The Right Way to Apply Cologne
Cologne application is the grooming skill most men believe they have mastered and most men perform incorrectly.
2026-06-21
JA
James Alderton
128 articles
Showing 41–60 of 128 articles
A Guide to Body Grooming Without Irritation
Body grooming has moved from niche concern to mainstream practice, with a 2023 Mintel report showing that over seventy percent of men under forty regularly trim or remove body hair.
2026-06-21
The Minimalist Grooming Routine That Actually Works
Minimalist grooming is not the absence of grooming — it is grooming reduced to its functional essentials, with every product performing a demonstrable role and every unnecessary step eliminated.
2026-06-20
The Izakayas of Osaka That Seat Fewer Than Ten
Osaka calls itself kuidaore — 'eat until you drop' — and the city's food culture is defined not by Michelin-starred restaurants but by the thousands of tiny establishments where a single chef serves a handful of customers across a counter barely wider than an ironing board.
2026-06-18
How to Choose a Sofa You Won't Regret in Five Years
The sofa is the most expensive mistake in most living rooms.
2026-06-18
The Whisky Trails of Islay on Foot
Islay, a windswept island off Scotland's west coast, packs nine working distilleries into an area smaller than most English counties.
2026-06-18
How to Host a Barbecue That Doesn't Revolve Around the Grill
The barbecue has been reduced, in popular imagination, to a man standing over fire.
2026-06-18
The Charcuterie Boards That Belong at Every Gathering
The charcuterie board has been aesthetically abused by social media into a competitive display of quantity over quality — a groaning heap of seventeen cheeses, four meats, six jams, and a scattering of edible flowers designed for the overhead photograph rather than the human palate.
2026-06-17
On Swimming in Cold Water and the Clarity That Follows
The first ten seconds of cold water immersion are the worst thing you will voluntarily do to yourself.
2026-06-17
Where to Drink Coffee in Lisbon, According to Locals
Lisbon's coffee culture predates the specialty wave by decades.
2026-06-15
Why the Best Cocktails Have Three Ingredients or Fewer
The Negroni is equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.
2026-06-13
The Night Markets of Taipei, Ranked by a Frequent Visitor
Taipei's night markets are not tourist attractions that happen to sell food.
2026-06-13
How to Plan a Road Trip That Doesn't Require a Plan
The over-planned road trip is a driving holiday stripped of its essential virtue: spontaneity.
2026-06-13
The Single Malt Distilleries Worth the Drive
Scotland's whisky regions are not equally accessible, and the most rewarding distilleries are rarely the ones with the largest visitor centres.
2026-06-13
The Philosophy of the Long Lunch
The long lunch is not an extension of the short lunch — it is a fundamentally different activity, governed by different principles and producing different outcomes.
2026-06-12
A Driving Tour of Portugal's Interior, Far From the Coast
Portugal's interior is the country the tourist brochures forgot — a landscape of terraced vineyards, granite villages, cork oak forests, and empty roads winding through valleys where the loudest sound is a church bell at noon.
2026-06-10
A Weekend in Seville
Seville is Spain distilled — flamenco, tapas, Moorish architecture, orange trees, and a heat that slows time to a crawl between two and five in the afternoon.
2026-06-09
The Art of the Charcuterie Board
A well-assembled charcuterie board is not a snack — it is a statement of curatorial taste, a composition of flavors, textures, and colors arranged with the same intentionality you would bring to setting a table or choosing a wardrobe.
2026-06-08
How to Make Fresh Pasta from Scratch
Fresh pasta is one of the few foods where the gap between homemade and commercial is so vast that they are effectively different products.
2026-06-08
How to Properly Season a Wok
A properly seasoned carbon steel wok is the most responsive cooking vessel in any kitchen — lighter than cast iron, more heat-conductive than stainless steel, and capable of achieving the searing temperatures that produce wok hei, the smoky, charred breath of the flame that defines great Chinese stir-fry.
2026-06-08