...What I'm gonna be wearing when I finally decide to pull the trigger is You Or Someone Like You . An amazing, mouthwatering cassis-mint combo on a bed of musk - that feels good for me and it's not screechy as many other ones. Very bright, green and yet cuddly scent. Very optimistic.

...MitchcraftFerdynandamfMitchcraft@Ferdynandamf I have the option to download so many on the Game Pass. Which would you say is a good starting point without having to go too far back when the graphics are maybe not so great?One of the modern games with the best game play if possible, but if you say i really need to start somewhere earlier, i will try it.I will add a photo. I have access to all that have the game pass icon on them.Oh, that's a no brainer for me - Yakuza 0. Chronologically plotwise it's the first, released worldwide in 2017 and I would say it still looks good. I would definetly recommend this one if you like beat em ups.Hey, so I am playing it now and it seems like a fun game with an intriguing story. Hey! Because it is! Nice to hear you are enjoying it. 

...Mitchcraft@Ferdynandamf I have the option to download so many on the Game Pass. Which would you say is a good starting point without having to go too far back when the graphics are maybe not so great?One of the modern games with the best game play if possible, but if you say i really need to start somewhere earlier, i will try it.I will add a photo. I have access to all that have the game pass icon on them.Oh, that's a no brainer for me - Yakuza 0. Chronologically plotwise it's the first, released worldwide in 2017 and I would say it still looks good. I would definetly recommend this one if you like beat em ups.

...MitchcraftFerdynandamfMitchcraftJust curious what games our gamers here on the English side of Parfumo are playing just now. This is a good way of maybe finding some hidden we gems or possibly finding some games people are playing both at the same time and could play together if it has co-op. I have been playing Mortal Kombat 1 2023 release not the original MK1 from the 90s I will never understand this thing where they have 2 games with the same name like Modern Warfare has two games of the same title. Great for confusing people when they ask if there are any games you would like for your birthday and they buy the older version 😆Anyway I have been enjoying MK1 and looking forward to the character release of Omni man from Invincible who will be playable later today. I must get some sleep so I can learn his moves through and remember them properly . I have been up most of the night unable to sleep. So what are you playing?For the last few months I was binging Yakuza series and just when I finished Ishin (2023 remaster) Like a dragon: Gaiden came out and to say I'm hooked it's to say nothing. I am a huge fangirl of the series and got right into it. Can't wait for Like a dragon: Infinite wealth that should be coming next year!I actually have not played any of the Yakuza games yet. I don’t know why tbh as I have access to them on Xbox game pass and PSN Extra I believe. I will have to give them a go some time as I have heard good things about them. Please do, I was on the fence for way too long. The writing and characters is what makes them special to me.

...ScentNebulaI will note that the "perfume smell" in Velvet Oud doesn't develop until what I assume are the middle notes come through. It's been sitting on the test strip for 2 days now and that smell has all but gone now, though it did last for a good while into the base notes. All that remains now is a slightly incensey raspberry, which is lovely...unlike literally everything else about it... I gotta say, based on the advertised notes and how people describe this perfume, I question if we're even smelling the same fragrance.😅 I don't smell ANY of the notes listed on Fragrantica (which are WRONG) nor any of the ones actually advertised by Lataffa/on Parfumo. I'm a little scared to even put it on my skin because it seems to have ferocious staying power. F-site is famous for pulling the notes out of their.. hmm, backs. 

...Oh, Stardew Valley most definetly, solo or with friends. Besides that I like to chill out and drive a rig in American Truck Simulator or European Truck Simulator 2 - perfect game for listening to podcasts. edit: HOW COULD I FORGET SKYRIM! That's like the epitome of a comfort game - came out in 2011 and I'm still playing it when my spirits are low.

...MitchcraftJust curious what games our gamers here on the English side of Parfumo are playing just now. This is a good way of maybe finding some hidden gems or possibly finding some games people are playing both at the same time and could play together if it has co-op. I have been playing Mortal Kombat 1 2023 release not the original MK1 from the 90s I will never understand this thing where they have 2 games with the same name like Modern Warfare has two games of the same title. Great for confusing people when they ask if there are any games you would like for your birthday and they buy the older version 😆Anyway I have been enjoying MK1 and looking forward to the character release of Omni man from Invincible who will be playable later today. I must get some sleep so I can learn his moves through and remember them properly . I have been up most of the night unable to sleep. So what are you playing?For the last few months I was binging Yakuza series and just when I finished Ishin (2023 remaster) Like a dragon: Gaiden came out and to say I'm hooked it's to say nothing. I am a huge fangirl of the series and got right into it. Can't wait for Like a dragon: Infinite wealth that should be coming next year!

...for me it would be Hermann à mes Côtés me Paraissait une Ombre or Comme une Evidence Homme , the second one being a gentle take on Déclaration d'Un Soir They are a little similar but very airy, playing the rose note more on a cold, green side. Very elegant, very masculine qualities.

...Qaa'ed al Shabaab

...I think it could be narrowed down eithter to oakmoss or amber/musk combination, both probably synthetic replacements. I like oakmoss but I often find various musks tiring and cloying. Amber or ambroxide-adjacent musky molecules are a little sweet and warm. I tried Velvet Oud ages ago and I don't remember anything out of the blue. It had a leather dry down with some floral-fruitiness along the lines of Ombré Leather (2018) Eau de Parfum or more like Tuscan Leather Eau de Parfum. On th Lattafa's webpage in the basenotes there is an "amber musk" so that would be my culprit. What did they combine to achieve it is a question but they could use some lauric aldehyde C12 which is THE aldehyde in perfumery. That is just my laymans logic and I would love to hear from someone that acutally understands chemistry, not me 😅On a second thought Cashmeran could fit the bill also!

...Qaa'ed . Cinnamon-cardamon bomb on a bed of vanilla. Very suave. Unisex but with a clear masculine twist.Oh and Noir is a very cheap (depending where you live) smoky-cinammon apple-plum warm hug. Would reccomend!

...There are two that come to mind. L'Eau Bleue d'Issey pour Homme is a good example of a blue "melting pot" with green twist. Even if the bottle is blue the scent is more lime-green/teal for me. It is more on the hebal side, little camphorous so I would not call it an easy blind buy but I absolutely love it. It is somewhat a little sweet.The second one is L'Eau d'Issey pour Homme Intense. It got very heavy amber drydown. I like to categorise it as a "blue" smell because of the heavy amber drydown with sterile/flowery-urban opening notes. Some light incense included. Melancholic. Very versatile, reserved. I do not own a typical blue fragrance in my collection so this two above are filling that role.

...ScentNebulaHello everyone, I'm another fragrantica refugee, and I'm currently feeling quite deflated from my experiences over on the f site, so it might take me a little while to work up the courage to engage with the community here. I'm new to the hobby but have been fascinated by and studying fragrances for years. In spite of my lengthy fascination, I have only just received my first ever fragrances in the mail. I'm in Australia, where it can be hard to find some fragrances, since we can only buy from specific shops due to shipping regulations.I am very open minded about fragrances, and not just because I'm a newbie! I'm non-binary and really have no preferences when it comes to the "gender" of fragrances, I believe I can appreciate any fragrance regardless of the gender it's marketed to. Although, amusingly, most of the ones I find myself interested in based on the notes are marketed as unisex.I also don't believe in categories like mainstream/niche/designer, the only difference it makes to me is "can I afford a full bottle of this or not". I still don't really understand what makes something a niche fragrance, because some are obvious (like Zoologist) but then I hear people referring to other fragrances that are incredibly popular and likeable as "niche" when the only thing I can see that would possibly make them niche is an extremely high price tag. There's obviously sometimes difference in the quality of blending and such, but it seems like expensive fragrances are just as likely to be poorly made as any other kind. So I really don't understand or care about categories like that. I even suspect a lot of very "sophisticated" fragrances would smell like disinfectant to me 🤣Hey! Nice to have y'all here!The influx of f-refugees to parfumo is slow but constant.The state of overwhelming deflation is what I would describe myslef way back when f-site was getting unbearable for me. No need to mention anything specific but I think you'll probably pinpoint what the issues were. Anyway! I'm also a big fan of unisex/not-gendered perfumery as well. There are days when I want to smell like industrial plant or some ephemeral, fleeting concept. The whole sheabang around niche/mainstream is, I believe, rooted in elitism. I would imagine people aspire to have nice things for their hard-earned money.  Perfumes are luxurious goods (fact) and as such they command a higher, very often unreasonable to common people, price (less of a fact, more opinion).You can call it gentry, bourgeoisie, upper-class or snobery and in some circles it will always be treated as sine qua non of certain lifestyle in order to differentiate from the masses. The internet and the f-page are no different. Without getting into the intricacies of gatekeeping the "perfume world" (to protect the quality and esteem perhaps?) or cloning popular fragrances by lesser-known companies (to bring the joy of fragrances to the less wealthy) the niche/mainstream are usually a nice indicator of what you would expect from a fragrance. Of course there are some indie brands that make some great scents with little or no recognition and mainstream conglomerates making very boring and derivative blends in order to put a $$$ price tag.I would 100% agree to the "can I afford a full bottle" litmus test! 

...FreshKatsuScentNebulaI have not been part of the fragrance community for very long and only joined the F site a few weeks ago, though I've been browsing perfumes on there for years. I was not aware of the owner's bigotry when I joined the F site, otherwise I would never have signed up. I was excited to share my fragrance journey on the forums and hoping to engage in discussion, but instead someone was rude to me and made me feel like I shouldn't be there. I decided I wanted to delete my account as I clearly wasn't welcome in the community, but couldn't figure out how to do so. While trying to google the solution, some of the first results that came up were a reddit thread and a page on trustpilot where people were sharing their experiences of bigotry, harassment, bullying, unfair practices and doxxing on the F site. Many also mentioned that it's impossible to delete your account. I looked into it and sure enough, while the Privacy Policy says you can delete your account by going to account settings, I am able to find no such setting. This seems like it would actually be illegal.All of this has made me feel not just disillusioned, but quite unsafe. I take my online privacy and control of my information very seriously and don't feel like I'm in good hands with the F site. I really hope that Parfumo will be a more welcoming and safe environment. Since the community here is smaller I'm excited to be able to contribute to its growth.Yeah you have to message the mod in order to delete your account, it's very frustrating. I emailed them and waited days with no reply. Then I changed my profile pic to the Ukranian flag and voila my account got deleted instantly 🙃 Haha! Literally same, changed my profile pic and bam, worked like a charm. Got deleted in no time. Good to have y'all here tho

...AymzzzHello everyone, Hallo zusammen!🤗New here, i heard about this community on other fragrance related ones, and i have to say i am starting to like it quite a lot!So here i am making my first post to ask for a recommendation for a perfume you'd buy if you were a teenager that likes the sweet kind of taste, tending to be more unisex. Something you could wear everyday, for school and such activities, where you off course seek compliments haha.Maybe something for the winter altough i would like to read about the summer / sunny picks.What would be your recommendations ? I am open to discussions and all comments, just describe why you'd choose this one and how you feel when you wear iti hope this post is welcome and doesnt come as an annoying newbie question.😉Thanks!oh, that's and easy one. Go with CK One Shock for Him - it has sweet cherry tobbaco vibe with fresh opening but settles to something similar to London for Men Eau de Toilette . Both are good, CK got more bite to it and energy but both are more traditionally masculine than unisex. Every clone of YSL Y: "Fakhar Lattafa Men | Lattafa / لطافة" (more synthetic apple freshness) Sheikh Shuyukh Final Edition (gentle green opening and a lot of vanilic tonka during drydown) are very safe, similar, although to my nose notably different. Another one that is sweet but not cloying and gourmand is Daarej pour Homme which turned out to be a very decent iris forward scent. Leans definetly masculine, got some synthetic bite to it (no headaches or annoying accords for me) and is blended really well. All-rounder on a more powdery side but still sweet.Also welcome to the community, hope you'll find it useful and homey. Don't be discouraged to ask, afaik people here are more than willing to share knowledge and opinions. Take care and enjoy your stay! Ferdek

...I absolutely love ELD'O. Out of seven scents I have I am very fond of (no particular order and without nitpicking):The Afternoon of a Faun (the gorgeous immortelle)Clean Suede (personal confidence booster)Fat Electrician (warm hug from an alcoholic uncle)La Fin du Monde (buttery iris, serene, cozy)and Rien Intense Incense of course (cruel aldehydes in leagues with kouros, smooth suave drydown)Started my ELD'O collection with the last one and it's very special to me. That would be my top. Attaquer Le Soleil - Marquis de Sade is very good but tough love. I liked Vierges et Toreros for it's superficial similarity to Tyrannosaurus Rex withoutthe heavy notes and extra metallic touch although it's not my favorite. I am eyeing a full bottle of You Or Someone Like You after sampling it, amazing cassis-minty creamy combo. Hermann à mes Côtés me Paraissait une Ombre is brilliant but way to melancholic to me, would probably not wear it very often as well.

...I second the opinion of Zara smelling a little off. I literally bought one, so that's no representative sample but anyway, the perfume in question was Zara Emotions N°03 - Ebony Wood Eau de Parfum . Lauded, admired and put on pedestal as very good, so on and so on. So I blind bought, tried at home, worn it only three times or so. It has a strong, bittersweet opening of cloves and sour cherries/pink pepper and I dig it, but the cloves could be dialed a bit down. Where the scent lost me is when it settles to middle and base accords. There is something off, some weird musk-adjacent accord that just gets into my nostrills and sticks onto back of my throat. It's borderline cloying and messy I guess? But in an airy way, very hard to describe. I lost my interest in Zara scents from that moment. I tried a few Maison Alhambra (Lattafa owned very brash clones) - Russian Leather (like Jaguar for men but a little smoother and more airy), Roman Leather (nice patchouli-herbal dark leather, dig it, got a nice bite to it) and Allure Homme Sport Eau de Toilette clone, I believe it was called Alpine Homme or something like that. The last one was not my cup of tea, it's a little messy minty-orange with a payload of tonka beans. I forgot about that decant already. Never tried the original though, so it might be decent clone. Tested a decant of "Khamrah | Lattafa / لطافة" and it's solid. Very dense, little synthetic, super sweet. Way to cloying milky-raisiny for me but I certainly get the hype.I like clones. Big part of my collection are at least clone-adjacent scents. I like the affordability. I don't give a darn about presentation and ripping off product designs but it does feels off and cheap. On the other hand I'm not very fond of giant, multi-million holdings plopping fetishes for people to pay crazy amounts of money. I would say I like moderation, but my collection nearing 80 bottles would act as a nice punchline to that joke.

...Lavender123The IFRA regulations have become a kind of conspiracy theory of the fragrance community. "They" want to destroy "us". Why would they want to do that? "Just because they're evil."Regulations are necessary in our modern and highly developed world. Of course regulations are constraining to an extent, but we want to achieve a healthy balance between the creator's freedom, the businessman's profit, and the benefit and safety of the consumer. Would you want a car manufacturer to have unlimited creative freedoms? Or would you rather that he followed the rules of health and safety? Perfumers are already exempt from full disclosure of ingredients, which I'm not comfortable with. Without regulations, creative freedom quickly gets swallowed by the freedom to make as much money as possible.Love me some voice of reason! My thoughts exactly. The IFRA thing is imho kinda overblown. I get the sadness or even being upset over vintage formulations quickly dissapearing from marketplaces and perfumeries but come on. Come oooon. Our paint is also unleaded and we got rid of wonderful asbestos roofs... Also, "The frags are in productions like industry computers - just copy and paste": this could've been said about every 80's fougere powerhouse. Things will get copied/stolen and imitated poorly or improved upon because it just sells. We just happen to live in an era of massive fashion conglomerates that just throw money at R&D and Marketing departments until something sticks. Nonetheless I agree that it seems that they are running out of options and often end up doing very derivative work. That's just my two, little offtopic cents, cheers!

...Sounds like a very personal and subjective thing but this is somewhat relatable. I get this mostly with all the Lattafas, Rasasis and Ard Al Zaafarans. There is ALWAYS some strange and convoluted design process that might not tap into my "western" esthetics and cultural training. It's just...the colors are moslty okay-ish: the ambers for oud-forward frags, green tint of Fattan pour Homme and light iris hue of Daarej pour Homme . Where I scratch my head the most are the shapes. I often can't read them properly or feel like something is off. It's not that my expectations are not met, it's my lack of understanding when I try to connect the dots of branding and design of the bottles.

...Attaquer Le Soleil - Marquis de Sade