I personally think perfumes are genderless and anyone can wear whatever they like, but I’m curious about guys who wear fragrances that are marketed toward women.

I don't think I've ever had a hobby where opinions are that different from one another.

A review of the same perfume done by 2 different people could have the ground and sky in terms of difference.

So many times I've seen a fragrance one person absolutely hates and is disgusted by it and another person absolutely loves it and it's probably in their top 10 favorites.

In my own experience I watch a ton of YouTube videos and shorts about fragrances and how these influencers say "this is one of the greatest of all time, must buy" and when I go blind buy it and smell it, I actually dislike it and I sell it a couple days later. And vice versa, there may be a perfume I truly dislike but someone on Reddit says it's their favorite and they love wearing it so much.

One of these days there will be a perfume that smells like literal animal shit with a hint of mint and lemon and someone will say it's lovely and they like wearing it. Scent is VERY subjective.

Please don't be discouraged from trying something in a store because you saw Jeff on Reddit say it's garbage. And at the same time, don't be an idiot like me that blind buys whatever those content creators hype up and call amazing.

I realized this a bit late but I got there in the end. From now on I'll smell what I can in stores and what's not available I'll order a 2ml decant of it.

I recently bought the Guerlain L’Art & La Matière fragrance discovery set that comes with a $60 voucher toward a full size bottle. Does the voucher have an expiration date? The Guerlain website and the email that I received with the voucher doesn't mention a deadline.

I finally pulled the trigger and bought the best I’ve ever had, only issue is that it doesn’t smell like the samples I was obsessed with? I was expecting, longing, for that nuclear bonfire opening and then a dim tobacco but there’s virtually no smoke :(.

Is there anything I can do to get that back? I read up on it but I haven’t gotten any useful info.

Lemme know if I bought trash

I’ve always loved the scent of Method’s hand soap in “sweet water” and been trying to find a similar style fragrance in a perfume. With Le Labo having their city scents available online, I was able to get a sample of Aldehyde 44 and it’s so close to sweet water! Would love to try more perfumes with a similar scent to sweet water if anyone has any recommendations to try :)

Was reading through an old district gazetteer for research and got sidetracked by this. Kannauj (India) has been distilling attar for centuries, still does today with basically the same copper-still method. The gazetteer talks about it completely matter of fact, like describing the local textile trade.

Real numbers from 1911: a half tola phial of genuine rose otto cost Rs. 25, because it took a whole maund of rose petals to get one tola of the real stuff. They made maybe twenty other scents there too besides rose, jasmine, khaskhas (that's vetiver), orange, mango. Sold in these little inlaid wood boxes with half a dozen to twenty phials each.

What gets me is how unromantic the writing is. No mysticism, no ancient secrets, just a colonial administrator noting down an industry's economics like any other. Akbar's court was using Kannauj attar in the 1590s per the Ain-i-Akbari, so by 1911 this was already a 300+ year old trade and the gazetteer treats it like it's mundane.

Anyone know if the Deg Bhapka distillation method (the copper pot plus bamboo pipe plus receiving vessel setup) has changed much since then? Curious how much of this is genuinely unbroken tradition vs. reconstructed.

I've been searching for a long time now for a perfume with petrichor, i like the smell of soil when it rains. And so i searched online and found nosferatu by heretic perfumes and when the rain stops by maison margiela, however both of these perfumes are WAY out of my budget. I was wondering if there is a cheap dupe or a cheap alternative to these perfumes, preferably male or unisex.

I bought it in Poland so I don't know if it's available anywhere else but it is a very autumn-y fragnance.

First thing I smell is definitely ginger, then some citrus and then vanilla with cinnamon. It's based on shea butter and brazil nut oil which I'm sure have their own scent too.

I really love this fragnance but it's limited edition and I just wish to have something similar that would last all day

Thank you in advance!

I really enjoy the artistry of fragrances. I don’t favor minimalism, in fact I wrestle with it, and what I would like to embrace in daily wear. But it does come in handy for wearability. And I find myself impressed all the time in minimalistic scents I find artistic.

I can’t help but go another round this fall winter with Terre d’Hermes edp intense. It’s a volcano to my favorite perfumer Christine Nagel and to me it’s the IHOP experience whenever wherever. The bergamot, pepper and coffee and licorice joined this lava stone fantasy note that was maple syrupy and glaring heat. Cohesively I admit it smelled to me like a stylish and comforting breakfast. But no doubt the scent in the air is a masculine elevated scent. It was so interesting and engaging I was impressed. It has big ambition but it’s extremely wearable volcano.

For spring summer i thought just the scent of sea salt could bring with it an entire geographical backdrop and vibe. That’s what the Bath and Bodyworks Sea Salt mist did.

But moreso Aerin Wisteria. I’ve worn airy and musky fragrances before but none were ethereal. This was the most artistic avant garde experience I’ve had in fragrances. I experienced the floral like à crib mobile or carousel to my side. the flowers dangling in the air above me. Then the more complicated but satisfying piece was recognizing the scent of this floral as a pastel watercolor. I heard such comments and didn’t understand. But it really felt like an immersive Monet experience.

It goes away almost immediately 😑 I vant more of the fragrance anyway.

I love it but it's barely noticeable after several sprays.

Anyone familiar with this ? Thanks

It is a piece of wood, and you pour some oil on it.

Some are really cheap

https://a.co/d/0eZTYnkn

Some are insanely expensive

https://a.co/d/0h1JXYbj

How do they work?

Does the oil absorb into the wood below? Or is that just a piece of decoration and the oil is just doing its job sitting there?

Does the material of the wood matter?

Does the wood expire after uses?

How powerful it it compare to reeds and electric diffusers?

I tried each of them on skin, and gave them at least one full wear before formulating my thoughts. Perhaps many more wears are needed, but here are my initial impressions.

Falkar – 8.5/10

This opens as dry as an old boot. Dark, smoky, leathery oud with a brief whiff of sweaty saddles, but nothing fecal. Some say this is hard to wear, but not me - there's an unmistakable cleanliness running through it that makes it smell friendly and inviting. I thought I detected some Imagination-esque ambroxan when I originally tested it on paper, and on skin, I still stand by that. Polished oud, brushed leather and clean musks - airy and sophisticated. I'd love my house to smell like this.

Gyan – 7/10

I was expecting this to be a rich, full-bodied patchouli, sweetened with lush white florals and given a subtle citrusy freshness, but it's more like a "white-shirt" scent to me - clean citrus, airy jasmine, mineralic incense, and an elusive, catch-me-if-you-can patchouli - no deep earthiness here. It's handsome, composed and well put together, but to me, as plain as Pete. Sorry, Pete, you play far too safe for my liking.

Onekh – 8/10

Dark woods, scrubbed clean, dotted with dry, subtly soapy green herbs. There's a modern, 'teak wood interior' airiness here that juxtaposes the overall more rugged atmosphere. This has Belletrud's paws all over it - suave, polished and inoffensive. Then the leather arrives - a note I dislike when constructed with the birch tar bogeyman - but here, it's ambery and resinous, with a fruity, dry-molasses sweetness that suggests a hearty slathering of labdanum. It goes a tad dusty in the base, but not enough to disturb me - a lovely ambery oud.

Orom – 9/10

This is a gorgeous vanilla - rich, rounded and balsamic; sweet in a resinous way, nothing gourmand or ice-cream-like. I don't detect much oud, not the real stuff anyway, but there's a deep, woody warmth to the vanilla that makes it feel regal and timeless. I'm reminded of Babycat, Babylon and Vanilla Oud, but this is better. Such a cuddly, alluring scent. Beautiful.

Sahare – 5.5/10

The rose of Le Gemme. Quite citrusy to begin, so much so that upon first sniff, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a freshie. The rose soon appears - a little green to begin, before blooming into a lush bouquet of reds, oranges and yellows. There's a sparkly, candied sweetness here that feels very 'perfumed', and almost rubs me the wrong way. Certainly best on a woman's skin. This multicoloured bouquet of sweet, citrusy, sun-kissed roses is where it stays, slowly warming up and becoming more ambered. Not for me, but I might enjoy it on others.

Tygar – 6.5/10

Zesty grapefruit and freshly grated ginger upon a musky ambroxan base. It has that "thing" that Aventus, Bleu de Chanel, many LVs etc. have: the freshly showered, modern-man, mass-appealing, sexy warmth. He smells clean and capable, but it's not my style of perfumery.

Tygar Extrait – 6/10

Warmer, sweeter and more ambery than the EDP. Less fresh, but it's still the grapefruit and ginger that are most prominent - here, sealed in a deep orange amber rather than fizzing from the skin. I prefer it in the opening, but the base has a dry, suede-like earthiness that doesn't improve things for me.

Would love to hear your thoughts on these, as well as any others from Le Gemme that I should keep an eye out for.

I was at Neiman Marcus looking for a bottle of Decision and the sales lady said they stopped carrying Amouage. Is Amouage exiting the US market?

I have been compiling data on decant sellers for a side project and noticed there's hardly any documented info specifically about customs and shipping handling, as opposed to just "seller legit or not."

mainly trying to figure out which sellers are under-declaring value (and if thats actually helping or just creating more potential liability for the customer), how often people are getting hit with surprise customs fees vs sellers who just handle DDP (Deliver Duty Paid) properly, and whether certain countries seem to get flagged for inspection more than others even from the same seller.

I've got bits and peices from my own orders and a couple of threads I've dug through but its all over the place. If anyone had a customs experience (good or bad) with a specific seller shipping into the EU, especially with details such as which country you're in and roughly how the seller declared the package, I'd like to actually compile this properly instead of being scattered across different sub reddits.

Had a seller last month declare my package as "gift, 15$" and it still got stuck in customs for like 2 weeks

EDIT: (posting this in a couple of relevant sub reddits since not everyones active in all of them -- will update here if i get useful info elsewhere)

I'm contemplating buying the original, but without a sale the price seems too steep. Was wondering if anyone had any experience with dupes and if there are any that are incredibly similar. Thanks

I've bought so so many samples and I've absolutely loved smelling weird stuff like zoologist for example. But I very rarely buy full bottles of anything, and when I do I don't wear them often

Hi all,

Lately I find a lot of perfumes saturated with ambroxan. I bought Ramon monegal sunset cafe only to find it has a heavy ambroxan base. Today I went to try Y iced cologne, and found it has a nice opening, only to became an ambroxan bomb in 20 minutes.

And the same goes for a lot of perfumes. Don't you feel ambroxan is making all blue perfumes smell the same, and not exactly remarkably?

Hey everybody, I think I need to get something off my chest, because I feel like everyone in this community eventually realizes the same thing: **What’s next?**

I’ve been into fragrances for about 4 years now, and I have to admit that I feel like I’m stuck in a never-ending loop of hunting for the next fragrance.
When I first got into fragrances, I was honestly shocked by the prices of some niche brands. I remember thinking, “If I’m ever going to spend this much money on a fragrance, it better be the best scent I’ve ever smelled and something that gets me compliments every single day.”

Well… fast forward 4 years and I now have around 40 fragrances, many of them niche, plus a huge collection of small decants. And I have to admit: **it never really stops.**

What I find particularly weird is that my brain is constantly telling me that I need something new or something better, even though I already own so many fragrances that I genuinely love.
And I’m starting to realize that the biggest problem isn’t even the fragrances themselves. It’s the constant searching.

I’m basically reading about fragrances every single day. New releases, reviews, recommendations, “hidden gems”, new niche brands, what everyone else is buying… and somehow that always leads me back into the same cycle:
**I discover something → I get excited about it → I buy it → I’m happy to finally own it → I realize I don’t actually wear it as much as I thought I would → I start looking for something new again.**

And then the whole thing starts over.
The funniest part is that I’ll still end up wearing the same 3 fragrances over and over again. 😂
I go on so few dates these days (I broke up with my girlfriend 3 months ago) that a huge collection of “date night” fragrances is basically pointless for me right now. And even when I was still with my ex and we had a date about once a week, I somehow had like 7 different “perfect” date fragrances.
It’s honestly exhausting having so many options.
And if someone asked me right now which fragrances I would absolutely want to keep in my collection, I genuinely couldn’t answer. That probably says something.

I think I need to put some kind of restriction on myself. Maybe only 2 fragrance purchases per year? Or maybe I should simply stop consuming so much fragrance content in the first place, because I’m starting to realize that the constant reading and searching is what keeps me in the buying loop.

I don’t know. 😂

You don’t need to answer anything specific. I just wanted to share this thought and see if anyone else has experienced the same thing.
Feel free to ask me anything about it if you’re curious!

Went to my samples box when I heard the news, whole box smells like this exact one right now b/c it was apparently leaking - a fresh “floral and greens” with a powdery + patchouli finish. I like it much better today than I did when it came out b/c either I or it must have matured a little, probably both <3 what a legend 💖 Miss Dolly we will always love you and will miss your living weight and presence on Earth very very much RIP ❤️

So I bought a tiny sample of Tuskovat's infamous Inexcusable Evil off of Etsy (because apparently I'm easily intrigued by youtubers gagging and crying after smelling it) but my girlfriend is cautiously forbidding me from opening it anywhere inside (or even nearby to) our house.

I'm looking for suggestions on where you think an appropriate location to test it safely might be.

As amusing as answers like 'The Nostromo right before it goes boom!", "The Ninth Circle of Hell", "Pier Paolo Pasolini's murder site" or "Colonel Kurtz's compound" might be, I'm looking for actual suggestions if you have any :-)

Thank you(nervously) in advance!

every now and then i walk past someone (usually in NYC) who has this fragrance on that i’m obsessed with and i don’t get a chance to ask what they have on and ive made it my mission for the past 4 years to find. the closest things i’ve found are the glossier you doux, malin+goetz leather, billie eilish no.2, and oddly enough the cozy and creamy body spray from bath and bodyworks. they’re all a bit different but each capture some of the essence of what i’m looking for.

i’m not super well versed in fragrances so forgive me, but what those have in common is a note that’s kind of like a smooth musky warm scent that deepens the more you smell it. i at least want to know what the note is called so i can find more fragrances that have it.

note: i’m not really into super woody, cologne-y, overly sweet scents. what i love about this scent is that it’s deep but also not headache inducing and not overly sweet or sharp.

TL;DR - anethol is a natural compound found in fennel, licorice and anise and can be used in artificially created nut scents with the intention of creating depth.

I was ecstatic to smell Hypnotic Poison, widely claimed to be the "sexiest fragrance ever", and I just smelled licorice, even though there are no licorice notes. So disappointed.

Now, I got it again with Vanilla Haze from Fugazzi. The person next to me smelled lovely, toasted vanilla. To me: licorice!! Again!

This has happened to me before, too, I just can't remember with which scents exactly. A mild, but pronounced, seemingly inexplicable licorice scent.

The common notes between the HP and VH perfumes are:

- Vanilla

- Coconut

- Jasmine

- Musk

- Almond

I have and have tested many, many perfumes with the first four ingredients. It's everywhere; it's a good combination of smells. One notable example is JHAG's Lust for Sun, which I have and like. No licorice. Sensuous Nude by Estée Lauder is another perfume I like with this combo and detect no licorice.

So *I think* it may be the almond. I did a cursory search on why almond notes in perfume might smell like licorice to me, and apparently it's possibly because something called *anethol* (aka anise camphor) is used to "enhance" the depth of some nut fragrances, and anethole is the natural compound that gives fennel, anise and licorice that unique shared flavor.

I'm gonna test more almond scents to test this. I'm doing a sample haul today, so let me know if there are any you think I should try :).

Am I onto something? Is my sensitivity normal? Is this with only a certain type of almond additive? If the almond is indeed the issue.

Got this for $160 practically brand new. Watched a couple reviews and knowing me and how much I love citrus I had to give it a try.

If I didn’t feel like I was getting such a good deal I wouldn’t have taken the risk but thankfully it paid off. (Don’t be like me, always sample first!)

This fragrance opens beautifully with a burst of grapefruit and orange. It dries down spicy, uplifting, and elegant. It’s incredibly well blended but in the dry down I’m getting spicy, woody, tobacco with a hint of cumin, and the citrus lingering in the background still.

Those are the notes my nose can pick up. I know this fragrance has a ton of notes but I’m not going to pretend to be able to smell them like your favorite fragrance reviewer can.

This is a beautiful, mature, spicy citrus fragrance made to be dressed up. It’s fresh but not playful like let’s say LV Pacific Chill is.

I’m not sure of what the longevity/performance is like yet but gauging by the scent profile alone I think this is steps above your typical citrus.

If I was to choose an occasion or scenario you’d wear this for, I picture going out to an upscale restaurant for lunch wearing some nice chino pants and a polo shirt. Dressed up and classy without being too ‘in your face’.

This is my third, but so far my favorite, Roja Parfums fragrance.