Scent/Fragrance of the Day thread

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

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Yikes! Didn't know that about the shipping $$$. That's no good! As for MKK... people always seemed to think it was so foul, but I really didn't find it nearly so "OMG FOUL!" as people thought. And, I thought A McQ Kingdom was foul. MKK wasn't something I'd really wear much, but for a person who otherwise likes Jicky, Kielh's Musk, HL EdP, etc., it'll probably be a hit. Nevertheless, I'm one of the few people who admit to not really liking Lutens very much as a house. I've had a number of bottles, and they all just feel TOO MUCH to me. Never really the right balance for my nose, though because they kept getting such attention, I kept giving them chances thinking something must be wrong with me. Miel de bois was the only one I found "neat," but it too was too much... and they ranged all the way down to putrid (Santal Blanc.) Chergui, Fumerie Turque, Cedre, Arabie, and several others were just "meh" to me.
Tell me about it. I admit my last purchase was last year but I got the bottle shipped free. I was not happy when I had to go back to the people who got in on the split with me and inform them of my fuckup. As for SL I completely agree. Frankly, I thought they all sucked, but I remember the MKK sample to be pretty decent and Cuir Masquerade to be the same. Figured I'd swing for MKK to fill out my sample request.

Originally Posted by Rambo

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Tell me about it. I admit my last purchase was last year but I got the bottle shipped free. I was not happy when I had to go back to the people who got in on the split with me and inform them of my fuckup. As for SL I completely agree. Frankly, I thought they all sucked, but I remember the MKK sample to be pretty decent and Cuir Masquerade to be the same. Figured I'd swing for MKK to fill out my sample request.
CM was good, but I didn't find it light years ahead of other dry/pungent leathers like Knize Ten, Cuir d'ottoman (Parfum d'empire), or Tabac Blond... especially given the $$$ and the difficulty of getting a bottle (I have no idea if it has since been put into their regular line, as I don't keep up with Lutens.) If you liked the CM, then I think the L'a P TdB will be a big hit with you.

Originally Posted by Dane

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Was that a question or a comment?

Wearing Bvlgari Black.

It was a question, you don't happen to have one do you?

Originally Posted by IndianBoyz

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It was a question, you don't happen to have one do you?
You can get this for virtually nothing almost anywhere. Out of curiosity, why are you specifically hunting this one down? It's pretty much bottom-of-the-barrel for people who don't care, and can't be bothered to venture farther than their closest grocery store for their fragrance. For a fragrance fan, Brut is cheaper/lower quality than suggesting Men's Warehouse in the MC forum. I could make about a hundred better recs for fragrances you can get inexpensively than to go with Brut. Edit: re-reading my post, it sounds snobby/pretentious. I don't mean it that way, but am just genuinely curious what the interest/appeal is in Brut, or what makes it worth the time of searching it out specifically. My usual "can be had for less than $20 gem" recommendation is Monsieur Balmain. A wonderful sharp lemon/citrus with woods that is great in hot weather.

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

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CM was good, but I didn't find it light years ahead of other dry/pungent leathers like Knize Ten, Cuir d'ottoman (Parfum d'empire), or Tabac Blond... especially given the $$$ and the difficulty of getting a bottle (I have no idea if it has since been put into their regular line, as I don't keep up with Lutens.)

If you liked the CM, then I think the L'a P TdB will be a big hit with you.

I have to say that I was largely indifferent to Lutens until I got a partial of Chergui. Now, Boxeuses...I'm again indifferent to, and don't even get me started on Vetiver Oriental (OMG PU!!)

Originally Posted by IndianBoyz

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It was a question, you don't happen to have one do you?

I last wore Brut when I attended an all-boys college prep school. A Latino all-boys college prep school. I did see a bottle recently at the local grocery store, and I took a whiff. Not really as good (?) as I remember. Then again, we did eat a lot of bean-and-cheese burritos back in the day.

Originally Posted by Thomas

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I have to say that I was largely indifferent to Lutens until I got a partial of Chergui. Now, Boxeuses...I'm again indifferent to, and don't even get me started on Vetiver Oriental (OMG PU!!) I last wore Brut when I attended an all-boys college prep school. A Latino all-boys college prep school. I did see a bottle recently at the local grocery store, and I took a whiff. Not really as good (?) as I remember. Then again, we did eat a lot of bean-and-cheese burritos back in the day.
Chergui didn't do it for me, either. Had the same heavy/syrupy/cloying feel as most of the others I had. For something that I found in the same universe, but less cloying/heavy and more wearable, was Parfums de Nicolai Sacrebleu. If you think Vetiver Oriental is bad, seriously, try to find a sample of Santal Blanc. Edit to below: Oh, okay! No worries. The SF "Noses" don't joke around!

I was joking but uhm, I bought a vintage 80's miniature bottle of ebay recently just to have a sniff and does it smell nice..

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

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Nevertheless, I'm one of the few people who admit to not really liking Lutens very much as a house. I've had a number of bottles, and they all just feel TOO MUCH to me. Never really the right balance for my nose, though because they kept getting such attention, I kept giving them chances thinking something must be wrong with me. Miel de bois was the only one I found "neat," but it too was too much... and they ranged all the way down to putrid (Santal Blanc.) Chergui, Fumerie Turque, Cedre, Arabie, and several others were just "meh" to me.

Wow, how the idols are falling lately on SOTD! A couple of days ago it was Tom Ford, and now the much-vaunted Serge Lutens. To be honest, I didn't even know that mortals were permitted to speak a critical word about SL; I thought they might be struck down by a thunderbolt or something. (I hope rach will be okay.)

Seriously though, I think MKK is wonderful. I haven't tried much of the rest of the line, though, so I'll withhold my judgment.

Originally Posted by L'Incandescent

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Wow, how the idols are falling lately on SOTD! A couple of days ago it was Tom Ford, and now the much-vaunted Serge Lutens. To be honest, I didn't even know that mortals were permitted to speak a critical word about SL; I thought they might be struck down by a thunderbolt or something. (I hope rach will be okay.) Seriously though, I think MKK is wonderful. I haven't tried much of the rest of the line, though, so I'll withhold my judgment.
Haha, you're right! I was nearly stoned to death on BN for daring to speak against teh Lutens a few years back! For about a year, everybody-and-his-cousin was willing to trade his own grandmother for a bottle of Chergui, and to say anything other than that it was the nectar of teh Godz, was to paint yourself a traitor! BUT, really, the only houses overall with a consistent vision that I find continually interesting are Caron, Guerlain, L'a P, Parfum d'empire, Montale, The Different Company, Comme des Garcons, and Malle (of course.) Most of the other big names (Creed, Lutens, TF, Goutal, MPG, and so many others) just have never made me !scream!, and at their prices, they should. Of course I'm leaving out several in each category... but just to say that fragrance-groupthink can be as deadly for the wallet as is fashion groupthink. I had more than my share of blind-buys based on recs from others, and found largely that it was a big waste.

I wanna try.

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

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(...)

Edit: re-reading my post, it sounds snobby/pretentious. I don't mean it that way, but am just genuinely curious what the interest/appeal is in Brut, or what makes it worth the time of searching it out specifically. My usual "can be had for less than $20 gem" recommendation is Monsieur Balmain. A wonderful sharp lemon/citrus with woods that is great in hot weather.

Originally Posted by IndianBoyz

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I was joking but uhm, I bought a vintage 80's miniature bottle of ebay recently just to have a sniff and does it smell nice..

Well, it was a fairly iconic scent at a time when Paco, et al were also popular. Today it smells shabby and moth-eaten, but that's generally the case for nearly everything that dates to the '70's at that price point. I read somewhere that even the current production of Polo green doesn't hold a candle to a bottle from the 80's.

Apparently Brut smelled a lot better before the ban on nitro musks, but you could say the same about nearly anything of that time.

Originally Posted by Thomas

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Well, it was a fairly iconic scent at a time when Paco, et al were also popular. Today it smells shabby and moth-eaten, but that's generally the case for nearly everything that dates to the '70's at that price point. I read somewhere that even the current production of Polo green doesn't hold a candle to a bottle from the 80's.

Apparently Brut smelled a lot better before the ban on nitro musks, but you could say the same about nearly anything of that time.

It was actually, I remember wanting it as a kid after seeing Stallone's Over The Top.

just wait until we start bashing Malle!


For me, this whole fragrance thing has just been a little hobby on the side of life that i've quite enjoyed but have no intention of becoming a serious collector. Whenever I see people with stacks and stacks of bottles, especially basically the full lineup from some company i'm always a bit baffled. Besides just the money, is it a collector thing? do they genuinely love and wear each of those? I just don't get it. if you were to look at my collection it's not organized by house, it's organized by fragrance family / notes, and i've basically just worked my way through the various houses and cherry picked the 1-3 that really stand out and "do" a certain note/idea best. I've worked to build my collection as more around certain favorite notes or having a few variations for certain occasions... anyway, just saying. Even if i had the money, or the inclination to build a large collection, I still don't see the point of just buying every bottle from a company. maybe instead of my favorite 2-3 I'd get 4-5, but it's still a very small part of their lineups.

Originally Posted by IndianBoyz

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It was actually, I remember wanting it as a kid after seeing Stallone's Over The Top.

I remember seeing ads for Brut in the old Playboys my dad hid in the garage. Back then it was...well...respectable. Now...not so much, but scents continue to fade in and out of fashion.

Originally Posted by Master-Classter

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just wait until we start bashing Malle!


For me, this whole fragrance thing has just been a little hobby on the side of life that i've quite enjoyed but have no intention of becoming a serious collector. Whenever I see people with stacks and stacks of bottles, especially basically the full lineup from some company i'm always a bit baffled. Besides just the money, is it a collector thing? do they genuinely love and wear each of those? I just don't get it. if you were to look at my collection it's not organized by house, it's organized by fragrance family / notes, and i've basically just worked my way through the various houses and cherry picked the 1-3 that really stand out and "do" a certain note/idea best. I've worked to build my collection as more around certain favorite notes or having a few variations for certain occasions... anyway, just saying. Even if i had the money, or the inclination to build a large collection, I still don't see the point of just buying every bottle from a company. maybe instead of my favorite 2-3 I'd get 4-5, but it's still a very small part of their lineups.

I h8 Vetiver Extraordinaire. There, I said it. feh!

I wish I'd been as disciplined as you. I just picked stuff up pell-mell based on word of mouth, or random happenstance, or worse - bargains on the interwebz. Not regretting it, but I do have a fair amount of stuff I don't know when I'll get around to wearing.

Originally Posted by Master-Classter

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just wait until we start bashing Malle! For me, this whole fragrance thing has just been a little hobby on the side of life that i've quite enjoyed but have no intention of becoming a serious collector. Whenever I see people with stacks and stacks of bottles, especially basically the full lineup from some company i'm always a bit baffled. Besides just the money, is it a collector thing? do they genuinely love and wear each of those? I just don't get it. if you were to look at my collection it's not organized by house, it's organized by fragrance family / notes, and i've basically just worked my way through the various houses and cherry picked the 1-3 that really stand out and "do" a certain note/idea best. I've worked to build my collection as more around certain favorite notes or having a few variations for certain occasions... anyway, just saying. Even if i had the money, or the inclination to build a large collection, I still don't see the point of just buying every bottle from a company. maybe instead of my favorite 2-3 I'd get 4-5, but it's still a very small part of their lineups.
+1. As for "collecting," it depends on the house. For those that have a cohesive vision/house notes, or an overall aesthetic/style, I think it's more an "exploration" than a "collection." For example, seeing how Jicky is different from Shalimar, or Tabac Blond from l'infini, or something like that (seeing how the "mousse de saxe" or "guerlinade" pronounces itself in different ways.) Others, like TF, seem to me to sort of want to be the be-all, one-stop shop. You want Oud? we got it! You want rose, hey, we got that too! And all for $195 for 50 mls. Malle is very interesting, and hard to "knock," in the overall vision of the company. IIRC, the parfumeur gets free reign over what he/she produces. As such, several of my all-time, money-no-object faves have been from Malle. They really are quite superlative, though there are some WTF? stinkers in there, too. (Lipstick Rose, anyone?) Every house has stinkers, for sure. BUT, you're right and after a while it all just gets to be too much. I hit this point and then tried to scale WAY back and get back to "enjoying" it. It's like shoes, suits, or anything else... after 20-25, it all starts to get out of hand.