Game day brotherhood! I’ve had some good luck on game day with this blue beast, let’s hope it brings us the W! Good luck to your boys @Steve Louis but even better luck to my Rams. We’re goin to need it in this weather. With this bright pepper, oregano, and sweet smokey baddie, it is sure to bring some power! Lasts forever and puts a cloud in any room you walk into and is one of my favorites in the collection. Have a great day brotherhood!!

After an amazing weekend in the city with my wife shopping. We went to buy some fragrances (Shocker) 😜. While we may or may not have gone a little overboard which we are prone to do we had an amazing time! All of this to be said, we have been making relationships with some sales people and when we were discussing our collection and what we were about to add. The manager came out and presented us with this Armani/Prive Lacquered display box!! They said these are very hard to get and that they have only had 1 or 2 come in, but they knew we were the right people to have it. They gave it to us for free! Not something I had expected or even knew existed. This is one of those things that keeps me buying from an actual store with an actual person. Even though I may be able to get a "deal" somewhere else. I prefer the relationships. Now I Just have to put my bottles in. I have 2 open spaces to fill. But probably not for long!! 🤣

WIthout getting too much into the details, let's just say I did a fair amount of research, conversing with various shop owners and studying all things oud on my recent trip to Dubai at the "fragrance souk" (the marketplace in the old part of town.) The shop owners couldn't have been more helpful educating me about this fascinating topic. I bought several different forms of ouds (e.g. pure oils/attars, wood chips, incense.) This morning I thought I'd try the more traditional, Middle Eastern way of applying an oud scent given that I wasn't going to see anyone until dinner tonight. I've already burned a few chips of this particular oud in the burner, that was given to me by a shop owner. From those first few burns I got a real good idea as to the smell and strength of this oud, and there was no real surprise from what I remembered back in that shop. To "apply" the smoke from the burning oud chip (soaked in pure oil) I waved the fabric of my shirt through the smoke for about 15 seconds. Then I cupped the smoke with my hands and basically patted it onto my head and neck. Yep... I REALLY did this today. BTW, if it's the real deal, you should be able to put your face in the smoke and it will not burn your eyes. If it's fake, it'll smell like a cigarette or worse. So the big question some will ask is; Where are the chips sourced? Lootah does not specifically say where they're sourcing some of their chips from because, like blended Scotch, their chips are generally from India, Cambodia and Indonesia, but the important thing for most Houses is the consistency of the fragrance among their various products. This one shop owner gave me some Indian oud, Vietnamese oud, Cambodian oud and others, so I can distinguish the general aromas from the various countries. However as he explained, it's more complicated than simply where it's sourced. You can have oud that is wild vs. plantation grown, sinking vs. floating, and of course there are various grades within all that. The scent profiles can be woody, earthy, animalic (sometimes down-right barnyardy), sweet, smoky, etc, with regional styles often dictating the characteristics.

Gave Modern Poet a full wear today to see how it develops on my skin. First spray: ~1:44 p.m. Opening (1:44 p.m.): Right away, I’m getting a bitter citrus opening, not a bright or juicy one. It smells more like lemon rind or zest than fresh squeezed citrus. There’s a slight gin-like fizziness, which makes sense given the note breakdown, but it’s not sharp or sparkling. Overall, the opening leans bitter, aromatic, and slightly herbal. ~40 minutes in (around 2:22 p.m.): The citrus has calmed down and the gin and cardamom are more noticeable now. I’m also picking up something that feels sage-like, even though sage isn’t listed. Projection isn’t huge, but there’s a comfortable scent bubble around me. Still pleasant at this stage. Mid phase (around 3:46 p.m.): About two hours in, this fragrance turns very green. All the citrus has disappeared and I’m getting a faint cypress-like woodiness. This is where the green packaging starts to make more sense. The scent is now clearly woody and dry, clean but subdued. Projection drops off quite a bit here. Final drydown (around 7:14 p.m.): By the four-hour mark, this is fully a skin scent. The drydown is completely green and woody, with no citrus left. Pleasant, but understated. This is a nice scent overall, but not something I’d rush out to buy a full bottle of. If someone gifted it to me, I’d happily wear it. Overall: Modern Poet starts off aromatic and bitter-citrus, then transitions into a green, woody drydown. It’s well made and easy to wear, but performance is modest and it stays subtle throughout.

Scent of the Niners! LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!