suggestions for frags...

i've been wet shaving for years. love the hobby and everything about it. but i've always found frags too overpowering. that was until a friend just sent me a decant of creed royal oud. i love it. any suggestions on other frags from creed? is this an indication of the quality of creed? other makers? anyone have decants i can buy so i can try?

thanks!

my favorite creed would be Creed Original Vetiver followed by Aventus.

you can try buying samples from fragrancex.com, notino.com etc.

But I don't know much about frags, others can give better suggestions.

I'm a Creed fan too but I enjoy some other less expensive fragrances as well. Some of my favorites besides Creed are Polo Blue, EAU Sauvage, various EDTs by Diptyque, and a couple by Nautica.

This is a *very* slippery slope.
Creed is a premium brand, and excellent. But there are so many fantastic fragrances you could almost wear a different one each day for the rest of your life and not exhaust them all. So, I would recommend each time you go into Nordstrom, Neiman's, Sephora, etc., try one. Really get a feel for what you like. Also, check out Basenotes--it is a great resource for information and reviews.

Creed Green Irish Tweed has to be the classic corp exec scent. Favour classics: AdP Coloni, Dominican Bay Rhum, Pens BB&c Two readily available scents have stuck with over years have been Hermes original Vert and AcquadSelva

Scent, as we know, is as YMMV as it gets. You like Royal Oud, that much we know, and that you prefer unobtrusive scents. If you want to fall into another rabbit hole and do it thoroughly, you could start out with looking at the various classes of fragrances and then test typical specimens of each. Plenty of such classification schemes, but you could start with http://www.fragrancesoftheworld.com/FragranceWheel

Or you could start from Royal Oud on https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Cree...12317.html You’ll see that it’s classified as an Oriental Fougere by Fragrantica (top right). Click it to see other fragrances within that category. Some would say you should rather try other classes, to get a spread in your scents, thus start with other oriental classes or other Fougere classes.

Also on Fragrantica, scroll down to see what other fragrances have been deemed similar by users (with which one may agree or disagree, obviously), in this case Intense Black by Lomani and Fougere e Legni by Pal Zileri. Very often the reviews further down also present comparisons and similarities with other scents.

If you already know a few fragrances that you like, have a look at Leffingwell’s mapping of fragrances in http://www.leffingwell.com/h%26rfragranc...sculin.pdf Sadly not up to date with the more recent fragrances but still worth a look.

I've always thought that these people who write in-depth frag reviews should try their hand at being a sommelier. Blows me away the detail and depth some some noses can pick up, it actually makes me jealous.

If you enjoy Royal Oud, I'd suggest checking out Tom Ford's Oud Wood. It's a similar style while being a bit more wearable in casual situations. It's one of my go to scents.

There are tons of frag houses to check out. Generally niche houses, like Creed, are going to have that high quality smell to them, and the price tag to match. And designer houses (Dior, Chanel, Paco Rabanne) will smell a bit more synthetic in comparison. But most non-frag heads won't be able to tell much difference other than "it smells good" or not. They all have good stuff to offer IMO.

There are also some newcomers that are relatively unknown coming out mainly through online storefronts. Places like Phlur, Imaginary Authors and Zoologist. These guys offer small sample sizes direct from their website, and usually give you a discount on a full bottle after buying a sample.

Like others have suggested, I think the best way to figure out what you like is to smell all the things. Just get some decants and samples and go to town.  Places like decant shop and notino are good. And there are forums that do splits of large volumes of fragrances. These usually offer the best prices since the guys splitting in there aren't necessarily doing it to make money.

Another option you may want to consider is a subscription plan like Scentbird. They send you a 30 day supply of a designer fragrance each month based on your preferences for a set monthly fee.

Whichever direction you choose, enjoy your olfactory journey. It's a fun ride.

Another option you may want to consider is a subscription plan like [Scentbird](https://www.scentbird.com/).

Someone here uses reddit a lot

Another option you may want to consider is a subscription plan like [Scentbird](https://www.scentbird.com/).

Someone here uses reddit a lot

Haha, yeah I do get quite a few splits there. But I actually found out about Scentbird on the redolessence youtube channel a while back.