So i finally stepped into the world of Creed Tonight...

I bless your wallet in the name of the father, son and holy spirit, may it rest in peace, amen. Unless you plan on buying full bottles, a few people do bottle splits for Creeds, GIT being a common one. I wonder what the deal with Aventus is, it seems pretty popular on here...i gotta check this stuff out myself at some point!

Ahhh Neurosis and a Creed? I'd love to hear your thoughts. It's a quieter scent than you might like, but who knows. Women tend to like it- it's the "new kid on the block" and it's fresh and modern. Gets some attention. But it's not a "clubber." There's not enough juice in a bottle to out shout A/Men. SAMPLE first Neurosis. Do not blind buy this.

Jonny19, can't picture you wearing Bois du Portugal but it is a nice elegant scent. So is GIT.

Good for you, Jonny! And if you do get a chance to go to that Creed event, check it out. I went to one and had a great time. It's an easy way to meet other people who are into fragrance. It's also a good time to make a buy.

Totally agreed about BDP - it's a major dress-up frag. I don't normally look the part so I don't wear it as often as I'd like - but I did wear it once on a sweatshirt Saturday, and it smelled most awesome if a bit incongruous on a scruffy person.

bdp is my fav, that is a great choice and git is another great pick. good show.

thats how i felt lol, i usually only deal with creed and everyone goes after me for it lol but cannot help it there is nothing like it.

Glad to hear of your epiphany Jonny19. I think it calls to mind memories for a lot of us.

Creed is a good if not great house, and I've still a lot of their line to explore. However, I do recommend you branch out and explore the other highly regarded niche scents - most houses have a style and there are many that smell just as natural or perhaps moreso than some/most Creeds (really, it's a frag by frag basis: I think GIT smells quite natural while I think SMW smells fairly synthetic, but still rather good!). Do check out Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier, Amouage, Serge Lutens and The Different Company, for starters!

It's a trip - and then a long long fall down the rabbit hole. Enjoy!

edit: oops, double post

Wow, you're really surprised by creed? wait till you try some serge lutens, maitre Parfumeur et gantier, Frapin...and the biggest evil of all of them, amouage! And I'm just talking about quality here, if we get into things that just smell great, but still somewhat synthetic, Montale, Tom Ford...so many...

Creeds are really unimpressive for me, though maybe I need to give them another visit.

You've never smelled anything like Green Irish Tweed? Really? I guess you've never smelled Irish Spring soap - the original lush green hills in the Irish countryside scent.

+1!

Looks like David's got company, hu?
Albeit I can by no means understand the hype that is generated for Creed (and I have tested them all, several times), to me it's just a good Icebreaker to get people into niche

Jonny, just make sure you test other stuff as well/have some money in you wallet left once you're done purchasing creeds

Wise words from SOS. Every house does indeed have a style and for me it has been an education sampling frags from the major players.

My 'drobe is Creed heavy, because the style suits my nose. For example, I find most Lutens to be a bit too "medicinal" for my taste, quality frags though they are. Likewise I find Parfumerie Generale to have a "furry" note that just doesn't agree with me, but that doesn't take away the fact that they are quality fragrances. I detect that note in L'air du Desert Marocain too, and it gives me a slight headache which is a shame because I otherwise adore LDDM.

However, that's just me having found what suits me best. Try them all, and have fun doing so! The only thing I would add is to avoid the "shock factor" scents. There's a reason why the likes of Guerlain have never tried to mix camel dung with tram tickets and bottle the resulting essence. Because it smells foul!

Many of us come to experience their first quality niche frag by sampling or buying Creed it seems to be a lot of peoples introduction to quality scents that are a step up from designer frags. Like you Green Irish Tweed was my first introduction to the world of niche scents and it would be worth checking out the other frags Creed do. Then you will find yourself checking Amouage, Serge Lutens and Fredrick Malle etc.

I'm very happy to see you like this Jonny
For first time that i tried Creed SMW, Sauvage, and Opium i had feeling like you.
Unfortunately i just found SMW in my country, so hardly.

He he.. I know exactly what you are talking about! GIT was the first Creed and niche fragrance I tried, and I had the same experience as you had. I was almost beaten to the floor, and was hypnotized! I had never ever smell a fragrance so fresh and natural. Suddenly I understod the difference between natural and synthetic ingredients. It was GIT that make me intrested in fragrances, and changed my nose into more exlusive fragrances..

Yeah. GIT Got a lot of us.

Back when I tried it, it was for the most part the only niche scent being sold at the retail store level. There are so many choices now.

Pace yourself Jonny.

Well, you have my respect for picking this up so early. It took me two years before I wondered what the hell I'd been thinking about GIT and Cool Water being similar.

BdP, however, for all it's qualities I still think of as a bit of a nothing scent. It smells nice, but doesn't project or make much by way of a statement. I know it's as big a favourite here as GIT, but I don't understand why anyone would put them in the same league.
Renato

LOL!

He's turning into one of us! Bwah-ha-ha!


Nobody has ever said it better! Testify, brother!!!


LMAO


ROTFLMAO

We got a live one, boys! Welcome to Basenotes, Jonny!

I'll keep an open mind and try Creed the next time I'm in NM, but so far I haven't come across anything I'd be willing to pay more than $40 for.


So if it smells like crap, but it's the finest crap from the fens of Leinster that money can buy, you're going to get a bottle of it?

^ Take your time - you'll get it eventually. Stylin' has it right - pace yourself. Hell - I love GIT, and I don't have a bottle yet. GIT ain't goin' nowhere. Don't worry. And when you get it, it'll be all the sweeter!

love your enthusiasm, johnny! Can't wait for you to try some MI and get back here to tell us your impressions! Go on, do it!

Same with me and Shalimar. Boy, it's been two years and the anticipation reached quite disturbing levels. It's due now, give or take two weeks but oh how I'm lusting

I've been waiting on Shalimar, too. A long time. The first time I sniffed it, I was blown away - totally. Since then, I actually got Eau de Shalimar first, because it was more accessible for me. I'm almost ready for the real thing now!

Thanks for this post jonny19, as it brings back memories to when i first admitted how great GIT and BdP were. And those were the first two I acknowledged, the others I kept trying to justify not buying them and finding alternatives or longer lasting versions.

About 5 years ago, after running out of the last bits of a Nautica bottle, I got a craving for some of the first scents I wore (Bowling Green, Polo Sport, Cool Water, and Actif Blue by Brut). I bought all except for the Actif Blue, which I had to google for, which led to my discovery of basenotes thru the directory entry seem here:

http://www.basenotes.net/ID26120260.html


So I quickly lurked thru and did some searches for all my favorites, and was intrigued learning about notes and such. Searching for what it was that I liked in each of my favorites at that point. With the goal of concocting my own 100% organic, alcohol free attar equivalent for use on skin. And in all this searching, I always seemed to run into Creeds, scoffing at the prices for Himalaya and GIT on Fragrancenet.com when i first saw the bottles.

Not much later, I remember clearly when i went to Nieman Marcus and first tested Creed, I was dissapointed by many of them, as I tested almost every masculine/unisex Creed frag the first day, and brought all the tester cards home. I thought many of them were nice, but too short lived, and too expensive.

I also tested many of my favorite designer scents the same day, and many designer scents I was thinking of buying as well. I did the same thing with many tester cards, carrying them out between each finger, not letting them touch, then placing them on a table and letting them dry for several days, smelling them every time I passed it.

I kept smelling them, then several days later, and I really began appreciating the quality of Creed scents, as when smelled side by side, the differences in quality and taste were obvious. i even took extra care to have all the "copies" side by side with their counterpart:

i.e.

GIT / Cool Water
Himalaya / XS
Original Vetiver / Mugler
Millesime Imperial / Unforgivable

I remember GIT and Original Vetiver were the first two I was considering "worthy' of ~$100/4oz bottle (the going eBay price at the time). I thaught that the celebrities listed as wearing those two seemed suitable. Manny Ramirez (cool fellow ganjaman) and "the Rock" (nerd) wearing the very green OV seemed exactly right, and George Clooney & Robert Reford wearing GIT seemed exact. But i was determined to find lesser priced equivalents, and was at this point nearly certain such equivalents existed.

thru all this comparison, I was shocked by how much higher the quality at every single stage. from every angle, was. So I kept testing and testing. Avoiding Creed prices, looking far and wide within the designer ranks, testing thousands of scents within a year or so, still lurking here on basenotes, refusing to buy Creeds, but always returning to test & get freshly saturated cards every few months or so.

I bought and sold what must have been 60-80 different designer bottles on eBay, and kept testing & researching and lurking, finally getting an account. After about 10 months with an account, I finally sprung for my 1st Creed, a 120ml Original Vetiver for like $79.00, feeling stupid for paying so much. But I still own that bottle today, and it's delicious.

I went for a long long time without buying another creed, finally caving for GIT and vintage tabarome in 2007, only to sell the tester of tabarome on eBay in 2008 (doh!)....and I went a long time balking at MI before finally buying it, even longer with Selection Verte, always still trying to find the less costly, longer lasting alternative.

And since, I have acquired quite a few more creeds. I did a tally and I currently have purchased 5240ml of Creed fragrance LOL.

I feel you jonny, lol, it's almost like this:

But keep in mind like the others said, that there are many other high qaulity houses out there. Maitre being my 2nd favorite house behind creed. Hermes even makes some all-time greats at designer prices. And vice versa there are some niche houses that are really overpriced swill.

But my advice is to slow down, and test everything more and more prior to purchasing anything, as GIT and BdP aren't going anywhere, they will always be around for you.

Jonny is in a dangerous place. He has just discovered his love of scents and Basenotes keeps throwing things out at you faster than you can say "charge it."

Been there.

Haha true.
I'm glad I don't use my credit cards unless I have to use paypal or a credit card online. Jonny!, don't charge anything! Always pay cash from day one!
!!!


!

WORD.

Yup, be wise with the money, this perfume stuff is dangerous. It all starts back behind the school gym when your friend gives you some Mitsuoko from his grandmother's "medicinal" stash . . . .next thing you know you are waking up in Vegas surrounded by empty bottles of vintage Tabac Blond, trying to remember how you got there and then you hit rock bottom, doing anything for that next hit of Bandit EDT, ANYTHING!!!

. . . er, or so I'm told.

Congratulations and welcome to the world of Creed.....Gary

Egad. If you throw your shoes into the washer immediately you still might be able to save them.

I see you got the niche bug. You better hide your wallet, because its all downhill (in a good way) from here.

My first niche was Silver Mountain Water. I thought it was good, but not outstanding. Soon after I bought a bottle of L'Artisan's Voleur de Roses and this one blew my mind. Now here I am, over 300 fragrances later!

If I were you I would sample, sample, sample... But do so at a pace that is comfortable for you.
You can get niche samples from www.luckyscent.com and www.aedes.com

I highly recommend trying Lorenzo Villoresi's Piper Nigrum.
This is another one that blew me away. Its almost (not in a bad way) shocking the first time you smell it.
http://lafcony.com/Merchant2/merchan...t_Code=P151023

As SoS stated above, its a fun trip down the rabbit hole. By the sounds of it, you are going to enjoy it immensely.

Oh yeah. Welcome to Basenotes. You will find many great and knowledgeable enablers...um I mean people here.

Classic!

I rather feel the same way about comparisons between Himalaya and XS.

BTW, I could care less if Creed claims that Abraham Lincoln wore Vintage Tabarome, or that BdP was commissioned by Robert E. Lee.
Yes their marketing is sometimes outrageous, and --to me at least, unintentionally funny. So?

In any case, I hope you get samples of Baie de Genièvre, Royal English Leather, Acier Aluminium, Himalaya, Erolfa, etc.

I stress samples. However should you go berserk and start ordering Creeds left and right without trying them first, not to worry. I know some good bankruptcy attorneys.


Creed is my favorite house by default.

Looking at the other contenders:

Serge Lutens?-- Fruitcake honey schtick. Or fruitcake honey schtick with ' arabian spices' to make you forget it's honeyed fruitcake. Ah! to be a genius in France!

Montale? After Black Aoud and Blue Amber my trapezius got tired from shrugging.

MPG? Centaure was painfully forgettable. Santal Noble was great. I guess I'm going to have to try the reformulation to see of it's as bad--or good as they say it is . . .

Amouage I can't be fair to this house, having suffered through Amouage Gold.
On a first date, no less. No wonder I got involved with her! I figured if she could put up with that crap during dinner . . .

Villaresi? The ones I've tried have been almost great. Will try more; but for now I'd rather sit at the head of the table in the castle with Blenheim Bouquet than sit in the kitchen with Piper Nigrum. (Gesundheit!)

Tom Ford?--The one line that makes me understand how otherwise reasonable BNers become rabid Creed haters. It's overpriced, quite popular among the high end sophisticates--and has piss-poor construction.
( Tobacco Vanille? The new Pi? )
Of course Tabac Aurea by Sonoma is a masterpiece compared with TV. but it doesn't smell anything like sweet, unsmoked pipe tobacco!
Well, neither does TV but it's--almost close.

Diptyque? Unisex potted plants. Get in touch with your feminine chlorophyll side.

*****************************************


Bottom line: Whatever makes you happy!

Yes, even if it's a Creed.

Cheers,

Mario

^ Too true Mario. Bottom line indeed.

I agree, she had to be a keeper if she put up with Amouage Gold.

Piper Negrum. Gesundheit indeed! I thought it was just me.

Mario.. You can`t judge Amouage after you tried Gold. I don`t like it eighter, but most of the scents from this house are excellent stuff! It`s the oposite of Creed. Strong, heavy, dense, with ultra strong sillage/longevity. Amouage and Creed are my favourite niche-companies. Their style is so different, that`s worth checking out both.

I would choose Amouage Jubilation though over the new Creed Aventus any day though its a nice scent just not a great one imo.

Is that supposed to be Satan?

Just kidding.

Mario, I'd love to read a sequel to your gracious appraisements :-). So hilarious!

Following Mario's lead, I would add;

L'artisan - You smell nice today, Grandma.