I like dressing nice as much as the next guy and I'm now deep into exploring more & more men's fragrances. I haven't been in an office in 2 years now, and I probably wouldn't wear most scents to the office anyways. But I love putting some on when I go out and love exploring new ones. So, what are you guys wearing? Give me your top 5 (no more than that!) and please be specific since fragrances have so many variances in their names.
Here's mine:
- Chanel Platinum Egoiste - incredible scent, fresh, elegant. Definitely says you're an executive. If I could only wear one for the rest of my life, this would be it
- Hugo Boss Man - I have been wearing this forever, literally 20+ years. If you like being complimented when you go out, wear this one.
- Louis Vuitton Meteore - a recent addition to my collection. I was actually disappointed on my last visit to my local LV, I just didn't like any of their offerings. But this one was the exception. Smells light and fresh but still very subdued. Only people that get up close to you will even notice it but when they do, they will love it. I wore it on Sunday and my female went crazy over it.
- Gucci Black Guilty - Love this one, you can't help but smile when you wear it. My gripe with this one is that its not very strong. You will go through a lot very quickly if you're someone that likes strong projection from your fragrance.
- Burberry Mr. Burberry Indigo - amazing scent, really fresh and young. I usually don't shop Burberry, so it was a nice find on a random trip there. Once you've worn it, you will want to order it again.
I really like Parfumes De Marly Percival for the office - a little bit on the pricey side but worth it
Versace Eros is my go to
The fuck is Gucci Black Guilty, is this the 2010s?
You must be a lot of fun at parties.
The Brown Boy Special: Dior Sauvage
Terre d'Hermes, Creed Aventus/Green Irish Tweed, Acqua di Parma Colonia/Arancia di Capri, Cartier L'Envol, Tom Ford (private blend series)
Terre d’hermes for the win!
YSL Ultime and L'Homme are lovely
Summer - Le Labo Bergamote 22
Winter - Tom Ford Oud Wood
I'm Persian so obviously I would say Dior Sauvage, just kidding but I do have some great recommendations.
Those are some basic designer brand fragrances that a lot of people own but if you want more unique or “niche” fragrances I'm going to recommend some brands to look into. I won't tell you specific ones since they are unique smelling and different so you gotta smell a bunch of different fragrances in the house to find your scent.
If you want more recommendations let me know.
As a niche perfume hipster, I am a little bit embarrassed for the commentary in this thread. Most people here clear 6-digits and you guys wear cologne that's cheaper than a DoorDash for two. And I say this with no ill intent.
So I'm around $5k deep into this hobby now, you can with confidence say that I'm as passionate on the topic as some guys here are about watches and cars. I don't think you need to be deep into perfume to realize that Creed 'Aventus' basically dominates Wall St, seen comments on this in so many threads actually. Aventus is the most popular niche perfume in the industry. And before I go more in depth, the word 'niche' refers to perfume houses that almost exclusively work on perfumes (they'll usually also do hair sprays, hand creams, candles etc - they just don't do clothes) vs. 'designer' which mainly refers to fashion houses who also dabble in perfume.
My entire post will be around niche since I enjoy the idea of wearing something that is both high in quality and unique. And no, not Creed 'Aventus' isn't among these. I'm genuinely a hater cause Aventus breaks the rules of niche by being far too popular. Aventus has additional problems - it has significant variance batch-to-batch, meaning when the scent first came out, it had better longevity vs. now it's more watered down. They also made a change from selling 125ml bottles to 100ml while keeping the price the same. As a whole, the house of Creed is no longer good value and I mean that wholeheartedly. I will still, however, include them in my recommendations to not seem biased. Before I start: avoid blind-buying, always test/sample your fragrances. Only blind-buy if you are experienced.
So what is good value? The first thing to understand is what are the other well-recognized niche houses. I list these based on my personal understanding of demand, price, and quality.
1. Parfums de Marly - popular, mostly safe scents that are easy to wear, leaning mostly summer-fall with a few winter fragrances
2. Xerjoff - diverse offering wall-to-wall, elite blend quality, 10/10 design for bottles/packaging (bottles come in nice leather cases and the perfumes are covered by a silky sheet)
3. Roja Parfums - Roja to many is the market leader for masculine fresh scents, price in terms of top 3 is on average the highest, very high quality bottles. Has one of the main competitors to Creed 'Aventus', that being Roja 'Elysium'.
4. Amouage - offering just as diverse as Xerjoff, blend quality has recently fallen off with some scents not performing as good (see Amouage 'Jubilation XXV')
5. Kilian - the king of winter fragrances. This house almost entirely builds fragrances you want to wear in tight circles and for dates as the gourmand profile (gourmand means edible smelling fragrance) can be musky/alluring
6. Initio - Initio is a sister-house of Parfums de Marly, they mainly design musky/alluring scents like Kilian does, but they do it from a more standard profile that isn't always gourmand.
7. Nishane - another diverse house that has one of the main competitors to Aventus, that being Nishane 'Hacivat'. Nishane also has what many consider to be the best vanilla scent in Nishane 'Ani'.
8. Royal Crown - this is basically luxury-tier Italian perfumery. On average the bottle price is the highest out of anything on this list.
9. Mancera - 1st of 2 budget niche houses. Have perfumes that are very similar to those of Montale, high quality clones that take popular scents and slightly twist them.
10. Montale - 2nd of 2 budget niche houses. Have perfumes that are very similar to those of Mancera, high quality clones that take popular scents and slightly twist them.
Very specific recommendations on a scenario basis:
1. All-year: In the niche realm, there are two types of all-year scents, i.e. scents you can wear all through-out the year in every climate.
2. Summer: In the summer you don't want to wear heavy fragrances that are too sweet since they can be suffocating. The profile here wants to remain fresh, maybe moderately sweet. Given my recommendations above, the next scents that come to mind are Roja 'Oceania', Roja 'Burlington 1819', Atelier 'Orange Sanguine' (subpar performance, this can be a great wind-down scent or to throw on after the gym, it's not that expensive), and Creed 'Viking'.
3. Fall/spring: This is where you can get away with mix-and-match styles. A good example is Initio's 'Rehab' which is the niche version of Viktor&Rolf's 'Spicebomb' - a creamy-woody scent that is pushed through pepper. Another great idea is Xerjoff's 'Naxos' which is a fresher take on a tobacco-based fragrance. My favorite fall/spring scent is Amouage's 'Enclave' which is a sweet peppermint fragrance.
Very specific recommendations on a per-house basis that I haven't listed above:
1. Parfums de Marly - After Layton the next most popular scents are Herod, Percival, and Pegasus. To me, Herod is the most attractive here as a tobacco-vanilla based winter fragrance, the profile which actually received a lot of attention thanks to Tom Ford's 'Tobacco Vanille'. You could realistically buy Layton, Herod, and Percival/Pegasus which would cover almost all weathers/scenarios.
2. Xerjoff - the key fragrance here to me is Alexandria II. It is a unique standout the same way that Dior's 'Fahrenheit' is. It is also very expensive - I paid 500 for a 100ml, but for business means, I enjoy having something that is both pleasant to smell and a bit more expensive.
3. Roja - while this scent does not work on my skin, Roja's 'Creation-E' or 'Enigma' as it is known in Europe can be a very appealing scent for some. Smells of coca cola and honey, to me that coca cola part of the profile does not last long.
4. Amouage - a bit surprising I haven't mentioned this yet, but Amouage's 'Reflection Man' is a slightly different take on the popular manly profiles. Think you can draw some comparisons to Prada 'L'Homme' for example or even 'Luna Rossa'.
5. Kilian - not sure where to start as the options are huge here, but the main two you want to focus on are 'Intoxicated' and 'Black Phantom'. Spray your clothes if you want to completely fill a room.
6. Initio - my 'begging for attention' scent has been 'Oud for Greatness', a dirty-animalic oud scent that remains inviting thanks to the saffron note making the scent more sweet.
7. Nishane - after 'Hacivat' and 'Ani' my recommendation would be 'Suede et Safran'. This is a different take on Tom Ford's 'Tuscan Leather' without the raspberry note. Smells very much like a sweet leather.
8. Royal Crown - this is a very hard sell from me to make cause each bottle is more than 400 I believe, but hey, the bottle cap is a legitimate crown. I think I'd suggest Royal Crown 'Sultan' here which is a smoky version of Initio's 'Absolute Aphrodisiac'. Scent is a combination of vanilla/amber and wood vs. 'Absolute Aphrodisiac' being vanilla/amber and leather.
9. Mancera - so Mancera as a house has a lot of cheap fragrances that can be recommended here since they all hover 120-150$ for 120ml. Top recommendation for sweet: 'Aoud Vanille'. Top recommendation for fresh/all-year: 'Cedrat Boise' which is a fruity version of Aventus.
10. Montale - again, a lot of possible recommendations here. The most popular one is 'Intense Cafe' and its recent flanker 'Ristretto Intense Cafe'. Think rose and coffee, but the coffee note isn't that strong? At least not to me. After that I'd say 'Honey Aoud' - it's honey and wood in a dark masculine way, best niche comparisons to this are Parfums de Marly 'Oajan', and Kilian 'Gold Knight'. We can also include 'Arabians Tonka' which is a budget version of Initio's 'Oud for Greatness'.
But yeah, think that about covers it. One thing I didn't touch on are the private blends / private lines of designers. These have niche-type quality for niche-type prices, but they might be a bit more popular than you'd like. Most popular example without a doubt is Tom Ford's private line which includes scents like 'Tuscan Leather', 'Noir de Noir', 'Tobacco Vanille' etc. These are, in essence, what a lot of the popular niche fragrances are based of and I pay homage to this throughout my post.
Xerjoff and Parfums de Marley and MFK look into those 3 houses. However be prepared to pay 300 minimum starting up to 700 I believe. Both quality scents that have a nuclear sillage and also are loved by men and especially women. My most complimented fragrance is ysl La nuit de l’homme but it doesn’t last long, 4-6 hours if your lucky on the batch and if it works well with your body chemistry. However, it smells godly, one time a girl (although drunk) grabbed me by the shirt and moaned “you smell fucking amazing” she tried to lick me before her friends took her away. The best compliment I have received to date lmao.