Match #45 is where this tournament starts getting painful. We're deep enough into the second-chance bracket that there aren't many easy eliminations left, and today I'm saying goodbye to a fragrance I genuinely enjoy: Burberry Touch versus Montblanc Explorer. Burberry Touch (2000, created by Jean-Pierre Bethouart) is a sophisticated woody floral musk fragrance with violet leaf, white pepper, cedar, tonka bean, and musk. There's an old-school barbershop quality to it that I really appreciate. It's mature, understated, and beautifully balanced. Montblanc Explorer (2019, created by Jordi Fernández, Antoine Maisondieu, and Olivier Pescheux) is firmly in the modern woody aromatic camp. Bergamot, pink pepper, leather, vetiver, patchouli, and ambroxan give it that familiar Aventus-style character without simply being a copy. It feels brighter, more adventurous, and more contemporary. This is a very close call. Touch is probably the more classic and quietly sophisticated fragrance, but when I ask myself which bottle I'd reach for first, Explorer gets the slightest edge. Montblanc Explorer survives and advances in the second-chance bracket, while Burberry Touch is eliminated from the tournament. From this point forward, I suspect most of these eliminations are going to hurt.

The earlier version, the 2025 BOSS Bottled Beyond EDP, is built around notes of ginger, leather, and wood. It's spicy, fresh, woody, and masculine, with a relatively straightforward modern designer character. The 2026 EDT Intense goes in a more interesting direction (for me, at least): orange blossom absolute + leather. The orange blossom gives it a bright, slightly floral/clean opening, while the leather adds warmth and masculinity. The 2025 is probably the safer blind buy: spicy, fresh, and masculine. The 2026 is more distinctive and polished, particularly if you enjoy orange blossom and the newer clean-floral masculine style. One caveat: I find the Intense can become fairly close to the skin after a couple of hours, despite good overall longevity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCJU2CWuO2A