Silisom

This fragrance is the epitome of less is more. The top gives you a wonderful hit of, let's be honest, the best citrus fruit... mandarin orange. It's sweet and refreshing perfectly balanced. The dry down is rich vanilla rounded out by sandalwood. Vanilla and sandalwood is what piqued my interest in the fragrance world to begin with. And that's it... Orange, vanilla, and sandalwood in perfect harmony. Less is more.

It projects well, but not to the point of gas bombing someone standing behind you in line at the coffee shop. The scent is inoffensive and subtle regardless. 4-5 sprays in the dead of winter is plenty. Again, less is more.

It lasts a long time. It's not the "lab tested 16 hour duration." But I get 8-10 hours out of it. Most of that time is catching whiffs of the perfectly rounded vanilla/sandalwood as the mandarin orange fades fairly early on. By hour ten, I can still smell faint vanilla on my skin, but I really have to dig my nose in. But by hour 10, I'm also sitting at home relaxing for the evening thinking to myself, "maybe I should wear Million Gold Elixir tomorrow." I'd imagine that on clothes it would be days before the scent wears off. But I also imagine your a walking vanilla bomb as well... as good as that sounds, I respect the people 3 aisles over at the grocery store.

All around my favorite sweet fragrance. It's comforting and refreshing. It also helps that for whatever reason Jomashop has/had a 200mL bottle for the same price as the 100mL bottle ($125)... so free upgrade if it's still available.

If this is what Aventus even sort of smells like... I don't get the hype. I'd be pissed to spend $500 on something even 60% similar to this. I've not been interested in spending any sort of money on Aventus, including on samples, especially knowing that there are very few fragrances in the world outside of LV, Mind Games, and Tom Ford I'd be willing to spend more than $300 on. So... clones it is. I've tried a few to kind of get an idea. And I'm glad I only paid $30 for this one.

CDN has that lemon and pineapple that punches you in the face with an almost boozy side to it. What people keep describing as "synthetic" is just to me that combination of fruit scents mixed with the black current. But once that citrus wears off, I'm left with something that smells like pouring gin in an herb garden. Honestly, it isn't bad. It also isn't good. I like citrus, woody, fresh scents. But this has a sort of bitterness to it that every Aventus clone I've smelled has. It's not fresh enough, not citrusy enough, and not woody enough. It feels like my nose is being pulled in three different directions with scents that are competing with each other and never fully melding because they just aren't complimentary.

Looking at the Aventus notes, its the same competing scents. I'm sure Creed has figured out how to balance them better. But that's like saying you've found a way to better balance your lemon meringue broccoli cheese ice cream. The notes just don't work together. Once the scent is down to skin, once the fruits and citruses have faded into the ether and I'm left with just the woody notes, the fragrance becomes decent. Not great... decent. If that's what success smells like, I'll go back to being poor. I'm fully convinced that the hype behind Aventus and its many clones is based mostly on dudes who blind bought it and now have to justify the money they spent by convincing themselves they like it. Then they convince their friends to make the same bad decision and suddenly you have a bunch of gym bros who swear that they all smell good and the cycle continues.

This fragrance just feels like it's trying to be old timey and modern at the same time. It's a clash of ideals and scents that just remind me how much I prefer simplicity and subtlety in fragrances. So maybe it's just not for me. I'll take the $30 purchase and spend the other $470 on a niche that's more suited to me.

Update after trying Aventus: Yeah, this is like 90% close to Aventus. Creed did manage to make the notes slightly less harsh. But I still get a strong "Lemon and gin poured on a tree" vibe. My review stands as is. I'm letting the CDN macerate a bit in hopes that the better notes pop a bit more. But I'm likely trading this off. Absolu Aventus is leagues better, but just not worth it for the price

This was love at first smell for me. My favorite daily scent is still TF Oud Wood. But when I bought my first samples of fragrances, wondering if there was such a thing as a fragrance I could enjoy, AdG Parfum was the first one that kept making me want to smell myself over and over again. I quickly bought a bottle.

From the initial spray all the way down to skin, I can't find a complaint about the scent profile. There are several fragrances I own that I can find something I would change, or some moment I don't prefer. This fragrance is a 10/10 from start to finish.

The opening is bright, citrusy, fresh. Like opening a cold can of Sprite on a blazing hot day. Like any opening, it's fleeting... leaving in its wake a floral freshness that smells like sitting downwind from some freshly washed sheets hanging out to dry. It's comforting and almost nostalgic. Even if you've never been there, you somehow remember it. That's the part that kept me sniffing myself, then giggling with joy like a schoolgirl who just got a smile from her crush. It's addicting, intoxicating, and so well rounded. The finish is strong, more traditional woody notes that kind of bring you down from the high of the opening and mid. It's walking back into a wood cabin as the sun has gone down. It's familiar, subtle, sophisticated.

It projects well, but not to the point that it fills a room immediately like most other Parfum concentrations. It's perfectly strong and subtle. Enough to draw compliments from coworkers and maybe someone walking nearby, while still not being overwhelming when you hug someone.

It lasts almost as long as it needs to. My only nitpick is that I wish I could get just an hour or two longer out of it. It doesn't quite hit that 8-hour mark on skin that I'd like from something I enjoy wearing at work. This is coming from someone who is happy to get 5-6 hours out of Oud Wood, so it's a VERY tiny nitpick.

The other popular AdG flanker is Profondo. I heard they are about on the same level as far as how much people love the scent. Not for me. Profondo has it's merits and it's audience. I am not that audience. Without leaving a Profondo review here, it's just too woodsy and traditional for me. It hits me with a "20-something in a club who just hit himself with 20 sprays" vibe, and misses the super fresh balance the Parfum has. The reason I never enjoyed men's fragrances in the past was because I thought that subtlety didn't exist. Profondo smells really good, but it's far from subtle.

Parfum is loudly subtle. It strikes a perfect balance that I will be happy to wear A LOT for years to come... until GA discontinues it and brings it back slightly changed and twice the price 5 years later. Until then, this is my #1b fragrance.

This one definitely smells like the 90s. It reminds me of the medicine cabinet from my childhood, where my dad kept all of his cologne and aftershave. But not necessarily in a bad way. It invokes a sort of nostalgia, even though I don't recall him ever owning anything other than a bunch of generic K-mart colognes, Polo Green and later Polo Black. Polo Black is kind of my dad's signature and the one I most strongly associate with holiday parties and weddings.

The opening is fresh, green, vaguely aquatic. It's pleasant, in a classic men's fragrance style. As it dries down it takes on slightly more floral notes, but still holds on to that green note while losing a bit of the freshness. The part that I can't get into is the final scent. It's still floral, still has a faint freshness... and citronella. It smells like a citronella candle to me. Sharp and chemically. I also pick up a note waaaay in the background throughout the profile that reminds me of ketchup. Once I thought of those two smells, it really ruined it for me.

Do I think its a bad scent? Not at all. There's a reason its a classic that has stuck around for almost 40 years. It just isn't for me. I might gift this one to my dad. Something tells me he'll appreciate it for what it is a lot more than I will.

I don't really get any apple or cinnamon off the top. I do get more of the lavender and orange blossom. Its strong and reminds me of MYSLF but a lot sweeter. I wouldn't say it's overly sweet, but definitely reminds me of soap and bubble gum. The dry down is much more subtle with vanilla rounding out the edgy floral notes. Its actually not terrible, it just takes a while to get there.

Overall, I get the appeal if you're 15-23. Otherwise, this just isn't so much for me or most adults over 30 for that matter. I don't hate it, but it's not something I'm reaching for over anything else in my collection.