So many choices

[Pulley]

I live in small town but even when I travel I've never seen the colognes that are discussed here. When out of town we usually shop the anchor stores in malls like Macy, Richs, etc.

How did you find your favorite scent? Is there a specific store(s) that carry some of these brands. I'm tired or using Polo, Aramis & Bobby Jones.

Thanks

 

[SpyvSpy]

I would recommend trying the Penhaligons sample set.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Most guys here find the common generic mall scents to be, well, generic. And common.
Unfortunately, in the age of mass marketing most of the stuff you can find on store shelves is going to fairly uninspiring. Macys, Nordstroms, and the like do have some upscale scents, but it's hard to try more than one or scents at the counter before your nose gets overwhelmed (plus, you need to allow a scent to develop on you over a couple hours before you can make your mind up about it.)

Fortunately, you can buy all sorts of intro sample sets online. These let you try out different scents and do some compare-and-contrast on your own time. If you do a search here for 'decants' you'll find dozens of threads with specific recommendations.
Basenotes.com is also a good resource for researching specific fragrances, and good for a laugh at some of the over the top reviews.

 

[p.m.a.]

Some online places to buy samples & decants:

http://theperfumedcourt.com/

http://www.luckyscent.com/samples.asp

http://flacon.ambaric.net/viewforum.php?f=2

 

[Evbo]

Basenotes.com is also a good resource for researching specific fragrances, and good for a laugh at some of the over the top reviews.

+1. This!

 

[cymric]

How did you find your favorite scent? Is there a specific store(s) that carry some of these brands. I'm tired or using Polo, Aramis & Bobby Jones.

Samples. Sampling whereever I am able. And simply being very lucky to find a few fragrances my extremely selective nose agrees with. I remember that Trumper's GFT was an accidental find: when ordering a sample pack I remember not caring much for it due to the weird description, and so with everyone raving over English Fern, Eucris, Spanish Leather, Wellington and more it would've completely slipped between the cracks had I not received a sample of the shaving cream.

What also helps is asking knowledgable people for 'similar scents' or 'scents to start out with'. You must have a bit of an idea of what is available for this to work, though; and even then a brand which was not mentioned anywhere may all of a sudden turn out to be your Holy Grail.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Also, read up on wikipedia about fragrance families then buy a sampler that covers the major families. That'll at least tell you what you DON'T like, and you can narrow your search down from there.

 

[Featherweight]

Department stores aren't as bad as the rap they get on the internet. Macy's sells a fair number of Chanels for men and women, as well as decent things from Prada and Estee Lauder.

That said, my advice is to go on http://www.basenotes.net/content/ and click on "directory". Once in there, go to where it says "show fragrances launched in" and insert a year of your choosing. I like stuff from the '70s and '80s myself, so I'll often insert a random year from either of those two decades and see what comes up. Basenotes does a decent (though not perfect) job of noting through symbols which fragrances are still in production, and which are discontinued. Peruse through and see if anything looks interesting, as there's bound to be at least a dozen reviews on it. If you read about something that seems like a contender, go to http://theperfumedcourt.com/ and see if they have samples in stock. Order a few samples, try 'em out. If you like what you try, the internet is the place to buy!

of course, many excellent fragrances are reviewed right here on B&B as well.

some houses to keep in mind while exploring:

• Guerlain
• Caron
• Creed
• Chanel
• Yves Saint Laurent
• Czech & Speake
• Geoffrey Beene
• Dior
• Halston
• Antonio Puig

Some basics in the "great fragrance" category:

• Pour un Homme de Caron (beautiful lavender)
• Yatagan by Caron (unlike anything else)
• Grey Flannel by Geoffrey Beene (just brilliant)
• Kouros by YSL (also unlike anything else)
• Vetiver by Guerlain (very refreshing vetiver, good for summer)

Also there are some articles on B&B about fragrance categories, differences in concentration, etc.



..

 

[StylinLA]

I live in small town but even when I travel I've never seen the colognes that are discussed here. When out of town we usually shop the anchor stores in malls like Macy, Richs, etc.

How did you find your favorite scent? Is there a specific store(s) that carry some of these brands. I'm tired or using Polo, Aramis & Bobby Jones.

Thanks

The kind of anchor stores you visit will often carry only the latest in designer offerings. "Designer" scents are from companies like Gucci, Chanel, Hugo Boss, Armani, Versace, etc. Fragrance is only one aspect of their business. They also do clothes, shoes, purses, etc. These are not bad scents, many are quite good. But many of us just look a little deeper.
Wet shavers in particular are not "mainstream" in their shaving practices, and so become more particular about their fragrance choices.

Many of the scents you'll see discussed here are:

a) "Niche" scents from companies whose only or primary business is perfume Penhaligons, Creed, Montale, Amouage are examples of niche perfumers. Niche scents are much harder to find in stores unless you're in a pretty big city like NY, LA, Chicago...

b) Older scents that are out of mainstream circulation but still sell well enough to be produced . Sometimes the anchor stores carry them; usually not. These are mostly designer. (e.g. YSL Kouros, Chanel Antaeus, Dunill 1934). A lot of these are mostly found online.

Most of have found our of faves through reading about them in forums like this or Basenotes. There is of course this cologne forum in here, and there's a cologne review section.

Personally, I'll see a fragrance chatted up that sounds interesting, look at reviews here and in Basenotes, and drink in what people say about them. Then, if something looks interesting, I either find it in a store to sample, or order samples from one of the vendors listed above in this thread. Many of us have several scents. Once you've tired and owned a few, you have a more focused idea of what kind of scents might interest you.

Living in Los Angeles, I can find almost anything in a store. Lucky Scent has their only store here which is heaven (or hell, maybe). Huge selection of scents that most people can only ever order online.

But, you'll hear all of us drilling the "sample" mantra into your head. You can read how great everyone thinks a particular scent is, buy it on faith, and find out you hate it. Plus- The little sniff in the store doesn't cut it. It takes most scents a couple of hours to truly develop, and the opening notes on that little card in the store don't tell the whole story, nor is it necessarily exactly how it will smell on you. Until you test wear something, you don't really know how long the scent will last on you. Many of us have a thing about longevity. If I pop a few bucks for a scent, I want it to last awhile. My baseline is to make through the 10 hour workday. Some make it and some don't.

Blenheim Bouquet is chatted up in here often like it's the manly cologne of the gods. I rushed out to try it. Got a sample. It just doesn't work on me. I can barely smell it after about a half hour. Tried it three times. Nada- for me. Others love it.

So,

- Lurk around and read reviews.
- Ask questions.
- Develop a discipline to select a few that look interesting and buy small samples online.
- Test wear them and buy the one(s) you and wife like best.

Jeesh, I wrote a book....

 

[radere pluma]

Samples. Sampling whereever I am able. And simply being very lucky to find a few fragrances my extremely selective nose agrees with. I remember that Trumper's GFT was an accidental find: when ordering a sample pack I remember not caring much for it due to the weird description, and so with everyone raving over English Fern, Eucris, Spanish Leather, Wellington and more it would've completely slipped between the cracks had I not received a sample of the shaving cream.

What also helps is asking knowledgable people for 'similar scents' or 'scents to start out with'. You must have a bit of an idea of what is available for this to work, though; and even then a brand which was not mentioned anywhere may all of a sudden turn out to be your Holy Grail.

Methodical sampling and using basenotes has helped many newbs myself included.

take a deep breath and enjoy.