I stepped away from the forum for a while but remained casually engaged. Occasionally, I read posts and comment but I haven't been posting myself. I am surprised and disappointed in the decrease in engagement on the board but I am looking forward to rebuilding my connections. That said, here are my most recent full bottle pickups. It's been so long since I posted I am pretty sure that some stuff is missing. My recent purchasing declined for a couple of reasons; first, I have shifted from a full blown acquisition mode to consolidation with less blind buys and random purchases. 10 ml decants is the primary method for trying new fragrances. But these are the bottles that I felt were worth acquiring: 1. Falcon Leather Extrait (very excited to wear this in fall and winter) 2. Lunar Vetiver (bought because it got rave reviews and I got it for $60.00). Trying to like it. 3. Uden, consistently one of my top 3 fragrances and the only back up bottle I have ever bought. 4. Blue Panda by Alexandria, because I was not going to pay $600 for the original. The second reason my purchasing fell is that The Parfums just won't deliver the stuff that I order. I now set a 5-week timeframe for cancelling late deliveries.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dcei3SqirOo/?igsi=MWhieWM4dXNsOWFjeQ== Owned it. Loved it. Scream about it all the time as the best I have ever smelled from the House and my second fave frag ever. The original Alexandria. 120 bottles total ever produced. Only frag ever that was better imho was Al Shamoukh Attar by Amouage. Owned full bottles of both.

These are some of my favorite fragrances. I haven't ranked my fragrances in a while and this is encouraging me to do an update. Also wish I could add Mike Paynes fragrance to Parfumo, it's such an interesting blend.

I'm on the hunt for some new amber fragrances! 👃 I adore Amber Empire and Amber Malaki. Do you have any recommendations for similar scents? 🤔 Let me know your favorites! ✨

Buckle up. This is a long one! Iris Debonair is another welcome step in a new direction for Creed, which I can appreciate. I had high hopes for this scent, based on the name, as I have recently been on a bit of an iris kick thanks to DHI 2011 and DHP 2014. I wasn’t expecting it to smell like either of these fragrances, but I was expecting more, well…iris! Don’t get me wrong, the iris is there, but it might as well be the ghost of an iris flower that you’re just barely able to perceive the remnants of. Like a flower that was once there, but only the faintest imprint is left behind in its absence. I find myself really having to search for it, rather than being confronted face to face with something that says, “Yep, that’s iris, alright!” But for some people, that may be exactly what they want, or all they can tolerate of that note. It’s also a very light, airy, fresh, clean version of iris in contrast to the dense, waxy, powdery iris of the Dior Homme line. To my nose, this is not an iris fragrance. This is a fresh, clean, creamy, slightly fruity, slightly green fragrance. The most dominant notes that I detect are fig, wormwood, and citrus, with a nice creamy and juicy nature. There is sort of a gin quality to it from the absinthe, but by no means is it “boozy.” It mainly adds a fresh green character to it, alongside the violet leaf. There is a subtle lavender note that further adds to the clean, soapy nature of the fragrance. But I don’t really detect any spiciness from the pink pepper or cardamom, nor do I get any amber OR wood from the amberwood, or any musk from the ambrette. Which is sort of where this fragrance falls a bit flat for me, as I feel it would really benefit from a solid woody note to give it some backbone and perhaps some musk to add depth and more weight to such a light fragrance. As overused as sandalwood can seem at times, I feel the right type of sandalwood note could further enhance the creamy, somewhat lactonic, aspect of the fragrance, while some cedarwood might add some much needed depth.