Wow, nice thread here, Jonny4 and Joey-kun are so knowledgeable, thumbs up!!
I just started into perfume and most of the time I read perfume blogs and forums,
recently i starting to browse local forum and try to learn what Malaysian likes.
I can't really make any recommendation to you guys coz I don't know much about male perfume.
After browsing half of this thread, here's my random thoughts ( from a girl's point of view )
and a little guide to perfume sampling:

There's a forest of perfume out there not including those niche ones that we couldn't find here,
so why limit yourself only to a few choices,
all I read from you guy is all Armani, Bvlgari Aqua, Davidoff cool water etc,
while there's a forest of perfume out there not including those niche ones that we couldn't find here,
so when you go shopping, go try a few, make some mental notes,
then slowly you can differentiate good perfumes from bad ones,
thrust me it's not very hard to choose perfume over here (choice's limit)
Nowadays, due to rising cost and various regulation of EU,
most of the material are synthetic ones,
so it's very important to try out the more expensive ones
to learn more about perfume, not that synthetic materials make bad perfume,
(Thierry Mugler ones are great, btw )
The more expensive ones use synthetic materials too,
it allows the creator making things that's impossible to do b4,
like making airy smoke, etc,
but most of the time, they are just loud, plasticky and cheap smelling,
when the material is cheap, usually they don't care to hire good perfumer too.
So the more expensive ones usually smell more natural, expensive and much more interesting.
Some perfume are beautiful poems, while most are just primary school kid's essay.

When you go perfume sampling, always insist on trying it on skin,
and wait for it to phase out to decide if you like it at all,
The SAs don't like you to try it on skin is because:
1. They wish you could buy it immediately
2. The perfume only smells good on paper, very common thing.
3. The company only invest in the top note, after the top note fizz out,
it's not uncommon to find there's barely anything left.

Be thick skin, I always get the weird looks too when asking to try on skin,
or when I ask for man scent, or get look down for (Isetan KLCC, asking for Hermes)
try until you are satisfy, don't get bullying into buying, it's your hard-earn cash.

Some company just invest more in their perfume : Hermes, Bvlgari, Prada, Estee Lauder

Know the perfumer that create your favorite perfume, try out their other creation, great chance you will like them too.

Wear what you like and if your gf don't like what you are wearing, you can always wear it while you are alone,
people not familiar with perfume will makes cruel comments sometimes , ignore them.
I tend to stick to unisex and I see perfume as my background music and I seldom wear feminine ones, some of the "compliments" I get :
on Hermes Un Jardin Sur Le Nil : wow, dish-washing liquid.
on Bvlgari Omnia (personal favorite, very comforting) : sawmill
on Alexander Mcqueen Kingdom : wow smelly uncle

Read perfume blog and forum, if you are lazy read nstperfume
there's a writer name Kevin that comments on male perfume once a week,
read then go try it, but don't buy unsniffed, most of the perfume that sounds heavenly don't always work with our hot weather.

On wearing loud perfume, I wear it on my thigh or knee so it doesn't get overwhelming.

I prefer spicy perfume on man than aquatic one

on pronouncing homme: O-OM, french don't pronounce the h,
like how they pronounce henry as in Thierry Henry.
you can watch lancome hynose homme ads on youtube, there's 2 hs there,
if you want to know the correct pronunciation of a perfume,
look for those spoke solely in french one, those English one tends to be little off.

And finally, anyone can give me a little advice, where can I buy Thierry Mugler Cologne?

This post has been edited by Space: May 5 2010, 11:46 AM

Haha, thanks Jonny, i don't know that I sum up the whole thread coz I only read the first half of them,
it's just my little thought on perfume hunting, anyway it's for greater good
I heard that Paul Smith Story very similar to Mugler Cologne,
so does it similar to Guerlain Vetiver?
Do you happen to know how much is Guerlain Vetiver?

Really thanks for the valuable tips, Jonny, it's been a long time ago that I last visited a Guerlain counter, still remember a few year ago I went crazy and brought a lot of cash there and found there's no SA and choice's very limited. Since then I never visit one again About the TM cologne, maybe I'll buy it from strawberrynet in case I can't find it here, I think it's still in production coz I saw them at their website, I do heard ppl store up a lot of them, some even have more than 2 liters.

Haven't try b4 due to the same reason you have I am kinda scare to try expensive perfume, guess my parents won't like my expensive habit.
I am quite a fan of Jean Claude Ellena, so I guess I have to brave up and go testing it. Maybe next month I'll go visit pavilion and sekali gus try out Hermes, Different Company and L'artisan, and Annick Goutal too, heard that Eau de Sud and Eau de Hadrien being reformulated, and I never smell it b4

hi jonny, would love to hear why it doesn't worth the price, heard good review of it but never smell it,
btw, can recommend some good place to try perfume?
next month free to hit perfume counter

Hi, Jonny, hope you still remember me I finally get to try L'artisan,
and the results are quite disappointing, I tried quite a few of them.
I was so disappointed those famous ones that I longing to try are not available,
(Passage d'Enfer, Dzing!, Timbuktu, Dzongkha)

so I've tried are The pour un ete, anana fizz, Mure et Musc and Fou d’Absinthe,
I was kinda horrified by the lasting time, the first three are so fleeting,
I think they disappeared as soon as I step out of Tangs,
The pour un ete is quite nice, but wears too close to skin,
after 5 minutes, I have to stick my nose close to my wrist to smell it,
anana fizz and Mure et Musc are plain yucky like those fragrance bean that children like.

The last one Fou d’Absinthe's really nice,
in fact, I went movie-watching after that and I can't stop smelling my wrist,
my neighbor must thought I am crazy, haha. Love to smell this on a guy,
it's clean, comforting and sexy, not in a ozonic, aqua way.
It lasts 2 hours with a single spritz.
Did you smell it before? If so, can you recall any perfume that smells like it?
Would love to try them.

Another perfume that I love to smell on a guy would be Cartier Roadster,
this one is quite perfumee and I personally thought it's a sillage monster,
so one spritz is enough and it last more than 10 hours.

I also went to L'occitane to try Vetyver cause I heard a lot ladies wear this,
but I found it too masculine on me, plus it's kinda boring,
I also tried Eau du Badian which I like a lot and thought it will be lovely on guy,
it smells so inviting and comforting but the dry down is kinda boring (as usual for l'occitane)
That's all I tried in a day I wish to try more but I always try my perfume on skin,
so I can only try 4 in a time, and I still hate to go perfume shopping,
all the sales person turn sour face on me when I said I want to try it on skin,
guess that every time a person said so, there's a slim chance they'll come back and buy it
I also got those " duh, dumb person" look every time I asked to try a men perfume

I hope all you guys find it useful if you want a girl's opinion on male perfume.
and haha, I want a favor from you guys,
please tell me what perfumes that you like and found irresistible on a female?

This post has been edited by Space: Sep 18 2010, 01:39 AM

Woah, bro, please share with us how you get those perfume, Frederic malle, lutens, taur, etc

thanks guys, think I'll make a seperate thread on the girl's club and ask for some girls' opinion to ask for more feedback
sigh, the legendary carnal flower, I must have dream about it a hundred times


hi, I am not a fan of sweet scent, so I can't give a positive feedback, you can read reviews from basenote or fragrantica, seems everyone's raving about it,
if you smell the girl version, it's quite similar but less sweet, on my skin I get a very prominent minty note, a la colgate.

Thanks Jonny, I'll put Kiehl's on my to try list.
As for those SA, I really don't understand,
is it like underwear, you can see and buy, but no trying on??
I always insist trying on skin, coz 9 out of 10 have bad drydown,
some totally lost sparks after the grand opening.
If I trust the paper stripe, I'll have cupboard full of perfumes.

btw, do you have any recommendation if I want a perfume that smells like tiger balm or Vicks vapor rub?

This post has been edited by Space: Sep 24 2010, 12:22 PM

thanks for the tips it's a shame there aren't lot of well-trained, nice SA around.

thanks a lot, guy, I'll go sniff issey bleu. Maloa, the tiger balm roll on's kinda interesting, will go hunt it down next time I visit Thailand.

just like jonny said if you don't tell, no one will know,
as for the female version of armani code, if you don't mind ppl seeing it on your bathroom counter,
you can wear it too, I think it smells good on man.
Perfume has no gender,
I can tell you the chocolate axe spray at some point smells almost identical to L for Lolita Lempicka if not of the quality problem,
so wear what you want.

I don't know is it over apply or what, I swear 2 out of 5 men I pass by in shopping mall wear cool water,
so the mystery's not there, sensory fatigue
btw, jonny can you recommend some good woody scents and some incense scents to me, something sandalwood perhaps?
and do you happen to know any scent that can evoke winter time? ( not spicey one but airy, snowy, piney one)
thanks a lot.

Hi, Jonny, would like to ask usually where do you shop for Hermes perfume, want to try Terre d'HErmes, Hiris and Orange Verte,
do you remember how much you paid for them? thanks a lot

Thanks jonny, next month I'll go check them out, I went pefume hunting last saturday at The Garden Robinson and Isetan and found the discount counter you said, there's no much choice left now, from what I can remember, kenzo pour homme, kenzo amour florale, a scent by Issey Miyake, juicy couture, vera wang bouquet, cartier baiser du dragon, a lot of nafnaf, lalique and Salvador Dali, for those who're interested. Over all quite pleasure experience except at Guerlain, which I get the clear signal from the SA's face tell me to f**k of, when I said I want to check out some frags, but I did help myself for mitsouko. I bought Estee Lauder's brasil dream on this trip and next time I'll probably buy Prada Infusion d'iris. I always tried one male scent on skin when I go perfume shopping, so I always get the same look from the SA which says that I'm a idiot. This time i tried Estee Lauder Intuition for men, which I know a lot of girl wears. Maybe a lot of women buy it? The SA didn't even bat his lashes and really recommend me buying it It started very fresh with cucumber which i personally cannot stand (I hate cucumber) and unfortunately (for me!) lasted very long until it slowly turn into something inviting, warm and spicy, the projection's very low, it kinda hang around you like a warm aura, for me it's a lot like a lover's embrace, warm, inviting, protective and comforting, so it explains why so many women love it, and I think it's a very good daily scent, lasted very long. Check it out next time you go shopping, I think Estee Lauder perfume definitely go under radar for most of you guys cuz I never heard you guys talk about it, it's not the kind of perfume that makes you feel you can conquer the world but it'll be perfect for a cuddle. Next time I should also try beyond paradise for man.

I take mental note and I sniffed my wrist every 5 seconds

I got a feeling it sells really well, bunch of curious people like you bought it
I seriously think it sells well because of the vampire and werewolf craze thing going on nowaday,
It's fascinating reading reviews of this perfume, lots of girls like it,
they relate it to hangover, crazy sex with vampire, werewolf, sexy stranger/ stalker,
curious how closely it resembles to the real things ppls said it smells like

Just now I went through your list and musing myself with all those crazy name of ELDO's perfume,
thinking they couldn't get any better than"Don't Get Me Wrong Baby, I Don't Swallow" and "Sécrétions Magnifiques",
I saw "Putain des Palaces"
Horny school boys do all the naming.

This post has been edited by Space: Apr 23 2011, 12:02 AM