Thanks to the brotherhood I finally jumped into some Xerjoff discovery sets. @Paul Bartnicki and I had talked about Xerjoff last winter and I had bumped into La Capitale which I loved and I finally decided to buy a discover set 😎 so I picked one of their pre set discovery sets and then out of the corner of my eye they had a button that said create your own 😳 So I like any good addict bought some of that too 😜. They were kind enough to throw in some “free” crack samples as well just like any good drug dealer would do. Truthfully I’m very excited to explore Xerjoff. While on the pricey side for sure at least their discovery packs are 15mls so I’ll get some great experience with them. So let the games begin!!

I had a pretty great WIN today. A fragrance order arrived from my SA (Sales Associate), and when I opened the package I found an absolutely ridiculous assortment of samples, discovery sets and gifts from houses throughout the fragrance department. 😂 And then came the biggest surprise: A full 50ml tester bottle of Golden Wood from The Harmonist. 😳 That one stopped me. My SA is actually with Armani. He’s also the person who first introduced me to The Harmonist, and I’ve since become a fan of the house and added several of their fragrances to my collection. But I don’t have a relationship with The Harmonist SA. I’ve never even met them. When I asked my guy about the bottle, he told me he’d gone over to The Harmonist and their SA offered the 50ml Golden Wood for me, explaining that these bottles were generally being reserved for their top clients. Apparently they know me through him. And THAT is where this became about much more than a free bottle of fragrance. I’ve spent my entire professional life in sales and building a business, and one lesson has followed me through all of it: Relationships matter. Building them matters. Maintaining them matters. Taking care of people matters. And loyalty has to work in both directions. We live in a world where it’s incredibly easy to go online, type in the name of something we want, sort by price and buy from whoever happens to be cheapest that day. And sometimes that’s perfectly fine. But I’ve never believed that the lowest price automatically means you got the best deal. My SA knows I’m a fragrance enthusiast. He knows what I own and is learning what I like. He’s willing to walk me away from his own Armani counter and introduce me to other houses and other SAs simply because he thinks there’s something I should experience. That’s actually how I discovered The Harmonist in the first place. And I try to reciprocate. Whenever possible, I make sure my business goes through him. He also knows my wife is every bit as interested in fragrance as I am. So while putting together this frankly absurd assortment of things for me to explore 😂, he made sure there were things specifically for her as well. That may sound like a small detail. It isn’t.

My daughter just sent this to me with a note that said, "This could be you.🤣" Yes, it's satire, but disturbingly relatable. Lol. ATLANTA, GA — Brittney Crawford, 31, was arrested Saturday evening at a Sephora inside Lenox Square Mall after staff say she camped out at the fragrance counter for six straight hours, sampled 84 perfumes onto various parts of her body, and refused to leave until she found one her ex-boyfriend would "regret." According to the report, Crawford arrived at the store at 12:14 p.m. carrying a Stanley cup, a notebook, and a portable phone charger. She told a sales associate she was "doing research" and would need "the entire wall to herself for a few hours." Staff say Crawford: - Began on the niche fragrance side and worked her way left in alphabetical order - Sprayed each scent on a different body part — wrists, neck, behind the knees, inside the elbows - Took notes in her notebook under columns labeled "REGRET LEVEL" and "MAKE HIM CRY" - Asked the consultant whether any of them smelled "like the woman he should have stayed with" - Reapplied a previous fragrance, declared "this one is closer," and started over - Drank a full Celsius energy drink at the counter at hour three - Plugged her phone into the testing station's outlet - Performed a slow lap of the store at hour four "to let them settle" - Returned to the counter at hour five and demanded a "scent consultation specialist" By hour six, customers had reportedly stopped approaching the fragrance wall entirely. One sales associate told police, "she had a strategy. We could not interrupt it." Fulton County deputy Marcellus Whittaker confirmed the arrest. "She did not steal anything. She did not yell. She simply refused to stop. She was on perfume number 84 when we arrived, and she asked if we could 'wait twelve minutes for the cedar to come through.'" Crawford allegedly told deputies she had "narrowed it down to seven finalists" and that her ex "wouldn't know what hit him." She was charged with criminal trespass.

The biggest industry story is consolidation and control of major fragrance licenses, while overall fragrance growth is beginning to normalize after several unusually strong years. Puig remains independent—and is still growing Puig reported 4.4% like-for-like revenue growth for the first half of 2026, its first major financial update since merger discussions with Estée Lauder ended in May. The numbers suggest Puig does not urgently need a deal, although fragrance growth is slowing from the extraordinary post-pandemic pace. Travel retail is also being pressured by geopolitical instability, particularly in the Middle East. Why it matters: Puig controls one of the strongest fragrance portfolios in the industry—Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Carolina Herrera, Byredo, Penhaligon’s, L’Artisan Parfumeur and Charlotte Tilbury. Remaining independent preserves its identity, but the merger discussions show how valuable fragrance portfolios have become. L’Oréal is becoming an even larger fragrance power L’Oréal completed its acquisition of Kering Beauté, including Creed, in March 2026. It also secured long-term beauty and fragrance licenses for Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga. The company has now announced a 50-year Gucci beauty license, beginning July 1, 2027, after Gucci and Coty agreed to end their arrangement early. L’Oréal reported 6% like-for-like growth in the second quarter, while L’Oréal Luxe grew 4.7%. That compares favorably with weaker perfume-and-beauty results reported by some traditional luxury groups. My take: L’Oréal is building what may become the industry’s most complete luxury-fragrance machine. It now has couture blockbusters, prestige collections, Maison Margiela, Aesop, Valentino, Prada, YSL, Armani, Mugler, Viktor&Rolf and Creed—with Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta strengthening the future pipeline. Coty loses Gucci at a difficult time The early termination of Coty’s Gucci license is significant. Gucci has not recently dominated fragrance the way it once did, but it remains one of the world’s most recognizable luxury names. Losing it removes an important long-term asset from Coty’s fragrance portfolio.

I know Lattafa is one of the most popular Middle Eastern clone houses, but after owning and wearing a number of their fragrances, I think they are very hit or miss. They have a few good releases, but in my opinion the hype surrounding the brand is far greater than the overall quality. A low price and long longevity do not automatically make a fragrance a great fragrance. One thing I notice with a lot of Lattafa fragrances is the opening. They often come out extremely loud, projecting aggressively with heavy sweetness and synthetic aroma chemicals that immediately grab your attention. Sometimes the opening slightly captures the fragrance they are cloning, but it is usually more about giving you a strong first impression than accurately recreating the quality of the original. As the fragrance moves through the wear, many Lattafa releases begin to fall flat. The heart often lacks depth, smooth transitions, and development. Instead of evolving naturally, they can become linear or simply turn into a weaker version of the opening. Strangely enough, the closing or final drydown can sometimes capture the general scent profile better than the opening. However, this is usually because the fragrance settles into standard base notes that are used in many fragrances, such as vanilla, amber, musk, woods, or sweet resins. A lot of fragrances close in a similar way once the more distinctive opening and heart notes disappear. Lattafa may reach something recognizable in the final hours, but it is normally less refined, less detailed, and rougher than the fragrance it is trying to duplicate. There are also times that it can capture the opening very loud and similar and then pull flat throughout the rest of the wearing. This is something I notice with many Middle Eastern clone houses in general. They often focus on recreating the loud opening or the most recognizable part of a fragrance because that is what sells during the first few sprays, especially on social media. But when you wear them for several hours, they rarely capture the full structure, refinement, or transitions of the original.