My Top 5 most anticipated blind buy purchases (January 2012)

I decided to give you all a small taste of what is to come in my January 2012 fragrance haul. These are the top 5 fragrances that I am anticipating to open the most since they are blind buys never smelled, never tested, never sampled fragrances. Some I purchased because I felt the notes seemed interesting enough to take the plunge or some are from word of mouth. Either way these are the top 5. I have not included the 3 mystery bottles that I have purchased that will be most likely be my top 3 niche fragrances for winter 2011/2012. Those bottles will also not be included in the haul video, they will be introduced on youtube (yes I will be first to mention them) as number 3,2,1 on my top winter list. As you know I am full of surprises and hope that you enjoy the month of January. Here is my list , excluded are many purchased that I have already smelled like Royal Oud, Amouage Epic , Fumerie Turque among others which I feel might be the best purchases of this haul.

At number 5 we have Thierry Mugler's limited Edition (unless it sells then it will come back a year later as another limited edition) A*men taste of a fragrance (chili). TM has decided that chili powder may go well with chocolate,tar, caramel. It might give this a spicy kick and might just work. I have heard two sides of the coin with this one. I'm not sure what to expect with this one and I am excited to bring my nose to this one. The only designer in this list, TM knows how to get my excited about a release.




At number 4 we have Huitieme Art's Sucre d'ebene. A gourmand that was brought to my attention oh about 4 months ago on our facebook board (FGN) . It's easy to get my attention to blind buy when you talk about a gourmand. This is my first purchase from this brand, and usually there is extra excitement from blind buying in a brand new fragrance house because you really have no clue what to expect. I hear lots of good things about this one and not too many bad things so this could be an easy blind buy for me.



In 3rd we have Nasomatto's Pardon. I remember first sniffing Black Afgano oh a good year or two ago and been blown away from the fragrance, once purchased I never really felt the urge to look deeper in to the line. I felt this was a one and done house, well perhaps I was wrong or maybe I am right. We will see with Pardon if this house is worth looking into some more. This may make a strong case to crack the top 10 winter niche for 2011 if it makes a good impression but BA is a hard act to follow .






In 2nd we have the hyped up Puredistance M. Yes this thing has been pretty hot lately on youtube and on boards. Puredistance even did a timely release of a 100 ml bottle this month. I blind purchase this little 17.5 ml (looks like a nice decant bottle) to see what the hype was about. I'm sure I'll be getting some solid juice for the price. Sometimes I even jump on the hype bandwagon and most of the time it's a safe bet knowing people won't hype something horrible. I really can't wait to sniff this one.






Invasion Barbare is my #1 most anticipated blind buy purchase of this haul. It is also the most expensive (price point not per ml) . Some would call me crazy purchasing something like this blind but it's in my nature for not waiting on something like this. I can already hear the rumblings about this one all over message boards on how great it is. Comparisons to le male & fahrenheit have me shaking my head in enjoyment hoping they are right. This could be either the worst blind buy that I have ever done or the very best, either way it's the one I can't wait to sniff the most out of the 46 bottles of this huge fragrance haul.

Returning in January ! What to expect

First and Foremost I would like to thank every single one of you that have supported me in the past few years with this hobby. You have made me your #1 source for men's fragrance information on youtube and I will continue to keep you all informed on this hobby that we all share. The past few months I have pondered how I can upgrade my youtube channel to give you the best information and give you the best presentation for fragrance reviews. Today I will inform you on a few changes that will transpire in the next few months on the channel.

I felt the first of many changes was to be the presentation of my reviews. I felt that I needed to upgrade how to shoot my reviews, hence I have purchased a Canon T3i which will produce a full 1080p HD video for all you hard core fragrance heads that would like to see as much detail on the presentation of the bottle and the box before shelling out your hard earned cash on blind buys. I felt this will be a huge step since only a small handfull of reviewers have this kind of quality and I felt you as my subscribers deserve a better presentation. I have also dedicated some of my budget to get proper lighting , lenses and equipement to make the whole presentation much neater.

I felt since I was upgrading on the presentation of the videos, it was time to brush up on the format. I have stuck with the same format for over 2 years now which I know most of you love since you all know where to go in the video to find the information you need. The main reason for this is I feel that I needed to cut the fat and start fresh and see what information you all needed and the information that was not necessary. First I wanted to take out the google images in my videos, which will be replaced by my own pictures of the bottles and box. I have also found a local talent that will help me with music for that introduction (the music will be a later addition) . Overall the information that you have come to me for will always be there including the smell, my reaction, age group, how many sprays and where, buy try or pass. I will be adding a segment on longevity and projection which was usually kept for the end of the video in the rating system. I felt they needed to be touched upon in more detail. The rating system will continue to be at the end of the video but less time will be spent on it. I will also be introducing a timestamp feature on my video which will be in the description box under the video and give you a timeline of what time a feature is being spoken about which if you are looking for one specific thing in a review you can just go to that timeline to find out the information. I also will be adding a few new features in the full reviews which will be discussed at a later time.

In other news I will be in New York City on January 14th for a meetup will fellow fragrance heads. I have Al (frangrancefanatic1) & Ed (frunkinator) working on the details at the moment which we can all meet and speak about fragrances. I am very excited to meet a handfull of you. My very 1st review back will be on Hot Water by Davidoff which has been touched by only 2 reviewers, so I am very excited to give you all the details on this fragrance.

I wish you all a happy holidays and a happy new year , and please stay smellin' great !

Marc