Cologne / Perfume Reviews

Lost Virtue

Lost Virtue

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SirFapsAlot said:
I'll definitely check Joma out and do some price comparisons, thanks for the heads up.

The Boss bottles are also amazing looking, which brings me to the next point...

I'm one of those people who has to like the bottle and if it's not all that, then I will skip a frag altogether, weird, not so rational, but true. Lots of dupes also have shitty bottles, but in all fairness, some of them actually do a great job. I was actually looking at frags from Armaf before I found out they were basically a dupe house. I'll give Montagne a fair look, just because they're made to order - honestly not a huge fan of Parfum De Marly bottles myself, so curious to see what the Montagne bottle looks like.

Definitely makes sense to pick up dupes if you can't find the OG anymore, lots of stuff gets discontinued or reformulated to the extent that it's not the same thing anymore. I remember when Armani Code was Armani Black Code but they changed the name and also the small sampler I have / had since back in the day smells different than the more recent stuff, but I think they discontinued flankers of that as well, I know the Armani Code Profumo is gone and I've heard nothing but good stuff about it.
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You will not like Montagne if you care about bottle design. They are very 'Replica' (brand) -like, just a simple bottle with a white label of the name and scent notes. They are only only 50mL, so designing a bottle for that size really isn't a good business decision in general as it would definitely add a unnecessary cost that would increase the price for the buyer (us). They do put good atomizers on their bottles though, better than I would say 80% of my 'name brand' fragrances. Atleast they use thick glass bottles...? 🤷‍♂️

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Some of my more recent pickups (within the last year; a combo of Joma sales, work 'points' redemptions, random gift cards, BOGO sales). Most of these I already owned decants of but decided to buy the full bottles or were bottles that were nearly empty that I needed to restock on. Some of these may eventually be sold off if I get bored of them too. I am a daily fragrance wearer so things get old or I go through them by using them a lot and will be in my daily or seasonal rotation for a long time (if not for life; looking at you D&G 'The One').:

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I'll need to get a good photo together of all my stuff. It is kindof scattered all over the place. I try to keep spring/summer/fall/winter combo sets everywhere I frequently spend time at (car, work, sister/bro-in-law's house, etc) for convenience and because f' it, I have a somewhat large amount of frags (I ask myself all the time "why?").
 
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sleevedraw

sleevedraw

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SirFapsAlot said:
Any one else amped up for the cold weather? Got my full bottle of Bentley For Men Intense, slacked on picking it up for a while.
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Still hot here, but looking forward to dragging my Givenchy flankers out of storage. GS Extreme and Reserve Privee are both great. I've heard a lot of people hyping Ambree up too, but I'm usually not a tobacco guy.
 
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Lost Virtue

Lost Virtue

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sleevedraw said:
Still hot here, but looking forward to dragging my Givenchy flankers out of storage. GS Extreme and Reserve Privee are both great. I've heard a lot of people hyping Ambree up too, but I'm usually not a tobacco guy.
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Haven't really had a bad Givenchy yet. I still remember the days of being in middle school/high school and always wearing GIvenchy 'Pi'. Such a great introduction to the brand.
 
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SirFapsAlot

SirFapsAlot

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Lost Virtue said:
You will not like Montagne if you care about bottle design. They are very 'Replica' (brand) -like, just a simple bottle with a white label of the name and scent notes. They are only only 50mL, so designing a bottle for that size really isn't a good business decision in general as it would definitely add a unnecessary cost that would increase the price for the buyer (us). They do put good atomizers on their bottles though, better than I would say 80% of my 'name brand' fragrances. Atleast they use thick glass bottles...? 🤷‍♂️

View attachment 605660

Some of my more recent pickups (within the last year; a combo of Joma sales, work 'points' redemptions, random gift cards, BOGO sales). Most of these I already owned decants of but decided to buy the full bottles or were bottles that were nearly empty that I needed to restock on. Some of these may eventually be sold off if I get bored of them too. I am a daily fragrance wearer so things get old or I go through them by using them a lot and will be in my daily or seasonal rotation for a long time (if not for life; looking at you D&G 'The One').:

View attachment 605663

View attachment 605664

I'll need to get a good photo together of all my stuff. It is kindof scattered all over the place. I try to keep spring/summer/fall/winter combo sets everywhere I frequently spend time at (car, work, sister/bro-in-law's house, etc) for convenience and because f' it, I have a somewhat large amount of frags (I ask myself all the time "why?").
Click to expand...

Yeah bottles are a huge part of the buy for me, there's stuff I've heard about before either from people suggesting them, or getting a whiff of a sample and then I see the bottle design and it's a huge turn off. Either not enough effort, or too much effort, I blame my OCD or something, the bottle has to be classy, elegant and aesthetically pleasing.

Those Azzaros, the DG The One and the Armani Code bottles are outstanding, The One EDP is one of my favorite, but as well know, bummer about the longevity.

sleevedraw said:
Still hot here, but looking forward to dragging my Givenchy flankers out of storage. GS Extreme and Reserve Privee are both great. I've heard a lot of people hyping Ambree up too, but I'm usually not a tobacco guy.
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Huge on Tobacco here, that and Vanilla, I can't get enough of them. Was cold enough to rock Replica Jazz Club today, six sprays, loved every second of it, still going strong. Givenchy Reserve Privee ... I'm going to order that in my next batch of samples. I like that it leans masculine, notes look fucking amazing.
 
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Lost Virtue

Lost Virtue

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My newest pickups:

1. Amber Elixir - Based on Clive Christian 'Blonde Amber'. I would say it is 90% to the original and about $500 less expensive. This is a very complex and should be an amazing fall/winter fragrance, especially for date nights. This dupe has just slightly more amber than the original but that may mellow out some over the next few weeks. This dupe was just released last week. Probably one of the harder dupes Montagne has made and I feel they blew it out of the water. I am impressed

2. Perceval - Based on 'Percival' (PdM). This is about 85-90% of the original. This replaced my empty Percival which is one of my main frags I wear to the office. I won't be buying Percival again as long as I can continue picking this up.

3. Pineapple Frais - Based on Creed 'Aventus Cologne'. This is about 80-85% similar to the original as it has some additional 'freshness'/green'-ness compared to the original. Does last much longer than the original however. May not be a super-close clone but stands on its own regardless.

4. Gentle Silver - Based off of 'Gentle Fluidity Silver' by Maison Francis Kurkdjian. This is pretty much a 95+% match to the original. Absolutely fantastic office or daily-wear fragrance. Very clean, inoffensive, soft and sharp at the same time (kindof odd).

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SirFapsAlot

SirFapsAlot

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Lost Virtue said:
My newest pickups:

1. Amber Elixir - Based on Clive Christian 'Blonde Amber'. I would say it is 90% to the original and about $500 less expensive. This is a very complex and should be an amazing fall/winter fragrance, especially for date nights. This dupe has just slightly more amber than the original but that may mellow out some over the next few weeks. This dupe was just released last week. Probably one of the harder dupes Montagne has made and I feel they blew it out of the water. I am impressed

2. Perceval - Based on 'Percival' (PdM). This is about 85-90% of the original. This replaced my empty Percival which is one of my main frags I wear to the office. I won't be buying Percival again as long as I can continue picking this up.

3. Pineapple Frais - Based on Creed 'Aventus Cologne'. This is about 80-85% similar to the original as it has some additional 'freshness'/green'-ness compared to the original. Does last much longer than the original however. May not be a super-close clone but stands on its own regardless.

4. Gentle Silver - Based off of 'Gentle Fluidity Silver' by Maison Francis Kurkdjian. This is pretty much a 95+% match to the original. Absolutely fantastic office or daily-wear fragrance. Very clean, inoffensive, soft and sharp at the same time (kindof odd).

View attachment 606974
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Great photo!
 
Lost Virtue

Lost Virtue

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I did learn something interesting about Montagne. Most of their stock issues are around times where specific ingredients may not be in-season, similar issues big name brands have. The big difference with his brand compared to other clone houses is they get the core base/foundation and ingredients from places like Givaudan or Firmenich which basically created the bases and supply ingredients for most of the name-brands (think Luxottica for sunglasses). Other clones or middle-eastern clones are based off of oils from premade bases from Luzi. Montagne supposedly crafts/formulates everything inhouse using things like an inhouse GCMS to break down the original scents.

There is a lot of suspicion they are financially backed by a bigger name brand (some theorize Chanel since that is the one fragrance brand they really don't dive into). People tried to do a deep dive into their company and were left with little information, shell games basically. The company is just very private from what a lot of people have gathered.


On another note, I do have some decants coming in I'm pretty excited to try. Really excited to try Angel's Share 'On The Rocks'
 
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Ishad

Ishad

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This thread made me go out and get my first fragrance, went with Dylan blue and like it quite a bit.

Going to stick with it until it’s gone. Watching a few YouTube videos it seems like the fragrance world is like any other male hobby and is a flaming pit of burned money.
 
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Lost Virtue

Lost Virtue

Trakanon Raider
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281
Ishad said:
This thread made me go out and get my first fragrance, went with Dylan blue and like it quite a bit.

Going to stick with it until it’s gone. Watching a few YouTube videos it seems like the fragrance world is like any other male hobby and is a flaming pit of burned money.
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Pretty safe and reliable, good pickup.

And yes, the money burning is real, hence why I went to more clones/dupes to atleast make it a slow(er) burn. The good thing is these basically don't go bad if stored properly and I generally only buy big bottles of stuff I know i'll be wearing for years. The issue with the fragrance world is scents come and go and some you will never be able to buy again in a few years, so collecting can be fun and/or profitable (selling discontinued fragrances can fetch a 'good' profit). Also, never buy fragrances from retail stores, you are paying 40%+ more (sometimes double) than buying them online through discounters. Obviously there are some exceptions where certain brands are only available in stores (Louis Vuitton for example).

Those YouTubers also have an absolute insane amount of fragrances (200+ bottles), that is not normal and likely just for YouTube purposes. A 'good' amount (but can still seem like a lot) is 3-5 fragrances per season (spring, summer, fall, winter) to have on rotation or have fragrances that can overlap seasons. If you want go even further, break those down into casual, formal, late night/date night (most 'date night' stuff can be used year round). Stick with 50-75mL bottles of things you like or larger bottles for thing you REALLY like such as D&G 'The One' that SirFapsAlot and I have mentioned.
 
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sleevedraw

sleevedraw

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My latest samples:

Memo African Leather: Misleading name; very little leather (but all of the Memo ___ Leathers are more or less like this, I've found). Cardamom/amber bomb with some oud. Better for cold weather. I would say unisex.

Memo Italian Leather: Starts out green (tomato leaf), dries down into a sweet combination of older-smelling leather and...vanilla ice cream? Opening is weird, but gets good in the dry down. I think conceptually it's pretty similar to Irish Leather in that regard (very green to start --> dries down differently), but I like it a lot more, because Irish Leather has this really off-putting mate/peat moss note that I don't like that persists even in the DD.

JPG Le Male Elixir: One of those fragrances where I personally don't like what it's doing, but I have a lot of respect for the craft behind it. They say the top is the classic Le Male lavender+mint, but I really don't get much of either, if any. Tobacco/Honey/Vanilla/other generally sweet notes. What makes it interesting is that the predominating notes seem to vary depending on how far away you are from it. Further out, it's mostly tobacco, it becomes sweeter as you get closer. Probably good for date nights. Feels like JPG answer to/a younger guy's version of Replica Jazz Club.

Tom Ford Beau de Jour: Well made but expensive barbershop fougere that unfortunately lives in a world where there are many other well made barbershop fougeres for significantly less money. Feels older; probably would want to be 35+ to wear this.
 
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