Happy Saturday, Brotherhood! After an eventful night enjoying a concert from my favorite group of all time, Wu-Tang Clan, I’m still on cloud nine—and definitely still tired! 😂 This morning, my water delivery made sure sleeping in wasn’t an option. It’s funny when I think about it: I’ve been engulfed in hip-hop culture for about as long as I’ve been collecting and loving fragrance—roughly 30 years. In many ways, the two have traveled alongside me, so today’s fragrance feels especially appropriate. My Scent of the Day is Time Travelin by Memoir Fragrances, named after an iconic hip-hop song by Common. I classify this composition as an adult, sophisticated gourmand. I’m not exactly sure why it screamed at me from the armoire this morning, but when it did, I grabbed it without hesitation and applied vigorously! 😂 Will I pay for that decision when Chicago reaches the high 80s later today? We shall see! Time Travelin starts with a beautifully smooth boozy nuttiness before transitioning into a semi-sweet, woody and spicy heart. But the drydown is where this fragrance truly sings. Elements from the opening and heart carry all the way through, creating this rich boozy, woody, slightly vanillic concoction. The scent takes me somewhere. It’s reminiscent of a slow, sultry dance in a dimly lit nightclub during the golden era of hip-hop—grown, sophisticated, smooth and just a little seductive. 🎶🥃 Performance matches the composition: Projection: Stellar Sillage: Unforgettable Longevity: 8–10 hours on my skin, eventually settling into a seductive skin scent. Time Travelin earns a well-deserved 9.0/10. After spending last night with the Wu, it only seems right that today I’m Time Travelin through another piece of hip-hop culture. Have a fantastic Saturday, Brotherhood—and as always, smell blessed doing it! 👐🏾

As Amouage Decision 42 starts rolling out, I figured I would touch on the fact that it has a higher oil concentration. Somehow, our minds have been conditioned to believe that more automatically means better, and that is not necessarily true—especially with fragrances. Two perfumers can use many of the exact same notes and raw materials and still create two completely different fragrances. It all comes down to how those materials are balanced, what the perfumer chooses to emphasize, and how the fragrance is constructed. The same thing applies when you increase the concentration. A higher oil concentration does not simply make the original fragrance stronger. It can change the entire wearing experience. The fragrance may become richer, smoother, deeper, and last longer, but it may also sit closer to the skin. An EDP can sometimes project farther because the lighter materials have more room to lift off the skin and create a larger scent bubble. Look at Reflection Man and Reflection 45. Reflection 45 is denser, richer, and more complex, but the original Reflection Man is brighter and more open. There are situations, especially here in Arizona, when I would rather wear the original because it breathes better in the heat. The same applies to Blue Talisman EDP and Blue Talisman Extrait. The Extrait has more depth and weight, but the EDP has that brighter, airier quality that makes it so easy to wear. The Extrait does not make the EDP unnecessary. They serve different purposes. That is how I am looking at Decision 42. I am not automatically going to call it better than the original Decision just because it has more oil. I want to see how it wears, how it projects, how it develops on my skin, and whether it gives me a different enough experience to justify owning both. Higher concentration may give you more richness and longevity, but it does not always give you more projection—or a better fragrance. Sometimes the original concentration is what allows a fragrance to open up and really breathe.

Good Afternoon Brothers just got this mail call from the Middle East and I am over joyed this is a Vintage 2005 Al Qurashi Blend Attar by Abdul Samad Al Qurashi. This is the fragrance that BTV duped for blue sapphire.

Yes. IMHO, definitely yes. Last year as I was getting into this hobby, I was umm influenced by multiple YouTubers who glazed the house of Superz and so I decided to give the house a try and get a whole bunch of decants. I’m so glad that I did, I ended up finding several that were not only full bottle worthy but that have become some of the most reached for bottles in my collection. Below is the list of what I tried, in order of most to least favorite. Have any of you explored Superz? - Morocco: this is a soapy clean sweet almond that is absolutely delicious to wear - my go to when travelling (just theee sprays will last hours but not choke anyone on a plane out) and when I need an emotional pick me up - Smesh: this is a unique powdery spicy aromatic, I’m not even sure what I’m smelling when I put this on but I love its sharp rich profile, one of the more “masculine” scents in my entire collection - Unique Blue: I’m not the biggest fan of fruity profiles but this is just a perfect aquatic freshie with some zing (yuzu, pineapple and ginger make this crisp and refreshing) that I reached for all summer - Lake Balaton: this is almost fbw to me. Zingy pineapple aromatic with some richness from saffron that is well balanced and not metallic harsh like some other saffron forward fragrances I’ve tried - Memories Gold: Delicious and beautiful warm sweet amber vanilla, enjoyably smokey aspect to it. But on my skin it had super weak performance and longevity which kept it from being fbw. - Gentleman: Lovely vanillic spiced dry tobacco. It’s got the powdery soapiness of Morocco with a hint of dried tobacco leaf. It was almost fbw but redundant vs my Morocco for powdery soapiness and vs something like SWYT for tobacco, and unfortunately had weak performance on my skin - Amber & Woods: Also very nice, powdery woody ambery. It kind of has the powdery woods and amber of Smesh without the spices and bitter citrus. Nice but was kind of redundant vs Smesh for that powdery woodiness. Very nice amber vanilla musk drydown, kind of like absolute aphrodisiac - Dominance: very well balanced; Aventus DNA but juicier and less sharp. But redundant vs my bottle of Aventus Absolu - 1723: this is their take on Layton, which I don’t love (I don’t like apple notes in my fragrances) but otherwise this is well balanced - Tenerife: my sample exploded in transit but from what the box smelled like, this was an enjoyable sweet spicy vanillic scent with a “fluffiness” that reminded me of Lafayette Street - Space Cake: I’m not a big fan of gourmands and this one is a gourmand through and through. It does what it says - it’s a weirdly delicious cake with some funkiness that somehow works. I just don’t want to smell like a funky delicious cake - Caesar Ultra: earthy woody patchouli but the iris straight up murders it for me (for the most part I really can’t stand Iris) - Endless Sea: this was the only bad pick for me - something extremely grating and unpleasantly sharp, I think it was their choice of marine note maybe. I really hated this one - like the nasal equivalent of tasting ear wax

This one caught my attention because it takes that tropical Zanzibar DNA and makes it feel warmer and a little deeper. Bright lime and mandarin up top, creamy coconut and juicy guava through the middle, then vetiver, amber, musk and ambergris give it some weight underneath. Tropical and fresh, but with more of that warm sunset/evening feel instead of just straight beach vibes. Looking forward to spending some time with this one.