A big thanks to one of our members who kindly sent me this sample of Guerlain Ideal Cologne Forte. 90 seconds after I sprayed the sample for the first time last night, I had acquired a full bottle, not an easy feat since this is a limited edition and limited bottles are available. That’s the first time I’ve done that in 44 years of cologne collection. Yes, it’s that good.

I thought Id try the weekly SOTD log post since I havent been completing daily SOTD posts, so here we go. Thanks to @P. Andrew Sandlin and @Nick Clemente for three of the wears this week! Penhaligon's Halfeti - A high quality oriental aromatic. Green, creamy nutmeg, leather/oud, and spicy amber. Very well blended and high quality. Performance is strong. I wore this to work, spraying 5 total sprays and when one of my folks walked in they asked what new cologne I was wearing as they could smell it all the way down the hall coming up to the office. Not wife approved sadly. Not FB worthy, but I may get a 10mL to have at my disposal. PDM Sedley - Good quality, but I don't get the spearmint or sprite profile I've heard talked about time and time again. A versatile and fresh scent. Its aromatic with a slight herbal/floral aspect. Performance is good lasting 6-7 hours. Zaharoff Signature Pour Homme - A classy, balanced and mature gentlemanly scent. Its clean lavender, spicy myrrh, and woody sandalwood. You could wear this year round, but maybe not in the highest heat of the summer. Performance was acceptable. It lasted 7 hours, projecting nicely for the first hour or so. This one didn't grab me, but you could do much worse. It was neither wife approved or nor disapproved. I got a sample set from the house to try out the signature line, so more to come. Hellenist Les Dieux aux Bains - This falls in my comfort scent category. My number one is Sailing day, but this is one I've been reaching for too. This is a light and fragile fragrance. Very calming and pleasing. Clean, aquatic, and aromatic. Its airy, watery and clean...it reminds me of a lighter Pacific Rock Flower. I think its a very 'French' type of house, if you know what I mean. This is unisex, not leaning fem or masculine. Performance is hard for me to gauge. It has ambroxian, which I think makes it disappear to my nose. I get whiffs, and can smell it when I put my nose in my wrist but its not strong. Lasts some hours, hard to tell thus far as I need more testing. I really enjoy it when I smell it. I also have a sample set from the house to try out the rest of their offerings.

Amouage has few warm-weather offerings, simply because their DNA is so rich, robust, deep, and heavy. But somehow Beach Hut Man manages a summer brightness that lasts 12-16 hours. Make no mistake. It smells nothing like a beach. It is much more like an Indonesian rainforest with “photorealistic” mint, ivy, vetiver and other greens. In fact, I daresay you probably have not smelled any green fragrance more realistic than this one.

Today’s church wear. Kenzo Homme EDP Ocean, meet leather.

This (like Beach Hut Man) is one of Amouage’s famously misnamed fragrances: it is not even close to a blue fragrance, though it is a king. So, half right. This is basically funk and fruit – in that sequence. The oud and animalics get to work right out of the atomizer. If you find them challenging, and many people do, just sit around for 15-30 minutes and they move to the background while black current and orange and the woods and frankincense make their way to center stage. The sequence is just the opposite of Gold Man, in which the almost claustrophobic masculine florals lead the way and then subside to make room for the smelly but clean civet. In both King Blue and Gold Man, the combination is electrifying. So also are the longevity and sillage. I know very few men of any age that would consider this a signature scent, but like others from the house, it makes for an utterly unique wearing experience. Warning: unless you have some advanced knowledge, I would under no conditions wear this to a job interview or on a first date.