Happy President's Day brothers! On this vacation/holiday day me and the wife spent our time at South Coast Plaza, which is a high-end mall here in Southern California in the Irvine region. A few of the stores in there are Louis Vuitton, Bloomingdale's, Guerlain Boutique, amongst others. Luckily, Guerlain had the cologne Forte over there for sampling. I was going to blind buy that one based on all the hype that it's getting online. Most recently Ash from Gentscents was saying it's one of the best ones he smelled and it's limited release so that FOMO kicks in as well. I'm so glad I was able to go and put my nose on it because the opening is super citrusy and almost feels cloying to me. My wife even described it as a bathroom freshener. I'm just glad I was able to smell it; saved me $180. However the downside is the wife ended up buying $1,000 worth of skincare products so I don't think it was a good decision to go in there 😂. We were also able to go to the Dior boutique and smell some of the private collection. Ambre Nuit is awesome; they have a new one, Cuir saddle, or something like that, very nice. They have Louis Vuitton store as well so we went there and smelled Imagination, Ombre Nomade, Meteor and others. I really like Rose Le Sables, great refined rose. Still not paying LV prices. All in all a great day. Smelled a lot of fragrances; my nose is pretty much blown at this point. Hope you all had a wonderful President's Day.

I got a sample with my bottle of the L'Homme Ideal Cologne Forte and was waiting to try it because I was worried it was going to be an expensive one if it was as good as I suspected it might be. Well I was right. The honey note is rich and and thick without being cloying, the tobacco spicy and balanced. It opens very similar to Red Tobacco but quickly goes in it own direction so doesn't make either redundant. The honey note in this one is a star and adds depth to the sweetness. In the mid vanilla and tonka with tobacco and the dry down it has hints of amber and sandalwood. This one is also unisex as my wife likes it so much she also decided to wear it as well and it sang off her skin as well. I will be looking to add this one to the collection when I can.