Perfume / Cologne

I wear the goiter with the male torso.

what's that smell like?

i tried the tommy and i think it's a better choice for my 90s retconning than the hugo man, which is giving me attitude. i didn't have the tommy at the time, but i could wear it and pretend it's a nostalgic scent for me. def get the "clean laundry" vibe, which i think is in other more recent stuff like versace pour homme, but this seems seminal and of pop-cultural import and could be a good everyday thing when you just want a pleasant uncomplicated thing that reminds you of rocco's modern life and playing doom and all the divisions in the boston firehouse and sean and montana should have hooked up already and whatnot.

i did a mall sweep where i smelled all the mall scents to see if anything stood out and it was unproductive. after a few smells all i got was white noise, which would be a good band name for any band i would be in. the worst part was that i found out that the dior homme sport has been completely reformulated. i wasn't going to get it, but i liked it, and they changed it. they took out the fucking iris! and the ginger and citron! it was really pretty, for a man's scent! it's like jesus said, people are dicks, whatta you gonna do? we're all slaves to the rhythm, and the rhythm of dior homme sport was a sophisticated yet flirty foxtrot. i can't dance to this new stuff. boo dior.

also before it goes away i used the last of the cdg 2 sample. it's so slight, but there's an allure. this makes me wish i had applied myself more in the competitive sphere so i could afford to longer keep frivolous things that might be for me but i'll never know. i now get the aldehyde/ floral thing that looks over its shoulder at its inky shadow, it's so damn cute. goodbye, cdg 2 sample, we could have spent the rest of out lives together wasting away sunday mornings reading the times in bed and splitting a croissant because nobody needs a whole croissant.

ah but that's where you're wrong

you think you need a whole croissant?
nobody needs a whole croissant!

maybe you just don't like croissants?

cause i'll eat two as a goddamn warmup

Slug where do you get your samples? Any sample-shopping tips?

picked up laura biagiotti roma for myself and mugler cologne for my bf: roma is like a creamy vanilla-y benzoin with orange/bergamot, pine needles and a kind of pleasant musty note that smells a bit like visiting someone's else's house. the mugler is musky metallic neroli soap, really lovely, just wish the longevity were better.

the CdG/Monocle (don't judge) collaboration Hinoki is one of my faves and I actually remembered it this morning

it's got this woody camphor thing going that reminds me of the smell of the cabins from summer camp when I was a kid

i actually had a sample of hinoki, it seemed to me like an incense wood type scent. i liked it but it's such light subtle stuff that the niche price isn't rly justified imo

definitely one that dissipates quickly

i have a couple faves like that, and while the ephemeral nature can be irritating in some ways it's nice in others

for samples i try sephora and nordstrom. that's the best i got for brick and mortar. they'll give you some small spray vials if you ask, and they have a slightly better selection than macy's or whatnot. like at least sephora has dior eau sauvage, while macy's dior stock was entirely johnny depp sauvage plus one solitary bottle of fahrenheit, fer chrissakes. they didn't even have the dior homme line anymore. i think there's a saks within driving distance that may or may not have a chanel boutique but i'm pretty limited to what i can test in person. sephora has platinum egoiste but not the EGOISTE! EGOISTE! one.

for online i try MyPerfumeSamples first since you can get a decent quantity for cheap. they don't have much past the usual designer but that's where i got the jaipur homme and ysl opium, 3ml or 5ml for about 4 to 6 bucks usually. notino and decantshop i can get a 2ml sprayer for about the same price, so it's slightly more per ml but they have things like l'artisan or some but not all cdg or diptyque or things like jpg kokorico or dsquared rocky mountain he wood that myperfumesamples doesn't have.

i've also used the perfumed court for the cb i hate perfume samples i got. they've got a lot of high end and niche and vintage versions of stuff, but it gets pricey real quick. luckyscent seems to have all the niche but they only have the small .7ml vials for dabbing, but luckyscent keeps the price at 4 bucks for everything, i think, while the perfumed court varies. the perfumed court also has larger sprayer sizes, which i like because i don't think i get enough from just dabbing on a bit from the small vials; i like enough to get a couple of sprays for at least a few trial wearings. anyway i figure i'm good messing around with classics and designer for now.

also tj maxx, half the boxes have been broken into already so i just spray that right on, assuming they have anything good, which they never do.

mostly i watch a lot of fragrance reviewers on youtube (kristo from the betawiblood channel is good, so is christopher from scentland for classics, lanier smith, robes08, and simply put scents are some others i like) and browse fragrantica to get a sense of what i might like and then go mall sniffing or order samples. fragrantica's useful, in that if you like a certain note in a thing you can go to the page for that note and it'll show you other things with that note predominating. like i smelled the prada amber at sephora, got a sample to wear, went on fragantica for the note breakdown, figured out that i like saffron, found that versace man (just man, not man eau fraiche) also has a predominant saffron note and is cheap, got a versace man (just man, not man eau fraiche) sample, and ended up getting both for christmas/ birthday presents.

i want to try the roma since i've liked everything from annick menardo so far.

they have celery, cucumber, tomato, pepper, bread (for croutons), wine (for vinaigrette), and bacon notes, so where are all the salad fragrances? who dropped the ball on this?

also that smell of entering a chamber of an etruscan ruin that hasn't been exposed for a couple and a half millennia with the cold, cold marble and all the clay wine vessels, cold marble and clay and wine and the cessation of time and memory, that's also a good one i think would sell a few units.

Excellent info, thanks!

the non-drinky version of my last two posts is first, that i tried the polo blue because it has a cucumber note but i couldn't make it out. mostly i got basil which is a different green than i was looking for. the hermes un jardin sur le nil has nice tomato (i thought it had tomato leaf, which is sharp and acrid, but i think it's just the tomato fruit?)and carrot notes, i figure i'd like more in that vein, salad scents.

second, sometimes skin acts weird or your nose is all stuffy and that can really warp the way a fragrance smells; once under those conditions i was getting impressions of cold marble or ceramics, heavy, uncirculated air, and wine, but the scent of wine from an empty bottle instead of actual wine, all from a fragrance that didn't smell like any of that ordinarily. it wasn't bad, though, it smelled as if it were consciously composed like that, accords that are reminiscent of ancient places or things.

then i had too much jameson and posted some inscrutable blarp about salads and scary ruins.

i didn't care for the hermes un jardin sur le toit last time i tried it, because mostly it was all apple, but this time i got the grass note, which i like a lot. i vaguely remember smelling gap grass in the 90s,
i dunno about comparing gap to hermes but it seemed nice at the time.

it was rainy and mild today so i borrowed some of my brother's vetiver guerlain for another go-round. today, it was pretty good. i still think it's too much for the heat but really nice for spring weather, so i'm not off it altogether. the citrus and green notes seemed more in balance with the heavier woody and aromatic notes. i was able to pick up some pepper in the middle so that's always a bonus when i can detect notes i couldn't before.

picked up laura biagiotti roma for myself and mugler cologne for my bf: roma is like a creamy vanilla-y benzoin with orange/bergamot, pine needles and a kind of pleasant musty note that smells a bit like visiting someone's else's house. the mugler is musky metallic neroli soap, really lovely, just wish the longevity were better.

― clouds, Friday, April 14, 2017 12:21 PM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry, Idk what happened, but OH OH OH ROMA IS MY FAVE!!! I started with a sample vial of it over 20 years ago that I got on a trip somewhere and then couldn't find it again for a decade or more, and then my parents went to Paris and my mom got me a huge bottle that I've barely made a dent in and it's probably gone off now. Truly my fave since I was a teenager.

But I never wear perfume. I wish I did. I just don't.

i love it. did you have the femme version? i'd like to try that. really wish the weather would warm up here so it'd feel more apt to wear.

Yes I suppose it is. I think it's just called Roma, not "Roma for Women" or something. Now I wonder what Roma for Men smells like. Probably better, because I like woodsy and spicy and citrusy smells.

ALSO BREAKING NEWS I learned that someone I know socially works at a fragrance house compounding scents for everything from personal care products to laundry detergent!!!

He said there's a chemical they use that smells exactly like potting soil but it's proprietary. Now I'm curious.

ASK ALL YOUR QUESTIONS and I shall endeavor to get answers.

Honestly for those of you who wear scent, how many hours of the day does it last you? When I'm out of the house for 12 hours I feel like any scent I use is only going to be there for half the day--the other half I'm going to smell like my lunch plus sweat from running up and down the stairs at school.

i make frags "stretch" a bit by putting jojoba/avocado/almond oil on my skin before spraying - the fragrance melds with the oil and seems to stay present for longer

it's tricky because a lot of the ones that really hang around all day are the most cloying

I don't own more than one bottle of cologne at a time, so I usually go for broke
I wear Creed "Virgin Island Water" it is the second-best smell
Frederic Malle "Bigerade Concentree" remains the best smell, if I date a man I will buy it for them
Creed "Millisme" was circulated for a time but it faintly smells like urine
Creed "Vetiver" is nice enough but boring over time
Le Labo "Bergamot" was worn for a while but then all my NYC gay friends poached it and now it's in bathrooms at the Ace
I bought Creed "Aventus" for my manager and she loves it

i read something about how creed claims to have lineage back to napoleon and george iii but no one can find any evidence of them existing before 1975 lol

Very plausible. Still love more of their stuff (Aventus, Silver Mt. Water, Millesime Imperial) than I dislike (Green Irish Tweed).

"Virgin Island Water" is also a fantastic smell, but one I wouldn't feel at all guilty opting for an imitation thereof.

Went down the wormhole of a Fragrantica thread on Creed 1975 claims, and my main takeaway was ... you either love or loathe Creed.

found the creed scents nice but incredibly strong. one squiff of it and i felt drenched in scent.

the roma, yatagan, kokorico, philosykos, tam dao, and timbuktu samples are coming, so i can check those off. also ordered moschino uomo?, dsquared he wood rocky mountain wood, and the lalique homme lion and hommage a l'homme for the heck of it.

they didn't have the mugler cologne, which i really wanted to try for summer, but i figure it'll pop up sooner or later.

lalique lion and moschino uomo are on my wishlist -- actually ordered another moschino frag for my bf, fresh couture. supposed to be v floral and citrusy and probably v good for this high spring weather.

also snagged gaultier's fleur du male as it's been mostly unavailable everywhere and i think it's discontinued. reviewers say it's a strong herbal white flower nuke and has godlike longevity so looking forward to it. will write more once it's finally here.

lmao ok omg

https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Dove-Men-Care-Line-Minerals-Sage-9408.html
http://themuse.jezebel.com/here-is-my-secret-to-smelling-kinda-good-1795018063

they determined that having real-sounding artificial frags like the "every man jack" or whatever brand is cool

JPG fleur du male came in and omg this is so good -- smells like a white florals explosion for the first hour then fades into a delicious dirt and fresh green hay note that lasts literally until you shower, and even then there's still a hint of it.

moschino fresh couture is really nice too but totally different, like flowery bubblegum-flavored soda but not cheap or cloying. definitely feels like a "going for a walk in tank tops and shorts" kind of frag. the bottle is real cute too:

http://www.sephora.com/productimages/sku/s1865096-main-Lhero.jpg

tam dao and philosykos are pretty straight-up good. i get the whole fig tree deal from the philosykos - fruit, leaf, wood. can't separate the woods in the tam dao but but it seems more sandlewoody and the rose isn't really distinct on skin but i can pick it up fine out of the vial. would like to compare the l'artisan premier figuier extreme to the philosykos since it can be had for less than half the price discounted, but if i were just buying a few decent things instead of dicking around with everything that looked interesting i'd get the tam dao and philosykos.

the kokorico, i can't settle on an opinion even though it's a really compelling scent i keep sticking my nose to. there's some kind of discordance between the fig leaf, patchouli, and cacao notes (can't really make out the cedar and vetiver), and i'm getting a sort of ghost floral note like a desiccated rose, even though that's not in there. the notes don't seem to be blending together to make a composite scent, but they're stepping on each other in a manner that the notes i though were familiar by now are slightly unrecognizable as their true selves, like the fig leaf is an evil doppelganger of the fig leaf i smelled in other scents, and so on. i think this is what people who live inside david lynch films wear, there's something sinister going on here that maybe you shouldn't have let in but now it's marked you. nb just my impression.

the lalique pour homme (lion) i think is really nice for something that's not that exciting. seems very traditional and self-possessed

roma and yatagan are as clouds described, can't add anything.

moschino uomo? is a nice musky scent but i'm not getting the citrus as strong as i'd hoped for or any of the notes in particular. it's a soft scent so maybe i'll have to empty out the whole sprayer.

i cut off the lion comment - it seems traditional and calm and centered but also upbeat and optimistic. the lavender and vanilla soften each other up, neither one is heavy or overbearing, just kept at a pleasant volume, but the citruses and vanilla interact to give it an orange creamsicle vibe that perks things up a bit.

lalique is such a good price on discount sites atm, wish i wasn't broke or i'd buy it

i think i'm gonna try and collect most of the guerlains? habit rouge, vetiver, insolence, l'heure bleu, samsara, shalimar, mitsouko, heritage. i could probably just stop collecting with those 8 frags.

i used to like vetiver a lot.

clouds where in the world do you live

chicago, why?

Samsara and Shalimar are my faves for the lack of flowery smells but I cant wear them because they've been my mom's signature perfumes as long as I can remember so Dry Idea it is.

Try food smells - vanilla - fruit - cinamon - moke

I can donate the vetiver to your nascent collection, wondered if your are stateside. Need your addy but my ilx web mail goes into the void so uh we'll figure something out.

omg email me girl! i'm d o m i n y c o r e y @ g m a i l. com (no spaces obv)

holy shit y'all

http://www.luckyscent.com/search?gsearch=essential+13