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Your Latest Fragrance Purchase

No one has an excuse for not acquiring some real good scents for your hard earned dollar$. Picked these 2 up this weekend at a local Marshall’s discounter, Azzaro Pour Homme Night Time & Perry Ellis Aqua Extreme. Even on the cheap, one can still smell pretty darn good without breaking the bank.

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Azzaro Pour Homme Night Time. Slightly bitter citrus, fruits and some real nice green accords balanced with cedar , pepper and some vetiver. Not dark, nor fresh citrus. Just a combo that delivers a nice aromatic vibe that is almost amber like but, not quite. Real good stuff for the money.....

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Perry Ellis Aqua Extreme. Think Blue fragrance with a slight aquatic vibe. Actually, has a slight resemblance to Versace Dylan Blue, just a bit lighter and not as powerful. Projection is a little weak so is the longevity (3-4 hours with 2 sprays) & sillage is moderate at best but, for $12.99 here’s your spring & summer wearer for low buck$....

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Salvatore Ferragamo - Testa di Moro

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I've been wanting a nice leather scent for a while. A lot of leathers now are heavy on the birch tar. I don't have a problem with birch tar. It's a common smell here, where birch trees are everywhere. But it doesn't smell like leather in any way to me.

I made a blind buy on this, based on the review of a favorite reviewer, giving it a top rating for leather. The problem is it was expensive and a Harrods exclusive, making it worse by a lot to get it shipped here. So I have just been watching the net over the last 6 months, expecting to be released more widely.

Well I got lucky, I found a retailer in Italy that carried it. I started planning when I could get it, and checked back on the site, to see it on sale at 50% off a couple of days later. So it became 'reasonable'. Still not knowing the retailer, I did a little background check, it was legit.

Presentation is pure class, from the box it's housed in to the heavy, elegantly shaped bottle, to the paperweight like top, covered in leather.

Now on to the perfume. It's a real interesting combo of leather, woods and incense. Really smells like the old missions I'd visit in California. Just imagine inside the church, leather covered pews. Craftsmen in the yard are working with fresh hew fir. The incense from the mornings mass still lingers in the air.

The smell of sacred history in the air. Probably not for everyone but if you like this sort of thing, this is hits the spot.

Is it the leather I was searching for, maybe not, but nevertheless it's quickly become a love, and I'll have to look more at this house.
 
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Picked these up today at a local Burlington. Both from Banana Republic @$19.99 apiece. NO BRAINERS. Neroli Woods is classified as a unisex fragrance but, I think it tends to lean more towards the masculine side with a nice neroli, woods, amber, clean green with florals and a touch of cedar & amber. Love this one as it is perfect for 3 season wear and I was running low on my first bottle. Banana Republic M eau de parfum does not veer far from the original eau de toilette version. But, it has a denser and juicier hit from the top with the citrus, plum & fig notes and actually has some legs in duration & sillage. M edp is a better fragrance than M edt, no question. M edp also gives you a nice sandalwood, musk, light cedar with a rosemary herbaceous twist that is awesome for all year round wear.

You can NEVER go wrong smelling clean, fresh with a lightly sweet woodsy musk tinge......

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Picked these up today at a local Burlington. Both from Banana Republic @$19.99 apiece. NO BRAINERS. Neroli Woods is classified as a unisex fragrance but, I think it tends to lean more towards the masculine side with a nice neroli, woods, amber, clean green with florals and a touch of cedar & amber. Love this one as it is perfect for 3 season wear and I was running low on my first bottle. Banana Republic M eau de parfum does not veer far from the original eau de toilette version. But, it has a denser and juicier hit from the top with the citrus, plum & fig notes and actually has some legs in duration & sillage. M edp is a better fragrance than M edt, no question. M edp also gives you a nice sandalwood, musk, light cedar with a rosemary herbaceous twist that is awesome for all year round wear.

You can NEVER go wrong smelling clean, fresh with a lightly sweet woodsy musk tinge......

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Banana Republic has a lot of highly underrated frags. I have several of their Icon collection, and they are all outstanding, especially for the price. They remind me a bit of Varvatos frags in that I don't get the best longevity out of them but the overall quality more than makes up for that. Vintage Green and Oud Mosaic are probably my two favorites. Oud Mosaic is a fairly standard rose/oud/saffron blend, but they toss a jammy plum note in the opening that really makes it stand out.
 
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Lorenzo Villoresi - Acqua di Colonia

First impression, very natural citrus flowers, and some spice in the background in the opening. More of the citrus rind is coming out now, lovely and just smells of good quality. Let's see where it goes.
 
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A couple of great cheepies! I've got a bit of an old school green thing going on, and boy do these satisfy.
Quorum, classic powerhouse style aromatic. I wasn't expecting much, but it's actually pretty great, aromatic green, old school musky.
Agua Brava, herbal aromatic, a lot like Myrsol Aqua Balsamica.
 
I think it’s been about 20-25 years since I purchased any Cool Water fragrance and at least 15 from Mont Blanc (except for Explorer recently). Was walking around my local Marshall‘s and saw these 2, Cool Water Intense & Starwalker. For the price, what have I got to lose? Try them out sometime this week. The Mugler is a tester I purchased from an online retailer. I had sampled it some time before the pandemic broke out and I remember it being a fresh, pleasant & clean scent with a slight Cannabis note in it. Not like Mugler Cologne, that was a super clean scent, more soapy like and I enjoyed the OG immensely. We’ll see how Mugler Cologne Fly Away does. Not a very convincing name for a fragrance….

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Today’s Mail Call is brought to you by ecosmetics & Floris London…..

I’ve always been a big fan of Floris & their excellent presentations and quality looking bottles but, not so much of their fragrances. Most on me have been short on performance for the price that one pays and not to ruffle anyone’s feathers but, they do have a bit of a dated feel to them though I will admit they are tastefully done and true classic scents. This one though, imho brings Floris to the 21st century in perfumery with a more modernized touch while still retaining the Floris dna that they are known for. It was love at first sniff a few weeks back when I smelled a sample at a boutique and I had to get me a bottle of this gorgeous smelling juice, Neroli Voyage. Can’t say much about performance, sillage or projection as I just received it today but, it will be up on deck for tomorrow’s shave and work day. Eager to find out to be honest…..

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Today’s Mail Call is brought to you by ecosmetics & Floris London…..

I’ve always been a big fan of Floris & their excellent presentations and quality looking bottles but, not so much of their fragrances. Most on me have been short on performance for the price that one pays and not to ruffle anyone’s feathers but, they do have a bit of a dated feel to them though I will admit they are tastefully done and true classic scents. This one though, imho brings Floris to the 21st century in perfumery with a more modernized touch while still retaining the Floris dna that they are known for. It was love at first sniff a few weeks back when I smelled a sample at a boutique and I had to get me a bottle of this gorgeous smelling juice, Neroli Voyage. Can’t say much about performance, sillage or projection as I just received it today but, it will be up on deck for tomorrow’s shave and work day. Eager to find out to be honest…..

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Looking forward to your review, Neroli is becoming one of my favorite fragrance ingredients.
 
Looking forward to your review, Neroli is becoming one of my favorite fragrance ingredients.
First wearing was quite impressive yesterday. Good projection for the first hour and it settles in nicely with that wonderful neroli not. Dries down into a very pleasant & satisfying aroma. More wearings to decipher what I'm swimming in scent wise but, a very good 2 thumbs up....
 
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Tome Ford - Fougere Platine

I've really been going against the frag head's golden rule lately, and making more blind buys than not. As the COVID situation was starting to look up here, I've wanted to make more purchases locally. And a fragrance of the day post prompted me to check on an Acqua di Parma scent, when this popped up on massive discount, 63% off, bringing it down to the realm of plebs like me.

My initial take, it's got that Tom Ford Private Blend DNA going on strongly. Of the fragrance from the line I've tried, there is a commonality, which I can only describe as American luxury. It's unique, I don't know any other frags that have that quality. It also makes it feel like a very special occasion fragrance. Most frags I have that people say that about, don't wear that way to me, but this does, in that I'd choose it out of anything I have to wear to a formal occasion, even after the one wearing, that much is clear. Not that I wouldn't wear it other times.

OK on to the scent, if you know the Tom Ford DNA, then this is that tinged with a dark vegetal green. I also get very deep down, a bit of barbershop shaving cream scent, but it's a backup singer in this composition, not the star. There's also a bit of incense, which goes towards this being a far more serious fougere, this isn't Brut by any means, even if lavender is listed as main player, along with sage, the blend, that forms that rich Tom Ford NNA conceals all that for me, and leaves one with a fougere inspired scent that's made for the most important days of your life, walking you daughter down the aisle worthy class.

Projection and silage, this is one of those frags that only lives in the air, the opposite of a sen scent in that I barely pick it up at all when I sniff close, but get these big wafts of goodness unexpectedly in the air, so it's quite deceiving and I can see how some reviews are saying it doesn't last at all (totally disappointing seared only skin in 5 minutes) and others who are saying watch out, it's potent.

Too soon to say how long it lasts, but I've had great performance with other Private Blends I've tried, so hope this will be the same.

For me, my nose so heavily picks up that DNA, that I honestly feel, this is the only Tom Ford Private Blend I need, but man, is it a good one. Highly recommended.
 
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Tom Ford - Fougere Platine follow up, the dry down is really nice, the tobacco start coming out, and it's the most comforting pipe tobacco like effect when combining with the olibanum.

At the price, I'm wondering if I should get a 2nd 50 ml.
 
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