Perfume / Cologne

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

can I borrow $90 plz?

I don't even want to own them I just want to smell them once or maybe twice

what kind of frags do you like?

gosh I don't even know at this point, I haven't fucked w them in a v long time. At this point I wear CdG Amazingreen once every few months and also a combination of Demeter Dirt + Grass (often just Dirt tho)

i'll bet you would like l'occitane eau de l'occitan, i was wearing at work and my supervisor walked by and was like "it smells like a BARNYARD in here! but in a good way!"

My bf wears the shit out of L'Occitane Bavx and Cade and maybe the Cedrat? I wish he liked sandalwood but he hates it.

baux is sooooo fucking good, that's gonna be one of my winter scents this year for sure

stevie give guerlain vetiver a sniff and tell me what you think!

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Monday, March 16, 2015 8:49 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Apparently I have been trying to re-home my bottle of Vetiver for a while. This is a good sign that it is time. All yours, clouds--I'll e-mail ya shortly.

<333

i got amazingreen because it was on sale and i figured i should just go for it because if i got a sample first it's be gone at that price if i liked it. it is really sweet, i assume there's an overabundance of calone, but it doesn't feel blue or aquatic to me either, just dewy. i really get the gunpowder accord, which cuts against the sweetness. other than that it just seems green; i can't pick out the green pepper from the palm leaf or ivy or vetiver or whatnot.

i get how ppl think it's generic and mainstream because the sweetness always stays on top so there you go but also i can't see it as a legit populist fragrance because that gunpowder accord is a bit too earthy and off-putting for that sort of thing. i also like the bvlgari aqua marine for the same reason, in that there's a battle between the stank-monster seaweed note and the sweet citrus/ floral notes that never resolves.

i got a bunch of samples too but i'm not gonna dig them out to go through them all now. off the top, i got the escentric molecules escentric 01, and like mh said upthread, the iso e super effect is more pronounced when it's used with other notes. i should probably have gotten the molecule 01 to compare, but i was afraid i wouldn't smell anything at all.

i got l'artisan premier figuier and tea for two, too. diptyque philosykos over the l'artisan but you can get the l'artisan for cheaper and they're both olivia giacobetti creations but in this case i figure go for the gold. the tea for two is like the gucci pour homme II without the violet leaf note so it's warmer but i like both so i dunno.

i also got l'artisan passage d'enfer and seville a l'aube (i dug through all my samples) and they're ok. passage is a modest incense fragrance, and the seville is really strong with orange blossom and beeswax. orange blossom smells like dish soap to me but here it's kept in check by the beeswax. neroli i like; one's an absolute and one's an extract of the same flower but i forget which one's which. like the beeswax note enough because i wanted to see if it's different from a strictly honey note and it is so i'm gonna try the lanvin avant garde which is also predominantly beeswax plus tobacco and ginger and the other usual suspects.

then i got bottles of lalique lion and aramis tuscany. the lion is baseline boring. just lavender, citrus, cedar, vanilla, the most basic of basics, but of the highest quality. to me it's an assurance that you can weather all the bullshit. all you need is love, love is all you need. the tuscany has a leathery, citrusy opening that's one of my favorite things ever, but it doesn't persevere and it turns into an azzaro pour homme clone, which i already have. i don't remember if i had a bottle of tuscany back in the day or just the sample vial but it's a memory scent for me, a cousin to armani pour homme, so i'll brook no quarrel.

also, clouds, do you have or have you smelled the habit rouge yet? i wanted to try it again in the winter because i figured my reaction was tempered by trying it out in warm weather when it would have been pushed in odd directions by the heat, but i forgot to try it again last winter. in the summery broil the powdery rose aspect bloomed irrepressibly, but i figure under more temperate conditions it would be more of a piece. also the heritage, have you smelled it or is it a want to try thing? also, how's the vetiver?

i went to perfumania and perfume outlet at the nearest outlet mall and they had so many outre things, compared to the usual mall shops. givenchy xeryus rouge, reyane insurrection pure II, muelhens 4711, ferrari uomo, mercedes benz intense, things that exist in the interzone between the upmarket and mainstream with the chanel and the mugler and the downmarket discount stores with the guess and the tim mcgraw and the diesel. for an hoir i told the sales associate everything i knew about fragrance from the internet and she told me a bunch of shit i knew not to be true so there was a stalemate.

*hour*. sorry, signed jameson.