BigNostril
Reviews
Detailed
My First Repurchase
First and foremost, the performance:
I've seen and heard many rumblings that this has been reformulated and that the recent batches do not perform well. I just got a newer bottle with batch code 22Y22DN, which according to CheckFresh is about 1 year and 4 months old as of this review. I'm not sure when everyone believes the reformulation took place but let me tell you this thing PUMPS. With a single spray this was jumping off my skin for hours, very easily an 8 hour fragrance, but I think its really more around 10-12 hours not including sprays on clothing, this thing survived an afternoon of power washing and handwashing. Maybe people are dumping this fragrance on with 10 sprays and going nose blind? Or maybe it really has been reformulated incredibly recently, in such case try and get an older batch if possible, but I think the first scenario is much more likely. This really is still such a monster.
The scent:
It's fantastic, just so cozy and spicy, it just makes me think of sitting inside by the fire on a cool fall day, while wearing a flannel shirt. I had already owned a bottle of this before but I tried
Rehab and loved that as well. I wanted to get Rehab but due to my ever expanding collection, a problem many of you know well, I decided that I would sell 
Spicebomb Extreme so that I wouldn't have any redundant scents. While both myself and my significant other love Rehab, (she says that it sort of reminds her of Shea Butter? but in a very good way) it really just did not scratch the itch of Spicebomb Extreme after I sold it. I just could not get it out of my head and decided to buy another bottle just to see if I was going crazy, I was not. Rehab may be in the same family of the Spicebombs, and it is much more similar to the original 
Spicebomb from my testing, but it is not redundant to any of them, it does go its own direction with it's focus on clean and relaxing lavender.
Overall:
I think this stuff is just fantastic, and as relevant as ever. Try it out for yourself, but I think that the concerns over the batches has been greatly exaggerated, maybe just give it a few sprays at first.
I've seen and heard many rumblings that this has been reformulated and that the recent batches do not perform well. I just got a newer bottle with batch code 22Y22DN, which according to CheckFresh is about 1 year and 4 months old as of this review. I'm not sure when everyone believes the reformulation took place but let me tell you this thing PUMPS. With a single spray this was jumping off my skin for hours, very easily an 8 hour fragrance, but I think its really more around 10-12 hours not including sprays on clothing, this thing survived an afternoon of power washing and handwashing. Maybe people are dumping this fragrance on with 10 sprays and going nose blind? Or maybe it really has been reformulated incredibly recently, in such case try and get an older batch if possible, but I think the first scenario is much more likely. This really is still such a monster.
The scent:
It's fantastic, just so cozy and spicy, it just makes me think of sitting inside by the fire on a cool fall day, while wearing a flannel shirt. I had already owned a bottle of this before but I tried
Rehab and loved that as well. I wanted to get Rehab but due to my ever expanding collection, a problem many of you know well, I decided that I would sell Spicebomb Extreme so that I wouldn't have any redundant scents. While both myself and my significant other love Rehab, (she says that it sort of reminds her of Shea Butter? but in a very good way) it really just did not scratch the itch of Spicebomb Extreme after I sold it. I just could not get it out of my head and decided to buy another bottle just to see if I was going crazy, I was not. Rehab may be in the same family of the Spicebombs, and it is much more similar to the original Spicebomb from my testing, but it is not redundant to any of them, it does go its own direction with it's focus on clean and relaxing lavender. Overall:
I think this stuff is just fantastic, and as relevant as ever. Try it out for yourself, but I think that the concerns over the batches has been greatly exaggerated, maybe just give it a few sprays at first.
It's not perfect but at this price?
So I sampled 
Imagination and loved it immediately. It somewhat made me think of a super high quality hotel soap, not at all in a bad way, and the black tea note just stuck out to me so clearly in such a pleasant way that I very quickly added it to my buy list.
As someone who regularly spends too much money on scented alcohol normally I lack the self control from spending on a new bottle, but Imagination was different. It's impossible to find from any discounters, and while I waited to save up some extra cash I watched as LV slowly increased the price. Currently it sits at $345 USD for a 100mL and $485 USD for the "value" 200mL. No matter what I just could not bring myself to spend that kind of money on a fragrance, so I figured I would give a clone a shot and worst case I could always sell the bottle in case I didn't like it.
Immediately after taking off the cap, before even spraying the bottle, I could smell Aqua Dubai from the atomizer and it smelled exactly as I remembered Imagination. The atomizer is incredibly powerful and pressurized, probably the strongest I've ever gotten before, and after spraying on skin I immediately went nose blind. This fragrance absolutely blasts off of my skin and projects even harder than Imagination. If you get your nose up close to your skin, yes, it does smell different, it is harsher than Imagination for sure, which can only be expected for the price difference. If anything I expected Aqua Dubai to smell worse up close but it actually is still great. But up in the air, it is difficult to tell even side by side, at least for me but your own mileage may vary. I think that for the $45 USD that I paid for 100mL bottle this is a fantastic value proposition. As a fragrance nerd I can hardly if at all tell the different so I can't imagine anyone else could.
Please sample first, but I think that this scent does deserve some respect for its value and scent, and is at least worth a try before you spend a car payment on Imagination. I have also heard good things about
Game of Spades Fullhouse but I have yet to try that, so that might be worth a sample as well.
Imagination and loved it immediately. It somewhat made me think of a super high quality hotel soap, not at all in a bad way, and the black tea note just stuck out to me so clearly in such a pleasant way that I very quickly added it to my buy list. As someone who regularly spends too much money on scented alcohol normally I lack the self control from spending on a new bottle, but Imagination was different. It's impossible to find from any discounters, and while I waited to save up some extra cash I watched as LV slowly increased the price. Currently it sits at $345 USD for a 100mL and $485 USD for the "value" 200mL. No matter what I just could not bring myself to spend that kind of money on a fragrance, so I figured I would give a clone a shot and worst case I could always sell the bottle in case I didn't like it.
Immediately after taking off the cap, before even spraying the bottle, I could smell Aqua Dubai from the atomizer and it smelled exactly as I remembered Imagination. The atomizer is incredibly powerful and pressurized, probably the strongest I've ever gotten before, and after spraying on skin I immediately went nose blind. This fragrance absolutely blasts off of my skin and projects even harder than Imagination. If you get your nose up close to your skin, yes, it does smell different, it is harsher than Imagination for sure, which can only be expected for the price difference. If anything I expected Aqua Dubai to smell worse up close but it actually is still great. But up in the air, it is difficult to tell even side by side, at least for me but your own mileage may vary. I think that for the $45 USD that I paid for 100mL bottle this is a fantastic value proposition. As a fragrance nerd I can hardly if at all tell the different so I can't imagine anyone else could.
Please sample first, but I think that this scent does deserve some respect for its value and scent, and is at least worth a try before you spend a car payment on Imagination. I have also heard good things about
Game of Spades Fullhouse but I have yet to try that, so that might be worth a sample as well.
Such A Pleasant Suprise
Right off the bat let me just say that this fragrance really does punch so far above it's price tag. I've had a sample for around 6 months and have been going back and forth between wanting a bottle, but I just don't know if I can justify it for the price after picking this one up. I have always avoided blind buying, instead picking up tons of samples and really finding exactly what I like and don't like, but this one time I just couldn't help myself, and I actually couldn't be happier.
I have a bottle of
Hacivat which is definitely in the same fragrance family, and while the quality can't quite match that, it does get very surprisingly close. From the opening to the dry down, and even right up close I feel like this is very well rounded and not as sharp and offensive as I've heard about some of the Club de Nuit flankers, and I have no problems noticing the individual notes and facets of the scent. This also is not to say that I think this is more reminiscent of Hacivat, I pick up much more of those deeper base notes, especially the oakmoss, this is definitely more similar to the top heavy and more "airy" 
Aventus. Now it's not 100% the same as Creed, and if anything it might be better for it. I will also say that i have not had any issue with Aventus' longevity in my testing, but it does sit very close to the skin, Club de Nuit so far for me has lasted long and has a ton of punch.
Through my fragrance journey, plenty of cheap alternatives have come and gone, usually because to me they just fall flat and I can't find any depth to the fragrance, but I have a feeling that this one is gonna stick around until the bottle is empty.
P.S. Please don't be me sample first if you can :)
I have a bottle of
Hacivat which is definitely in the same fragrance family, and while the quality can't quite match that, it does get very surprisingly close. From the opening to the dry down, and even right up close I feel like this is very well rounded and not as sharp and offensive as I've heard about some of the Club de Nuit flankers, and I have no problems noticing the individual notes and facets of the scent. This also is not to say that I think this is more reminiscent of Hacivat, I pick up much more of those deeper base notes, especially the oakmoss, this is definitely more similar to the top heavy and more "airy" Aventus. Now it's not 100% the same as Creed, and if anything it might be better for it. I will also say that i have not had any issue with Aventus' longevity in my testing, but it does sit very close to the skin, Club de Nuit so far for me has lasted long and has a ton of punch.Through my fragrance journey, plenty of cheap alternatives have come and gone, usually because to me they just fall flat and I can't find any depth to the fragrance, but I have a feeling that this one is gonna stick around until the bottle is empty.
P.S. Please don't be me sample first if you can :)
Class in a bottle
Just such a classy scent. It really hits a great balance of fruity, smoky, woody, with a hint of oud, that is still totally wearable. I just got one of the new reformulated bottles and while I will say the projection isn't anything crazy the longevity is far from terrible, on my skin I'm getting around 8-10 hours. Please try if you can, I think guys of any age can pull this off
Hope you like Green
I get it that this gets a lot of hype and just because of that some people won't like it, but I really do love Greenley. The first time I tried it I agreed that it sort of just smelled like green apple shampoo, but after a little bit of time I really came to appreciate it. I am in the camp that Greenley is the superior PDM fresh scent over Sedley. It's citrusy, woodsy, and that mixture of apple and oakmoss just really works for me. If you like oakmoss and apple please try a sample of this. The performance is also pretty great for such a fresh scent, but the price is definitely up there. The bottle is also beautiful which helps make that price a bit easier to swallow.
