Yet another hit from Hugo Boss’ upscale niche-adjacent line The Collection. Daring Saffiano opens with davana and geranium but the patchouli and leather do the heavy lifting. This is a unique, slightly sweet and smooth suede leather fragrance doused with patchouli. It’s a solid performer and exudes elegance. Hugo Boss’ The Collection is still batting 1.000.

I’m closing in on my “final” collection, having sold some bottles I found I wasn’t reaching for to make space for a few that I preferred, and to fill some holes in my seasonal collections. Got three freshies to close out my warm weather collection, and one cool weather bottle I’ve had my eye on. I’ve got room for just one more year rounder (Royal Oud is in my sights), and maybe two more cool weather bottles (Eight & Bob Serenite, YSL 6 and / or Memo African Leather are in my sights) then I’m done. Yep, no more after that, no sirree, all done - YSL Babycat: found this 125ml bottle for a steal, and could not pass it up. Smooth, elegant, lightly warm spicy sweet vanilla goodness with a luxuriously smooth suede backbone. I’ve been battling vanilla forward fragrances and this won by a landslide - DVN Crazy Basil: my first from this house, it has an intoxicating combination of citrus and aromatics with a powdery hinoki backbone that is unusual but just delightful. Found a tester at a steal of a price too - Atelier des Ors Riviera Drive: also my first from this house, and probably the single best citrus woody aromatic I have. The scent profile is just perfection to me - just a fantastic balance of citrus, woods and aromatics, nothing super unique (the marjoram and absinthe are uncommon though) but masterfully done. Performance is abysmal but I don’t even care - got a great deal on this and so I don’t mind shprrrrraying it on heavily - Hellenist Les Dieux aux Bains: also also my first from this house, I fell in love with this at first sniff. It’s deserving of the hype it got in fragcom. Yes it’s another citrus aromatic freshie, but it’s got a fluffy comforting presence from eucalyptus and electric sharpness from juniper and mineralic notes that set it apart from anything else in my collection