Sometimes, when I smell a new fragrance, I fall in love. The most stark example of this was when I first tried Creed’s Oud Zarian. Stood at the counter, scatter-gunning bottle after bottle. Picked up the brown one, with the gold cap. One sniff, and I was gone. I actually made an involuntary noise. It’s an amazing scent. Must be all the 80-year-old Oud that’s in it. Y’know, the stuff that’s definitely there. There are other smells that also did me dirty. Free Coco by BORNTOSTANDOUT. Fifty Four, the Jusbox smell from yesterday. A handful of others. And now, there’s Golden Serenade. The opening? Spicy as you like. The cloves do a number, almost curbstomping themselves into the frame against a mewling saffron and a bugeoning patchouli. Oddly, I feel the latter brings a touch of the barbershop into the frame, which was a genuine surprise. It’s not full-on Colonia, but it certainly strikes some kind of nostalgic chord. Perhaps the playlist (music from a Golden Age of swing, big bands and gramophones, which I greatly enjoyed) is insinuating something. As the scent dries down, the heavily cloven spicefest brings a smooth resinous amber against a typical vanilla, all held together by a warm and welcoming Oud. It’s delicious, moreish, sultry and strong. And it projects! I sprayed on at 9am… it’s now a full 16.5 hours later and it’s still barrelling about the room like an excitable Labrador puppy. Will I buy a full bottle? I’m telling myself it’s a strong MAYBE, but there’s a hint of self delusion in that. I know myself, and this is almost definitely a YES. The only aspect that’s reining me in and stopping me deliver my verdict full throated and from the chest is redundancy. This shares a palette with a few fragrances on my shelf already… there’s probably no space for another. Ah, who am I kidding? This is a YES. I’m now eight scents into the sixteen in the box, and I’m calling a Jusbox hiatus for a couple of days. I’ll be back into them sometime next week, with the aquatic Good Morning.

New to my collection and first time wearing it today, it is a very versatile fragrance, you can use it daytime or nighttime and for every occasion. I really enjoy the opening & it had good projection for the first 2 hours, then it smoothly transitions into that pepper note and turns woody & musky, turning into a skin scent like in the 4 to 5 hour mark but on clothe it stays longer. It’s very masculine and it’s well blended of a fragrance, the “Sport” name is kind of misleading with its profile. Longevity is not the best but it does its job. Overall I enjoyed wearing this one for the first time. Hope you have a good weekend BOS!