The deeper I’ve gotten into perfumery, the less importance I put on a published note list. And owning and smelling a lot of originals and clones really drove that home for me. Take Creed Aventus and Armaf Club de Nuit Intense Man. You can put their note lists next to each other and see a lot of the same ideas—citrus, pineapple, blackcurrant, birch, woods, musk, amber. Now take Louis Vuitton Imagination and Zara Sunrise on the Red Sand Dunes. Again, you’re dealing with that same general citrus, ginger, amber, clean and fresh territory. But here’s my point: A note list isn’t a formula. You can duplicate every note somebody publishes and still not duplicate the fragrance. “Pineapple” isn’t necessarily pineapple oil sitting in a bottle somewhere. “Leather” doesn’t mean somebody squeezed a leather jacket into the formula. A lot of what we call notes are accords or simply the perfumer’s interpretation of an aroma. Give two perfumers the same list—bergamot, pineapple, birch, woods and musk—and you can end up with two completely different fragrances. The materials matter. The aroma chemicals matter. The quality matters. The proportions matter. The construction matters. And most importantly, the perfumer’s interpretation matters. This is one reason I think people get too caught up in Fragrantica note pyramids. Most of us can’t smell a fragrance blind and accurately identify 12 or 15 individual notes anyway. We smell the overall composition. We might say it’s citrusy. Woody. Smoky. Sweet. Green. Spicy. Creamy. Fresh. Then we look at the note breakdown and suddenly we’re smelling Sicilian bergamot harvested on a Tuesday morning. 😂 Come on. I’ve owned hundreds of clones, and that’s actually taught me to pay less attention to whether the clone copied the published notes and more attention to whether it captured the actual fragrance. Because that’s what a clone is really trying to reproduce. Not the note list. The smell. And even when a clone gets extremely close, it’s still an interpretation of somebody else’s composition. Maybe the opening is sharper. Maybe the woods are rougher. Maybe the original transitions better. Maybe the clone projects more. Maybe one ingredient is emphasized differently.

Some of the best fragrances aren’t always the most expensive. In this video, I’m sharing 7 affordable scents that deliver far more quality, character, and value than their price would suggest. If you’re tired of paying for marketing and luxury branding, these fragrances might completely change the way you think about value in the fragrance world. Subscribe to Fragrance Verdict for more honest and straightforward fragrance content. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U29mYzWZnwE

So, I had some luck last year with a shower oil, but there was one significant issue - it had a distinct scent of its own. For working from home days, this wasn't a big deal, and I did like the convenience of applying the oil to my body at the end of my shower, letting it sit for a couple of minutes, and then rinsing off the excess. I noticed little difference in my chest, arms, and elbows between this and applying traditional moisturizer after showering. However, because of the scent of the shower oil, I ended up abandoning it after that first supply ran out and going back to the traditional routine. Of course, this also meant that certain parts of my body were getting as much moisturization as they could, since applying lotion is a more tedious process. A few days ago, though, I started a new moisturizing routine... I ordered some organic, fractionated coconut oil off of Amazon to try out as a shower oil. As it turns out, it seems to work just as well as that 'proprietary' shower oil blend - as a full-body moisturizer. However, people weren't kidding about the fragrance benefits. I've noticed a significant improvement in both longevity and projection over the last few days. I'm still, of course, applying an extra layer of face moisturizer to my face as well as body moisturizer with SPF to my head and neck after I shower, but I no longer have to take 15-20 minutes once a week (being generous with how often I actually did it) to apply body moisturizer to my entire body. Instead, I take an extra ≈3 minutes at the end of my shower to apply the fractionated coconut oil and the end result is both improved moisturization for my whole body plus increased fragrance performance. What about you guys? Do you use fractionated coconut oil as a moisturizer, or elsewhere in your fragrance routine?

Hey guys, Joe A. here with today's Scent of the Day : Maison Francis Kurkdjian Amyris Homme - Day 282. Parfumo lists notes of mandarin orange, rosemary, amyris, iris, and tonka bean, giving it a polished citrus-woody profile with aromatic, powdery, and softly warm edges. Off the rip, I get orange and amyris with this fresh piney-balsamic feel — smooth citrus-woody elegance that smells expensive without screaming. First Sniff: Like a linen shirt with a 401K. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IBHTABt7r0Y

Started off meeting this guy!!! @Antonio Centeno !!!