My wife was on a get-away weekend at the Lake with her lady friends and arrived back few hours ago. When she was in a little nautical shop, she stopped in her tracks because of how good the place smelled. Not a terribly uncommon experience, we've all been there. In this case, it turned out that when she inquired about what the fragrance was, the sales clerk told her that what she was smelling was a cologne called Inis the Energy of the Sea from Fragrances of Ireland. Inis opens with Sicilian lemon, bergamot, neroli, and marine notes. It is very bright, very loud, and very much that clean “ocean air” impression for the first 20–30 minutes. Then it moves into a heart of lily of the valley and geranium, which is where it shifts into that clean, slightly soapy, almost unisex floral feel. The drydown is soft sandalwood, oakmoss, musk, and a touch of clove, but it’s light enough that it fades pretty quickly and is mostly gone within a few hours. Nothing complex, nothing deep, just very straightforward progression from fresh to clean to gone. But it got me thinking a bit. Something this simple was strong enough to stop someone in her tracks who isn’t deep into fragrance like we are. Made me realize that outside of this hobby, it doesn’t always have to be complex or long-lasting to be effective. Sometimes it just has to smell good in the moment. I could see something like this having a place as that quick burst of freshness for the gym, poolside, or right out of the shower before bed when the next few hours might be for more than just sleeping. At $45 an ounce, yeah it's a little steep for it's performance. But sometimes, when your wife likes something...

#sotd... Qaa'ed Intense by Lattafa... As for me and my nose and experience with Qaa'ed Intense, I get a very similar scent to Dior Homme Intense... The powdery lipstick vibe that is usually associated with the Iris note. I am not saying this is a clone or inspired by DHI, but it will remind you of it even though this does not have Iris listed as a note. I think it is amazing how to can combine certain notes that can come across smelling like something totally different. The beauty of the fragrance world! I got good overall performance from this. I went 7 hours before refreshing. Okay projection for the first couple of hours before it started to settle down. I am going to give this a 8 out of 10.