Perfume / Cologne

In general I trust Guerlain and Chanel.

I am currently rotating between Fendi, Trussardi Light, CK Truth, Green Tea, Happy, a freebee phial from Zara and a bottle of stuff from River Island I got for Christmas (work days only).

On the boy I'm 'liking' this new one that's oh so obliquely called Sexual. It's like, ok YOU, bedroom NOW!

Suitable replacements for the Chaos are either the Comme des Garcons red or Corso Como 1010 and I will get one of these on my next trip to Liberty, or when a fashion friend goes through Milanese duty free. Whichever comes first.

Ramon wears Pi, that smells pretty good. Nicole, what does the new Mugler one smell like? Is it that Angel Men one?

It is nice though, very fresh

For guys, I like Christian Dior Higher (airy, floral) or Farenheit (to me, it smells like SEX!, it's just raw appeal), or Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio (light, transparent, oceanic). I don't like old-man- smelling stuff, and I don't want my guy to smell like a girl, either.

Someone I knew wore vanilla essence, but stopped after a strange man approached her and said that she smelt good enough to eat.

Just plain soap and water works fine for some people, but I have noticed that there are some people who just smell off like sour dough even if they bathe and/or shower regularly. Which is why the "no scent" option is sometimes dud.

I like Marc Jacob's new cologne. Except I don't like that it's advertised by pictures of Sofia Coppola.

People do have very distintive smells, whether they clean themselves a lot or not. I do remember another girl I knew who just smelled like a goat. It's not like she was dirty, it was her body chemistry.

Sofia Coppola is a complete dud, and it pains me to want to buy Marc Jacobs when I feel I am supporting Sofia Coppola by doing it.

Just kidding. I've never said "just kidding" in a post before, ever.

I'm wearing something called Croquembouche by Demeter. I don't know what a Croquembouche is, but it smells like caramel, which is a bit odd. WHy do I want to smell like food?

Otherwise, I prefer shampoo/soap/fabric softener/candle odors than perfume/cologne... I'd rather take a dip in baby powder than spend large dollars on little bottles of excess.

i didn't compare notes qua notes but heritage (i know the real thing) and egoiste (i don't, just the dupe) have a subtlety that is impressive in retrospect. neither one jumps out as anything in particular, but as time goes on, you start to acknowledge the integrity and tastefulness of construction. different and diffident elements greet you politely in due time. as far as i know (i'm no expertise-ist.) egoiste was supposedly a flop because the culture was unprepared for anything other than trad masculines; remember obsession was a big deal before and it was way more so than egoiste. obsession was aggressively unmasc and therefore somehow way masc; egoiste, you had to be cognizant of the sideways flirtatious look it was throwing at you, and apparently few were. i think opium ph did ok and it wasn't any more butch than egoiste. i suspect egoiste was not enough in-your-face of the thing it was for the times. if it were louder, it would have hit harder.

i don't know how egoiste and heritage compare structurally but vibe-wise they seem on the same plateau to me. bowie said it doesn't matter who did something first, what matters is who did something second. if i said something novel and accurate, i didn't mean to. you'd know way more than i.

does tsar have dihydromyrcenol? that might be what makes it feel cheap and oily initially, but when that fades it's a dry herbal coniferous wonder. dihydro is a bane and blessing. i like everything i have that has it but it's the worst part of everything that has it.

nb posting opinions about fragrances while tipsy is my avocation but hopefully it doesn't offend too much or actually derail any serious conversations about a subject that actually has pertinence to to interests of many on here. i'm not a slosh, at least not with a frequency that should be alarming, yet. in my defense i will say i think drunk posting about art that you love should be a bigger thing in the world than is currently seems to be.

mystique, that's what i meant. egoiste has it, heritage has it, long story short.

I don’t know Egoïste except from airports. Chanel’s masculine mainlines don’t warrant a purchase— Antaeus is interesting but the wrong kind of animalic for me (see also Kouros). Pour Monsieur is the only classic-era masc I don’t want to wear, tho it’s nice. EgPlat and Allure and Bleu and whatever else are trashbin.

But Egoïste non-Platinum was always on the cusp of a love when I smelled it— it just didn’t smell necessary enough, I guess. I do love some of the Exclusifs— Sycomore is the only I own but buy me Cuir de Russie or Coromandel any time.

I don’t have Heritage on me out in the wilds of familyland but it’s always seemed to be to be an amber-adjustment-update of Habit Rouge— a touch less spicy but fundamentally the same vibe. I actually recommended Heritage to my mom and she loved the idea (but ended up sticking with the MDCI she liked more— Promesse de l’Aube).

I will smell deeper when I get home and figure out the connections

Also, in my packing haste, I thought carefully about "what evening fragrance to bring" for family-friend-functions (settled on Papillon Epona this year) but forgot to pack a morning fougere and I feel naked without it. It's become a necessary part of my toiletries bag, a seemingly secondary-importance object (like a tongue scraper, which I didn't forget) that has achieved primary-importance status. Givenchy Monsieur/Caron Pour Un Homme/Dior Eau Sauvage are my triumvirate of morning moods and man oh man am I missing that spritz in the mornings, especially while making breakfast for everyone, I feel like I've deprived myself of coffee or deodorant.

This is an interesting thread. Early this year, the algorithm must've seen that I looked at a cologne ad, so I began getting bombarded with similar ads, which led to a buying spree. I really like the darker colognes, like Mystikum Fragrances' Moonlight Ceremony, and Anomalia Paris' Cérémonie, and Amouage's Opus XIV - Royal Tobacco, and Comme des Garçons' Blackpepper, and (even though it's a little lighter in vibe) Room 1015's Cherry Punk. I've stopped the buying spree, for now. But, 2026 is a new year, so who knows?

I received a bottle of Eris Green Spell for xmas, it continues to please, no noticeable difference between samples I received in November and the bottle. The longevity does leave a little to be desired, but to me, so much of perfume and cologne is wanting to smell a certain way myself. what other people think is sort of secondary.

in the package with the Green Spell were some samples. I have only tried one— Milano Fragranze's 'Derby,' which has a bursty opening of hay and tuberose, then it dries down to something a bit more ozonic, imho. I kind of like it!

"a morning fougere " is a very elegant and lithe turn of phrase. such inscrutable specificity. one envisions an entire vignette centered around such a conceit. i am dressing towards the standards of my profession but my preferred cravat is not in its designated place. perhaps this other will do but it sends a contradictory message. oh well, such is life. eau savauge, you shall be my aegis! applied in such a manner and so i shall enter the consulate with a gentle yet confident mien and embrace the ambassador in a cloud of beatific benevolent co-operation. i float the prospect of withdrawing troops from our shared border. very european; very modest. my morning fougere.

i dunno, that's what came to mind but fragrance analysis is weird and particular.

what’s the consensus on DS & durga’s new “debaser in bloom”? smelled v petrol-y on me initially then dries down to iris or lilies. can def still smell the debaser green fig

idk— I’m not a huge fan of Debaser but I’ll check it out. I adore DS Durga’s Eucalyptus, a favourite around here

for some reason gen z youtube has determined that fahrenheit is a horrible fragrance, and i wholeheartedly agree. it's a lot. also, the adventures of baron munchausen is a terrible film, what is that even about? buffalo stance? who likes that? fuck 1988.

you have no context for any of this, is my opinion. it's not for you, apparently. no style rookie, better watch, don't mess with me. you go over there and i'll stay over here.

i also got the dua fragrances clones of vc & a tsar and muugler pure havane, so 1989 and 2011 are crossed off on my list. tsar always gets me sneakily: it starts so shiny and generic like a drugstore scent but once the dihydo oiliness fades there's a bitter green that i assume is artemesia and i'm lovin' every minute of ot (loverboy reference). bitter greens is my whatever the invese of bete noire is; recommend me some atremesia frags pleeze. mugler seems to have disappeared from the retail environment: i used to be able to go to macu's and all the muglers would be there and i'd say so what. now they're not there anymore and alla sudden nostalgic for the disappeared recent past. not really fond of all the fucking gourmands out the but this one seems old-school by comparison. not my go-to but in the pocket. i am old and have old opinions, if 15 years old is old, which seems to be nowadays.

i also got an old bottle of dior dune pour homme. a perfectly ordinary 1997 scent that doesn't really translate into modern times, so i really dig it. sunny came home, indeed. not as fig-leaf-forward as i hoped, but so low-grade sandalwood in the late 90's way it's so then. cassia, yes. malls still had the warner bros store and the museum store and the nature company and everything was so MMMbop. plant a seed and see what grows. no one knows, but it's dior dune. it's so ordinary; it's exquisite. plain but pretty; the perfect girlfriend. one of everything but yours alone.

then i went back to the mall kiosk and got another 1.7 oz. of the paco rabanne xs french formula xs and a 3.4 oz. of the spanish formulation. i think i'm al set. the spanish reformulation is supposed to be lesser bobka to the og and the latest reformulation even lesser but i dunno/ i'm in normie heaven. this couldn't be more ordinary, and i've been using that word a lot. so beautifully ordinary.