Baptizing my son in a few weeks and looking for something classy but not overpowering that will fit the occasion. Evening, indoors, formal (black tie), late winter/early spring. My shortlist is currently:
Reflection 45 ,
Amyris Homme Extrait de Parfum ,
Burlington 1819
But I'm open to any and all suggestions up to $500. TIA!
Fragrance for son's baptism
Omnipotato
Without any info as to what sort of frags you like, and given that the ones in your shortlist are quite different from one another, the first recommendation I can offer is, for sure, "New York Intense | Parfums de Nicolaï", that's the first fragrance that comes to mind when hearing classy and black tie.
That said, knowing if you're looking for specific notes, or things close to a specific fragrance, or members of a fragrance family, would make it easier to give you meaningful suggestions.
Also, given your budget, if you have something in mind already I'd just buy a few samples from an online store carrying niche frags and take my time sampling them, there's really no substitute for that.
Omnipotato
I think the shortlist fragrances are pretty similar in what they do, even if they don’t share a lot of notes. Basically what I’m looking for is a modern clean and fresh woody scent built around something like cedar or sandalwood. Maybe some citrus/neroli to amp up the “clean” effect, but not enough to overpower the woods. Also something that has a unique DNA that I can make an association with rather than something like an Aventus clone, etc. I also posted this in a Facebook group and got suggested Silver Mountain Water which is also a strong contender now.
My plan is to get samples, either online or in store but I want to see if there’s any suggestions people have that I can sample as well. I definitely won’t buy something like this blind. Thanks for the suggestion @Johnjssmith!