I just stumbled on my first, despite their marketing being very up my alley and being excited to try it -- I sampled three scents from Sorce and didn't like any of them. Fuckery's cherry note smells like a cough drop to me, and I find the tobacco smoke note overpowering. Poisonous roots wasn't bad, but the jasmine is heavy for my taste and came off kind of elderly to me. Moon Magic is the worst of the three! As soon as I sprayed it I was hit with the sense memory of the smell of pond scum??? I think it's the peppery-ness of the lavender mixing with the ambroxan. I grew up on ten acres of wetland forest and that peppery earthy smell is 100% hard-coded in my brain as that frothy green scum that collects on puddles and ponds in the sun. I had to go wash it off immediately.

What house is getting a lot of love lately, but you just can't get behind it?

If you had to choose one fragrance for your wedding day, what would it be?

The Cannstatter Volksfest is happening right now in Stuttgart which is Stuttgart's equivalent of the internationally more renowned Oktoberfest in Munich.

And while traveling on the train today, I couldn't help but notice the plethora of girls and young women apparently wearing the exact same vanilla-flavored cotton candy scent.

I don't like it but I'm interested to know what exactly that fragrance is, as the popularity seems baffling.

Hey all! Been out of the game for a few years. What're we all sporting this fall/winter?

Doesn’t count if you just cant smell that note at all and that’s why you love it 😉 for me, it’s in this world by liis. I usually hate fig - I find it either too green or too funky. But i love how it’s done in this perfume. It reads so “clean” but still honors the depth of a true fig sweetness.
I would buy a full bottle but the dry down smells almost one to one like wood sage and sea salt, which I already have.

Dear Anthony,

We source items directly from Xerjoff. The item was not returned or previously handled by a different customer.

The above was a response from Notino. I emailed Xerjoff and they said this:

Hello Anthony,

Thank you for contacting us.

I can confirm that Notino is not an official Xerjoff retailer. Therefore, we cannot verify the authenticity of perfumes purchased through their platform. Please be advised that they have been known to sell counterfeit "Xerjoff" and "Casamorati" products, and we do not recommend purchasing from them.

Not sure who to believe!

fragrance is subjective. some people only enjoy niches, some enjoy designers, and some enjoy dupes. everyone has their own reasons why, and there's no right or wrong with it.

it's also good that there's something for everyone with different wallets. rich people can buy their niches, average people can buy their designers, and students or minimum wage workers can buy their dupes. no one is left behind in the fragrance world.

unlike 10-20 years ago, dupes are on another level now. they are higher in quality now, they're closer to the originals now, some even perform longer and better than the originals now, and some even make their own original dna now. dupes are respectable now, whether you want to admit it or not.

even though dupes are great these days, people are still hating on them for no valid reason, other than for the sake of hating. every time when someone says that they like a dupe fragrance, people call them a 'sell out' or a 'glazer'. it's funny because the same thing can be said about them with their designers and niches. they have this 'superiority complex' for thinking that they're better because they only buy designers and niches, they think the world revolves around them, they think everyone makes the same amount of money as them, they think everyone has the same taste and nose as them, they think they're cool. no, they're just a bunch of pathetic sore losers with zero personality, and probably don't even have genuine friends and a loving family.

at the end of the day, fragrances is subjective. no need to dictate others, no need to politicise others, no need to bully others, no need to mock or clown others, no need to look down on others. imagine getting so worked up and triggered, just because someone likes lattafa, or mykonos, or rasasi, or whatever. instead of being an a-hole, try being a kind person and help them by recommending them some other brands or give out some samples to them. bullying them will not do any good to anyone, let alone the fragrance community. we want more people to love fragrances, not pushing more away. let's be a positive and supportive community, and let's not be the same as many other toxic communities out there. at the end of the day, just like flan said in his videos, "fragrances are just smelly water". so, let's not turn it into something serious, it's not that deep, y'all.

I started getting into fragrances because I wanted to find scents I loved wearing.

Now half the fun is researching bottles, reading notes, comparing batches and watching reviews.

Sometimes I wonder whether I am more interested in fragrances or just collecting them.

Where do you draw the line?

So i'm in the market for a nice lil winter cologne you know. I have a budget of around 100 dollars and I've been searching every where for a nice attractive, masculine, mass appealing fragrance that is a safe no brainer. Every time I feel like I found the one I see a review saying that it smells horrible and that completely sways me away. I just want to know what's a safe mass appealing winter cologne that women also like.

Can I be excited brothers and sisters?? Can’t wait to try some of them 💪🏻

I was hanging out with a friend and we both sprayed his new PDM Pegasus Exclusif on our inner arms just to smell it. Some time has passed and the dry down on my skin is a lot of vanilla and and hints of oud, but on his arm, you can only smell the oud and its really strong. We were obviously surprised by this discovery and how different it smells on different people.

We then found out that my skin tends to bring out sweeter and clean notes, while his skin tends to bring out the more animalic and dark notes.

With this discovery, I promise myself to never buy a full bottle without spraying on my skin. Ideally I would finish a 5ml decant to really know how it works with my skin and how it fits into my daily life.

So 2 weeks ago I was sampling fragrances at the store, and this young brother came next to me with his dad and was sampling as well. So I asked him, "What do you prefer? Do you know this or that?" And then he reached for Viktor&Rolf Spicebomb Extreme, which I once finished a bottle of. He said he likes it a lot, and I said I like it as well, but the dry-down makes me think of sweet bottled curry sauce because of the dominant cumin base.

He answered, "Why not? I like that sauce." I said, "I like it as well, but I like to eat it, not wear it." Then he lifted his eyebrow and gave me credit, because the dry-down really makes it feel like you just ate food with it and wiped your greasy, saucy hands all over your clothes. It's a delicious fast-food dopamine rush, but as I said, it's not smart to wear it.

Two weeks after that, I'm watching this YouTuber (Extranet Shaquille) talking about somehow exactly the same thing, saying: "There's a difference between liking the smell of something and wanting to smell like that."

So I'd like to know: in the pursuit of being

different and unique, are we not losing something along the way? Because what do you mean a certain fragrance has rum notes in it, making you smell like an after-party drunk guy? Or what do you mean a "soapy" note, like someone who didn't rinse their body enough under the shower and just let the bar of soap foam dry for the rest of the day? Or do you mean you smell like you dumped a glass of pineapple juice on yourself-and that fragrance costs a weekly paycheck-so tomorrow you smell like you've been baking apple pie all night?

Is this what being niche and unique is? Does making these types of fragrances make you a good perfumer and worth that price tag? Are we not losing the point of a fragrance, which was originally supposed to cover up any strange odors?

I figured I lacked variety in fragrances since I only have Sauvage EDP & Elixir so I YOLO'd and ordered Tom Ford Oud Wood, Stronger With You Parfum and Prada Paradigme. I've seen people frown upon blind buying before sampling but I like to live dangerously. Feel free to laugh at me. And while we're here, feel free to recommend some fragrances that you like and think would be good for a man in their 40s.

I’m heading to France and wanted to ask what are the must see places to stop and shop? Any local spots or niche houses to make an appointment?

I recently tested the new version of OV by Creed and I couldn’t really notice any differences between the older versions and the new one (I still have a small probe by OV from 2021).

The only thing i noticed is that the new one is a bit more smooth. But really only a tiny bit.

What are your thoughts?