The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Love for Him arrived in 2013 as part of a limited duo, a his-and-hers release from Annayake, the French house built on Japanese restraint. Where Bonheur For Him, released two years prior, leaned into clean structure, Love for Him made a different kind of statement. The name says it all. This was Annayake reaching for something warmer, more direct, a fragrance about connection rather than composure. It launched in April 2013, exclusive to Douglas, and carried the house's signature tall, sleek flacon with an orange carton and a calligraphic love symbol on the label. Gone now, but not forgotten by those who found it.
The note structure is unusual for a men's fragrance. Watermelon is rarely the first thing you smell, it's sweet, watery, almost naive. Here it becomes the defining choice. Paired with citrus at the opening, it reads more green than sugary, more morning dew than fruit basket. The heart adds nutmeg and cardamom, warm spices that don't compete with the freshness but push back against it. Cedar and patchouli in the base keep things grounded. What makes this work is the restraint: the watermelon doesn't dominate, it interrupts. And then the woods arrive.
The evolution
The opening hits fast, citrus bright and sharp, bergamot and grapefruit up front, bitter orange underneath. Thirty seconds in, the watermelon arrives. That's the moment. It's not a dessert sweetness, it's a coolness, like the air after a coastal rain. The citrus doesn't disappear, it retreats into the background and lets the watermelon hold the light. The heart develops over the next twenty minutes. Nutmeg and cardamom emerge, warm and slightly exotic, while the aquatic accord softens into something more mineral, more skin-like. Cedar appears early, not waiting for the drydown to announce itself. By the second hour, the composition has shifted entirely. The fruity freshness fades. What remains is a warm, woody trail, amber, cedar, patchouli in a tight braid that stays close to the skin. Moderate projection throughout. The drydown lasts three to four hours on most skin types, with cedar and amber lingering longest. On cooler skin, the patchouli reads darker, almost smoky.
Cultural impact
Love for Him hasn't received widespread coverage, but for those who encountered it, exclusively at Douglas, between 2013 and its discontinuation, it left an impression. The watermelon note is the kind of choice that sparks conversation: it either wins people over immediately or makes them pause and reconsider. For collectors of Annayake's work, the limited-status duo makes it harder to find and more interesting to discuss. The fragrance sits comfortably alongside other French-designed aquatic-citrus compositions of the early 2010s, though the watermelon adds a distinct sweetness that sets it apart from the cleaner marine templates of that era.
