...I am also very much into vetiver! My current favorites are the now discontinued "Vétiver de Frédéric", Guerlains "Vetiver Extreme" and their discontinued "Vetiver Frozen Fragrance / Eau Glacée".I also like the Vetiver by Carven and Annick Goutals discontinued Vetiver (which has an aquatic note!).Among the more modern, not so straightforward vetivers, I appreciate Lubin's "Le Vetiver - Itasca" and Heeleys "Cuir Pleine Fleur"

...Berlin is the capital of Germany, and it has lots to offer for perfume addicts:KaDeWe, Tauentzienstraße (Berlin-Schöneberg)Famous luxury department store with a very big perfume department. They have niche as well as mainstream and I cannot list all their brands. It is noisy, at times crowded and it's where all the tourists go! I like going there because I can test lots of fumes that I would otherwise have to order samples for. And if you look closely, you find one or two shelves with classics from the past: "Ma Griffe", "Oscar de la Renta pour Lui", "Coriandre", "Tamango" and some more.Galleries Lafayette, Friedrichstaße (Berlin-Mitte)Berlin dépendence of the famous store from Paris. The perfume department is a little bit smaller than KaDeWe's. But since their product lineups are not completely the same, it is just as well worth seeing.The Department Store, Friedrichstraße (Berlin-Mitte)Less noisy than KaDeWe and Galleries Lafayette, its big perfume department is more boutique style. The staff is friendly, and they have niche only.Maison Guerlain at Douglas, Kurfürstendamm (Berlin-Charlottenburg)Douglas is the leading perfume chain store in Germany (like Marionnaud in Switzerland and France), and they are altogether not so recommendable. As far as I know, 30 % of it is owned by LVMH, and this is probably the reason the Maison Guerlain's in Germany are always situated in a Douglas store. Guerlain plays hard-to-get with some of their more expensive fragrances which are available exclusively at the very few Maison Guerlain stores. Go there if you run out of "Arsène Lupin"!And now, the real insider's tips:The Different Scent, Krausnickstraße (Berlin-Mitte)Just round the corner of the popular Hackescher Markt, there is this small niche perfume shop. They also run one of the three leading German online shops for niche perfumery. The small shop is worth seeing. You will have to go down a few steps into a basement and mind your head. There are two rooms packed with best of niche. The shop owner is a perfume enthusiast just like we are, and you can spend hours discussing and sampling fragrances! A special sight is the backroom which is dedicated to Barber Shop style: bay rums and lavender waters, and men can buy precious shaving equipment there as well.1000&1 Seife, Rosenthaler Straße (Berlin-Mitte)This shop is all about soaps which they sell to the tourists at the Hackesche Höfe. They even have a small collection of historical soaps. The owner, Mr. Kormann is a hobby perfumer, and you will always find at least one of his own limited edition fragrances. He is happy if people are interested in his perfumes and whenever I am there, I always spend lots of time.The English Scent, Goethestraße (Berlin-Charlottenburg)Charlottenburg is worth seeing – just stroll through the dapper neighborhoods with their patrician houses from around 1900. In one of those houses, you find The English Scent – a small shop that has specialized in English perfumery. They have all the traditional brands: D.R. Harris, Anglia Perfumery, Bronnley, Yardley and many others. Often, the Germans are very exhaustive in what they are doing, and so you will hardly find a perfume shop in London that is more English than The English Scent in Berlin!Heinz Schlicht - ParfumSalon Berlin, Uhlandstraße (Berlin Charlottenburg)The salon is all about grooming. The way they do niche perfumes owes to that and is as exquisite as it is passionate. Well worth a visit.Harry Lehmann, Kantstraße (Berlin-Charlottenburg)Harry Lehmann is the oddest place of all. This small perfume company was founded in the 1920s, and they still produce some of the traditional perfumes of that time. If you want to know how a traditional "Fougère", "Russisch Juchten" or "Reines Kölnisch Wasser" smells like – this is the place to go! Their rather inexpensive fragrances are not so artificial but fine craftsmanship. The shop is a must see: It's design dates back to the 1950's and hasn't changed since then. The place is full of flowers – silk flowers, which is their other business pillar. The perfumes are sold from big bottles, and you can bring your own flacons for fillings.

...Here at Parfumo International, we are people from all over the world. So, why not put together the places of interest that perfume lovers simply must see when traveling somewhere? You know those places in your country: perfume museums, shops or maybe perfume fairs. So, please tell us all the where-to-goes!

...I speak German and some English. I am lucky to have colleagues at work who I have to talk to in English, so I have some practise.I only speak a little bit of French, just enough to buy a perfume or order my menue at the restaurant. But - aren't these the most important things to do in France?

...I am not sure yet because after each purchase, I always try to convince myself that my collection is complete.But - Czech & Speake has come out with "Vétiver Vert" that I am really curious about. C & S is one of my favorite brands, I already have their dry and herbal lavender scent "Oxford & Cambridge". I also think "Citrus Paradisi" is great. It is a strong citric scent with an extremely dominant cardamom note. I would buy that too if I wouldn't already have "Millesimé" by Ronaldo Esper, which is the second available scent of that type that I know of.

...Hello !I just want to recommend the blog of DeGe53 to you. She did an interview with Howard Jarvis from Bud Parfums. It appeared last year on the German Parfumo, but it is still of interest, so DeGe53 has posted it for you.Howardjarvis has an account here and of course, you can contact him. He is curious about Parfumo.net and maybe you have already seen him drop by.Parfumo does not want ads and also not people trying to advertise some obscure webshops. But Parfumo definetly supports the independant niche perfumers. Some users - i.e. DeGe53 - are always searching for new brands that they can test and present to us all. Thank you, DeGe53!

...Vetiver by Frédéric Haldimann

...Let me also give a compliment to Don. He is a gifted web developper. He is especially good at making user interfaces very comprehensible.There are some users on the German site who are not good friends with their computers, but they are active at Parfumo nevertheless!

...Thanks for the feedback! Please tell your friends about it!

...Flaconneur:State side, Devine is available at Luckyscent.com. I have L'Homme Sage and like it very much. You're correct Apicius, it is a fantastic fall/winter fragrance.I'll have to translate my L'Homme Sage review soon!

...Gucci "Rush for Men"

...Since Flannelman has just posted a review of L'Homme Sage - my favorite winter fragrance, I would like to share my experience with Divine with you.So far, Divine has not appeared much in the perfume shops, and I have the suspicion that they do not offer special conditions for professional traders. Whenever I see Divine in shops, the prices range from 120 to 150 €. I therefore recommend ordering directly at www.divine.fr. The nice 50 ml spray bottle is 79 € (~ 101 USD) plus handling plus duty tax depending where it is shipped to. Service is OK, I got an immediate replacement once my order had not been delivered.They also offer a nice samples coffret with all of their fragrances for just 12 € (~ 16 USD). Divine fragrances are highest quality: they have very decent gent's perfumes and great florals for the ladies. Highly recommended!

...Today, it was the "Musk" by Keiko Mecheri

...Today, after some doubts, I bought "Minotaure" although it has obviously been reformulated.

...My current favourites are:- "Chamade Homme"- "Arsène Lupin"- "L'Homme Sage" by Divine- "Arooq Al Oud"- "Vetiver de Frédéric" - "Rodier pour Homme"- "Aventure"- "Homme Pininfarina Collector"- "XPEC Original"- "Acqua da Toeletta"- "Millesimé"

...Very good and interesing brand. I have the "Francois Charles" in my collection which is a noble alternative to Gaultiers Le male, due to its benzoin touch.The Eau's are very discreet and a bit conservative. They do not match with the general taste.

...Added some info about Parfumo at the facebook group "Le Parfum des Mecs ..."

...Reading this discusssion, I got the idea, that it would be nice if people could embed their external blog within a frame on Parfumo. So, I talked to Don about it, and the answer is no. There are so many different technical standards around that you simply cannot embed one webside into another without a lot of effort. We have to find other solutions to promote the external blogs of some of the Parfumo users.I think, moving completely to Parfumo is not a good idea for those who already run their own blog elsewhere since the Parfumo blog functionality is somewhat basic and does not allow customizing.Sherapop, I think it is best if you just put a link to your external blog at your blog at Perfumo. Additionally, I will post a recommendation for http://aromierotici.blogspot.com/ and http://salondeparfum-sherapop.blogspot.com/ in the German Parfumo.

...What a topic! I could write books about it!I presume AromiErotici labels those as designer brands that produce widely available, mostly mid-priced perfumes, whereas niche means the less widespread, often a bit experimental fragrances that usually but not necessarily have a higher price tag. I'm afraid I can only comment on men's and unisex fragrances.I think you can still find good classics in the mid-priced sector, such as some Guerlain fragrances. But the new releases are mostly boring and sometimes consist of ingredients that somehow smell cheap.At the German parfumo, I sometimes refer to some of those ingredients as scratchy - just like a cheap liquor that instead of being mild makes you cough and gives you a "scratchy" feeling in your throat. The nevertheless wonderful "Amber pour Homme" by Prada is an example for that.Occasionally, you come across a mid priced designer fragrance where the perfumer has made the best out of rather modest ingredients - this should also be respected. A few musky Hugo Boss fragrances should be mentioned as an example: "Boss Bottled Night" and also "Boss in Motion Edition White".Some designer brand issues from the last two years follow a very puristic, woody style - and they seem to be the follow-up of that now less popular sport fragrance trend. These fragrances may not be too experimental, instead they focus more or less obvious on tart woods: Almost all DSquared fragrances belong to that group, as well as i.e. Bvlgari Man and Michalsky Homme. I like that style!I think it is still worth to keep track of what is happening in the mid priced sector. I am always pleased and surprised when I find a new release that is really good, because one would not expect it!What we should worry about is what is happening with the so called niche sector. In Germany, we lately got the first chain stores (Apropos Concept Stores) that focus on the so called niche perfumes. Niche is currently becoming big business. Usually, so called niche brands issue 6 or more perfumes at once - all with the same package design. It seems to be more attractive for customers, when they see a respectable row of equal-looking perfume bottles on the shelf. Perfume shops become neat and tidy - chaotic-looking shops that still have their shelves packed with the full variety are obviously less popular. Last year, the most famous german perfume shop (Schnitzler, Düsseldorf) was re-designed in that way. People would travel to Düsseldorf because at Schnitzler's you could get simply "all". Now, they have thrown out a good percentage of their brands.The problem with those issues of complete lines is that you do not very often find really excellent and outstanding perfumes among them: Byredo, Krigler, By Kilian, Penhaligon's, Huitième Art, Tom Ford, Serge Lutens and others. Some other so called niche brands try to make the customers believe that their high price tags are an indicator of exceptional quality: Amouage, Bond No.9.Those true niche brands that usually do not release more than one or two excellent perfumes per year get completely out of focus: Divine, Hors Là Monde, Social Creatures, Humiecki & Graef, XPEC, Gentleman, Gravel, Czech & Speake, Nobile 1942, Sisley, Maître Parfumeur et Gantier, Annick Goutal, Ulrich Lang, Piazzini di Portofino, Aqaba - and presumably many others.I think you can smell if the perfumer was allowed the time necessary to create an outstanding perfume. Not every perfumer seems to be so priviledged as Jean-Paul Guerlain who took more that ten years between his absolutely gorgeous releases of "Chamade Homme" and "Arsène Lupin".

...Hallo,many nice people will join Parfumo.net, but only if we do not hide away.Today, I requested a listing at www.perfumesguide.com.And I put an information here:http://www.kaskus.us/showthread.php?p=607270760#post607270760and here:http://www.kaskus.us/showthread.php?p=607389522#post607389522