I heard LV will be reformulating Imagination and figured it was now or never. So I sold a bunch of bottles that I wasn’t reaching for anymore, called the nearest LV boutique to make sure they had it, and snagged their last bottle of Imagination. And… I figured out a hack to get it at a discount. The LV boutique in downtown Seattle is inside a Nordstroms, and I apparently had a $10 Nordstroms reward that I was able to apply to the purchase price then and there. But even better, my Amex card is having a promotion of $50 off any purchase of $200 or more at Nordstroms, and the LV boutique in Nordstroms bills through Nordstroms — so I got $50 more off. I’d call $60 off my LV purchase a big win. This is a fantastic fragrance, I burned through several decants and samples and I’m happy to finally have a bottle in my collection

There’s a point where collecting stops being primarily about fragrance appreciation and becomes completion-driven collecting. It’s the mindset of: “I already have the one I love, but now I need the Intense, Parfum, Elixir, Limited Edition, Night Edition, Summer Edition…” The actual scent can become secondary. The urge to own the complete line becomes the motivation. A few signs of this collector mindset: Completion over preference: “I don’t love it, but I need the set.” Flanker propensity every new release creates an urge to acquire it. Fear of an incomplete line: owning 6/7 somehow feels incomplete. Bottle-family appeal: the visual continuity of a collection becomes part of the attraction. Acquisition becomes the reward: sometimes the excitement of obtaining the bottle exceeds the excitement of wearing it. Redundancy gets rationalized: “They’re different enough” even when the actual wearing experience is very similar. The house becomes the object: you’re no longer collecting fragrances; you’re collecting the brand’s universe. And honestly, this isn’t necessarily bad. It’s just a different type of collector. Someone may buy a flanker because they genuinely enjoy it; another buys it because the OG without the flanker feels incomplete. With a very large collection, that distinction becomes particularly interesting: Are you collecting scents, or are you collecting completeness?

So I just saw Antonio's last video, and it got me thinking. If I had to downsize to 10 bottles what would they be. I'm curious what are your thoughts on this and what bottles would you keep? Here are my 10: 1. Masculin Pluriel - Maison Francis Kurkdjian 2. Royal Oud - Creed 3. Naxos - Xerjoff 4. Sartorial - Penhaligon 5. Herod - Parfums de Marly 6. Silver Mountain Water - Creed 7. Polo 67 - Ralph Lauren 8. Venetian Blue - The Merchant of Venice 9. Meraki Bliss - Patek Maison 10. 1723 - Superz. https://youtu.be/2Y_ZqorggsA?si=Vcx6z8vk21dDMs1p

Question 🙋‍♂️ I’m always wondering how my fragrance smells on others, I always feel that it’s a ok scent on me and on others it’s oh damn you smell so good. I’m wondering if some of it has to do with the fact you can’t always smell yourself bec of nose fatigue and because you want what you don’t have 😝 but at the same time the same fragrance smells completely different on someone else. So question is do you feel this way or any other thoughts on this topic?

I went shopping with my Mom and visited a fairly new store called Max’s Department Store, with several stores in Puerto Rico already. It’s not the first time I visited one of their stores, but the first time I see Middle Eastern fragrances there. The had a sale so I got this ones: - Lattafa: Fakhar Platin - $25.50 (A YSL Y Elixir alternative /twist) - Emper/Le Chameau: Arabia Code (An alternative to Armani Code Parfum) - $ 21.25 Both smelled great out of the paper strips, reviews coming soon.