I went to the mall yesterday to smell the Le Labo City Exclusives, and I will be going back again today because I don’t believe in making a final judgment from one quick visit—especially with fragrances carrying this kind of price tag. Unfortunately, the clerk told me he had already sprayed all the card stock that morning on SHIU 25 and would not let me spray fresh ones myself. That made absolutely no sense. When I told him, “All I’ll be able to smell is some of the drydown,” he just looked at me with a blank stare. If I am evaluating an expensive fragrance, I want to experience the opening, the development, and the drydown. Smelling a card that was sprayed several hours earlier only gives me one piece of the fragrance. In some cases, the opening and transition are what separate a good fragrance from a great one. The entire City Exclusives concept is built around scarcity. Each fragrance is attached to a particular city, available there throughout the year, and then released worldwide during a limited annual window. That naturally creates anticipation and makes people feel as though they need to make a decision before the opportunity disappears. But does limited availability automatically make the fragrance better? Absolutely not. Some of the City Exclusives are beautiful and distinctive. Gaiac 10, which I already own, is probably the best example for me. It is quiet, smooth, woody, and musky, but it has a presence that keeps pulling me back. It does not scream across the room, yet there is something addictive about the way it sits around you. I was also very impressed by Cedrat 37, the Berlin City Exclusive. I have now experienced it properly on skin, so this is no longer an impression based on an old test strip. It opens with bright, slightly tart cedrat citrus mixed with ginger and a touch of candied sweetness. As it develops, the woods, musk, and ambergris give it more body than a typical fresh citrus fragrance. It also has good staying power on my skin, which is important when we are talking about a fragrance at this price. Cedrat 37 stayed fresh without becoming thin or disappearing quickly, and the drydown maintained enough substance to keep me interested.

I'm not going to get into my fragrance journey here. I've touched on bits and pieces of it over the past few years on this community. I'm just going to touch on what knocked me out of neutral and back interested in finding the next perfect fragrance. It started with two things; covid and my imagination. We all had too much time on our hands when we were locked down during that early time. While others may have embraced sourdough starters and banana bread, I looked at it as the perfect time to reinvent myself. I began working out again and I decided it was a great opportunity to explore the world of fragrance and see what my next signature scent would be. I already had a picture in my mind of what I wanted to find. This should have been my first clue that, even though I live in the south where it's warm nine months out of the year, I'm a sucker for a winter fragrance. Here's what I was hunting - let me set the scene. It's night. There's a winter storm outside. The wind is whipping and the cold is trying to find its way into the room I'm in. It's a big, classic, masculine study, just like you'd find in the movies. Dark wood everywhere. Bookcases filled with classics. A roaring fireplace. And a big, plush, well worn leather chair, where you smell not only the quality leather, but the history of generations who sat there contemplating life before you were born. You can still pick up the faint scent of the cigars and pipes that were used decades before by those who were there before you. On the stand next to the chair, a favorite book and a glass of bourbon. The only light in the room came from the fireplace, a lamp back in the corner by the big executive desk and the occasional flashes of lightning in the windows. That's what I was hunting. I wanted all those smells and all that vibe in a bottle that I could spray on me. I wanted the leather and the wood and the smoke and the books and the tobacco and the bourbon and the chill from the wind and the sweat and the history and the darkness. That's what set me on my journey.