https://www.costco.com/.product.4000284113.html Just in time for fall.

Lately I've been seeing a big rise in popularity for body and hair mists. The price points on them are usually pretty reasonable, but the performance on them is minimal at best. Are they a rip off? A fad? Pointing towards a desire to have a fragrance at an affordable price point? What are y'alls thoughts?

Today I went with Lamar by Kajal, and this is one of those fragrances where just looking at the note breakdown really doesn’t tell the whole story. Right from the opening I get this big, juicy pineapple, but it isn’t the bright fresh pineapple you normally associate with a summer fragrance. This feels sweeter, richer and almost caramelized. There is some apple and red berry underneath it, along with enough cardamom and coriander to give the fruit a little spice and keep it from becoming straight-up tropical candy. As it starts settling down, the roses come forward. There are actually a couple different roses in here along with jasmine and magnolia, but I don’t find Lamar overly floral. The fruit stays involved and blends into the florals, giving me this sweet, almost jammy pineapple-and-rose effect. The drydown is probably my favorite part. Everything gets warmer and smoother. I start getting the woods, musk, amber sweetness and that almost burnt-sugar/toffee effect underneath the fruit and rose. There is also that airy modern sweetness from the ambroxan, which is probably why some people make comparisons to the BR540 family. I understand the comparison, but I don’t think Lamar smells like a BR540 clone at all. The pineapple, spices and heavy rose give Lamar its own personality. This is sweet, rich and definitely noticeable, but it still smells polished. I also wouldn’t consider this strictly feminine. The rose and sweetness may lean that direction to some people in the opening, but once the spices and woody base start coming through, I think this wears perfectly well on a man. For me this is much more Fall weather than extreme Arizona heat. I could also easily wear it during our COOL months, especially going into the evening. PERFORMANCE: This is not a weak fragrance. I would expect roughly 9-12 hours of longevity, with strong projection for the first 2-3 hours before it gradually settles into a noticeable scent bubble. Sillage is strong, especially early in the wear, and it leaves a very recognizable fruity-rose trail.

I’m going out for a fancy dinner tonight and so I threw on some Lucius. Applied a bit more than usual because I needed to get a haircut first a few hours before dinner and didn’t want it to die down too much beforehand. My Lyft driver was like “Brother, you smell good! What is that?” And at the barber I was sitting near a fan and two barbers were going crazy because it filled the room - they were like what is that it smells fantastic! They apparently both collect cologne and had never smelled Lucius before. Theee compliments in 1/2 hr?? Overspraying Lucius for the win! Thanks to @George Hernandez for putting me on to this one, it quickly became one of my favorites

After burning through a decant of this delicious cool weather fragrance, I ordered a bottle that came over the weekend. The bottle and presentation are elegant - I love the look and feel of the bottle and juice color, and the packaging is simple but classy. The scent profile is kind of similar to Babycat - to me, Babycat is sweeter and has that creamy suede backbone, whereas this one is less sweet but more warm spicy. But they are both non-gourmandy vanilla monsters. This one opens with a lightly sweet vanilla, hint of woody red pepper, and warm non-screechy saffron. Into the mids the sweetness dies down a bit and some nice warm woods come out - there’s a hint of dusty Vietnamese Oud that is not at all barnyardy (I get the same effect from the new Sauvage Extrait), some earthy patchouli and smooth myrrh. I got a few hours of moderate projection before this turned into a lovely ambient scent that lasted another few hours, before becoming a beautiful dusty woody vanillic skin scent that went on for another few hours. At like half the price of Babycat, I think this is a good value and scratches the same itch — it’s probably a bit redundant to have both but I was looking for a non screechy less sweet saffron forward scent and this one was a winner. I also suspect this could be a good layering scent to add in some warm spicy vanillic sweetness. Very happy to have it in my collection! Anyone tried Serenite before?