The CREED saga...

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Ahh... Those Creeds!

Agreed hednic, I am trying not to become a niche whore except for my Guerlains.

Keep up the sampling and lets us all know which one you really like above the others.

I would def take Himalaya over SMW! Let the debate begin...

You're asking if SMW Is worth 200 or 250 dollars or whatever it is off the shelf?

In strictly material terms I doubt it's worth a tenth of that, but then I'd say the same of Guerlain's I've spent up to twice that on. I have no doubt there's BNers who would have bought SMW had it cost $500. Everyone needs to make their own value judgement. I find SMW too cologne-y (as in eaux) and ho-hum. The sort of thing I'd use to freshen up after going for a jog. Not a gorgeous fragrance to surround myself with all day. That's me though.

Personally I will only buy Creed stuff from Modnique (a very trustworthy designer sale sight) when they have niche sales (not very often) as they sell 8.4 ounce bottles (I find the other Creed bottles ugly) for around $200. This is actually very good value for almost any niche fragrance, less than a dollar per ml. Plus I buy a fair bit from Modnique so I usually have some good coupons and vouchers lying around and can get such bottles for $180 or so which is just a steal. In other words if price is an issue you can usually find a discount if you look hard enough especially if it's not a brand new scent. Now many will say that you'll get fakes and so on, but really you just need to look into whoever you're buying it off. One way to be safe is only buy from places that allow returns and keep a sample handy to do a comparison with. If you're not satisfied with the authenticity return it.

Another option is splits and decants. This is especially good if you're just starting to explore. Rarely does it make sense to buy a big bottle unless you're crazy about the fragrance, and it has passed the test of time without you getting bored. It would be terrible to spend hundreds on a big 4.2 ounce Creed and find after a hundred or so sprays that you're bored of it. Hence the beauty of buying 30-50mls of the same scent.

Do think about it. Niche fragrances are not something you must buy. I've been into fragrances all my life and never even knew what niche was until I came online. So for me I didn't draw any kind of distinction between say Guerlain and Chanel. These two were just two high-end houses to me. I don't consider niche to be more special. Even now after a number of decades of collecting I still buy more designer, designer exclusive and vintage than I do niche.

However I will say Creed is probably also the least representative of niche brands. They don't seem to really be about scents which would only appeal to a small minority seeking a very particular and unusual kind of scent, or at the very least those are not the scents which have a big presence on BN and elsewhere.

I don't think any Creed is not worth at least a sample. If I had unlimited funds, at least ten would be in my collection.

A Creed must sample list has got to include, at the very least, Aventus, Green Irish Tweed, Millesime Imperial, Silver Mountain Water, Bois du Portugal, and Virgin Island Water. After those, to me (again, not in order of preference, just in order of sample necessity), would come Erolfa, Himalaya, and Royal Oud. And that still leaves loads and loads of Creeds that are various BNers' favorites. And I'll bet I'm missing one or two really popular ones.

Damn those production variations, though! And consistently regular-fitting caps would be nice, at the prices Creed charges.

Personally my favourite Creed scent is Tuberose Indiana, but that could just be the afterglow of a good buy. I'm a pretty big tuberose whore though. Original Vetiver is good but I wouldn't pay Creed money for it. I've got loads of Vetivers already. GiT is was nice to step into out of the shower but I ended up giving it away because I just found it wasn't remarkable enough to use the whole bottle. I'd probably buy a big bottle of Royal Water if I got better longevity from it because I dig the femenine vibe, and I might grab it with a coupon if it ever comes up on Modnique, but one I really, really like which a wonderful friend bought me for an auspicious birthday is the old Tabarome.

I've sampled a few batches of Aventus and was toying with the idea of buying a 50ml decant from Ebay (same batch as one of my samples, and seemed good) but I ended up getting something else. I always end up getting something else when it comes to the really popular stuff. I guess some part of me just really wants to find my own way.

Before you spend a bunch of money on Creeds, I'd suggest that you sample several niche houses. I find Creed to be one of the least interesting of the niches, and would value them at a much lower price than they sell for. I'm not saying that you will agree - you might love them and consider them a bargain at twice the price. But it would be upsetting for you to spend a lot of money and then learn that you prefer something else.

I have samples of Original Santal, Himalaya, Millesime Imperial, Silver Mountain Water, and Aventus.
Funny story; my sample of Aventus came empty...the vile contained no juice. However, I could still smell it.
Anyhow, none are worth the purchase in my opinion.

So many of them smell like slight variations of themselves.

Really the only ones that are standouts are GIT, fresh/luxurious/masculine....

And Royal Oud. Spicey roundhouse to the face. This one definitely has the most balls out the mostly unisexy lineup.

Um, it isn't aqua at all, nor is it feminine to me in the slightest. It's smoky and woodsy. Also, you may not smell anything because Aventus is known to play tricks on the wearers nose. It will still be projecting and able to be smelled by those around you, even if you can't smell it without lifting your shirt or smelling your arm. You may want to give it a few more wearings before you proclaim stuff like that. For the record I think SMW is a borderline feminine scent on my skin.

I didn't mean to come off as assertive, I just wanted to share my experiences with you is all. I just don't find it aquatic, since I personally hate those scents. Perhaps the batch you have is very different from mine. As for the price thing, it really makes no difference. You essentially pay for the name more than anything, since it only costs them a few dollars to make in raw ingredients. If you are new to fragrances, it may not be best to dive right into the expensive stuff, since some of the subtleties can be lost on an inexperienced nose. I've been at it for many months, and I still find myself a novice, but I've trained my nose pretty well now and can pick out certain notes and can see why, for example, Himalaya from Creed is better than Black XS from PR.

Are your samples sprays or the small vials? To me, the vial samples only give you a chapter while 2 or three sprays from a bottle gives you the full story. I say this because it is just my experience with samples not revealing what a bottle spray does. SMW lasts on my clothing from days to a week and even longer.

Yep; except for a few rare fragrances where the ingredients actually cost a significant amount, I generally consider the price of a fragrance to be the ransom that I'm willing to pay for the experience. The more glorious, unique, weird, and unduplicatable-by-another-fragrance, the more I'm willing to pay.

That's why, _for me_, Creeds aren't worth the money - they're just not weird enough. For all I know, they could be the ultimate incarnation of the gentlemanly/ladylike civilized fragrances that they are, but I don't care about gentlemanly/ladylike civilized fragrances. (Well, I do care about a few, but they're usually the ones that seem to be laughing at their own refinement.)

True, and to each their own. I (as of tomorrow) will own three Creeds that are not splits, and I like them because they do their jobs very well for what they are meant to do. For example, I find MI to be the best summer fragrance around, and it's very unique (outside of some Sean John's that tried to replicate it). Same thing with GIT. There is Cool Water for much of the effect, but I like the way GIT smells better, and it's one of the most versatile frags around.

I just received my first ever Aventus purchase yesterday. I bought a 50ml split from the split forum here at BN.

I had never smelled it before yesterday. I had never even heard of Creed until a couple weeks ago until I joined BN.

When I first put it on(two sprays to my neck and one to my right wrist) the notes were very wonderfully unique and I could smell it nicely in the air for about an hour(my wrist was smelling nice and strong though). After an hour or so, I noticed that I wasn't smelling it at all except on my wrist when I put it to my nose. I thought to myself that this sure didn't last long. BUT all day long Aventus came back to life and I would catch a wonderful whiff of it in the air every time I moved around throughout my office.

This stuff lasted very nicely for 24 hours(until I took a shower the following morning) with these on again and off again whiffs of the fragrance and I'm not talking about me putting my wrist to my nose to smell it. I woke up 24 hours later and my right wrist was away from my head about two feet and as I was laying there trying to wake up I could still smell this wonderful fragrance.

I like this so much that I put my order in for another 50ml split. My two 50ml splits will end up costing me a total of $141. I think that's a deal in light of what retail is (even at the discount websites).

What people say about Aventus and not being able to smell it shortly after applying it and then it coming back to life is absolutely true.

TLS, good luck on your sample testing!

what about complements?

Just stay the hell away from Creed. Their dogshit quality control will make you crazy as you try to find a "good" batch.

I must have gotten lucky on my first split of Aventus. It smells good and strong and lasts quite awhile. Not as much as A-Men or their flankers like Pure Malt, but it sure lasts a lot longer than that Terre D'Hermes parfum I just bought which may last about an hour on me.

I just ran out of Terre D'hermes EDT a few weeks ago. I had purchased that bottle several years ago and then misplaced it for quite awhile and then found it in a box. It was one of my favorite fragrances to wear. It easily lasted for at least 16-24 hours. I got so many compliments from it. When I ran out, I went to Nordstrom and bought a new bottle of it. The new bottle was almost like putting on water.....No lasting power at all on me. I returned it immediately and then bought the parfum. To me, that wasn't a whole lot better in terms of power than the EDT. No one can smell it on me. It's one of the few times in my life that I feel like I completely wasted my money on a fragrance. I also bought Hermes Voyage parfum around the same time and it lasts at least 16 hours on me. I, and people around me, can smell it all day when I wear it.

^ translation: bah humbug!

just got a batch of creed samples.
first one i tried today was GIT.

My word! What a scent, 4 hours later i can still smell the scent on me! I was surprised how feminine it was, not overly just a nice waft.
This was my first time trying a niche fragrance. Btw it smell nothing like cool water! How anyone can come up with such a comparison is crazy!!

This is a very mature, classy scent. I wore it on a 38 degree day and it made me feel rich, happy and very dapper.

Can't wait to try the others, starting with aventus!

edit: its come to my attention why this smells feminine to me, its because it feels like you have this absolutely beautiful brunette walking beside you all the time!!
I love this soooo much. Going to buy a full bottle as soon as i can.

I rather enjoyed SMW. Very pleasant.

Windsor is magnificent... I have the 2011 and it makes me wonderfully happy.

It's hard to believe that Creed has such consistency problems from batch to batch with their fragrances. It seems that their apparent lack of ability to consistently manufacture the same fragrance is what's creating so much dissension between the lovers and haters of this company's juices.

The idea that this is allowed to happen by a company with such an expensive product is perplexing.

It's not like they try to make them different. The reason there are variations is that the ingredients they use are not always exactly the same due to them being "natural" (read into that whatever you want, they are all synthetics). Still, I think the batch variation this is EXTREMELY overplayed in the fragrance community. Sure, Aventus had some issues, but for the last year now it's been fine, same with most of the other Creeds out there.

Thanks for the feedback on this, OV.

When I first thought about ordering my first Creed product (Aventus) a couple weeks ago through BN's split forum, I had real reservations about putting my money out there after reading all the negative comments about "bad" batches and "good" batches. I'm glad I did it. I really like what I got.

I'm watching TLS' reaction to the samples he's using for possible future Creeds I may try.