Dan81

I smoke cigarettes so I have been on a hunt for the perfect scents that match my bad habit. My go to previously used to be Chanel Egoiste and Versace Dreamer- I still love these fragrance but they do feel outdated, and I wanted something that is more wearable/more mass appealing than Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille (love it but not the best complement getter), Kilian's Back to Black was too pipe tobacco-ish and old man-like for my taste. T Mugler Pure Havane is good but I like to wear him along with Versace dreamer in Indian summer nights, getting away with strong Tobacco scent. I did not want to just get away wearing a Tobacco scent, but to own a signature tobacco scent.

I got a 1mL sample of Herod from LuckyScents and sniffed it for countless time over 10 months. With Herod I was immediately captivated by the cinnamon that conjures sweet tobacco that floats around the vanilla in a harmonious and sophisticated manner. I just can't get enough and keep sniffing him! After researching various opinions and exploring other Tobacco scents, I finally took the plunge and bought the bottle. It is strange that I would blind buy a $30-80 designer fragrance that easily add up to $2-300 while I get very cautious with perfume prices in the $2-300 range. Part of it I think is that I love my cheaper fragrances equally. Anyways, flacon is very pretty and heavy, now with proper atomizer and its powerful spray of the juice I am allowed truly enjoy PDM's fantastic quality and blending. I cannot stress quality enough, as each notes like cinnamon, tobacco and vanilla stands out despite it being blended so well. Simply masterful blending and execution. I think it is the interplay between Frankincense in the heart and patchouli and cedar wood in the base that surround the trio of cinnamon, tobacco and vanilla that makes it stand out. I do not find any irritating notes nor synthetic vibe, and it just smells so great on my skin. Durability is also fantastic on my skin-I've read reviews of 6-8 hours but one spray was an easy 12 hours. Projection and sillage is good but not overwhelming.

Conclusion: Herod is worth the price. I hate to admit it, but it's just that good. Having gone through so many tobacco scents, I cannot help but admire where he stands. Herod is in a completely different league from both tobacco scent and general perfume perspective. It will become my fall/winter signature scent.

I finally received the 10mL samples of Office and Date from Fragrance One. I started out with Office and I was not very impressed frankly as it had too much of a similarity to Creed Aventus in the top and developed into Dior Sauvage, which I am not a fan of. Date had been rated even lower than Office, hence I was not expecting much.

It is hard to judge a subjective experience like a fragrance journey, well in this case it worked in its favor. I absolutely love "Date". This fragrance is, to my nose, JPG Ultra Male without the heavy amber/wood. Yes, the top notes have more citrus, I think lemon in particular is quite piercing but overall pear sits in the middle very similar to Ultra Male. Others have called it Fruit salad, but it's a joy wearing this mix! It feels invigorating with youth like A&F's First Instinct Extreme (not the scent notes but the vibe). I am older/around 40 and others have said this is a fragrance for under 25, go ahead mock me or laugh at me for liking a fragrance that is rated quite low, I don't care. I am going to rock this because I LOVE IT! Haha, totally unexpected.

The biggest reason I like Date, is that it solves the issue I have with JPG Ultra Male; I love the top notes of Ultra Male but am not a big fan when the amber and woods come out as it reminds me of sweat. I do find animalic smells sexy in general, but in Ultra Male's case it becomes this sweet sweat that I commonly associate with sweaty dudes in clubs that I don't like to smell on myself. I get this heavy amber association with sweat (of other dude and not mine) in other fragrances such as First Instinct Extreme and Tom Ford Fucking Fabulous. With Office, I do not get this problem! I cannot smell the wood like many of the other reviewers, but I don't care as I like my fruit salad to stay perky. Is it the praised Laotian wood that it's in the background working magic with ambroxan or is it just ambroxan? I don't know, but again I don't care as I know this fragrance has solved my issue with Ultra Male. I still like Ultra Male but I will probably reach out to Date more often, so I think I will buy the full bottle.

Conclusion: Date by Fragrance One was a total surprise for me. It fits everything in terms of scent, longevity (good projection for 7-8 hours and skin scent well into12+ hours). It does not evolve much on my skin, but I love the top notes and ambroxan that develops later so I'm perfectly happy with that. Finally, complements that Jeremy promised: My wife is very difficult to get compliments from. She wants me to go back to the days of having just few scents instead of 30+ that I have now, so she is more guarded in giving compliments as I would buy them while dislikes do not go unnoticed. As I like Ultra Male I have worn it during the colder months plenty of times and I still did not get unsolicited comments from my wife, which makes me think she's just ok with it. Back to the Date from Fragrance One, I sat down next to her and within 20 seconds she went "that smells nice, what is it?" Again, I do not see a reason why (other than the high price) this gem is rated so low as he is a home run for me.

I finally received my 10mL samples. As others have described, Fragrance One's Office has strong Aventus similarity in the top notes. It then dries down to Dior Sauvage as Ambroxan takes over and permeate. This ambroxan-heavy scent cloud slightly bothers me, as it feels synthetic/artificial. But I get the same feeling from Sauvage and for that reason I am not the biggest Sauvage fan either. I will have to test Office whether it attracts as much compliments as advertised but for my personal preference in wearing the scents (ie sniffing self/getting a whiff), I prefer Aventus > Office > Sauvage. Durability and silage are excellent.

I thought about uniqueness. As mentioned above, Office can be summarized in an equation for me: (Aventus Top + Sauvage heart/base) /2. I cannot fully appreciate the other delicate components as Ambroxan is overwhelming to my nose. While I may sound critical, I personally do not find approaches like these "mindless". It's like a DJ remixing two popular songs. With devoted passion for scents, one can easily imagine how particular notes of a fragrance may hit you well but some do not and you wish you could switch them out to create a "perfect" scent. I feel like Jeremy Fragrance really liked the top notes of Aventus and heart/body of Sauvage, and decided to get a master perfumer to tweek the scents as imagined. There are many examples as this offering in the designer world; Prada's Luna Rossa Carbon can be said to be Sauvage's refinement piece with less pepper. I think Office can be discussed in the similar vein and I think he did an excellent job.

Going back to the scent: although the Ambroxan does bother me as I expect the Aventus flow due to its near identical opening, I still like the smell of Office overall. As I own Aventus and have smelled other Aventus clones, I won't be wearing Office if I'm just going for Aventus like smell however. I will wear it for post-COVID19 social gathering situations to see how it performs; I may reach for Office if it a better crowd pleaser than Aventus or Sauvage.

Price point: It's expensive but with his 2 for 1 deals and the travel sizes I do not think it's no longer an issue. Test if you like the juice with the travel pack, check if you can get the result you wish for or the smell itself, then decide if you want to buy the bottles. For me, the travel size samples will do for now.

Overall: I think it's a well mixed fragrance that tries to capture the good of Aventus and Sauvage. The chimeric presentation is somewhat off-putting if you have smelled Aventus and/or Sauvage often before, as your nose may expect a different flow, but overall I do think it's a good scent. I have hopes that it will gather lots of compliments. I want Jeremy to keep making these fragrances as I like the idea: take the good parts of others to make something even better. Although what I really want from Jeremy Fragrance is mindless: to make a stronger La Nuit de L'Homme, but I appalud the spirit of experimentation and execution. One can only get refinement through trial and error so I support his journey.

Armani attitude was a gift from my mother back in the fall of 2008 when I used to wear Chanel Egoiste platinum. I liked the cigarette -case like presentation and really liked the coffee in the top note that mixed well with cardamom and a little bit of patcohuli in the base. It always felt a bit restrained as I expected something bolder from a name like attitude, but I loved the casual attitude and was my go to in the evening. then I stopped reaching for it and the bottle had collected dust for a while. 13 years later as I joined Parfumo I reached for my Attitude again; I still have 85% of the juice left. I spray and volla! it smells exactly as I remember when I first got it, maybe slightly more restrained but the pleasant coffee that mingles with the cardamon is exactly as I remember - perhaps the black tinted glass may have helped with its passing of time. My Chanel Egoiste platinum was a year or two older than my Armani attitude but its top note has strong aldehyde smell now and it was spoiled (but then again the heart and base notes are quite good still). My time travel scent: Giorgio Armani restrained attitude.

I love SpiceBomb Extreme. First sniff starts with an explosion of pepper and Cinammon that warms me up. The tobacco notes blend with my own cigarette scent and I feel like I am by the fire during Christmas break. I cannot stop sniffing myself over and over, but my wife despises the smell. I cannot really designate it an office scent either, so it collects dust as a boys' night out scent that hardly ever gets used.