I'm still struggling to limit myself to one new purchase a month, but the effort is there. My fiancée's new acquisition for May is Gucci Bloom and mine is the Acqua di Gío Profondo. I have the OG ADG, but I love that extra marine element in the Profondo. Longevity still isn't going to set any records, but I love the fragrance.

In the last week or so I've undertaken a specific journey through my collection to as sort of a vertical tasting to 'explore' as it were all my fruity Chypres aka Aventus and Aventus adjacent fragrances in that idiom from how they were experienced by my nose. I am fortunate enough, or not - I leave that to you. To own Aventus so have been able to compare them day to day. It has been an interesting experience in parsing out subtle differences and training my sniffer beyond citrus sweetness smoke and oakmoss. I will say that the cheaper and more common dupes of Aventus do tend to be slightly stronger and more powerful but are also sweeter less complex and less blended with a synthetic character of citrus smoke and oakmoss. Niche variants that can cost as much or more than than Aventus often play in the same sandbox, but bring their own spin to them. Byredo 's Oud Immortel uses smoky Oud which hits the same basic accords but is its own thing much like Cedrat Boise and Hacivat (which I have sampled but do not own yet) Interestingly enough, I actually own a couple of designer niche inspired by fragrances of both cedrat Boise which I do own and Hacivat which I do not. Tomorrow I plan to cap off the journey with for me the OG in this space Montblanc Explorer that I still compare the rest to. For me it is the source code in my mind of the balance between designer appeal and quality of the Fruity Chypre family. If you have a favourite one yourself or even if you think that this DNA is played out hope you share in the comments. I will be sure to indicate which ones I have and which ones I still need to add to my ever-growing shelf of these. Follow-up question, do others have the same sensibility where slight variations on a similar DNA can be just as exciting as radically different scents? For example, my wife likes to have one exemplar of each and if something smells similar to something she already has, she passes on it normally. Sorry if I have been a bit less online of late. No reason other than Spring and less time on screens.