#sotd...Esquire American Novelist by Michael Malul... American Novelist opens with a fresh clean minty smell to it. I could actually pick up the mint from start to finish on this. Has some green and some Leather undertones here and there. Seem to come and go as the fragrance wears on. Very nicely done. Good overall performance. I went 9 hours before refreshing and at the time I was still picking it up. Mostly a skin scent but definitely still there on my clothes. I give this a 9 out of 10. This is very versatile and could be worn all year round. As with all of Michael Malul fragrances, this is office save.

I see “they reformulated it!!” in fragrance threads all the time, so I wanted to lay out what’s usually going on. Sometimes a scent really changed. Other times it’s batch variation, a fresh bottle needing time, or our noses playing tricks. 1) Why reformulation happens (most common reasons) : • Regulations (IFRA / EU)This is the #1 reason. Rules and safety standards change over time, especially around allergens/skin sensitizers. When an ingredient gets restricted or banned, brands have to adjust. A classic example: stuff like oakmoss restrictions forced a lot of old-school chypres to change. • Ingredient availability/sourcing changes. Naturals aren’t guaranteed forever. Bad harvests, price spikes, protection/endangerment, supplier changes—any of that can force swaps or tweaks. Sometimes the “same ingredient” from a new supplier smells a bit different, too. • Brand acquisition/production moves. When a brand gets bought or manufacturing moves to a different facility, the scent can shift even if they try to keep it identical. Different suppliers, different compounding, different QC tolerances. • “Modernization” Sometimes it’s intentional: make it lighter/cleaner/less animalic because that’s what sells now. Whether that’s good or bad depends on what you loved about the original. 2) Myths vs reality: Myth: “It’s only to save money.”Reality: cost-cutting can happen, but reformulating itself is expensive. You’re basically rebuilding a formula around restrictions + then doing stability/safety testing. It’s not just “swap one ingredient and ship it.” Myth: “New versions are always worse.”Reality: not always. Some updates are smoother, better balanced, or fix rough edges. “Different” doesn't = automatically “worse.” Myth: “My new bottle is weak, so it must be reformulated.”Reality: not necessarily. A few common reasons a bottle feels weak: - resting/maceration (some bottles improve after a few weeks) - nose fatigue (your brain tunes out a scent you know well) - storage/heat - atomizer differences (spray output changes performance a lot)