I am probably going to piss off some clone warriors with this one, but so be it. I can say this because I have been there. I chased everything. I owned hundreds of dupes and clones. I chased every new “95% identical” release, every beast-mode version and every $30 alternative that supposedly made the original obsolete. But I also chased every inexpensive designer brand I could find. Rack-store bargains, discounted designers, cheapies that somebody on YouTube said were hidden gems — if it was inexpensive and getting attention, I wanted to try it. Then I started doing the same thing with niche. I chased niche brands, affordable niche, hyped niche and whatever house everybody happened to be talking about that month. For a long time, the hobby became about the next bottle. And eventually I had to ask myself a question: Do I actually love perfumery, or do I just love collecting bottles? Because those are not necessarily the same thing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying affordable fragrances. There is nothing wrong with clones either. Some are excellent, some perform better than the original, and some are incredible values. But if your entire collection is built around copies of fragrances you have never even smelled, I have a hard time calling that a deep appreciation of perfumery. Especially when those same people turn around and say: “Why would anybody pay $300 for the original?” “The clone is better.” “It smells exactly the same.” “The original is a ripoff.” How do you know? You never smelled it. Watching a YouTube reviewer tell you something is 95% accurate does not mean you have experienced the original. And this is one of my biggest problems with clone culture. Somewhere along the way, price and performance became the only measurements of quality. If a fragrance costs $25 and lasts 12 hours, it is automatically considered better than a $250 fragrance that lasts seven. That makes absolutely no sense to me anymore. Perfumery is more than projection and longevity.

Found this sample of Enchouku, a Barrett clone of Tom Ford’s Plum Japonais I’ve never tried. The fragrance breaks down like this: Top: cinnamon and saffron Heart: Japanese plum, plum blossom, liquor, cypress, camellia Base: Oud, benzoin, fir, vanilla I really like this fragrance. It’s warm and woody and really smells different than any fragrance I have. Tom Ford’s scent is discontinued so I’ll never have the opportunity to try it. Have a good weekend everyone. Anyone family with the OG from Tom Ford?

This is my heaviest lightest and darkest brightest fragrance. A bright citrus tempered by smoke, similar to Amouage Search but not nearly as dense and robust. Hermes has a long-standing line of these lighter, high-quality offerings, and nobody does this profile like Hermes. They’ve been doing it a very long time. This is a suitable option for a 100-degree day outside in northern Nevada with our youngest granddaughters.