Hunter Launches Its First Men’s Grooming Collection at Boots

Hunter is famous for Wellington boots, muddy festivals and British weather.

Men’s fragrance and grooming? That’s new.

The 170-year-old British brand has launched its first-ever men’s grooming collection, developed in partnership with SLG Brands and available exclusively through Boots in the UK.

And appropriately for a brand so closely associated with rain, the collection’s signature fragrance is inspired by petrichor — the distinctive earthy smell that appears after rainfall.

That alone was enough to get my attention.

What Is in the Hunter Men’s Grooming Collection?

This isn't just a fragrance launch with the Hunter logo added to the bottle.

The wider range includes an eau de toilette, body sprays, grooming products, wash bags, manicure accessories and several gift sets aimed particularly at the Christmas season.

Hunter's familiar branding appears throughout, including its green, navy and red colour palette and details inspired by the tread pattern of its Wellington boots.

Among the products in the collection are:

• Hunter Eau de Toilette 50ml – £20

• Hunter Body Spray Trio – £14.50

• Hunter Soap on a Rope – £7

• Hunter Wash Trio – £12.50

• Hunter Hair & Body Wash and Body Spray Set – £12.50

• Hunter Wash Bag Gift Set – £20

There are also larger grooming sets containing products such as face wash, aftershave balm, hair and body wash and a multi-purpose balm.

For a heritage fashion brand entering men's grooming, the pricing is surprisingly accessible.

After Storm: A Fragrance Inspired by Rain

The most interesting part of the collection is undoubtedly the fragrance.

Hunter calls its signature scent After Storm, and it has been designed around the smell of petrichor: that fresh, earthy aroma you get when rain hits dry ground.

The fragrance combines petrichor, cedarwood and dry oak, giving it a woody, outdoors-inspired character.

Hunter is also using AromaSpace technology from CPL Aromas, designed to capture and recreate scents found in nature. In this case, the idea is to reproduce the smell and atmosphere of the air after a thunderstorm.

It is certainly a more interesting idea than another generic fresh or aquatic men's fragrance.

I'm particularly curious to see how strong the petrichor element actually is. Done properly, it could make After Storm feel quite distinctive. If it simply ends up smelling like a conventional woody men's fragrance, the concept becomes considerably less interesting.

Hunter Grooming Still Looks Like Hunter

One thing the brand appears to have handled well is the design.

Rather than making the grooming range look completely separate from the rest of Hunter, the packaging draws heavily on its existing identity.

The collection uses Hunter Green, Navy and Hunter Red, along with matte finishes and details inspired by the rubber and tread pattern of the brand's boots.

That matters particularly with the gift sets.

Men's grooming gifts can very easily end up looking generic, especially around Christmas. The Hunter branding gives these sets something immediately recognisable, even for someone who isn't particularly interested in skincare or fragrance.

There Are Some Interesting Christmas Gifts Here

The timing clearly isn't accidental.

We're moving towards the Christmas shopping season, and quite a few products in the range have been designed with gifting in mind.

The £20 Wash Bag Gift Set, for example, includes a compact Hunter wash bag with hair and body wash and aftershave balm.

There's also an £18 Wash & Mini EDT Set, which includes a 250ml hair and body wash, 65ml aftershave balm and 15ml bottle of the eau de toilette.

Those prices make the collection particularly interesting because Hunter itself isn't normally what I would describe as a budget brand.

A £20 fragrance or grooming gift carrying the Hunter name could therefore have quite broad appeal this Christmas.

Where Can You Buy Hunter Men’s Grooming?

The new Hunter Men's Grooming Collection is exclusive to Boots in the UK and is already appearing online.

For now, though, the one I would most like to try is the After Storm Eau de Toilette.

A men's fragrance inspired by British rain sounds either slightly ridiculous or potentially very good.

And coming from Hunter, somehow it makes perfect sense.

Jerome