So since switching to wet shaving I have really started to appreciate the number of scents that are available. So i went to the local department stores to smell a few and maybe find a new scent. What I found instead was almost every cologne there smelled sweet and almost as if it were ment as a unisex scent. I seem to like the more woodsy or leathery scents (got a sample and really like Truefitt and Hill Spanish Leather SWMBO also seems to like it though she likes 1805 better). So are there any local stores out there that would have more of the scents I am looking for?
Disappointed today
- Thread starter sig chaser
- Start date
Where do you live?
You may end up needing to order some samples or decants, but there are "mainstream" scents out there that you may find appealing. Have you tried something like Terre d'Hermes?
You may end up needing to order some samples or decants, but there are "mainstream" scents out there that you may find appealing. Have you tried something like Terre d'Hermes?
Sigchaser, if you like T&H Spanish Leather, you will also like Zino Davidoff. Smells the same and is cheaper. While discontinued (I think), it is available from web discount sites.
What store did you go to? Did you by chance allow the sales associate to hand you sample after sample? If that was the case, this is understandable as they usually just push whatever is popular. Many newer fragrances are without a doubt a bit more feminine....or sweet.....but not all of them (and some of these are still quite nice). There are still plenty of great options that fall outside of those two descriptions. You could also try some of the classics. You will probably have to order samples or decants though as a lot of them are not readily available in stores.
- Thread starter
- #5
I went to macys, bon ton and I tried irtually everything they had a sample of. I just did a searh and found a couple sitesthat offer samples I will just have to order some I was just hopeful to find some locally.
Stop! There are vendors on this site that sell samples. There prices cannot be beat. Archfire and Garry's Sample Shop in the Vendor section.
This is a good site too.......
http://www.checkitoutone.com/
Also, if you smelled virtually every one they had a tester of, your nose was no longer working properly after the first few.
I heartily agree with going with archerfire and gary...
I have to disagree with that nose not working after several scents thing. also with sniffing coffee doing anything...unless you are touching the perfume to your nose and coating it with all the scents, you will be able to smell 100s of perfumes in a day with no problem. maybe if you smelled 10 in a row that all had a same note in them you might become a little nose blind to that note for a bit, but that's unlikely to happen. I've gotten very annoyed with perfume salesmen who actually laughed at me and told me that since i've smelled more than 5 perfumes i can't smell anything anymore so i might as well leave the store...
if that were true then perfumers could only work for 10 minutes a day. the problem is that once you smell more than a couple perfumes you get them all mixed up in your head and can't remember what smelled like what. also if you sniff all the perfumes in macys you are mostly smelling the top notes and don't actually get to experience what they really smell like after you put them on. But i've gone into macys or spehora and smelled 20 or 30 at a time and it's no problem, you can't make any concrete evaluations that way but if you know what you're looking for you can say "that's not it"
There was a research paper on sniffing coffee....didn't do anything, all they concluded was it broke up the monotony of scents so you could remember the order you sniffed things in better, like that one was 3 before the coffee and that one was 2 after the coffee...
It can't have been much of a store if they didn't have Aramis, New West, Tuscany and the rest of the non sweet Aramis classic line, or Polo original, or Quorum, or Grey Flannel, or Trussardi Uomo, or Drakkar Noir, or Gucci PH, or Visit, or .............. too many to mention.
Sounds like they mainly stocked orientals and ambery fougeres.
Regards,
Renato
Sounds like they mainly stocked orientals and ambery fougeres.
Regards,
Renato
It sure sounds to me like you just strengthened my argument for your nose not working very well after too many scents. Getting scents mixed up in your head means your nose is not working properly (or your brain) because you are taking in too many scents....either way you are not getting a good feeling for them. It is just an overload. Hundreds of perfumes a day? I am not so convinced about that........
And don't perfumers work on one perfume at a time using single notes? Not smell dozens of already finished perfumes in an attempt to decide what they like?
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Have seen the coffee beans. Don't really know the science of sensory overload. Nonetheless, when I sample I usually limit myself to two; one application on each wrist. Otherwise I get confused - age I guess!!
it's a memory problem not a nose problem...you will smell each perfume just fine. it's just hard to keep track of them. same thing with tasting 50 different things at one time or trying to remember 50 phone numbers...
most perfumers work on a couple compositions at a time but they usually have 10, 50, 100 slightly different variations that they go back and forth between whole working out the recipe...so if they can tell subtle differences between many nearly identical scents then smelling 20 completely different perfumes should be no issue at all.
Sampling when you're just starting to investigate scents takes some patience. You are learning some new distinctions. I know whei first started with scents, after three or four, they all bled together. Further complicating things, if you're sniffing several in store, you're really not getting the full gist of the scent - mostly just getting a blast of the top notes. And there are lots of similarities between the top notes of scents- I.e. many of them start out using the same sort of notes at the first blast.
Go slowly, get some samples of things that sound like you might lke. You sound so far like a classic wet shaver type.
Some of the scents most preferred by wet shavers are a little tougher to find in mainstream stores like Macys which are always pushing the scent du jour...the current best sellers. While I personally don't find the current scents all that femiine, they are nonetheless a new direction that some traditional types will not easily tolerate.
Youve got Knize Ten written all over you...Clubman Special Reserve might suit you as well, but nearly impossible to find in a store.
Go slowly, get some samples of things that sound like you might lke. You sound so far like a classic wet shaver type.
Some of the scents most preferred by wet shavers are a little tougher to find in mainstream stores like Macys which are always pushing the scent du jour...the current best sellers. While I personally don't find the current scents all that femiine, they are nonetheless a new direction that some traditional types will not easily tolerate.
Youve got Knize Ten written all over you...Clubman Special Reserve might suit you as well, but nearly impossible to find in a store.
It varies from individual to individual, but for most that's simply not true.
While professional perfumers have highly trained noses and brains and can sniff away all day, I know for sure that I can't. My brain gets tired of smelling different fragrances quite quickly, and I've found I have to concentrate on just a small number on any one day if I'm to smell them properly.
Another thing I've found is that I can't smell fragrances properly inside the store, where the air is itself strongly perfumed by all the sampling that's going in. If anything interests me, I have to spray a sample on my wrist and then go and walk around outside for a while to properly get the scent - I usually do it in twos, one on each wrist.
Yes, you may at that. It may be hard to find it locally, but if Archerfire and Gary don't have it, you can order a sample from www.luckyscent.com for $4.
Use the better online stores, avoid Ebay (Ebay is full of Copycats and fakes)
www.fragrancenet.com
www.fragrancex.com
www.beautyencounter.com
www.cheapsmells.com
www.parfum1.com
For niche frags and testers - www.luckyscent.com is awesome !
I like a variety of scents - ranging from the unisex types sweet and slightly floral scents to the extremely masculine woodsy, spicy & leathery/tobacco based scents.
I was looking for a woodsy smelling scent and today received 2 frags of surprisingly high quality and with good longevity.
Both are unknown to most, but if you like woodsy scents - get both of these:
Arran Aromatics Driftswood 100 ml EDT. This stuff is elegant dry woods blended with a bit of spice and sandalwood. Longeevity is excellent - 8-10 hours on my skin. Projection moderate. 9.5/10
Dsquared He Wood Rocky Mountains 100 mml EDT. This frag is also woods in a bottle, but slightly more sweet and desecrate - but not in any way feminine smelling. Very manly and a bit more discrete then Driftwood. Longevity 6-8 hours. Moderate projection. 9/10
You can get the Driftswood on www.executive-shaving.com - a scottish online shaving store. They are reliable, I've dealt with them 4 times. Buy my Fitjar shaving creams there.
Also consider these:
Chanel Antaeus - a strong very masculine leather type of scent. FANTASTIC longevity and projection. 9.5/10
Aramis Havana - a nice tobacco woodsy frag. Excellent longevity. 9.5/10
Van Cleef & Arpel Pour Homme - awesome leather scent. Exzcellent longevity. 9/10
Quorum Pour Homme - great tobacco leather scent. High quality product for very low cost. 9/10
www.fragrancenet.com
www.fragrancex.com
www.beautyencounter.com
www.cheapsmells.com
www.parfum1.com
For niche frags and testers - www.luckyscent.com is awesome !
I like a variety of scents - ranging from the unisex types sweet and slightly floral scents to the extremely masculine woodsy, spicy & leathery/tobacco based scents.
I was looking for a woodsy smelling scent and today received 2 frags of surprisingly high quality and with good longevity.
Both are unknown to most, but if you like woodsy scents - get both of these:
Arran Aromatics Driftswood 100 ml EDT. This stuff is elegant dry woods blended with a bit of spice and sandalwood. Longeevity is excellent - 8-10 hours on my skin. Projection moderate. 9.5/10
Dsquared He Wood Rocky Mountains 100 mml EDT. This frag is also woods in a bottle, but slightly more sweet and desecrate - but not in any way feminine smelling. Very manly and a bit more discrete then Driftwood. Longevity 6-8 hours. Moderate projection. 9/10
You can get the Driftswood on www.executive-shaving.com - a scottish online shaving store. They are reliable, I've dealt with them 4 times. Buy my Fitjar shaving creams there.
Also consider these:
Chanel Antaeus - a strong very masculine leather type of scent. FANTASTIC longevity and projection. 9.5/10
Aramis Havana - a nice tobacco woodsy frag. Excellent longevity. 9.5/10
Van Cleef & Arpel Pour Homme - awesome leather scent. Exzcellent longevity. 9/10
Quorum Pour Homme - great tobacco leather scent. High quality product for very low cost. 9/10
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