Duty Free in London

Duty Free in London (Heathrow) was sub par. Nothing exciting just the same old stuff that we all see basically everywhere. Usually when this happens I purchase fragrances that are new to the market which I did yesterday. I picked up Dolce & Gabbana's The One Sport and V&R's Spicebomb. Needless to say with first sniff I am happy with both purchases. D&G will be good for the warm weather that is approaching and Spicebomb will be perfect for the cooler weather we are having at the moment. My initial impressions are the Spicebomb is a good designer scent which I think is worth a purchase and The One Sport is just another typical freshie which is lost in the sea of the same genre all over the world. If I had to pick one Spicebomb would be the winner. I can't wait to wear these for the next coming months overseas and see what they give me.

What to wear ???

Pic of the top shelf of my fragrance curio #1

My SOTD Today

Agonist's Infidels is my Scent of the Day Today. The weather is warming up here in Canada and it's time to try out one of my newest acquisitions from my January haul. I felt this one would be a great Spring and Fall fragrance and it's not disappointing me yet.  Lots of people online say you pay the big bucks for this for the bottle only with average juice. I disagree and I think yes part of the purchase is the bottle and presentation and being one of very few to own the juice. I believe this fragrance is unique enough to stand on it's own and could very well be one of my favourites for spring.

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

Duty Free in Dubai : What I wanted I got !!

Well this is where the fun starts. It's that time to fly and what that means is I have a chance to look at Duty Free sections all over the world and try to find some jewels. This time around it was in Dubai that I set my sights on the prizes. I was really surprised to see not many new designer releases were available in Dubai duty free. Talking about the new JPG and the new YSL's were both no where to be found, nothing from Thierry Mugler. I did find a few exciting designer releases such as SWW from Dsquared. I did not sniff it but I did almost purchase it, perhaps next time. I came across the Tom Ford section which is always a treat to see what they have, usually they only have the lower end of the brand (the non private blend) which include Tom Ford for Men and Grey Vetiver. I was surprised to see Tom Ford extreme on the counter. I decided since I did just review Grey Vetiver and also already did a review on the original Tom Ford for men that I would pick this one up. I had my eye on this fragrance for quite some time and was wondering back when I purchased the original Tom Ford for men to get the extreme. I heard great things about it, so with no samples or tester available on extreme in duty free I decided well this what I do (blind buys) so I grabbed the last box for the extreme happy to start off my duty free purchases. First impression since I only worn it once since purchase is this is a good one folks!!! I really enjoyed it, it's dark and well balanced great for fall and winter. I have not taken a look at the note breakdown but I'm sure it's as simple as the original Tom Ford for men but also as the original does the job very well. I smelt a little bit of spice and woods . Longevity for a first wear with it came out disappointing which gave me around 5-6 hours but projection was well into 3-4 hours into the wearing still going strong.


Next was the buy that I knew I was going to do when I first heard that I was going thru Dubai. That's the Amouage house. Epic was next on the list and this one was a no brainer. I found the Amouage section and knew exactly where I was going and what bottle I was going to get. Epic in a sense is Epic !! I've sniffed this one before in Duty Free (never worn it) but for the past 2 years I overlooked it over purchases with Reflection, Memoir and lastly Honour Man in duty free. It always came in second and finally it was it's turn. I knew it was gorgeous and I knew it was only a matter of time that I snatched that bottle up. The incense in these Amouage bottles is just insane and so well blended with the other notes that I just get floored every time I smell one of these. This one has Oud in it and of course some spices and usually these Amouage Fragrances just invoke where I wear them that I am some important Sultan and I demand attention. People this brand is the only brand that I will not blink and spend 300 dollars on a bottle . I know what I get from these scents and they are terrific. For the record this is my 6th bottle of Amouage after Memoir, Reflection, Honour, Jubilation XXV and Dia. Stunning just Stunning

My Latest Purchases

Frapin's 1697 is a limited edition fragrance and I felt like snatching this one before it was too late. Hopefully it's a good one
As my previous post stated this fragrance is the one I wanted to buy in 2011 and once I found out it was for sale I snatched a bottle up. Can't wait to sniff this
Fig tea is my 2nd bottle of PDN , it is a woman's fragrance but figs are so light I'm pretty sure anyone can wear them.
At the beach 1966 was a fragrance I was interested in since I still need more summer niche fragrance to round up my collection. This might go head to head against Fire Island from Bond.
Sel de Vetiver was a purchase that was a long time coming. I love this fragrance since I first sniffed it a few years ago.
Oranges & Lemons is a fragrance I bought because of a facebook challenge . Can't wait to see what's in store
L'eau by Serge Lutens is a fragrance I was interested in because it's totally the opposite of what SL usually does. I think it's well done IMO.
L'eau by Artisan should be another great addition to my ever growing collection