Sorry i haven’t been as active. Busy with working two jobs, saving up, trynna make my life better. But hey, decided to up things up a bit and get a sample set from Xerjoff. Anyways big shoutout to my bruddah @Paul Bartnicki for recommending them in the first place, and helping me to pick great samples! Before we get into it, wanna give yall a little life update. Things are going well, i’m recovering, my friend is healing nicely, and im working two steady jobs. I showed my friends seasons 1 and 2 of one of my favorite shows of all time, Smiling Friends. I think they thought i was a weirdo lol, but i consistently quote it, and now they’ll finally get my references! If you’re into weird, surreal, dark humor slightly existential edge but also really really funny and over the top, i recommend it. It’s basically Family Guy and The Simpsons with Gen Z humor. But it’s INSANE. Very creative but insane lol. Anyways with that being said, let’s get into the two samples i tried these last few days. First one from Xerjoff was 40 Knots. And holy shit dude, i love it. It’s a great scent, fresh, green, aquatic, slightly salty and woody. It’s like the ocean if it decided to put on a suit that day. I ended up wearing it to my work as a server and one of the customers asked me what it was. Even better, my coworker friend (who’s brutally honest, and will ALWAYS let me know if she doesn’t like my fragrance) said it smells really good. It opens with salty marine notes, and with a pretty, green bridge, transitions nicely into an ambery, slightly sweet musk. Performance on it is pretty solid. Projects moderately and consistently. A perfect scent for a Mediterranean, sailing vibe, and a new vacation favorite for me! The next one i tried was Defied from Tony Iommi. I was a bit skeptical of this one because i had smelled Monkey Special a while back, and wasn’t the biggest fan of it, a bit too fruity for me, but this one blew me away. Nice smooth leather, rose, and spices. I’m a SUCKER for apple, rose and spice blends, like in PDM Carlisle, and this one was no different for me.

The fourth decant sent over by @Thomas Chavez and another good one. I’ve heard this one compared to BR540 but to me they aren’t that similar. I think they differ because this one has ginger and citrus is the open so it’s not as screechy as 540. I’m not a huge fan of saffron but it’s done well in Instant Crush, a very smooth open. The amber wood is a lot more detectable than it was in Amberful and I’m smelling a nice soft floral note. Still no patchouli note detected. Pretty sure I just can’t differentiate it from the other ones. The dry down makes this a great frag, a bit of vanilla mixed with a nice musk and sandalwood. I can usually pick up oak moss but can’t smell it in this one. I’d call this a 4 season frag with some expectations. Performance is stellar with another 8 hours longevity 6 of which had a crazy good projection. Not sure how Mancera is able to get their frags this strong but I dig it. I’d say this is full bottle worthy but won’t be a quick pickup for me yet since there are a few others I find better.

Today for our lovely ladies around us I present ARABICAN ROSE from the House of MAISON TAHITĖ. Released in 2024. An EDP. A sweet floral olfative family fragrance. THE nose behind This fragrance Is Marie Duchêne. It opens with notice Rose and almond notes in the middle I found a delicious coffe note and finished with Patchouli, sandalwood and creamy vanilla notes. A femenine elegant and Easy wear fragrance for all days and all ocations a safe Office fragrance with better performance in fall- winter seasons. An enjoyable drydown with coffe/almond/Rose/Woody touch notes. Projection 2-3hrs Sillage 1mt Stay on skin 5-7hrs.

Went with something pretty easy to wear to start this week as the body and mind needed something slightly gentle and simple to start the day. Some potential life changes going on for me in the background and I just felt I wanted a scent that felt more like a clean slate. I got this one as part of my monthly Niche fragrance discovery subscription which usually is almost always unisex, because at the end of the day all scent is unisex etc etc. I think this one is definitely marketed more towards women, and I guess this kind of musk tends to be aimed in that direction, but the soapiness of this really sort of just sits in a space where anyone can wear it. It's not particularly loud or animalic just clean and fresh without being citrusy or sweet, neither of which I was looking for today. Since I've never done it before, I thought I'd put a poll up as none of the notes: Ginger, lavender, beeswax, musk, sandalwood None of these seems particularly 'feminine' so curious if anyone else has experience with this one since it goes back a bit and whether you would consider it Masculine, feminine, or unisex. As always, all comments are welcome. And since I'm still pretty new to the hobby, always curious what others experiences are of sense and all the things. Hope everyone is having a great start to their week 😎