Hey guys, Joe A. here with another one for ya'! One of the most underrated tools in this fragrance hobby of ours isn’t a decant, a discount code or the latest hyped release, it’s logging your #Journey ! When you take the time to document your fragrance experience, you’re doing more than tracking bottles. You’re capturing moments! Where you were in life when you first smelled something. What it stirred up. Why it hit hard… or why it completely missed. Over time, those notes become a personal roadmap of your taste and how it evolves, which notes keep calling you back and which phases were driven by curiosity versus pure impulse. Fragrance is emotional by nature. It’s memory, mood, weather, confidence, nostalgia, not spreadsheets and equations. Writing things down forces you to slow down and translate those feelings into words. And once you do, patterns start to appear. You realize why fougères keep winning you over, why ambers feel like home or why that bottle you just "had to have" actually stopped getting worn after a month or two. There’s also accountability in the process. Logging purchases, wear counts, impressions and even regrets makes you more intentional. You buy smarter. You appreciate more. You chase less. The hobby shifts from accumulation to understanding and that’s where it gets really rewarding!! Now, in the twenty-first century, creating this log digitally really shines! Imagine an app that removes friction and guesswork by giving you structure. An app where you don’t have to remember what you should be noting, things like projection, sillage, longevity, season, mood, performance. Why, because it’s already built in!!! And the real advantage is searchability. You can instantly pull up every smoky fragrance you own, every scent that lasted eight hours or more or every bottle that lost its magic after the honeymoon phase. Over time, that information turns into insight, and insight leads to better decisions based on your very own lived, and distinctly human, experience.

Gents — this challenge was a blast! These stories have been pure gold. Funny, real, nostalgic, and honestly the kind of posts that make this community what it is. Now… for the winner 🥁🥁🥁 🏆 WINNER: @Lon Chaneyfield Lon took us straight back to 1981 — college in upstate New York, right after the disco/rock era — when he wasn’t exactly Mr. Smooth with the ladies. Then there was his buddy David: not the best-looking guy on campus, but somehow he had this magnetism Lon couldn’t explain. At first, Lon thought it was style — so he upgraded the wardrobe (serious Ferris Bueller vibes 😂). But the “it factor” still wasn’t there. Then came the moment that changed everything: On the way to a keg party, David insisted on running back to the dorm for one thing — a little white bottle. Not a clone. Not a random splash. YSL Kouros. Lon could immediately sense the power of it — bold, animalistic, unforgettable — and then watched David’s magnetism in real time at the party. The next morning, Lon made his move: with his brand-new first credit card, he hopped a bus to JCPenney and bought his first cologne for himself. And from there? The rest is basically 80s history. Lon says Kouros became tied to so many peak memories that even today, he doesn’t really wear it out… but at home? One spray and it’s instant time travel. That’s the power of scent right there. @Lon Chaneyfield — love this story! Everyone else: keep those stories coming in the feed! These are the kind of stories that make this community what it is.

Just obtained a sample of French Avenue’s Liquid Brun Limited Edition which is an extrait de parfum that takes the familiar DNA of the original Liquid Brun and refines it into a richer, more polished, and more luxurious experience. This opens with a warm yet vibrant blend of bergamot, cardamom, cinnamon, and orange blossom. The bergamot provides a bright, citrus lift that prevents the opening from feeling heavy, while cardamom and cinnamon introduce an immediate spiced warmth. Orange blossom sits subtly in the background, smoothing the spices with a gentle floral sweetness rather than dominating the composition. Compared to the original, the opening here feels more refined and less sharp, with better separation between the notes. As the top notes settles, the fragrance transitions into a creamy and resinous heart built around vanilla and elemi. This is where the Limited Edition clearly distinguishes itself. The vanilla is fuller, smoother, and more enveloping, giving the fragrance a richer gourmand character without becoming cloying. Elemi adds a soft balsamic warmth that enhances depth and continuity, allowing the scent to evolve naturally rather than shifting abruptly. In the dry-down, this reveals its strongest qualities. Praline introduces a subtle nutty sweetness that blends seamlessly with ambroxan’s amber-woody warmth. Guaiac wood adds a faint smoky nuance, while musk ties everything together into a smooth, sensual base. The result is a long-lasting, warm gourmand-woody trail that feels polished, comforting, and quietly powerful rather than loud. As an extrait, the performance is a clear strength. Longevity is excellent, exceeded ten hours on my skin, with strong projection in the first few hours before settling into a consistent, noticeable scent bubble. The sillage is refined rather than aggressive, making it suitable for evening wear, colder weather, and occasions where presence matters. Right, comparing this to the original Liquid Brun, this Limited Edition does not reinvent the scent but significantly improves its execution. Both share the same core structure, but the original feels lighter, slightly sharper in the opening, and less dense through the heart and base. The Limited Edition benefits from higher concentration and improved blending, resulting in a smoother transition between stages, a richer vanilla presence, and a deeper, longer-lasting dry-down.

This came up, so I figured I would share with the Brothers, especially some of the newer brothers, Some times inexpensive isn't always the best route, as you can be sacrificing a lot. This is one of the reasons I started buying higher-quality perfumes. So here is a simple chart, or rather an FYI !!! https://www.instagram.com/p/DTxeut-kRrN/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Today we bury my aunt. Grandmas home from the hospital.