Favorite fragrance/cologne?

How large is your collection, dear? I have over 700 bottles, from dime store to luxury niche. I don't have a favorite. I choose intuitively based on time of day, month or season, my mood, and social context.

Cool Water—yes, still!

I’d like Black Orchid without the chocolate. I do love Lost Cherry. Mostly I think Tom Ford frags are overrated. I have about 40 bottles. My all time favorite is Poison.

R2 cool water is a classic. so clean.

I use what Granny told Ellie May to use - vanilla extract.

Kouros is my signature "evening out" fragrance.

Today I wore a Cool Water flanker (there are dozens) nobody has heard of, "Coolest Edition". It's icy mint. I keep it in the fridge. I have a ginormous bottle that will be mostly full when I die. It's very cool, that's for sure.

I wear Jo Malone Yuzu Zest. It smells good but fades extremely quickly. It's more for me than anyone else. I'd like to find a new fragrance. Feels good to be complimented for smelling good.

I was catching a train the other night, and the transit security guard walked up to me and asked what cologne I was wearing, because he said I smelled great.

Was he flirting with me?

Well, for goodness' sake, R9, which cologne were you wearing?

I wish Dior Homme (the original) was as powerful as Kouros. I never go nose blind to Kouros - that stuff is absurdly powerful. But the best part of DH is gone in twenty minutes. Lately I have been sampling the Frassai line.

Windsong

Thanks, OP. Context is everything, with focus on a subject and not oneself, unless for laughs.

I collect, in a small way, older scents. I can't wear them. The only one I use is Mouchoir de Monsieur, which Guerlain has discontinued after selling it since 1904. It was made for handkerchiefs, not the skin. Because once in a while one needs a small boost.

I have a cousin who is an English perfumer. She loves traveling for the perfumery version of the annual couture season. She's anticipating a new "loud" trend in scents aimed at the younger (and socially disaffected) market, which is not informed much about colognes et al. Strong, discordant blends that are aggressive. Completely unisex.

She also expects an alternative organique movement for women that will leave the 40+ group smelling like the dry ingredients of salad dressing. More herbal, less floral, less animal.

I expect continued wild inflation in fragrance prices. All of the niche stuff is $250 a bottle now. $250 is the new $100….

Givenchy Gentleman, original formula

R12 I just got a bottle of vintage Windsong pure parfum.

Apparently they are selling Chanel Pour Monsieur EDT in the US again.

Prada infusion d'iris ... Nothing smells quite like the old formulation.

I'm a guy who loves Chanel No 19.

Sometimes I wear Kiehl's musk eau de toilette (I've heard the oil version was better, but it's been discontinued). I also love the line of fragrances that Vacation put out. The first one was inspired by their sunscreen, which has a coconut smell mixed with notes pool water, musk, banana, and lycra. It smells amazing and very summery. They released a new one recently called Grand Cuvee which I tried and it's also wonderful (mostly amber, oud, and vanilla).

R14 Mouchoir de Monsieur is on my list of scents to try. Does the Guerlain store in Paris still have this?

I wear Habit Rouge EDT daily for myself, but I do not find it to be a people-pleasing scent at all. Have also collected the very animalic Habit Rouge cologne, the extrait from 2006, the aftershave, several flankers like Dress Code and Légère, and the recent Pafum, which seemed very harsh at first but is now mellowing nicely in the bottle.

L'Homme Ideal is the only modern Guerlain I have warmed to somewhat. These all seem to open well, then dry down to the same expensive hair conditioner scent, otherwise perform decently. You can't really go wrong with Guerlain.

Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet

Creed - Aventus

Creed - Erolfa

Cartier - Limited

Mont Blanc - Explorer

R20, I love Kiehl's Musk

Degema

Grey Flannel

R1, 60. Used to be over 100 though. I wore through some and sold some that I didn't really like. 700, wow!!! That's amazing. I bet you have some real gems in there.

R11 in December I got 3 bottles of that, the 2005 one, from Jomashop, because I love the Intense so much. The edt reminds me of the film Match Point for some reason. Its very elegant. Just so fleeting. Have to use like 20 sprays to make it last.

R3 I love Lost Cherry too. Its very sexy.

They do have a Black Orchid version without the chocolate now, and they added tuberose. Its Black Orchid EDT.

Poison smells amazing. Very Morticia Addams, very The Cure. Very cauldron of fruits and spices and venom. It's gothy like Black Orchid is.

Poison is destroyed. Get a clone or vintage.

I understand collecting some things, but fragrances is not one of them—don't they all inevitably degrade with time? I know keeping the bottles out of light and in cooler conditions helps them last longer, but I've had many colognes "turn" before I'd finished a bottle (and I stored them properly). Fragrances, like cosmetics, are meant to be used. I can somewhat understand keeping the bottles, especially if they're vintage.

R28 I have a bottle that's 75 percent full that I found on Ebay in 2019. I wear it at Halloween parties if I'm dressed the part, like Lestat the Vampire. Poison fits that aesthetic very well. It's also so bold and strong that it's almost like niche unisex by today's standards.

I like to randomly sniff the atomizer because its such a narcotic smell. It's so strong it sticks in your nostrils for a few minutes.

R29 I got a small wine refrigerator just to store them in 😆

YSL La nuit de l'homme but lately I've taken a liking to Louis Vuitton Imagination and Tom Ford Ombré Leather

Maison Margiela Replica At The Barber's. Have had this bottle for maybe five years. It was $150, the most I've ever spent on cologne. There's still half a bottle remaining. It smells like Daddy after a shave. I wear just enough so that only people near me can detect it.

I love it when good looking men bathe in cologne. I find it so sexy. Used to ride BART to the Financial District in the 1980s with an involuntary erection. The gentlemen wearing suits and Gray Flannel were to blame.

It's a crap shoot which fragrances go off and which have a decade or two or longer. Yes storage is important. I collected them to study them as an industrial and creative commodity. I don't care if they go off, I will be dead in 20 years. I give them away regularly. Maybe I'll sell some eventually but I don't like the work and it creates this idea that it's an "investment" but its not its just collecting for pleasure. It entertained my mind to learn bout this industry and its history and current phase. It's in a fascinating new phase, greatly expanding globally.

I sometimes wear my partners Issey Miyake which is real nice. I used to wear Kouros until some cunt nicked me bottle

When I was younger I wore whatever I could find that I could get my hands on. Some of the fancy mens magazines would have folded samplers inserted into them which if you pulled out and opened up and rubbed on yourself could do a decent job of making me smell pretty for an evening out if I was flat broke and couldnt afford scent AND to put gas in my car. I had a mate I used to go out on the hunt with, his Mum had some nice scents which I'd sometimes "borrow" some of like Chanel and Charlie and another one I cant remember the name of off hand. A skinhead in steel capped boots and a Motorhead or Iron Maiden t shirt smelling of womens perfume must of confused some people... but it also helped me get laid a few time too so there's that

Drakkar Noir

Um.... Old Spice?

I love the smell of Old Spice, but I would never dare to wear it.

Old Spice was originally 'Early American Old Spice'. It has the same scent notes as Coca-Cola. It's great to wear when you're going to work up a light sweat, since it generally won't 'turn' on the wearer. I still wear it.

And that first Old Spice was a women's fragrance. The men's one followed and was a hit. The women's one was not a hit and quickly discontinued and forgotten.

I love Hermes. My favorites are Bel Ami, Bel Ami Vetiver, and Eau d'Hermes.