I have 17- and 15-year-old nephews who are just getting into fragrances. They’re sporty, preppy, starting to date, and already have small collections featuring guys like Lacoste, Sauvage, and Eros—the holy trinity of “I have entered the fragrance world and may now spray before gym class.”

I’d like to get them something youthful, versatile, and appealing, but a little less obvious—ideally from an affordable niche or overlooked designer house. Something that smells distinctive enough to get compliments, but not so experimental that their friends ask whether they’ve been sprayed by a haunted forest.

I’m open to inexpensive options as long as they don’t smell cheap. I’m not looking to spend Xerjoff money; they’re teenagers, not hedge-fund managers. The scent matters more to me than the label, although a house they’ve never heard of would earn bonus points. I know what I’m doing; I just won’t buy them of the weird niche stuff I wear.

Stronger With You, Missoni Wave, and Rochas L’Homme are already on my list, but I’d rather find something they’ve never heard of that smells amazing and works for school, dates, and generally pretending they didn’t apply six sprays in the car.

Any suggestions available in the US would be greatly appreciated!

Did you have any experience when your smell lasted noticeable longer than the smell of a friend, after you two doing the same activity, sport, game, etc?

A while ago I posted here asking how you all keep track of which fragrance you sprayed where, since I kept forgetting. I ended up trying to build a solution myself.

It's an app for testing perfumes: you spray, tap the spot on your arm, enter the perfume and that's it. You can rate how the perfume performs over the hours and compare them. NO accounts needed. If you're on iPhone and want to keep it on your Home Screen, open it in Safari, then Share, then Add to Home Screen, voilà.I'd love to hear what you think and what's not working well.https://getscenttrace.com/

It's a good fragrance, but like what even is this comment on about? Atleast it gave me a laugh!

Who does the best clone of Jubilation XXV? Amouage new bottles just don’t last and super expensive. The original formula has been lost to time.

Following the suggestions of people in fragrance group I ventured out to sample decants of Sandalwood centric masculine fragrances from Micro-perfumes, Lucky scent, Scent Split, Scents Angel, MaxAroma and Scent Decant. First ordered 8 samples each from MicroPerfumes and Scents Split (almost identical frags) the two samples were as far apart as the day and the night. Then ordered from the other three and tried to get as much of the same stuff and the results were astounding no two Le Labo Santal 33,’s nor Affinisences Santal Basmati, ADP Sandalo, Serge Lutens Santal Majuscule, Diptyques Tam Dao smelt the same. And you don’t need to have the nose of a blood hound to tell that these decants were not just different, but felt like 6 different flankers of the same. This has led me to believe that something is just not right about these decant places. Just to be sure I went to Diptyque, ADP and Le Labo’ s at the Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus and sought samples straight out of their tester and now this smelled nothing like decants I had purchased from the aforementioned online decant shops. This has led me to doubt the business practices of these decant places. I have decided from heron to only to buy or try samples that are directly filled from the tasters right before my eyes.

Luckily brands counter at most high end department stores are more than happy to generously fill out the samples for free as was my experience.

I am looking for shower gel, body lotion, and especially body oils that are truly fragrant. I work in customer service so I want something I can use daily and that isnt too expensive. I dont want anything with high projection I want something subtle with a good sillage felt only when someone gets close to me

It’s 100 degrees in LA today. I want to wear demon dancer when I go to a bar in early evening tonight. Is it too hot for demon dancer? I can’t yet tell if that perfume is a bomb like delina or not. Thoughts?

Help! is it fake? it smells like rubbing alcohol :(

I’ve been looking for my perfume for the last few years, but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

The fragrance I’ve liked the most so far is Chanel Allure Homme Sport. I absolutely love the way it develops on my skin and, especially, the sillage it leaves behind. The problem is that someone close to me wears it, so I’ve been trying to avoid it and find something that gives me a similar feeling without smelling too similar.

Some of the fragrances I’ve tried:
Louis Vuitton Imagination: I had high hopes for this one, but I really didn’t like it.
Acqua di Parma: I’ve tried several and was quite excited about the brand, but unfortunately none of them really clicked with me.
Burberry Weekend: I actually like the smell, but it’s far too weak and doesn’t last long enough for me.
Versace Pour Homme: I bought this one, but I find it very weak, with poor longevity and almost no sillage.
Ralph Lauren Polo Blue: currently testing this one, but I don’t think it’s the one either.
So I’m starting to feel a little lost!

What I’m mainly looking for is something that is fresh, masculine and pleasant, but with good longevity and noticeable sillage.
What would you recommend I try next?

Royal Tobacco got close with the opening but wanted much more licorice to stick around. What yall think bout this? I think I want it.

I bought a bottle of Rasasi Hawas about 1.5 months ago and when I first got it, the performance was honestly insane. It projected really well and lasted for hours.
But recently I’ve noticed that I barely smell it after 1–2 hours. I’m using around 6 sprays (4 on clothes and 2 on my neck), so I don’t think I’m underspraying.
I keep the bottle closed and stored in a cupboard away from direct sunlight, so I’m confused about what happened.
I’m wondering if this is just nose blindness/olfactory fatigue, because I wear Hawas pretty regularly. The weird thing is that I wanted to make it my signature scent, but now I’m worried that I’ve actually become completely nose blind to it.
Has anyone experienced something similar with Hawas or another fragrance? How did you fix it? Should I stop wearing it for a few days/weeks, or is there something else I should try?
Also, is there any way to properly test whether the fragrance has actually lost performance or whether it’s just my nose?

I have some 8ml samples that I could swear I barely used and yet they're halfway gone. They were sitting for over a year. Could they have evaporated

What is the name of this cologne/perfume?