Suitable for an important family resort dinner tonight. This is a quintessential episodic fragrance. It is the antithesis of a signature scent. A 100 ml bottle will last you your lifetime and possibly even your son‘s lifetime. This is the house’s first fragrance, commissioned by Oman’s sultan in 1983. It is an unabashedly imperious scent, hierarchical, privileged, wealthy, opulent, powerful, even domineering. Not for the fainthearted. It opens with spectacular and nearly suffocating masculine florals but within 15 minutes the civet arrives – not dirty civet, but clean, animalistic civet still. The effect of the combination of these two sets of accords is nothing short of electrifying. In 44 years of fragrance collecting, I’ve smelled no other fragrance remotely like it, and none like it would ever be produced today, and certainly not by Amouage. The longevity and projection are massive. You’ll need to scrub this off. This one doesn’t go away all by itself. Unless you’re a man of considerable presence and bearing, I would avoid this. If you look up “unsafe blind buy” in the dictionary, this is the picture you’ll find, and on a man under 35 years old this would be considered a clownish affectation. If you think the 37th flanker of Stronger with You is too masculine, you wouldn’t want to be caught dead in the proximity of Gold Man. It’s still available at full retail on the Amouage site, but it is difficult to find anywhere else. Sample at your own risk. You’re into the royals here.

I was about to make this a SOTD post, butt changed my mind as this question popped into my head. I know we all have and are still building collections. We all start out and are in different places in this journey. But I noticed how my FBW criteria has changed since I started and was curious about the other brothers. When I first started, I would hear about a scent, if I smelled it and liked it in the store it was an immediate bottle purchase not wear testing, not sample grabbing just straight to the bottle. Over time I have become a bit more discerning, now don't get me wrong I have still bought a couple of bottles by falling victim to the shopping excitement, but I have been lucky enough to still be happy with those. Now I am at the point that I will wear my samples a few times before I make a decision to add it to the FBW list. Because of the relationships at the stores I have made I have a crazy amount of samples to go through and I am doing that lately and just doing my samples that were either given to me by the salespeople or by my family at Christmas. and making some decisions. I'm wearing BTV - Hasu today. Now I know that Boadicea is a polarizing house. You either love it or hate it and most of the hate I have read online comes from pricing. I had worn this one a few months back and thought hmmm 🤔. this is nice, I'll have to revisit it. I chose it for today and both of my harshest critics gave me compliments. My wife and my book keeper both of whom never hold back (even when I think they should 😜). So this one will be added to the FB conversion list. So let me know. 1) What is your criteria to convert to a full bottle? 2) do compliments play a roll in your decision? Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!!

Along with a funny story for today, so buckle up and get your popcorn brothers! There’s a niche perfumery store about 20 minutes away from where I live that I visit frequently, and I have a pretty good friendship with the saleswoman there. She and I shared a lot of similar interests, and just kind of hit it off. Needless to say, I saw her again today and we talked for some amount of time. I was a little nervous considering I was kind of a mess from the business of yesterday, but regardless we had a great conversation about honestly everything lol. Anyways with that being said lol, onto the other part of the story. This dude came into the store looking for a replacement for his Mahogany and Teakwood. He likes woody stuff, is a bit outdoorsy and a small town resident, and needed something in a small bottle. He went around and looked for a bit, and my eyes came to something. Something I think could be worth a try from him. Stercus, by Orto Parisi. Almond, oud, wood, smoke. Long lasting, impressive sillage, a surprising compliment better for something named “Feces” in latin. I looked to her and asked “Would he maybe like this one? Or too challenging?” we both confirmed and were like, “Yeah probably too challenging” at first, but he was intrigued. So I sprayed it out for him. A bit nervous, handing him the strip. He takes a smell. His eyes light up. And right then and there, we both know we just opened up a new rabbit hole for him. And a whole new door gets opened. Needless to say, we sent him on his way. got him from Bath and Body Works to Orto Parisi and Nasomatto in ten minutes lol. He was a cool, wholesome dude. Maybe he’ll even join the brotherhood of scent! I should have put him on. After he left she and I kept talking, and eventually I had to dip to attend later matters. But not before getting some samples, including some from Boadicea, which i’ve been DYING to try out. I got Megamare again. I’m giving it a second chance lol. So now I’ve officially set foot into ultra niche fragrances. Expect reviews coming from them soon!