Living far from civilization, help choose a fragrance for buying blind

[vitaly]

Hello to everyone!

I am a newcomer in the world of fragrances, I never really cared about fragrances but I just happened to read a few articles about how important it is to smell great, so I decided to try and find something for myself.

The problem is, I'm living in a fairly remote and small community so I don't have much choice in the local stores, all I can try in the stores is something very common, what everyone wears (dior, gucci etc), and I don't want to smell just like everyone else.

So I decided to go online and buy something blind. I went to this large online shop and just ordered that what had a cool looking name and semeed ok by description and which was not sold retail here.

So I ended up with Paco Rabanne Ultraviolet Man and Kenneth Cole RSVP.
I tried both and I have mixed feelings. Ultraviolet MAn I did like, it's very cool, sweety, sexy and fresh. It's very pleasant to my nose. It screams to be a night-out cologne for me. And I did like it a lot. It doesn't seem like an every day fragrance I think, it's too "seductive".

RSVP on the other hand. It starts great, no doubts, but... after a few hours when it settles down, it starts to smell just like some cheap old man cologne from a discount basement. And worse, after taking sniffs of RSVP (wrists) for a few hours I got a headache. Maybe it's just me and my nose is bad and to others it will smell great.

I will still be trying to "wear in" in RSVP, see how others react to me wearing it (esp. at work). But I want to try something more fresh, less "heavy" and not too old-smelling.

I came here looking for help, considering my inability to go and actually try different fragrances myself, all I have is mail order.

I am 24, I am 220 lbs (100 kg) and 6'3 height (193 cm). I am not overweight, I'm just that - tough. Not very muscular, but "tough" if you get my meaning. People often think I'm 30 years old, not because I look old, but because of my face and girth.
I have a rather manly face - massive square jaw, rugged features, deep-set eyes, so "teeny and young" fragrances are certainly not for me. My hair is light brown and eyes are blue-gray. But I still go to night clubs and I am very young in spirit.

I wear jeans, heavy sneakers and tees with long-sleeved casual shirts in summer and fleece crews and full-zip jacket sweaters with some caterpillar and cabelas boots in winter. I don't dress formal - I hate that kind of clothes.

Please give me a few suggestions as what to buy blind for everyday wear. Something maybe like Ultraviolet by Paco Rabanne, but more on the everyday side.
All I have to say of my preferences is that I like Ultraviolet very much and I am having trouble wearing in RSVP.

I tried reading descriptions of different fragrances, but see.. I liked RSVP's description, but in reality it turned to be something different.

Thank you for your attention.

[Niles]

It's tough to give good recommendations not knowing you well. The best thing would probably be to look around the fragrance directory here and go to a site like scentedmonkey.com and order a few samples and go from there.

[vitaly]

Thanks, Dennard.
Hm, I just thought about different notes and I think I would love to try different blends of marine with a bit of green and woody hints. For some reason search in the directory is not working for me - it returns mysql warnings when I try to do a search by different notes.

If only we could search by themes - like marine, floral, green and their combinations and sorted by their ratings.

[ChickenFreak]

Don't buy blind - order samples and decants. I live in a place where there's a moderate selection of fragrance in the stores, and I _still_ do almost all of my perfume shopping by sending off for samples and decants, and then sending off for bottles after I've tried the fragrance thoroughly.

I realize that the sample-then-buy process takes much longer by mail, and that the samples cost some money, but you can get a lot of samples for the price of even one mistaken bottle.

[adonis]

YSL Rive Gauche. Get the 2.5 oz for $23 http://www.amazon.com/GAUCHE-SAINT-L.../dp/B000C1W71M

http://www.basenotes.net/threads/260...L-Rive-Gauche!

Cool Water for $22 Green, fresh

http://www.target.com/Cool-Water-Dav.../dp/B000MN2GDE

[Mimi Gardenia]

Welcome Vitaly !
I second the idea of small samples or small decants- you discover so many new scents that way - it's also a lot of fun .
( NB.Also ,check out the wardrobes ,sales threads for ideas or a buy ,because the men here, have good taste . )