Smells Expensive but Isn't

I guess that would be YSL Rive Gauche, YSL Body Kouros, YSL Kouros, YSL Opium and Escada Pour Homme.

Society Yachting Men - similar to some of the popular marine scents but very cheap.

Passion for Men (Elizabeth Taylor)

Swiss Army - very affordable clean/fresh scent

Grey Flannel (Beene) - formal evening stuff - very cheap right now

Best regards,

Mike

Mighty nice and at a low price: Romeo Gigli


Dan

Unforgivable...smells like Creed MI, or close enough. Any Guerlain has that sophisticated, pricey smell too.

The entire YSL men's fragrances (I havent tried any of their womens).

They are criminally underpriced (non-retail that is). I will never be without M7, Live Jazz, etc. Kouros I can be without

Dior Homme is another recent one which is on par with anything out there.

Carven Homme
Rochas Lui
Heritage EDT

I agree with all the Guerlains, but strongly disagree with YSL suggestions. They do not smell expensive, if anything the opposite. But I still like them...

I'd say YSL M7 exudes class. I'd also say Bvlgari Black smells more expensive than it really is, just because of its uniqueness.

The Caron men's scents:

Third Man
L'Anarchiste
Yatagan

All full of character, all smell of quality, and all are available at very reasonable prices online!

The most obvious one is Carven Homme. But the availability of Geurlain Héritage, Habit Rouge, Imperiale Eau de Cologne and Mitsouko, discounted on line, make them the classiest bargains in the U.S. I often wonder if Guerlain is so readily available at such steep discounts elsewhere in the world?

Derrick by Orlane .... very nice price & compliments

I vote for...
-Gucci Envy
-Dior Homme
-Lacoste PH (silver bottle)(haven't tried Lacoste Elegance yet)
-Platinum Egoiste
-Relax by Davidoff

Monsieur Musk (except right out of the bottle, a little bit of alcohol smell there) - you can get it for about $9 at a drugstore

Agree regarding Carven Homme, that is usually a bargain. So was Carven Vetiver - the juice before the current release. I thought that was aristocratic smelling, but the sprayer was pathetically weak and the siliage was lacking. Beautiful anyhow.

Worth PH

Royall Spyce - on me this is JHL light

Royall Lyme - fantastic duration for a lime on me with an elegant sometimes barbershop-like drydown

possibly ... Royal Copenhagen

Great topic!

Paul Smith London - long lasting, boozy woody. Smells like $$ and class galore!

Baldessarini - the original one.

Hugh Parsons - Traditional and 99 Regent Street.

Dunhill Edition

Cacharel Nemo - Visit's classier older brother.

Caron PuH
Guerlain Vetiver
Guerlain Heritage
Capucci PH
YSL Kouros
Gucci Envy
Havana

I have to go along with those that said YSL scents. Opium is one of my favorite scents, smells fantastic (to me), and can bought for under $20 at discount stores.

Gucci Envy and Rush (but rush is discontinued). I would assume the other gucci fragrances, but i haven't tried them.
I disagree with swiss army though, it smells pretty cheap to me.

Yes..although Swiss Army smells pleasant..its nothing that screams class. It reminds me of a strong axe body spray or something.

It smells very sharp/alcoholy even thorugh the dry down which makes me feel like its cheap...

I don't mind wearing it. Nice longevity, and its clean. I just wouldn't wear it when i must dress up. I'd rather reach for Platinum (have NOT seen this discounted) ,Issey (have NOT seen this discounted), or Bulgari PH (can be found at TJ Maxx...so maybe this fits the topic)

ah yes, PH should be added onto the Gucci list too if you're talking about class. Smells very expensive yet I bought a gift set of the stuff for $25. I love Marshalls...

M7 comes across as being a very classy, deep scent exuding richness. I got mine for $16 if that shows how cheaply it can be gotten.

I really have to disagree with all the YSL recommendations - not because I don't like them - I do like most YSL fragrances alot, but for me the difference between something that smells "expensive" vs something that smells like synthetic designer is what happens to it after a few hours.

After a few hours any YSL scent I ever tried, except for Opium EDP turn into disgusting broken down chemical garbage. Same with Givenchy. Same with Davidoffs. This includes some of my very favourites like Xeryus Rouge. The only designer houses that don't turn to crap, that I've tried anyway, are Guerlain, Bvlgari and Hermes.

If you want something that smells like a niche house fragrance - i.e. smells "natural" and evolves over the hours instead of degenerating into muck, try:

Guerlain's Vetiver - totally amazing - get a 4.2oz bottle for $30

Bvlgari Thé series - Vert, Blanc, Rouge - especially the Red one - wow You can ger the Green very cheap - I paid $25 for a 5oz bottle! The other two are less cheap, but still not bad at all Red is the most expensive at $50 for 100mL on ebay, testers cheaper.

Hermes - Jardin en Mediterranée, Equipage or Terre, not super cheap, but you can get good deals on ebay. I think Phantagrow has some Equipage for sale here on basenotes for like $35. I few other people have it as well if I remember from when I was looking for it - check out the sale section. Each of those three is totally different, all great stuff.

Vetiver Hombre - Aldolfo Dominguez.....WOW, this stuff smells so classy and you can get it for approx. 35. It is widely available in spain, but probably a bit harder to pick up outside spain. Worth every effort though !

Pino Sylvestre. You can get this very cheaply and to me it smells very elegant , classy and masculine.

Fishbone, (awful name and ugly bottle) , but this stuff smells like a million dollars !
It´s an orange cardamome mixture and I always get comliments when I wear it.
If you can´t get hold of it I can sell you a bottle for 18 + shipping, or I can swap it.
Fantastic stuff, practically unheard of and therefore underrated, and sadly no longer in production.

Your observations on the "synthetic, chemical garbage" quality of most designer fragrances has really struck a chord with me. I've begun to rid my collection of them. If I can't detect any individual notes going on or any note evolution, I feel as if I'm wearing the equivalent of noise.

I hear you brother Ruggles!

It's not so much about the lack of evolution though, but more about "devolution" - if they just smelled the same from start to finish that wouldn't bother me too much - it's just as they start to fade away, they also start to get gross and "decompose" and get plain ugly.

Andd it isn't that I don't like the basenotes. For example, a lot of niche fragrances have cedar in the base, and I only really like cedar when it's buried under something else - Serge Lutens Cedre is a good example, it's main notes are Tuberose and Cedar, and when the tuberose is gone, and other elements you're left with cedar. I'm not a big fan of the solo cedar leftovers, but although I don't like it, it still smells like quality - it doesn't smell like gross cheap synthetic decomposing garbage the way so many designer fragrances do - from Opium EDT, to Body Kouros to Kouros, to Cool Water Deep and so on and so on.

Xeryus rouge starts out *amazing* and then it transforms into something more cedary, but equally amazing, and then after several hours it just turns to rubbish.

I'm also finding myself liquidating most of my designers, even the ones I like. Now that I have several quality niches or higher quality designer fragrances liek Hermes and Bvlgari, I can't tolerate how they decompose anymore.

I second the above recommendations:

Vetiver by Guerlain
Rush or Envy by Gucci

Opium homme EDP and M7 smell far more natural to my nose than something like Vetiver Guerlain (which smells a bit harsh nowadays)

Dior Homme
Guerlain Heritage
Chanel Pour Monsieur Concentree

Carven Homme
Lomani Ignition

I have very limited experience with niche fragrances, so I can't really judge. And I do know that a lot of colognes evolve into very synthetic / harsh smelling things.

But Kouros? Its got that oily, dusty, dirty dry down that smells so natural to me. I find it so intoxicating and beautiful.

Relax by Davidoff also has a beautiful evolution.

Surely you cant say those two smell so bad after a while.

I find Kouros Kouros still develops on me easily after eight hours since applying.

I haven't tried Relax by Davidoff (it isn't available here!) but Kouros does get ugly on me after a really nice opening and decent middle. Maybe it's supposed to do that! I don't know, it's too late now I sold my bottle!

Zino by Davidoff doesn't get so ugly though. I was mostly referring to the cool water series which I really like, especially Deep, but that I got fed up with because of how they broke down over time.