In the last part of my fragrances I wrote about my least favourite fragrances, and now I will share which my “current favourite” fragrances are at the moment. I define current fragrances as the ones which are quite new or I have just got, and later I will share my all time favourites which I have.
Here are my current top 5 new favourites which I have.
5. Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb – A mix of a slight musk and fruity smell, but not the usual lemon or lime scent, it has a sort of hint of orange. I have only had this since Christmas 2012, but I do like it.
4. YSL La Nuit De L’Homme – I really like this. It’s a musky kind of smell but not too woody, and is great to wear for night, so it lives up to it’s “la nuit” name.
3. Kokorico by Jean Paul Gaultier – It’s in a cool bottle shaped like a head, and it’s quite a warm type of smell, and I like this a lot.
2. Calvin Klein Encounter – Because of the massive successes of scents like CK:One The Calvin Klein aftershaves seem a little less prestigious than other brands. However Encounter is amazing, I got it recently and I really do like it. Perfect for nights and going out, and could be worn through the day if you want to give your daytime a bit of a kick.
1. Chanel Allure Homme Sport Eau: Extreme – It’s a mouthful to say, but if you have the chance to get this then you should. Just the right mix of spice, woody and musk types of flavours, perfect for your night out.
If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that I love scents, fragrances and all things EDT and in between. I buy quite a few a year, and have collected so many over the years, some which I love, and some I am not too fond of. I would not like to say I don’t like a scent, there are one or two which I just did not like, but most of the time they are simply my “least favourite”, i.e. I like many others more so use these less.
This is part I which has my least favourites, parts II and III you will see my all time faves and current faves which I have only recently got.
So, in reverse order…
10. Gucci Guilty – I first got this and thought it was OK, it was not a bad smell and something different from a fresh or musk smell, so I got it. However I have not used it so much, and it’s nowhere near as nice as Gucci by Gucci or Gucci Envy.
9. Armani Diamond For Men – Quite a fresh and citrus smell, it’s actually decent, but it’s just not something which I wear much.
8. Prada Infusions – A very fresh type of smell, probably best worn in the day, it just didn’t have that stand out smell.
7. D&G Masculine – This has a very pungent tangy scent, very citrus like. I associate masculine with a woody type of smell, this is not that, as you’d expect from it’s yellow/greenish colour.
6. 212 MEN by Carolina Herrera – I got 212 Sexy MEN and I loved it, so I got this. It’s definitely different. Whereas Sexy 212 in the brown bottle i’d wear on a night, this is more of a fresh day time smell.
5. YSL Pour Homme – Again this is a very citrus like smell, and the smell of lemon hits you straight away. As you can see in the image above, I have used very little of this!
4. Juicy Couture Old English – You can see from the name and the colour that this is going to be a woody musky smell; And it is. It’s a little too woody for my liking, but if you like that kind of strong musk smell this would be great for you.
3. Paco Rabanne Ultraviolet MAN – It has the most odd smell, a sort of flower smell. The front is purple, and if purple had a smell, it would be this! 😛 I do love the bottle though.
2. Thierry Mugler A*MEN – I have to say I am disappointed with this. I got a tester and it seemed to be fine, but after using a real bottle I am not a fan. This is one of my newest scents I got for Christmas 2012, but I don’t like it. It has a very tangy smell when you first spray it, but it does tone down later. I think I have to give this more of a try, but I don’t think it will make my top fragrances any time soon.
1. Marc Jacobs – BANG! – We are at the #1 “least favourite” smell, and it’s this. I can describe this in one word: Pepper. It smells so much like pepper, and I have to say it’s probably the only scent I have which I would say I do not like. I bought this without sampling it, and I wish I did because I’d almost certainly not have got it. I got “Bang Bang” the follow-up scent (in the blue bottle) which I actually like, and is a much nicer scent.
I did get some brand new EDT’s and fragrances for Christmas, but I wanted to get some old favourites, but not any old bottles, I wanted the large bottles.
I usually buy 50ml bottles, and I have loads of them, I actually don’t know the number since I got new ones, but its somewhere more than 50. Since I have so many, and I wear different ones, I rarely run out of the same one, even my favourites. I recently bought a large Gucci by Gucci 100ml bottle, and have decided that I will buy my favourites in the larger bottles, to ensure I don’t run out.
Bvlgari MAN is one of my favourites, and I got it a couple of years ago, more or less when it was released. It’s such a really nice smell, and even though I have half a bottle left, I decided to get a large 100ml bottle.
I got Armani Code in about 2005 and loved it. It’s a real evening kind of smell, and when I smell it, it reminds me of going out, probably because I did wear this a lot 😀 It’s one of the few bottles I have which I actually ran out of, and I had not bought a new bottle, so have not had it since about 2007. I never ever got around to buying it again, since I wanted to try new scents, I love it but there are loads more out there. So, years later, I decided that I would re-live the past and get a bottle. Armani Code comes in an even bigger bottle, this is their biggest and is 125ml.
Large bottles do not come cheap, not for these anyway. the 100ml Bvlgari MAN was £58 and the Armani Code 125ml was £65. The girl on the counter said I had expensive taste 😉
Christmas is now over, but one of the things I love about it is that I get a whole load of new EDT’s and fragrances. This year I got 5 new ones which I have not had before, plus a large 100ml bottle of The One by Dolce And Gabbana, a scent I have loved since it came out years ago.
The new ones are Hugo Element by Hugo Boss, Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb, Diesel Only The Brave Tatoo, Calvin Klein Encounter and Thierry Mugler A*Men.
The Hugo Element is definitely the most fresh smelling, and is probably better suited for day wear. The A*Men is my least favourite smell, it’s very citrus-like and smells like it has a tang to it. I really like the CK Encounter, it’s the most woody of these but not too over-powering, a really great smell for the evening. The Diesel is similar, but a bit lighter, and Spicebomb by Viktor and Rolph is also great for evening wear, and has a slight orange type of smell to it.
I love having such a wide range to choose from, but I also think buying big bottles of my favourites is a good way to go, I got a large Gucci by Gucci a few weeks back. After doing research I found many people saying that as long as they are kept well, EDT’s and aftershaves can last for a number of years, so it’s worth getting your favourites in large bottles. I would also hate it if/when they start to discontinue my old faves like they have done with Gucci Envy.
After a good Take Me Out series 4 and a festive celeb Christmas edition, Take Me Out is back on our screens with thirty new girls. You can see the new beauties above, and you will be able to see them on your TV screen on ITV1 this Saturday 5th January at 20:45
30 Single girls aka the flirty thirty get their pick of single guys…Who will be going to the isle of Fernandos this series?
Paddy is back of course, so let the monkey, see the nuts
For Christmas I got an HP Envy 110 printer. I had been looking to get a printer, or even an instant camera like the Fuji Instax or a new style Polaroid. I think that photography has now come full circle; Once we wanted actual photographs, then we were satisfied with superior digital copies to keep on our computers to view, and now I think many more are going back to wanting a couple of actual photos you can touch.
It has been a tradition for, I don’t know how long. This is Fenwick on Northumberland Street in Newcastle, where every Christmas they decorate the windows of their store for the festive season. It’s been going on for years, I remember it when I was a little kid, and the tradition which everyone talks about is still strong today.
I took these pics the other day, and these days they come with the almost customary reflection of Greggs the bakers in the window 😉
I was lucky to take this so early in the morning, walking past an hour later the shot would have had many people in it 😛
I have blogged about gadgets a fair bit, and most of these have featured on my blog at one time or another, but here there are in a boys toys style guide. Christmas is right around the corner, so here are a couple of men’s gadgets for you to consider getting yourself as a treat for this Christmas.
Nintendo Wii U
I’ll start with the newest gadget, in fact it doesn’t come out in the UK until this Friday, 30th November. The Wii U is the next generation console from Nintendo. It features a larger style controller, which is almost tablet like, and you use the touchscreen controller with the standard controls to play the game. Since this has not been released yet, it’s hard to say if it will be as big a hit as the original Wii, but it’s sure to be on many Christmas lists this year.
Tablets Galore!
For the past 2 years we have seen so many tablet computers hit the market. This year we have seen a couple of big players come into the mix and try and give Apple a run for it’s money. The Kindle Fire is a 7″ with a colour screen, 2 options for 8GB or 32GB or memory, and prices are £159 and £199 respectively. If you want a different premium-budget offering the other big player in the game is the Nexus 7 from Google. At only £159 or £199 for the 32GB model it should be considered.
If you have a bit more cash to play with and want something different from a piece of fruit, then Microsoft surface could be for you. Currently the one available is Surface with Windows RT, and starts at £399.
If you want to go for Apple, then the iPad 4 is their latest model, and they now have their iPad mini, the 7″ version. I adore my iPad 2, so I do highly recommend them. I have said this for ages and will continue to do so until things change; The Apple App Store is simply the best at the moment, these devices are all about the apps, so I would always choose the iPad.
Pioneer WeGo
If you are a wannabe DJ or just like music, then this is a cool gadget to get. It’s a DJ controller for your computer/laptop. This basically means it’s an external soundcard, which you plug into your computer via USB, and you can use the jog wheels and various effects/buttons on the device to mix tracks with the supplied software. Lots of fun and great for parties. Only £249 to be a party DJ.
Sounddocks
I have blogged about these recently, and these two are the most stylish and also produce amazing quality. The B&W A7 is a premium sound dock for your iPod/Apple device, and supports Airplay. Being £699 it is not cheap. The Bang And Olufsen Beolit 12 is the most stylish one I have seen, a little less quality but has a rechargeable battery making it very portable, and costs a little less at £599.
Laptop
Windows 8 is out, so it’s the perfect time to get a new laptop. I really like the look of ultrabooks, and the new Samsung Series 9 are really great. I still love a “proper PC”, it’s what I have always used and I still prefer them to Macs, but I do like my Macbook. If you do like a Mac, then there are a large range of Macbook Pros and Airs, all come with that Apple premium of course.
Digital Camera
Everyone is a photographer these days. It helps that DSLR cameras are now a lot less expensive. You can pick up an older Canon 1100D for just over £300 which is very reasonable. If you want something for your pocket, then maybe go for a Canon Powershot, S100 or S110 are very powerful pocket cameras but also come at around £300-£400.
It’s like an old friend! The above pic is from my blog in 2009, where I tried to find some Gucci Envy for men, it is so old and even 3 years ago it was quite hard to find, but I did find some and was over the moon. But now, it’s apparently ‘officially’ been discontinued, so I may never get my beloved scent again 🙁
I first got this at Christmas 2005, despite this fragrance being released in 1998, so wearing it throughout 2006 which was a great time for me. It was quite a crazy time, going out a lot in Newcastle meant I had to wear a scent, and most of the time I would choose this, my favourite. It’s not just the love of the smell, it’s the memories, the good times, Envy could tell so many stories! 😉
If you did not know already I love EDTs, aftershaves and smells, this was the last pic I took of them in March 2011…
Yep, a lot! 😀 Still, my all time favourite has to be Gucci Envy which you can see in the pic above on the right at the front.
I do of course love others, such as Narciso Rodriguez, Gucci by Gucci, Bvlgari MAN, and now Allure Homme Sport Extreme by Chanel. But the vast majority of the above I still really like, so picking one to wear is usually very hard 😛
ANYWAY…
So yesterday I decided that I would try and track down a bottle of Gucci Envy. I only have about half a bottle left, and I rarely use it because I like it so much and know I don’t have much left. My search got me nowhere. Nobody seemed to stock it. After reading a few forums it seems like it has been discontinued, and after searching for hours, could not find a bottle, not for a decent price anyway.
There are some stores abroad which are selling it for over £100 for the 50ml bottle and over £200 for the 100ml, that is terrible! Such a high price, but I do love it.
I decided to email as many of the websites which used to stock it as I could, so I emailed about 20 of them, and the vast majority said they had no stock, and would almost certainly be getting no more stock 🙁
I’ll continue my hunt to see if I can find some at a sensible price from a shop, the search goes on! 😉 If you’re looking for an alternative to this, try checking out my men’s fragrance reviews, where I can recommend something which is similar but obviously not the sadly discontinued Gucci Envy For Men.
A great alternative is Floris Santal. It’s a premium scent which is very close to Gucci Envy for men, but is still a scent on it’s own. Going forward this will be what I use, and is one of my favourite fragrances.
I got my CFR Cluj Shirt! 😀 Why and how did it all start? Well 3 or 4 years ago I decided that I wanted to follow a team in the Champions League, but not just any old team, a team out of the ordinary. I then loved CSKA Moscow, and wanted one of their shirts. After a few years of searching I could not find one, so I pretty much gave up. then they finally got into the Champions League last season, so I re-started my search, and found where I could get one from, all the way from Russia! You can read the rest of the story about how that went.
I also wanted a Cluj shirt from the last time they got to the group stage, 2 or 3 years ago I think it was. Once again that was also really difficult to find a shirt, and in fact I could not. This season CSKA are not in the Champions League (but are currently top of the Russian league so may be next season!!) but Cluj are. They almost upset Man Utd the other week by going 1-0 up, but then losing. They are 2nd in their group. I decided that I would once again follow a team in the Champions League, and tried to find a Cluj shirt…And, as you can see from the first picture above, I did!
It’s slightly different to the Champions League version, the UCL version does not carry the “Energobit” logo, probably due to rules on only one sponsor or something. They do have it printed on their shirts in the Romanian league however.
I am pretty happy I got it, and I will be wearing it next week when the Champions League is on 😛
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