There’s a point where collecting stops being primarily about fragrance appreciation and becomes completion-driven collecting. It’s the mindset of: “I already have the one I love, but now I need the Intense, Parfum, Elixir, Limited Edition, Night Edition, Summer Edition…” The actual scent can become secondary. The urge to own the complete line becomes the motivation. A few signs of this collector mindset: Completion over preference: “I don’t love it, but I need the set.” Flanker propensity every new release creates an urge to acquire it. Fear of an incomplete line: owning 6/7 somehow feels incomplete. Bottle-family appeal: the visual continuity of a collection becomes part of the attraction. Acquisition becomes the reward: sometimes the excitement of obtaining the bottle exceeds the excitement of wearing it. Redundancy gets rationalized: “They’re different enough” even when the actual wearing experience is very similar. The house becomes the object: you’re no longer collecting fragrances; you’re collecting the brand’s universe. And honestly, this isn’t necessarily bad. It’s just a different type of collector. Someone may buy a flanker because they genuinely enjoy it; another buys it because the OG without the flanker feels incomplete. With a very large collection, that distinction becomes particularly interesting: Are you collecting scents, or are you collecting completeness?

Part 2: The Slow March to the Shelves Hey guys, Joe A. here with another one for ya’! Well, the bottles are officially making their way onto the shelves, and I can already tell this is not going to be a one-afternoon project. This is less like cleaning a room and more like relocating a small, well-scented civilization. Bottles are coming out of drawers, boxes, cabinets, and whatever random little hiding places they’ve been living in like scented fugitives. Now that the shelves are getting loaded, I’m also getting some real-world engineering feedback. Word of the week: deflection. In simple terms, deflection is how much a shelf bends under load. A fully loaded shelf is deflecting about 3/4 of an inch, which is enough to make the bottles want to creep forward in the acrylic tiered displays. Thank goodness those acrylic shelves have a front lip, because without it, this post might have been called “The Great Bottle Avalanche.” The deflection also showed me that the overhanging shelves want to rotate over the end of the metal bracket. In plain English: the front wants to dip, the back wants to lift, and gravity starts acting like it has a management position. So I made an adjustment. At the back of the shelf, closest to the wall, I replaced the wood screw with a through bolt that goes through the shelf and tightens directly to the metal bracket. That clamps the shelf down and helps resist that tipping action. Between the heavy brackets, the stud connections, and the through bolts, these shelves aren’t going anywhere. The deflection is still unnerving, but the engineering side of my brain is calm. The fragrance side is holding a bottle and looking nervous. There’s also been some cabinet strategy happening. I relocated and re-shelved the taller mirrored cabinet over the weekend to better fit the new layout. The smaller mirrored cabinet is staying in the plan too, at least for now. That one is currently holding the Xerjoff collection, which feels appropriate, because Xerjoff bottles already act like they need better lighting and a private dressing room. The plan is to find that smaller cabinet a proper new home somewhere else in the garage office.

Today i actually did a full wear of this to work today. Here is how it went. My old school masculine boss told me I smelled good today and actually asked me what i was wearing. My strong nosed, non fragrance wearing walking buddy kept asking to smell me. Walking around and riding the elevator, heard some loud sniffing. I think it was a success at work. Only had about 8 sprays left and this easily lasted 12 hours. On my clothes it was still strong, on my skin, faint but there. Definitely a full bottle worthy buy and make a steady rotation. For my newer or younger brothers, don’t be scared of rose, nearly everyone loves it. For my brothers that are in the know, this is my favorite so far. Next test will be portrait of a lady by Frederic Malle. It might not be cheap, but its worth it, I say check it out. Stay smelling great my brothers.

I have been really enjoying this fragrance lately. The opening of this fragrance is a semi-sweet fruity scent coming from the Pear and Mandarin Orange. At 15 Min - Some of the sweetness has settled and I am picking up some of the Ginger note. At 30 Min - I am still picking up some of the subtle fruitiness, but also getting some of the Orange Blossom note. 60 Min into the wear, I am still picking up the sweetness from the Orange Blossom but also getting some Musk and Woodiness. The dry down of this fragrance is a musky and woody scent with hints of semi-sweet florals. Performance: Projection is OK with the fragrance creating a scent bubble of about 2 feet for about 2 hours. The sillage is also OK with a scent trail of about 2.5 feet for about 2 hours. Longevity is fair with the fragrance lasting on my skin about 6 to 7 hours, but becoming a skin scent at about 3 hours.

After hearing Sebastian talking about fragrances today and me being in this brotherhood, and reviewing several videos by @Antonio Centeno and Sebastian, they both have a love for fragrances and also have a wide respect and demonstrated knowledge for what they like, whether it's Niche, Designer, Clone, etc. As a member of this brotherhood, my takeaway and some knowledge for the brothers is this. The more I watch fragrance debates, the more I notice every group has its favorite defense. Clone warriors hide behind price. Niche snobs hide behind artistry. Designer loyalists hide behind safety and compliments. Clone warriors always bring up price because that is the strongest argument they have. They will say, “But it only costs $25 or $40,” as if a lower price automatically means it is equal to the original. I understand saving money. There is nothing wrong with value. But value and quality are not always the same thing. A clone can be a good deal and still not have the same smoothness, depth, transitions, or refinement as the original. And notice how clone warriors usually run straight to Middle Eastern clone houses and act like that is the whole clone world. It is not. There are better American and European clone-style houses that often do a better job with smoothness, balance, accuracy, and wearability. Houses like Montagne and Alexandria may cost more than some Middle Eastern dupes, but many times the blending, quality, and closeness to the original are better. The reason some clone warriors ignore them is simple: they do not protect the cheapest-price argument as well. A $45–$60 clone forces a more honest conversation. Now you cannot just say, “It only costs $25.” You have to talk about accuracy, quality, materials, smoothness, and how it actually compares to the original. That is where a lot of the hype starts to fall apart. Middle Eastern clones can be good. Some are excellent for the money. But a lot of them are also louder, sweeter, harsher, more synthetic, and less refined. Many chase performance and projection more than balance.