...One of the best winter fragrances ever (in my book anyway) is the now-discontinued Eau d'Itale Sienne L'Hiver. If you like transportive fragrances, check it out.

...Oh man, sorry to hear that about Cardinal. On me it lasts forever and a day. :) Here are some other incense-based scents you may like (and now I'm gonna have to check those ones from Mia out, darn it...):"Passage D'Enfer" - incense and lily"Unum - Symphonie-Passion" - incense and vetiverXeryus Rouge (EDT) - incense and fruit"Autoportrait" - incense/elemi/frankincense

...Another vote for Lowe 7. Onyx is also spicy with a strong peppermint undertow.

...Linen, instead of Linnen....https://www.parfumo.com/Fragrance_Notes/Linnen

...Anyone have any luck in logging in to this site? It used to work and I've ordered from it before, but no luck -- at home or at work.

...This is a timely post. I've recently been able ($$$) to get back into fragrances only to find that two of those on my wish list were toast. ARGHGHG. For me, it is Atao (Lostmarc'h), and Pale Grey Mountain, Small Black Lake (DS & Durga). I don't know anything about Polished (sorry!) but if anyone knows scents similar to these two, I'd be grateful.

...A good smoky incense is Bowmakers by DS & Durga.

...A company that gets the Old Spice vibe pretty close is Royall Lyme of Bermuda, especially their Royal Musk -- my review is here: https://www.parfumo.com/Perfumes/Royall_Lyme_of_Bermuda/Royall_Muske#review_50366.

...What Apicus said is right. Basenotes has quite a bit of costs to cover. It's not the fun side of the internet, to be sure, but server space costs; bandwidth costs. How Basenotes has chosen to cover their expenses is not something I find appealing, myself, but then again, I saw that and instantly voted with my feet. If I had to wait months for my review to be published, I would put that site in my rear view mirror and drive on.

...Briarthorn:Any luck getting your must haves? I gave up on trying to afford the Enchanted forest and just ordered another sample. We have to move soon because my landlord is raising the rent $100. We decided to just buy a house instead of paying the outrageous S.FL rent prices. Looking for a house to buy is a new kind of hell I am glad I put off as long as I have.Back to the topic on hand. It's been a month so I hope you guys are having better luck getting your must haves. :)S FL is crazy for real estate, and buying a house is this long, strange journey of adapting your dreams to what is available and how much money you can borrow. Yup, just went through it myself. So it is possible to survive the journey! I live in NW FL and the housing market is better up here, but nothing like say Atlanta. Anyhow, there are some things I would like to have by Dec 31st, but I have stopped buying stuff for myself in December. This allows the excitement and expectation for me to build until Christmas arrives. So, I hope to finally score some Atao, but we will see!

...I get a decant if the full bottle is just too expensive, or there are no samples easily available; otherwise, it's full bottle time. However, I do store the decant "cool and dark" in my fragrance cabinet along with my bottles. I can't say that my decants go bad any faster than my bottles. Then again, I usually use up my decants a lot faster.It's totally worth investigating how much you care about each fragrance. If there's some you don't love much, a decant may be better. It saves space that you can use for new fragrances.

...Hmm. I wouldn't say that I have a massive collection, but I do have a medium-to-large collection. I enjoy fragrance because it is another means of self-expression and a gateway to another world. Scent is both transportative and evocative. However, I have come to realize that my collection is pushing against the size of my storage cabinet, and so I need to become more accurate in what I buy (or just buy more things as samples not as full bottles). I wish I had the money to smell everything I want to smell, but as a man with finite financial resources, that is simply not possible.

...Yes. It has all the hallmarks of a scam.

...Deutsh:The logo on cap it's look like this one but i search this brand but no perfume with my parametersLooks suspiciously like Dolce & Gabanna, though a quick Google images search doesn't turn up anything exactly like that. Also looks like it could be a Gucci symbol. The thing is that D&G haven't done decorated caps on colognes for some time, it looks like.

...As someone who wears only unisex and masculine fragrances, I'll throw in my two cents. I've worn fragrances for women and they do create a feminine feel, which is why I do not wear them. This is the case even for scents that are "masculine-leaning" like Bandit; there is a chasm between even them and a truly unisex scent. It is how the notes are composed and the notes themselves. For instance, florals are not common in men's fragrances, and when they do appear, they produce a different effect than soft, delicate, or gentle -- for instance, Boucheron. I think that the composition is why there are mens' and womens' versions for the same scent. You'd think they could get away with making something like Light Blue unisex, but they didn't.

...Black bitter coffee sounds awesome to me!Hayven:I won a bottle on Cafleurebon of Violet Chocolatier and received a couple of samples.Since I'm more of a fan of the sugary, gourmand, and designer types...this brand wasn't my cup of tea. Violet Chocolatier was so dry, and Cafe Diem smelled like black (bitter) coffee. I do have to say they are very well-made though; Mr. Kiler seems to use quality oils and essences to make his fragrances.

...Signed.Facebooked.Blogged.

...Pipette:I know that often one of the partnership is a declared perfumista/o and the other so-so.My husband used to appreciate whatever I bought but I was the leader.How is it with your situation? Do you do things like that together, do you have to convince your dear, or do you find non-understanding or opposition?Do tell.For us, it's about a 60/40 split, or maybe a touch higher. I'm the one more into fragrances. However, she's more into food. So we've ended up expanding each other's sensory worlds and it's awesome. We do go to Sephora and Ulta together and there's no problem about buying fragrances and such. There's no opposition. If anything, there's some mutual enabling going on. LOL!

...Cincy:I read that the other day, He does not like the word nose, or juice.I will agree with him on juice, every time I read that word I shudder. :? Here I thought it was just me. :oI'm with you 103%! Juice is stuff you drink. It's not stuff you wear. Please don't demean the fragrant experience by referring to perfume as "juice".

...I don't keep mine, either. A sample is really just a way of determining if I like a fragrance, or a way of enjoying a fragrance that's too spendy otherwise (Memoir Man, for instance). If I hate a fragrance, buh bye sample. I can relate to the pack rat desire to keep one of everything, always, but really, I can't live like that anymore, and samples go bad, evaporate, etc. I use Parfumo as my record of scent experiences. If I don't bother reviewing a scent, then it wasn't worth remembering!