BLIND Testing Cheap vs Expensive Fragrances (Cologne Review)

Being style fans, as much as we enjoy looking good, we also like smelling great! So, over the years, we’ve built our fragrance collection to boost our ensemble, but could we guess the scents without seeing their bottle and knowing what they actually are? We put our noses up to the test by blind-testing luxury perfumes today!

Video Transcript (Lightly Edited for Clarity):

[Raphael] Welcome back to the Gentleman’s Gazette. Today, I’m here with Antonio from Real Men Real Style and Scenteno, as well as Nate from Paragon Fragrances. Thanks for coming over, guys.

[Nate] Yeah, thank you for having us.

[Antonio] Thanks for having us.

[Raphael] We thought we’ll do a little fun thing here, and play some blind smelling and testing. And of course, we have our special guest, Professor Preston!

[Professor Preston] Hello, everybody! I will be adjudicating the test today. But the conversation will be up to these three.

[Raphael] Awesome! Well, let’s get started.

[Prof. Preston] All right! I will go prepare your first fragrance. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves in the meantime.

[Raphael] Yeah, so Paragon Fragrances, how did you start, Nate?

[Nate] I started about two years; I’m on my second year doing this. So, I just was collecting fragrances and I was like, I’m a production guy. So I, you know, I’m usually behind the camera. But, so, I just decided let’s make a fragrance channel and start talking about some of the fragrances. Because after you collect and collect and collect and you’re not making content, you’re like, “What am I collecting for?” and so you just want to start sharing with the world. So, that’s what I was doing. Doing video production, just making fragrance content. 

[Raphael] I mean, you went, in my mind above and beyond, the general like, “Oh, I smell a fragrance and I do stuff.” You really try to understand the fragrances. Tell us more about that.

[Nate] Yeah, I really wanted to provide as much value to my, you know, audience. If you’re clicking on a video, I want to provide as much value to you as possible. So, I try to keep my video short and I even got into actually crafting and making perfume like, you know, try to understand it. I’m not a master perfumer by any means, but I’m slowly understanding and, you know, developing my skills as a perfumer. 

[Raphael] All right! Preston’s back!

[Prof. Preston] Okay, fragrance number one. Here’s a tester for each of you.

1. CK One (Calvin Klein)

[Raphael] Definitely the lighter side. What do you think, Antonio?

[Antonio] Fresh. Clean

[Raphael] Synthetic? Natural?

[Antonio] I feel a bit synthetic, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

[Raphael] I mean, you know, what I think with synthetic, what you get is like the consistency, right? It’s like a Big Mac. You know, every time what you get versus you have orange oil, you know? I don’t know. It’s a little drier this season. The whole thing smells different.

[Antonio] I think there’s a misconception in fragrances that, somehow, if something is natural, it is better than synthetic, and it’s really it’s comparing… It’s just not a fair comparison when, you know, any of these; what we’re talking about are chemicals and, you know, the molecules; and the way that they’re… I mean, as we talked about, you know, there are actually exposure to too much. You know, it’s always a danger in the extreme. That being said, in small amounts, you know, it’s… I also love synthetics because, if you think about, with a lot of the natural compounds, they had to come from animals or we were destroying plants or, like you said, they were inconsistent in making them. And so, when something uses synthetics, we’re able to oftentimes produce it at a lower price, you’re able to maintain consistency, and you’re not doing any harm you know to the environment in that respect.

[Raphael] What do you think, Nate?

[Nate] It’s good. There’s a lot of floral stuff going on here like neroli or, you know, like some kind of nice, fresh, lively stuff going on in here.

[Raphael] All right. What do you think? Grading?

[Prof. Preston] Take a moment to write down your letter grades, any other thoughts or notes you have. If you have a guess about what the identity of the fragrance might be, go ahead and write that down; and when everybody is ready, I will collect all that data from you.

[Raphael] It smells like a darling fragrance, kind of. To me, it’s more of a mainstream thing.

[Nate] Yeah, it’s very light and airy.

[Raphael] It’s not offensive, you know, no one smells this and like, “urgh!”

[Nate] Touch of like a jasmine kind of going on in here.

[Raphael] Oh, that’s good! I wouldn’t have been able to identify that, but now that you say it, I smell it. 

[Nate] And then like, a bit of grain oil. Very, like, fresh and light.

[Antonio] You can tell who the expert is. I play an expert on videos, this guy is the real deal.

[Nate] But, it’s like it’s very like white floral-y kind of style with soft, clean, laundry musk in here. It’s nice, it’s really good.

[Antonio] I will not deny that your descriptions have affected how I am perceiving like, “Oh, yeah!” And that’s what’s interesting.

[Nate] It’s gonna look really bad if the fragrance on screen is like a spicy one. 

[Antonio] I don’t know which one this is because I naturally would never be drawn to these types of fragrances, so this would not be in my rotation. Also, I think the grades we’re assigning oftentimes are just our personal opinions. This may be the right fragrance for more of a guy maybe that goes for classic scents or it could be more feminine, but all fragrances are actually unisex. It’s just usually for marketing purposes, assigning them whether it’s for men or women. So, I’m guessing the house, I’m not going to guess the particular brand. But, I could see this house putting out this fragrance.

[Prof. Preston] All right, gents!

[Raphael] Alright.

[Antonio] So, I’m seeing the house of or I’m going with with Floris. I just like like something classic, something that, you know, was formulated 70 years ago, worn by, you know, a guy that’s dressed well but would not… I don’t know, it doesn’t smell masculine enough to me, and a B because I just wouldn’t keep it in my collection.

[Raphael] Good. I have no idea what this is. Good, alright.

[Prof. Preston] And everybody scores one more time just so that we get that verbally as well as on the boards.

[Nate] Oh, B+ or B minus.

[Raphael] B minus.

[Antonio] B, yeah.

[Prof. Preston] Very good! Next up, fragrance number two.

2. 4711

[Raphael] Alright, sample number two.

[Prof. Preston] Number two.

[All three guys smelling the fragrance]

[Raphael] What do you think?

[Nate] A lot of petitgrain oil in here. It’s coming … very Bergamot-heavy lemon.

[Raphael] To me, it smells very classic, a little like old-fashioned. It’s not something I would…

[Nate] Yeah, this is wear-class. This is real class, it’s summertime class .

[Raphael] Old school, right?

[Nate] It’s very similar to the other one, too.

[Raphael] It reminds me of childhood, you know, growing up in Germany. They hit like the 4711, and it has these vibes to me. 

[Raphael] Antonio, would you wear it?

[Antonio] No, not at all. In fact, I changed my grade from a C to a D.

[Nate] I think that this one is pricey, though. Because it does smell natural … like you can smell the bergamot, you can smell the citrus in here, the nice floral, and then a soft vetiver in here too.

[Raphael] I smell floral, but I don’t think it’s nice.

[Nate] Yeah, it’s a…

[Raphael] And now that you say bergamot, I’m like, yeah, it smells like, oak gray, that’s bergamot flavored, right? Good.

[Prof. Preston] Alright, let’s everybody present our whiteboards and see what we’ve got here. 

[Nate] C.

[Antonio] D.

[Prof. Preston] Alright. Not high marks for this one. Alright, number three.

3. Bleu de Chanel (Chanel)

[Nate] So, there’s a specific musk in here that they’re using, Tonalide. It comes across as this laundry detergent kind of style musk and they use it a lot in perfume, like modern day perfume, but just … I picked up that initially. It’s very um, classic. I’m trying to put the name to it because it’s so familiar, and it just needs a…

[Raphael] Well, and really like this is extremely hard to get it right because, I mean there’s, so many fragrances there’s no, you know, it’s like… unless you are just very familiar with something and you’re like… 

[Nate] Yeah, I am not going to… I’m not going to try to guess this, but it’s like a rich in Ambroxan. 

[Raphael] I’d wear this.

[Antonio] I’m going specific. It’s like the one in a 100 chance but I’m going to say I’ll…

[Raphael] Go for that. Call your shot.

[Antonio] Yep.

[Prof. Preston] Okay.

[Antonio] I’m going with a B+.

[Nate] A. A, yeah I think it’s really good, I like that Ambroxan kind of style smell. I really like that.

[Raphael] Tell me more about Ambroxan.

[Nate] Ambroxan is…

[Raphael] It’s Ambroxan?

[Nate] Yeah. So, it’s a synthetic version of ambergris, which is whale vomit, pretty much. It’s the… so whales used to, whales when they eat squid, squid would destroy their stomach. So, they would coat their stomachs in this, um, this like phlegm, or whatever it was, I don’t know.

[Antonio] Well, it’s the sperm whale when it eats the, uh, whatever the squid, squid have, uh the only hard part of them is going to be the teeth or the pincers, whatever it is, and so they can’t digest that it ends up getting encased, and then it is spit out, regurgitated, because it’s just not going out the other end. And that right there is then found on beaches and it has a has certain properties, but a big part of this that when you find, and it’s very valuable, when you find these, yeah uh they’re hardened and it basically projects fragrances. It helps to…

[Nate] And it lays on top of the ocean. So, it’s like oil on water. So, it just lays on top and then what they can do is they can harvest it. I don’t think that they do that anymore. I think it’s very regulated that’s why they came up with aAmbroxan, and to kind of recreate, um… 

[Antonio] Again, that’s where synthetics are great because we can recreate, although, again, this is where you’re an expert in molecule breakout, what we find is with compounds, with natural molecules, um, and some of you guys I know are scientists. So, you’re like, “Antonio you’re messing this up,” but basically, the chain is going to be really long on naturals but on synthetics, they realize that it can be relatively short and we can pick up for most, 98% of people, it’s going to smell the same but a small percentage and I’m sure you’re one of those people out there watching, you know, that you’ve a nose that you can pick up, “Oh, I can tell the difference between, you know that small between vanilla and Vanille.” The natural vanilla definitely has a long chain but Vanille, the synthetic note, is going to be much shorter, and it’s again, we can consistently produce it, so that’s why you see the synthetic pop-up.

[Prof. Preston] Very good. Thank you for that whale of a tale, gentlemen. I’ll go get fragrance number 5.

[Antonio] I like this guy.

[Raphael] Preston is our pun master so that’s his… that’s his jam.

[Nate] That was, that was… can I rate that? That was that was good 10 out of 10. Yes, for Preston.

[Raphael] Alright, are you ready to kind of cleanse your nose with coffee beans?

[Antonio] Alright, so do you want to jump, like…

[Nate] So, I’m not a nose scientist, and I’m not, you know, but from what I know, this just, it just causes more stress on the nose. When you’re resetting it, and my theory is, (conspiracy theory alert!), my conspiracy theory is coffee is very addictive. So, if you’re going to, like, say, a fragrance counter, like you know, a nice lady or nice gentleman is showing you some fragrances, and you spray something on your hand and smells good, but then they put something that you’re already addicted to under your nose, you’re like, “Hmm, this automatically smells a little bit better.” I don’t know. That’s my conspiracy.

[Antonio] So, the halo effect here?

[Nate] Yeah.

[Antonio] It can make you like something. So, apparently, there was a perfumer 50 years or 70 years ago, that was his thing, is that he kept coffee grounds, and he would say it would reset his nose, but the reality is that’s not the case. If you’ve got, and we’re talking about olfactory fatigue, the idea that you’re exposing yourself to so many smells, um, usually two to three perfumes, if you expose yourself to that, within a few minutes, you need to get out of that area and just go out for a walk; five minutes, fresh air and then you can probably start again but anyone that thinks they can smell 20 perfumes in an hour and be able to tell the difference, yeah, you’re fooling yourself.

[Prof. Preston] Well, good luck to you guys, then.

[Antonio] Yeah, exactly.

[Raphael] Thank you, Preston. 

[Prof. Preston] Number four.

4. Spice Bomb (Viktor & Rolf)

[Antonio] Alright, this is…

[Raphael] What’s the sweetness?

[Nate] So, heavy vanilla in here. 

[Raphael] But you know, with vanilla, I realized there’s, you can get real different vanilla. I started making ice cream, with the beans, and then there there is differences in the… what you get.

[Nate] There’s two different types of vanilla that I’m working with right now that that are vanillin, which is like a crystal vanilla, and then there’s ethyl vanillin, which is powdery and it smells almost like cake kind of vanilla. And so when you, like from my experience, when you overdose like ethanol vanillin, it smells like a thick cake, but when you when you um, dose in vanillin, it acts as much more of a crystal fixative, like, cumerin, um, that kind of thing.

[Nate] This is so familiar. It, it’s…

[Antonio] It is, yeah.

[Raphael] I mean you guys have a lot of fragrances, so even if you smell it once, it’s like… yeah

[Antonio] Well, the way I’m, is like literally, I’m going through the fragrances in my shelves, I’m thinking, “Okay, is it that one? Is it that one? Is it that one? So, I’m using the, uh, the memory here. 

[Antonio] It’s got a bit of a spice to it so

[Nate] Yeah, slight spice and, then…

[Antonio] I’m gonna, and, and because of that, I’ve gotta… I think I know what it is but because I know what it is, I’m going to give a little bit higher of a note. 

[Nate] Yeah it’s nice and it’s something that, like, it’s so familiar and it’s something that I would wear, so I most likely have this. My… I feel like I know what it is. I, yeah, I know what it is. 

[Antonio] You better not copy mine. Don’t don’t look here. I think I got this one. 

[Prof. Preston] Alright, gentlemen. Your grades and your guesses, please. 

[Raphael] C minus.

[Nate] B plus.

[Antonio] I’m going A minus if it’s what the one I think it is, um which I can’t believe we got to make you guys wait to the end of this video to find out if we’re right or not, but, uh, I think that this fragrance is perfect for the holidays, and that’s what it reminds me of. This is a great, you know, cold weather fragrance that you can put on. And again, when we’re smelling things on these fragrance strips, it’s not the same as actually smelling it on your skin, and that’s where it’s going to react differently for every person, but, uh, but yeah, as soon as we started talking spice (hint hint), that was like, I was like, okay, I know what this is.

[Nate] Yeah. 

[Prof. Preston] Alright, I will go prepare number five.

[Antonio] So, if you haven’t picked up, no fragrance is going to be universally loved by everybody.

[Nate] Oh, no, no. Yeah

[Antonio] Which is cool, which makes it enjoyable and I think gives us a lot to talk about and fragrance content.

[Raphael] It’s also like if, you know, sometimes, you can be unique with your clothes and you can be unique with your scent, like you can intentionally say, “I don’t want to smell like everyone out there. I want to be different,” or you’re like, “I just go with what I like or what my spouse, partner, husband, whatever likes.”

[Antonio] And fragrance is one of those things that it is, you know, it just plays right with clothing. I’m sorry, you’re about to…

[Nate] No, yeah, right to that point. Like, I find making fragrance content is tremendously difficult, too, because you’re recommending it to everyone and so like that’s where you have to have, you know, a strong opinion about what you like to wear. Because if somebody connects to you and if you don’t like it, they might not have the same taste. So, it’s a tricky thing to navigate, for sure

[Antonio] I purposely stay vague and confuse all of you who watch my videos, and you’re like, “What does he really mean by that?” And that’s my tactic.

[Prof. Preston] Number five. 

5. Aventus (Creed)

[Raphael] Smells more green to me. I don’t know if the fragrances can have colors, but to me, there’s something green there

[Nate] So, this also has a musk in here. A synthetic musk called helvetolide, which is a… It’s widely used in Sauvage-kind of style fragrances like that sharp Sauvage character, and it smells like it’s a top musk, so it has a high volatile rate on it, which, like, pushes off through the air. That’s where like evaporation rates come in and stuff, where, you know, the top, middle, and base. If something has a lower evaporation rate, it would be a base note and, if something has a high evaporation rate like bergamot, it only lasts for about two hours or one hour. 

[Raphael] So, you’re saying that this is the kind of fragrance that is, you know, you’ll notice in a room? It gives off a lot, but it also lasts for a long time?

[Nate] Yeah, this is like… I’m pretty sure I know what this is, but yeah, this is this has staying power.

[Raphael] It’s a bit… There’s a sweetness in there to me at the end.

[Nate] It’s really sweet, sweet bergamot like sweet citrus. I’m pretty sure I know what this is, but I could be wrong, and I could be totally wrong.

[Prof. Preston] All right! Go ahead. What are your scores and guesses here?

[Raphael] I have B and I say, like, Green Irish Tweed. Antonio, B.

[Nate] I can… It doesn’t… For me, [Green Irish Tweed] doesn’t smell like that on… It doesn’t smell like that on me, but I could I can…

[Antonio] Do you get a lemon, a bit in that?

[Nate] A little bit. I think it’s a Creed, the new Creed. Absolute Aventus or the Aventus Absolute. 

[Raphael] It has this kind of green.

[Antonio] Oh, I see that Creed is… Pretty much everyone’s like, it has a… And this is where, I think, we can talk about a house. Like, I think Creed, in general, a lot of their fragrances have that light, airy, fresh type of…

[Nate] They have a very signature style. Like, when you spray on a Creed; they have a bunch of different, you know, styles and different fragrances, but they all have that kind of same vibe to them, which is that high quality.

[Prof. Preston] You continue to discuss. I’ll go get fragrance number six.

[Antonio] I’m going to put the cologne, Creed cologne.

6. Eau de Soleil Blanc (Tom Ford)

[Prof. Preston] All right, this is number six. Initial thoughts here?

[Antonio] I like this one. Clean and soapy.

[Raphael] Soapy! That’s it! It’s soapy. Man, you’re good.

[Antonio] Which is usually going to be what? An Iris or a… What’s the?

[Nate] It could come, it could be like… I don’t know exactly the formulas and stuff to make it something like that because like I’m still…. 

[Antonio] Lavender and iris?

[Nate] Lavender usually… Lavender and this… If you mix a soft spicy, usually they can do it with frankincense. If you add a touch of frankincense and a few other things with some clean laundry detergent musk like tonalide or galaxolide, ethylene brassilate, those kind of things; you can get this like soap-like quality, but this is good. It’s very soapy and fresh.

[Raphael] It’s almost too much soap for me.

[Nate] I think this could benefit from some sweetness, but yeah, I like a little woody nuances in there, too.

[Raphael] Really?

[Antonio] I like soapy fragrances overall. Yeah, I’m going a little bit higher. I think that soapy fragrances are great for the office if you want something that’s not going to offend anybody, smells good and clean, and anything. I don’t know, lavender and iris.

[Nate] Yeah, I don’t know if there’s so much. Because it doesn’t come across powdery, but like a nice soap.

[Antonio] I’m going to throw out like Prada L’Homme. Yeah, Prada L’Homme. Or maybe the Intense, maybe. And, again, like smelling it on the stick—this is where you got to be careful—I would maybe not pick this up, but I know with Prada, I think those are great office fragrances. They use good ingredients and, yeah, that’s what I’m guessing.

[Raphael] What does your wife like?

[Antonio] I don’t care. I wear for myself, man. I’m like learning perfumery, I’m not like an expert yet, and I haven’t even released one yet; and you know, I’m just learning the process and falling in love with it. But, there was this process that I came across, and I told Antonio about it the other day, called “tinning,” and it’s a process that they use in wine creation or like winery. And when you’re making wine, there’s all this like particles that are floating around in the wine like pulp and that, those kinds of things; and from my brief knowledge about it, they use egg whites. They pour egg whites into the wine, and it acts as this glue substance to bring everything down to the base where then they can filter it. Why I bring this up is I made a big formula, a big batch of my fragrances and it was cloudy. And so I used this clay to do the same thing, this tinning process where I pour clay into the perfume, mix it around. It’s a natural clay, so it’s safe and they use it in a lot of cosmetics. But, like bentonite clay? Yeah, something like that, and then you mix it around. You put it in the freezer. Because it’s alcohol, it doesn’t freeze, and then you can, you know… It all seeps to the bottom and then you can filter it from there. But, I thought that was really interesting.

7. L’Eau D’Issey Pur Homme (Issey Miyake)

[Antonio] I get… I don’t know. For me, this is synthetic.

[Raphael] When I smell this, I think of chartreuse like the color. I don’t know why I have this association. 

[Prof. Preston] Synesthesia, perhaps?

[Nate] There’s a marine aspect in here.

[Antonio] Yeah, but for me, not really high-end marine. Again, I’m just guessing here. I know where I’m going with this.

[Nate] This is aquazone. 

[Antonio] If you think about it, how do they get a marine smell in to a fragrance? Because it’s not like you can take the ocean and squeeze it. Well, you could but, you know, what you’re going to get out is probably not… And marine smells are complicated because, yes, it’s the salt and it’s the air but there’s also, if you’re close to the shore, there’s decay, you know?

[Nate] So, most of the aqua notes that you find are 100% synthetic, and they have to do with a molecule called calone and then helional, which comes across as this, like, watery, almost like hay-like quality. And then, you have… 

[Antonio] With a bit of fruit as well? There’s a melon in…

[Nate] You add in some nuances on top of that to give that fruitiness in there. So, you’ll have accords that you add to the perfume to kind of like expand it out. But, yeah, it’s usually a very synthetic mix.

[Antonio] Got my guess.

[Nate] I’m not sure about this. My nose is getting beat up here.

[Prof. Preston] Yeah, well, we’re just about at the halfway mark here, gents.

[Nate] But, this is like very ozonic. Like a Light Blue, Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue kind of thing.

[Antonio] It’s a Light Blue smoother. And there are certain houses out there that are kind of a little bit more well known for being synthetic, and they embrace it. Not that I feel that this one fits in there, but Park Avenue Bond is a great example. But with that synthetic, it’s usually for a younger crowd. They want something that’s going to pierce through the night, be able to draw people in. The area where I think this falls is going to be Azzaro. Another, it’s a great inexpensive brand that, I think they’ve got a wide variety of very easily accessible fragrances. That one of them in particular. What you’re going to find on those cheaper fragrances is they’re going to cut back on the oil as you guys probably know. When you hear like EDT, you hear EDP, parfum, eau de toilette, eau de parfum, usually it’s the concentration of the oil mixed in with the alcohol. And they mix with alcohol because, with the oil, they come together, it macerates and it’s easy to project onto the skin. But, more expensive like niche fragrances and the parfums and stuff, they’ll use a higher concentration of oil, and that oil then will allow the fragrance to last longer on the skin and project more, in theory. That doesn’t always happen.

[Raphael] The problem is it’s a bit like super numbers, right? Where it’s like, there is no like standard where we’re like, “Hey, eau de parfum means, you know, at least 10% oil concentration.” Like we don’t have that. So, it’s every house…

[Antonio] I created an infographic. I’m like, “Why doesn’t the world follow my infographic?”

[Raphael] Yeah, there you go. Antonio’s standardized…

[Antonio] I try to standardize things that people like, go like, “Why are you….”

[Prof. Preston] All right, I’m going to ask for your grades

[Raphael] B minus, C minus…

[Antonio] You are a tough critic, Raphael.

[Raphael] Well, you know in Germany, when I went to law school, you have these, like, grades, right? And you can get…

[Antonio] That sounds like a not a very happy place.

[Raphael] Yeah, it’s… no, it wasn’t a happy place for me, but you…

[Prof. Preston] You discuss, I’ll get number eight. 

[Antonio] Yeah.

[Raphael] There isn’t, and I forget, I think the great was, the highest score you could get was 18 points, and sometimes only the average is like four so they grade really hard.

[Nate] Yeah, I moved into, like on my fragrance channel, I moved into rating things from like one out of 10, but I do decimal points, so you know. 

[Raphael] 1.1?

[Nate] Yeah, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. So, it kind of gives somebody a little bit better understanding of, like, where I would put it, because like a 7 out of 10 would be, you know, that could come across very… but if it’s a 7.4, it automatically, you see it kind of leans over to the, you know, six. A little bit more, so.

[Raphael] Do you find that on different days you’ll have a different grading? 

[Nate] Oh yeah, absolutely, and two, there’s fragrances that I love one month, and then as I wear them, wear them, wear them, I’m like, “Hmm, well this is not really great anymore,” and then I’ll let, you know, my audience know, like, “Hey, I don’t really like this one anymore. 

[Prof Preston] Alright, number eight.

8. 17 Rosso (Roberto Ugolini)

[Nate] This is classic.

[Raphael] It’s bold.

[Antonio] Uh-hm 

[Raphael] So, this is number 8?

[Prof. Preston] Number eight, correct. 

[Raphael] So Nate, when you, you know, having all these oils,  so do you just have these oils at home that you don’t combine, and do they go off when they’re not stabilized with with alcohol? 

[Nate] Yeah, so I have, like, I have a… I’ll order my raw materials in and then I’ll dilute them down in alcohol at 10% concentrations, and sometimes, like, 1% concentration. Some of the more volatile materials that, like, are so pungent that you only need just a drop. But yeah, I will, I’ll dilute them down, and then I’ll smell them from there because then you can smell them more accurately when you’re dosing them like really low. 

[Antonio] You got a grade for yours? 

[Raphael] Same as you.

[Antonio] Well, write it big, like… 

[Raphael] Alright.

[Antonio] Because this is… Oh, I love that. Bigger than mine. Okay.

[Raphael] A minus, A minus.

[Antonio] I like strong masculine fragrances, maybe I’m trying to compensate for something, but when I wear this stuff it’s just, uh…

[Nate] It smells like a like a really high quality fougère fragrance, like patchouli, frankincense in here, lavender, some green aspects in here, like a touch of a basil.

[Raphael] I think it’s the Roberto Ugolini 17 Rosso, but these are the fragrances I’m most familiar with, you know, I smell them a lot so I may be wrong. I may like you know like but…

[Antonio] I put the second cousin to Yves Saint Laurent Kouros so that could be right. 

[Prof Preston] Alright, gentlemen. We have reached the halfway point. How are your noses holding up?

[Antonio] Good, good. Let’s power through! 

[Prof. Preston] Great. Alright, with that, I’ll go get number nine. Alright, here is number nine.

9. Polo Green (Ralph Lauren)

[Nate] Stinky or skanky, I should say, not stinky. If anybody wears this, I’m sorry.

[Raphael] But are you really?

[Nate] No. If you wear this, don’t come near me. 

[Raphael] Yeah, what what is that? This thing I can’t tell but it’s like…

[Nate] It’s, um…

[Antonio] What’s the animal note, the, like, it’s not musk but it actually comes near the…

[Nate] It is a musk. It’s like near the butthole of the animal, it’s like literally there’s a gland that they used to extract this from, which again, why naturals are not always a great thing.

[Raphael] It’s always like, you know, who had the idea to go there to extract that, you know. Would that be from the civet musk? Is that… okay. 

[Antonio] Well, civet is the, actually, the note, one of the notes they call, there’s like three animal notes that I’ve heard 

[Nate] Yeah.

[Raphael] Thank you, Professor Preston.

[Prof. Preston] I do what I can.

[Antonio] Look at this the assist right there.

[Nate] Yeah, this is like heavy heavy patchouli, heavy castor, I think it’s castoreum, this is, like uh…

[Raphael Do you think this was popular?

[Nate] I hope not. 

[Antonio] Alright, let’s put our grades.

[Raphael] F, F, A.

[Antonio] I like wearing animalistic fragrances. It’s just…

[Raphael] What is it triggering you?

[Antonio] Sex. 

[Prof. Preston] Simple enough. Next up, number 10.

10. Gentleman (Givenchy)

[Antonio] Thank you.

[Nate] Picking almost a hemp note. 

[Raphael] I have no idea what hemp smells like.

[Nate] Like a… 

[Prof. Preston] Or so he claims. 

[Nate] Yeah, no.

[Nate] Got it?

[Antonio] Yeah, on this we can agree, Raphael.

[Raphael] Oh, D, D, F.

[Prof. Preston] Not high marks for this one.

[Antonio] I really didn’t pick up too much, and so that sometimes, people, a lot of people don’t like a fragrance simply because it doesn’t project or doesn’t have much, and when people spend money, especially someone getting into fragrances, they usually equate value with projection and power of the fragrance.

[Raphael] Like hitting it over your head kind of thing. 

[Antonio] So this one could be a great fragrance just not…

[Nate] It comes across very, like, sour patchouli kind of smell, and it has this subtle aquatic note in here that it, it just, I don’t know, it doesn’t really balance that well on the paper here.

[Raphael] What’s your experience, you know, sometimes  taking like the exact same formula, and having it like, you know, 20% oil, 10%, 5%, it does, it lead sometimes for you to say, “Oh, I like it, and I don’t?”

[Nate] That’s actually, so that’s a great point with, like, concentrations and stuff with people think that you know the eau de toilette, the eau de parfum, and the parfum, though you know that’s where you get better performance with the parfum, but that’s simply just not the case because it’s all the way that the perfume is constructed, and parfum, eau de parfum, it’s merely for branding purposes. Because you can, I mean, you can, the way that they’re crafted, you can, like with an Elixir you usually use denser materials, more base notes, but you know we see it nowadays with all these brands coming out with their new elixir–they don’t last, you know, terribly long, and they’re putting the elixir, you know, you know, branding on it but it comes down to… 

[Raphael] Elixir branding is supposedly something that lasts long. It’s like the… 

[Nate] It’s like the pure form of the oil, but usually, these elixirs are 20% oil concentration. So, uh, it usually comes down to fixative, which make fragrances last longer, fixatives are like ISO E supers, hedione.

[Raphael] Like stabilizers. 

[Nate] Yeah. They’re almost like their solid form at room temperature. So, ambroxan is a crystal when it’s in room temperature … but when it’s diluted down into, um… I just scared him out of the room.

[Antonio] I know.

[Prof. Preston] Alright. I didn’t want to interrupt your previous conversation but we are now on to fragrance number 11.

11. Old Spice Aftershave (Procter & Gamble)

[Raphael] It’s like a lighter… summery.

[Nate] Where are those coffee beans? Need those coffee beans.

[Nate] This is just like a clean suit, clean guy, soap qualities. 

[Raphael] It’s not very adventurous. It has less soap than the other one; the number six.

[Nate] This is the smell that, like wafts into your office, you know your boss is here, and you’re like trying to organize your desk really quickly. It’s like, “We’re in trouble now, boys.” 

[Raphael] So would you say it’s something classic like…

[Nate] I, my, my general thing is like I think this is like Eau Sauvage, eau de toilette kind of thing, um in that kind of general realm of things, like nice fougere. 

[Antonio] If it was like an eau fresh mixed with another 50% alcohol, it would be like… because this…

[Raphael] I lost Eau Sauvage, I had a bottle I think to spray it, just malfunctions, but yes you’re right, it is similar to that. 

[Nate] That like nice airy, citrusy light kind of stuff. 

[Prof. Preston] All right, are we ready for letter grades here? 

[Nate] Oh yeah, I got to erase this F here. Let me think… 

[Raphael] But this is also the fragrance that, in my experience, wouldn’t last very long; you put it on, and a few hours later it’s like you can’t tell anymore.

[Nate] Yeah, this is a spray before you leave, and then once you show, yeah, once you show up…

[Raphael] Reapply. 

[Nate] But very classe, nice and light. Let’s see…

[Antonio] C. 

[Nate] B; I’d probably wear it.

[Prof. Preston] Very good! Next up, number 12. 

[Raphael] So, Antonio, how did you get into fragrances. I mean, I’ve known you for a little while, and you’re an analytical guy, so what was that like? 

[Antonio] No, you know, I didn’t wear fragrance for the longest time. We obviously talked about style at Real Me Real Style. For me, growing up in the Midwest, Midland Texas, like nobody wore, like, fragrance. It just wasn’t seen as… Actually, I did receive, like when I was a kid, Stetson, and then Aspen, and some, I’m sure somebody’s dad had Drakkar, you know, Polo, you start to get in the Marine Corps, I noticed people start to wear fragrances.

[Raphael] Like Polo Green, you mean?

[Antonio] Polo Green, Polo Red…

[Raphael] There, the Blue one… 

[Antonio] That was pretty, yeah, those things were popular in the, you know, 2000s, around some of the guys, you know, and so you would see guys go out, spray something on, but I always stayed away from, I just thought if you’re showered and clean, you’re perfectly fine. But then I started hanging out, you know, got to know Jeremy Fragrance, I was in Germany, and he gave me, what was it? Acqua di Gio Profumo Special Blend. He had an extra one, he’s like, “Hey, check this out.” And I met up with him, Jeremy, again at Artisan Pure. We were at the Varvatos store I got a… so I started getting, Victor & Rolf sent me Spice Bomb, so I started having some of these laying around, and my son really got into them. And I started saying, “You know, this smells really good.” So, I think it was it was that… it was those fragrances that three right there that I started wearing and getting into, and I really did like them. And I’m maybe a little bit obsessive with things, so I’m like, “Okay, if I’m going to get into this, I just, justified that it’s it’s like a college education every time I would buy a fragrance.” I would go to the website Fragrantica and research it, and I just kept doing this. And, it was… The next thing I know, some of those fragrance videos on the channel did pretty good, and uh it, yeah, went from there went from three fragrances to 600 within a couple years. 

[Nate] That’s usually how it goes.

[Prof. Preston] Alright, number 12. 

12. Individuel (Mont Blanc)

[Raphael] What I found, though, is, you know, once they they reach air, right, once you start pumping, after a while, I remember, I had an old Polo Blue, for the longest time, and after a while, it just didn’t smell like it used to at all anymore. 

[Nate] So there’s a there’s a note in here it’s it’s a synthetic note called Dihydromyrcenol, and it’s heavily used in Cool Water, and Green Irish Tweed, that kind of thing that that it … it’s almost kind of like a lime, lavender, fresh airy kind of note.

[Raphael] Mmhm, I smell a lime. 

[Nate] But it comes across super clean and, uh, it’s, uh, they used it a lot in the ’90s, for all their fragrances in 90s.

[Raphael] Which is, you know, do, I mean stylistically, right? 90s are making a big comeback whether it’s like, you know, I don’t know, the Shaq Reebok shoes, or like the jackets do you see kind of a ’90s resurgence in the fragrance world?

[Nate] Yeah, with this kind of DNA, I do, like, this … this stuff kind of makes it come back a little bit. 

[Prof. Preston] Alright. Are we ready for grades here?

[Nate] A.

[Antonio gives a B-]

[Raphael] It’s, I say B+ here. It reminds me of, like a bit of the Montblanc Individuel. 

[Nate] Yeah.

[Prof. Preston] Alright, very good! we are entering the home stretch now; just four fragrances left to go. So I will go prepare number 13. 

[Antonio] So you think that, you think that was GIT?

[Nate] Yeah, it’s either GIT or Cool Water.

[Raphael] But the Cool Water, I mean, yeah, I, you know, when I remember when I smelled the Green Irish Tweed and the Cool Water, they smelled similar to me.

[Antonio] Yeah, they are. 

[Nate] I’m pretty sure, I could be wrong on this, but I’m pretty sure the perfumer, and I apologize, I forgot his name or her name, but the perfumer that put together Geen Irish Tweed was the same person that put together Cool Water because Davidoff hired the same perfumer ’cause they … they wanted that kind of fragrance, and then they … he reworked it specifically for Davidoff to meet their price, because perfume is… it’s all about price, you know, per kilogram. 

[Raphael] Per kilogram, which is a thousand grams.

[Nate] Yes, and some brands need a lower threshold or to stay within their budgets and stuff, but… 

[Raphael] Well and that’s how a lot of scents are, oftentimes, designed, right? It’s like you have a price goal, and then you go to your perfumer, “Here’s a price goal. Please do this.” And then they go for that. 

[Nate] But I could be I could be wrong if those are the two same perfumer so I’m not… 

[Raphael] Thank you. 

[Nate] We need a fact check. 

13. Blenheim Bouquet (Penhaligon’s)

[Raphael] That’s lighter.

[Nate] Yeah, very light.

[Raphael] To me, like that’s more of a, you know, like one of those, sometimes, these English scents of like lime or like something like this, you know.

[Nate] Heavy lemon in here.

[Raphael] Yeah, that kind of I often find them, you know, they’re all these what is it Floris, Penhaligon’s. All that stuff. They have these sometimes, I don’t want to say simple, but more straightforward. 

[Nate] A lot of it is coming this is not, like, a guess, ’cause I know this is not it, but like like a Dior L’Homme cologne like with that nice bright lemon.

[Antonio] They do a really good job with that. This, and with those brands you just mentioned, uh, I mean, they’ve got formulations, I mean, I don’t know if they’re using the exact same ones but they’ve been around for a hundred years or 150 years, and you know, fragrance at that point, when they started this stuff, it was pretty simple. It was, you know.

[Raphael] When you put it on your, like handkerchief, so when you walk through the street, and it smelled you had something that smelled better than…

[Antonio] No, Raphael, that’s what the peasants….

[Raphael] Look at this! We’re like almost the same. C minus, C.

[Prof. Preston] Who had the C minus?

[Nate] I did.

[Antonio] I don’t, I haven’t failed anybody so…

[Raphael] I always like the kind of the different aspects of it and you know learning, and … and just I’m impressed by your, to just say, you know, it’s this, right? ‘Cause ultimately, it’s like you … you practice, right, it’s like … there’s talent, and then there is practice. And even if you don’t have much talent, even with practice, you can get to a really high level, and then if you have talent, and then you know, but you need to smell it. 

[Nate] What I love about creating perfume is like, you’re never an expert, you’re never, you’re never at the top of your game like you’re always learning and even the top perfumers are always, always learning and always researching new materials. And I’m the same way. I always try to research, smell stuff, order samples in … of molecules and smell them, and it and it, I never want to try to come across. I know it might come across sometimes, but I never want to come across like I know it all, ’cause  I simply don’t, and it’s, it’s just memory, going off memory. 

14. Green Irish Tweed (Creed)

[Nate] This is Green Irish Tweed. 

[Antonio] No, I think it’s… I think that one to me is Cool Water. 

[Raphael] Now that, now that you say, that this is instant, like it’s like, my wife is like when I put this on, she’s like”Ohhh,” and now that you say that, I think you’re right. I said I think, I thought Green Irish Tweed was number five earlier, and I don’t think that anymore. I had … I had written that down, but you’re right. I even on the 12. I had, I said Mont Blanc Individuel, but potentially Green Irish Tweed. 

[Nate] Yeah, this is like very noticeable, but I said Green Irish Tweed for the other one, so I’m already failing. I am failing, but … and I could be wrong here too.

[Raphael] But now, but I … this … now did you say that…

[Nate] Yeah, very noticeable.

[Prof. Preston] The purpose of this video is to make all of you feel like failures. 

[Antonio] Yes, yes, that’s the purpose. 

[Nate] But yeah, it could be Cool Water, ’cause it is very pungent and potent. 

[Antonio] That’s, yeah, I just feel Green Irish Tweed. 

[Raphael] Personally, with the Green Irish Tweed, I don’t like the smell it and like, “Hmm, I love,” it but because Teresa loves it, I definitely wear it. 

[Prof. Preston] Alright, letter grades here. 

[Nate] B  

[Raphael] C

[Antonio] B plus. 

[Prof. Preston] Very good! 15 up next. 

[Raphael] How much do you think is the formula like getting something that no one is offended by and then the marketing behind it, and the brand in kind of pushing something. 

[Nate] I think what’s really interesting about perfume is it’s… I look at it as all marketing because nowadays, with a lot of formulas nowadays, are usually like, Sauvage is like 25% ISO E Super, usually 20% musk, and it’s hedione, too, and it gets you all the way up to about 80% all of these like ISO E Super, hedione, musks. Dihydromyrcenol is a very popular one with like Invictus style DNAs, like that nice fresh, sweet ’cause dihydromyrcenol is a very potent molecule, and so if you add that in with sweetness, you get this like pungent volatile…

[Raphael] But do you think Creed is doing that much marketing or is it, just have that strong brand that carries it?

[Nate] I don’t know, know what Creed is doing, to be honest, I … because I really don’t think I could be totally wrong here so if somebody from Creed is watching this and they get upset at me, I, this is just the take that I’ve noticed with my viewers and stuff, but a lot of Creed fragrances don’t perform that well. And if they listen to their audience and listen to the people that are wearing their fragrances, they want longer-lasting fragrances. They want… so readdressing that, and I don’t know, they could be doing that, I, just from a consumer point of view, I don’t see it, and from hosting a fragrance channel, I don’t see that they’re making strides for that.

15. Cool Water (Davidoff)

[Prof. Preston] All right, some thoughts on fragrance number 15 here before I ask you for your letter grades? Any impressions of this one?

[Antonio] No real Impressions on it, uhm…

[Nate] Smells a lot like the… 

[Raphael] Crowd-pleasing kind of to me.

[Nate] It’s yeah, Green… it almost has like a Green Irish Tweed kind of a thing going, but…

[Raphael] It’s lighter

[Nate] It’s lighter. It’s much lighter. 

[Antonio] We get any floral with that?

[Nate] Uhm, more Green aspects like, 

[Nate]  Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would not be shocked if there’s like a touch of a lily, lily of the valley.

[Prof. Preston] All right, letter grades.

[Raphael] B minus. C minus. B. Okay!

[Prof. Preston] Raphael, your grade was?

[Raphael] B minus. 

[Prof. Preston] All right! Okay, here we are the final fragrance number 16 coming up… All right, number 16.

16. Terre d’Hermes (Hermes)

[Raphael] That smells unusual to me.

[Nate] I’m not feeling this.

[Nate]  It is, I feel like that this last one is getting the end of our noses.

[Antonio] Yeah.

[Nate] Yeah, this is nice. It’s coming across, I don’t know, I’m picking up like Roja Dove, something like a, something or other it’s got… 

[Antonio] It’s very old school. 

[Nate] Yeah, it’s got Roja’s kind of style on it, yeah.

[Raphael] So I, mean obviously you guys knew you have a lot of stuff, and you … you try a lot of things. Sometimes, when I walk into my thing like, “Oh, today, I feel like this.” And another day, I don’t feel like that at all. Do you have that sometimes or…?

[Nate] Oh yeah, yeah. 

[Antonio] We were talking about that, like, when you have so many fragrances you’re, like, “What do I want to wear today?” Or wear this, and I oftentimes like, story, like oh I like them all, like them all, but you know, one of the things with talking about this, we have the luxury of there’s always new fragrances coming in so I’m like I’ll just wear what’s new, you know.

[Raphae] Yeah.

[Nate] You know, I always, I always like to make good joke out of it; I like, stand back and put my hands on my hips and like, I have nothing to wear.

[Nate] This has that Healy musk in there, too. 

[Prof. Preston] Letter grades for the final fragrance 

[Antonio] What’d you put? C+?

[Raphael] C+. 

[Nate & Antonio] B.

[Raphael] All right.

Ranking and Guessing The 16 Fragrances

[Prof. Preston] Okay, gentlemen. Well, now comes the big reveal for all 16 of our fragrances. I hope your noses have held up okay.

[Nate] And look at how many notes I took.

[Antonio] Yeah. 

[Prof. Preston] Alright. So, let’s start back at the beginning with fragrance number one. This one got an aggregate grade from all of you of B. So, starting off fairly strong. I was a little cheeky with this one because for number one I went with CK One from Calvin Klein.

[Raphael] Nice.

[Prof Preston] Okay, number two, with a aggregate score of D+ was 4711 which Rafael guessed correctly. 

[Raphael] It has a very distinct, like, old smell.

[Nate] I’ve never smelled this before so….

[Raphael] Oh, yeah?

[Nate] Yeah, it’s nice

[Prof Preston] I think Raphael had the advantage being German on that one, so. Number three with an aggregate score of B+, Bleu de Chanel.

[Antonio] That’s surprising.

[Prof. Preston] Number four. Aggregate grade of B is Victor and Rolf Spice Bomb. I think we had some correct guesses on that one. 

[Raphael] Yeah. 

[Prof. Preston] Number five. Aggregate score of B+ was Creed Aventus. I think we had some other Creed guesses there. 

[Raphael] Yeah, okay.

[Antonio] I went with Aventus cologne, and you with…

[Prof. Preston] Absolute. 

[Antonio] It’s funny we all go for the…

[Nate] Was it just the standard one? 

[Prof. Preston] Yes, that was standard Aventus, yep.

[Nate] Wow, does not scream Aventus.

[Prof. Preston] Number six. Aggregate grade of C+ Tom Ford Soleil Blanc. 

[Antonio]  I don’t have that one, so… 

[Nate] Neither do I.

[Prof. Preston] Number seven. Aggregate grade of B minus was Issey Miyake’s L’eau D’Issey Pour Homme.

[Raphael] Yeah that was also big like CK One and Issey Miyake. I remember that I had a buddy in, when I did my civil service in 2003, he had an Issey Miyake.

[Prof. Preston] Number eight with an aggregate grade of A minus, which was the highest aggregate grade received today was, I’m happy to announce, 17 Rosso by Roberto Ugolini. It’s a good thing Raphael guessed that one correctly.

[Raphael] Would have been funny if not, but…

[Prof. Preston] Number nine. aggregate grade of D+, not a strong showing for this one, Polo Green. 

[Nate] Oh, what?

[Prof. Preston] Number 10, aggregate grade of D minus, which was the lowest grade received by any cologne today was Givenchy’s Gentleman. 

[Nate] Wow. 

[Raphael] That was… which one was that? Number nine?

Number 10. 

[Raphael] Number 10.

[Nate] That’s incredible. I did not… wow. 

[Prof. Preston] Number 11, with a grade of B minus, was Old Spice.

[Raphael] Oh, wow! 

[Prof. Preston] Just standard, good old Old Spice. 

[Raphael] How much does Old Spice cost?

[Prof. Preston] Not much. It’s a drugstore scent. 

[Prof. Preston] Okay, number 12, which was guessed correctly by Raphael. An aggregate grade of B+ was Mont Blanc Individuel.

[Prof. Preston] Number 13, with an aggregate grade of C, perfectly average, was Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet. Guessed, uh the house was guessed correctly by Raphael on that one.

[Raphael] They just, you know, when I, in England, they have this, I went with um Jack Collins, we went to like a Penhaligon’s store, and I smelled a lot and I that was my association.

[Prof. Preston] Number 14, with an aggregate grade of B minus. Guessed correctly over here by Nate was Creed’s Green Irish Tweed. Number 14.

[Prof. Preston] Number 15, also with an aggregate grade of B minus, Davidoff Cool Water.

[Nate] I think you got that one, right? 

[Prof. Preston] I believe Antonio guessed Cool Water for number 14. Was the Green Irish Tweed… 

[Antonio] Which was GIT. 

[Raphael] Well, I mean, which is yeah. 

[Prof. Preston] Similar fragrances, similar…

[Antonio] I was just a little bit early. 

[Raphael] So, which one was the second, the 15 was the…

[Prof. Preston] 15 was Cool Water.

[Raphael] Yeah, I mean, they really smell similar here, but it’s a huge price difference, right?

[Nate] Yeah, yeah. It’s like cool water is like 20 bucks, and then Green Irish Tweed is like 300. 

[Prof. Preston] And finally, number 16, also with an aggregate grade of B minus, was Terre d’Hermes. 

[Raphael] The soil of Hermes. Awesome! Thank you, Preston!

[Prof. Preston] Absolutely! Any final thoughts here as we wrap up the video?

[Raphael] I’ll leave it up to you, gentlemen. 

[Nate] No, I’d say it, now you know, it’s going back to what you were saying about marketing and fragrance, I think marketing plays a huge deal with this because if you order, say, a fragrance and you’re blind smelling it like we are, where, we don’t pick up things until they’re shown to us, like if you…

[Raphael] There’s no flacon, right, there’s no color there’s no packaging it’s all stripped out.

[Nate] It’s, it’s…

[Raphael] Same strips.

[Nate] It’s, yeah, it’s paper. 

[Raphael] Like we have a collection of maybe 80-90 fragrances, you guys have 600, so I probably knew that these were out of my realm of fragrances. And so the … the 17 Rosso for me was very distinctive ’cause I’ve smelled that. This one I wasn’t so sure. You see I had like Green Irish Tweed on it as well, and you know, then when you said that it was, like, “Oh, yes, that’s right!” But I didn’t, I would not have I guess that.

[Nate] But the other thing, too, I haven’t smelled most of these, so you know, I have a lot of fragrances and it’s like, you know, that that just shows you how many of there are out there, and it’s like, it’s impossible to smell everything.

[Raphael] Well, I would not have known you know, Polo Green or  Old Spice or whatever.

[Nate] That’s shocking. We tore that apart

[Antonio] I gave it an A. 

[Raphael] The Polo one? 

[Antonio] Yeah, Polo Green, I gave an A.

[Raphael] Yeah, that’s true, yet that was…

[Raphael] So, if you enjoyed this really good analysis by Nate head over to Paragon for fragrances on YouTube, and this guy has a Real Men Real Style, but Scenteno is, I didn’t know for this about a while. How long has…

[Antonio] Yeah, I kept it secret, yeah, we’ve had it for like three years

[Raphael] And it’s shorts only?

[Antonio] Just shorts. It was just an experiment, you know, I created, I’ve got a main channel, which Real Men Real Style, but uh, yeah, the Scenteno channel was just to learn about fragrances, and obviously, I have a lot still to learn. 

[Raphael] And with that name, I mean, come on, that’s ideal.

[Antonio] Yeah, we had someone on our team, Jean, she came up with that. I was like, that’s good!

[Raphael] Did you trademark it? Scenteno? I mean, come on!

[Antonio] No.

[Prof. Preston] All right. Well, thanks to everyone for joining us, and uh, in conclusion, smell you later! 

[Antonio] Okay, see ya. Nice, Preston.

[Raphael] Ah, good!