Favorite smells ...

Well christmas is almost around the corner ... and that's when you feel inspired to write up all your favorite things just in case ... :)

Writing about smelly stuff is not easy especially if you're like me a collector. At present recollection I have about thirty odd colognes most of which I'm trying to give away as I tend to hate most colognes after about a couple of times of using it. Some of them last a week, some of them a month but of the two hundred odd colognes I've tried, I've grown tired of them so fast I can't even remember their names. This goes for all duty free shop type, department store type the easily available colognes. I'm talking the Joops, the Armanis, the Polos, the Joe Blow ... run of the mill stuff ... they all try too hard, and end up being very ordinary.

What I'd like to talk about are the ones you can no longer find, but you wish they were around. Or the stuff that you can only find in a backcorner of Bond Street in London so exclusive that you need to be a card carrying member of the Royal Family before they'll deign to look down their nose on you and allow you to buy their wares ... yeah that kind of snobbery still works velvet when it comes to colognes ... okay okay just joking there folks heh

For the longest while I loved Carven's Vetiver but then they stopped making it. I just got a note this morning from an old New York supplier that they've reissued it and that he's carrying it ... I'll probably give it a try again but I doubt they can recreate the old magic of this once upon a time wonderful cologne.

I then went through a bunch of Vetiver versions before finally settling on Guerlain's Vetiver cologne and after shave as my daily staples. It's the quintessence of a spring morning overlaid with the mystery and magic of Vetiver.

For evenings to hit the pubs, I always loved Gucci's Pour Homme. I know I know it's a department store kind of colognes, but honestly this is one of the better made ones in my opinion ... Something about it's tobaccoey, leathery always felt very masculine and it has these mysterious undertones that work wonderfully against my skin (or so I've been told) And this is very reasonably priced as well unlike the other ones here.

For clubbing all night (which obviously was a long time ago *sigh*) I used to trip on Thierry Mugler's A-Men. Something about it's rich chocolatey notes ... But be warned this is a very assertive cologne and definitely not for the faint of heart. The A-Men after shave balm in fact is a lot subtler and a lot less assertive but it's amazing, and this is usually my aftershave of choice most night outs ... However it's getting increasingly difficult to find the after shave balm.

But sometimes you just wanted a soft very subtle cologne, and to me that's Marlborough made by Geoffrey Trumpers of London and mostly only available there although there are a few specialist retailers that do carry it ... In North America the only place I've found it is at "The Sleuth and Statesman" in the first canadian place. It's difficult to define in terms of notes and overtones but what it is basically cedarwood, sandalwood, geranium type notes blending into a very subtle very sophisticated fragrance. Unfortunately it doesn't last very long and fades almost completely away in less than two to three hours. So yes I use it, but don't find it as compelling as the other ones.

Dunhill's Daily Shampoo. If you can find this grab it. I once went to London to buy everything I could and came back with a bag full. It's definitely not cheap but it's the best shampoo I've ever used and the perfume is amazing. I wish somebody could find a way to recreate this smell as a cologne. It would win awards, and make fortunes. Combined with their Dunhill Hair Gel it made for amazing hair as well. I've been however unable to find this anywhere in the last eight nine years though I've looked pretty much all over the world for it.

My favorite cologne of all time hmmm I want to keep that a secret ... recently I bought Tom Ford's Tuscan Leather and I like it a lot too. Be warned you are going to get asked what cologne you are wearing if you do this. On an almost daily basis I get asked about the cologne by people I work with ... :) Yeah Tom Ford's stuff may be 200$ and up for a piddly 50ml but it does smell magic.

My favorite cologne is even better. I don't get as many compliments or anything but I personally love the way it smells on me to death ... but like I said I'm not sharing this with anybody at least not now heh.

And while I know the next aftershave doesn't belong in the above company I once bought a cheap I think 6$ type aftershave in Turkey when travelling through some twenty years back. It was called Arko if I remember correctly and I still remember it with affection. It had that clean barber shop small that you get after a lot of lathering, followed by a spine tinglingly close fresh shave with a sharp sharp razor, hot towels, followed by the rub with that sterilising alum block ... it had that same cool tingly yet very masculine detail to it's smell. I remember when it was getting over (I was in India at that time) feeling really sad that I wouldn't have it around much longer. Also around the same time I used to be in love with Aramis but grew out of it ... I remember the girls back in College used to ask me what I was wearing ... I actually cheated as I would wear Christian Dior's Eau Savage first, and then a little Aramis on top of that a little later. Smelled abs amazing ... but like I said that was years and years ago and I haven't really felt like going back and trying any of this layering stuff any time recently.

What else? There have been many other favorites which I've either outgrown or have not been able to find any more, I mean wearing the same smell the whole day and sometimes even after a shower can get pretty wearing after a while ... Halston Z-14 (which was relaunched back in 2005 but I preferred the older version much better), Montale's Blue Amber (amazing but you have to wear it for at least a whole day for the real good smells to develop so no shower in the evening heh), Fahrenheit which I still like although it's too common to have any element of mystery or surprise about it anymore, Paul Smith, Hermes Terre D'Herme (which I still use often) and Bel Ami (which was my favorite leather before Tom Ford's Tuscan Leather showed up), Emporio Armani Night He (which I think is now discontinued but used to be available at every duty free shop out there heh), Dunhill Desire which I loved briefly but quickly grew bored with but I still get this as presents for my male friends as something about it's unique rose smell seems to appeal to most males.

There are many many others but night falls, sleep calls and it's time for every good blogger to dream about what the future portends :)

And for those who are wondering about my favorite cologne it's one of these (Havana, Azzaro, .....)