in Britain and a fixture in bathrooms from Liverpool to Johannesburg. Fabergé's brand portfolio was sold to Unilever in 1990, and Brut has been manufactured under European ownership ever since under the fictitious subsidiary name Parfums Prestige — a designation that appears on bottles despite having no independent corporate existence. Its UK advertising campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s were anchored by boxer Henry Cooper, whose television spots ended with the phrase "splash it all over" and became part of British popular culture. The fragrance itself has not changed materially in six decades, which is both its commercial liability and its cultural value. As niche brands have courted the fougère tradition with considerable expense, Brut continues to offer the reference version of that structure at under ten pounds a bottle.