...I don't know about it being "worst" but New York by Parfums de Nicolai always puzzled me. The fragrance is great, but it really has no connection at all to New York, in my mind at least.

...Past: A very sparsely watched and quickly cancelled show from 1996 on Fox called Profit starring Adrian Pasdar in the lead role of a lifetime as Jim Profit. This one made routing for the "bad guy" cool.Present: Game of Thrones. A stellar conversion to the small screen of some of the best fantasy source material ever created in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of books by George RR Martin. Pinter Dinklage is a key standout as my favorite character from the novels, Tyrion, but the group cast does a very credible job, all. Also notable is the immense budget this show has... and uses so well to bring the books to life.

...I have bought quite a few over the past month, a couple standouts were vintage bottles of Cravache by Robert Piguet and Monsieur Carven ... and my final purchase of March, Supercilium by O'driù.

...Probably mossy woods are my favorites, closely followed by dry woods and woody orientals. My favorite notes are oakmoss and cedar, so I guess my choices should come as no surprise...

...I enjoy collecting vintages because very frequently they outright smell better than most of the releases on the market today. I am particularly a sucker for strong oak moss fragrances, and I can't buy those with current day releases.I have too many vintages in my collection that I love to list them all here, but a handful that immediately come to mind are:Patou pour Homme PrivéMonsieur de GivenchyPatou pour HommeCaptian MolyneuxCravacheA couple I am seeking are full bottles of Lacoste edt and Lacoste Eau de Sport, both by Jean Patou

...These are either discontinued or reformulated from my collection as of today... How depressing to find about 1/3 of my collection falls into this category. "Arrogance pour Homme" by Arrogance (discontinued)"Bijan Men" by Bijan (reformulated)"Blend 30" by Dunhill (discontinued)"Captain" by Molyneux (reformulated)"Cool Water" by Davidoff (reformulated)"Cravache" by Robert Piguet (reformulated)"Crown Imperial" by Crown Perfumery (discontinued)"Cuiron pour Homme" by Helmut Lang (discontinued)"Davidoff" by Davidoff (discontinued)"Eau de Patou" by Jean Patou (reformulated)"Eau de Santal Extreme" by Floris (discontinued)"Eau Sauvage" by Dior (reformulated)"Fahrenheit" by Dior (reformulated)"Giorgio for Men" by Giorgio Beverly Hills (reformulated)"Gentleman" by Givenchy (reformulated)"Green Water (1947)" by Jacques Fath (reformulated)"Halston Z-14" by Halston (reformulated)"Homme de Gres" by Gres (discontinued)"Insense" by Givenchy (reformulated)"Jean Luc Amsler Homme" by Jean Luc Amsler"JHL" by Aramis (reformulated)"KL Homme" by Karl Lagerfeld (discontinued)"Lauder for Men" by Estee Lauder (discontinued)"Leonard pour Homme" by Leonard (discontinued)"Ma Liberte" by Jean Patou (discontinued)"Maxim's pour Homme" by Maxim's (discontinued)"Monsieur Carven" by Carven (discontinued)"Monsieur de Givenchy" by Givenchy (reformulated)"Montana Parfum d'Homme" by Montana (discontinued)"Moods Uomo" by Krizia (discontinued)"Moustache" by Rochas EdC (reformulated)"Nemo" by Cacharel (discontinued)"New York" by Parfums de Nicolai (reformulated)"No. 89" by Floris (reformulated)"Ocean Rain for Men" by Mario Valentino (discontinued)"Oscar de la Renta pour Lui" by Oscar de la Renta (reformulated)"Paco Rabanne pour Homme" by Paco Rabanne (reformulated)"Patou pour Homme" by Jean Patou (reformulated)"Patou pour Homme Prive" by Jean Patou (discontinued)"Photo" by Karl Lagerfeld (reformulated)"Polo" by Ralph Lauren (reformulated)"Polo Crest" by Ralph Lauren (discontinued)"Red for Men" by Giorgio Beverly Hills (reformulated)"Richard James Savile Row" by Richard James (discontinued)"Rive Gauche pour Homme" by YSL (reformulated)"Romeo Gigli" by Romeo Gigli (discontinued)"Sandalwood" by Floris (discontinued)"Spiced Limes" by Crown Perfumery (discontinued)"Sport de Paco Rabanne" by Paco Rabanne (discontinued)"Tenere" by Paco Rabanne (discontinued)"Tiffany for Men" by Tiffany (reformulated)"Vendetta Uomo" by Mario Valentino (discontinued)"Venezia Uomo" by Laura Biagiotti (discontinued)"Versailles pour Homme" by Jean Desprez (discontinued)"VIP for Men" by Giorgio Beverly Hills (discontinued)"Voyageur" by Jean Patou (discontinued)"White Sea" by M. Micallef (discontinued)"Yellow Sea" by M. Micallef (discontinued)"Pour Homme (1971)" by YSL (reformulated)

...Most of the scents I buy are from LuckyScent online, so there is no relationship with an individual associate but I do make an exception with the EdP Frederic Malle purchases I make as LS does not carry the line. In the case of those I buy exclusively from a great rep I met during a trip to Las Vegas at the Barney's there. He gave me excellent customer service and I remembered it. Now every time I am considering or buying a fragrance from the Malle line I give him a call or shoot him an email. He also reaches out to me every few weeks or months to check in and never tries to make a "hard-sell" while also providing me with samples of prospective Malle (or other house) scents I might be interested in. Great customer service is definitely worth something to me.

...I am saving up to buy Supercilium by O'driu. Great fragrance, but oh so pricey...

...For me it is YSL pour Homme. I still all these years later remember walking through my local drugstore at the time where they had a demo bottle on display. Being the inquisitive type of kid, I just had to spray the stuff for fun and was just amazed at smelling this great lemon scent that I had never imagined was out there. I didn't know it at the time back then, but that is where my fragrance journey began...

...Vetiver has got to be one of my three favorite notes... Probably my favorite compositions that feature it are:The LesNez Turtle Vetiver trio (Exercise 1, Front and Back)Anat Fritz (original version) by Anat Fritz Les Nombres d'Or Vetyver by Mona di Orio Coeur de Vetiver Sacre by L'ArtisanThe Supercilium and Subcilium sister scents by O'driuNo.89 (vintage) by FlorisBursch by Acqua di Biella

...Gender labels aside...Portrait of a LadyGiorgio for Men (vintage)Anat Fritz (original)Tzora (or Terre d'Hermes edt)Dia ManCuironPolo (vintage)Monsieur de Givenchy (vintage)X for Men (or Costume National Homme)Captain Molyneux (vintage)Patou pour Homme PriveEau de Patou (vintage)Incense OudLes Nombres d'Or VetyverBijan for Men (vintage)Coeur de Vetiver SacreJHL (vintage)Acqua di Parma ColoniaFahrenheit (vintage)

...Apicius:Thanks for your review, Drseid.So after all, it seems we have found out that the English fougères are a bit rough whereas the french ones are a bit softer. And also, the relaunched Fougère Royal is very much different from its predecessor.That about sums it up, IMO.

...As promised, I have posted my review of the side-by-side comparison between the vintage EdC and the current EdP re-issue of Fougere Royale.To bottom line it though, the re-issue is not really the same scent at all. It is missing the prominent oakmoss and coumarin drivers of the vintage EdC, while focusing more on the bergamot, lavender and cinnamon over a soapy base. Nothing wrong with it at all, but not really a fougere, IMO.The EdC now having sniffed it is a lot different than I expected. It is not so rough or medicinal at all like the English Fern I disliked so much, but rather relatively tame in comparison. It uses the oakmoss and coumarin to balance the aromatic lavender near perfectly, coming off as a more complete composition, IMO. the ingredients used appear to be of a very high quality and come off as very natural smelling. My only gripe is it has terrible longevity on my scent friendly skin, even for an EdC... My more complete thoughts are in the review...

...I like a few of the real oud based scents like Aftelier's Oud Luban and Les Nombres d'Or Oud by Mona di Orio. The problem I have with the trend is that while the "good stuff" is very expensive and pricing needs to follow suit to maintain normal margins for those rare scents that indeed use the stuff, far too many companies are charging "real oud" prices while just using the cheap synthetic stuff and putting "oud" in their scent's name to justify the crazy price markup.

...I wrote a comparison review of the two on this site. I personally don't care for Aventus and feel it is just an average quality scent but I do feel Fresco is a worthy alternative for a heck of a lot less money. There are some modest differences, but depending on the aspects of Aventus one likes/dislikes, Fresco may actually be viewed by some (myself included) as the superior alternative. That said, I could think of a lot better scent purchase investments than either of them.

...The vintage Fougere Royale arrived today. I have applied it on skin and can already say I love it, but it is too early to make any specific comparisons with the new version, or others yet. A full wearing or two is required first. I can say it does not have that unpleasant aspect I sniffed with the Penhaligon's though (thankfully).

...Dulcemio:Drseid:The folks have to nominate themselves and pay an entry fee of $400 per entry for non-members and $200 for members, I believe. I find the whole nomination and selection process disappointing at best, and laughable at worst.What??? Nominating oneself for an award??? So basically it's just some thinly veiled marketing.That's pretty much how I see it...

...I had to edit my prior post slightly as I re-read the entry document (which I will link to below from a different site) and it says an independent panel will make the final selection from the entries... So while the fee and self selection of candidates still holds, the final decision made is at least independent according to the document. Still, when you have individual companies selecting themselves for nominations it is very hard to know if *any* of the choices is really worthy of the award to begin with. That is not to imply that all the scents on the list *are* unworthy, but who was missed because they either didn't have the funds for the fee or felt the process was compromised and wanted not to be part of it? I guess we the public will never know.http://www.fragrance.org/indie/2013-indie-nominee-form.pdf

...The folks have to nominate themselves and pay an entry fee of $400 per entry for non-members and $200 for members, I believe. I find the whole nomination and selection process disappointing at best, and laughable at worst.

...Not a Tauer composition fan at all. I think he is a great guy personally, but none of his compositions have moved me, unfortunately.... Still looking for a favorite.