Recommend classic decants for educating a newbie about fragrance

As a starting point for educating myself in fragrances I would like to assemble a basic "education pack" of decants. One decant from each of the major fragrance groups ---- aquatic , fougere, oud, gourmand , citrus , sandalwood , leather , tobacco , rose , vanilla , oriental , etc .

(1) What basic fragrance groups should be included ?

(2) What fragrance in each group would be most representative of the entire group ? (I assume this would lean toward classic fragrances rather than newer fragrances)

Organizing the groups as simply as possible as a starting point , I would assume aquatic and citrus could be placed together into a broader group (perhaps "light , fresh , youthful") while leather and tobacco could be placed together into another broader group (perhaps "heavy , serious , mature").

The shorter term goal in smelling the decants is to determine the one or two groups which are personally most pleasing , then the later long term goal is to explore more deeply into this subset of groups with later education packs, perhaps "vetiver education pack", or "oud education pack", etc.

The main point is to begin as widely opposed as possible so a new nose can easily notice the difference then with experience later explore the subdivisions within a personally favored group.

this sounds like a good idea. I'm interested to hear what people say. If it's not already available it might make a good sample pack for one of the vendors that do decants...like a letterk blade pack heheh.

I suggest going to the counter and going through each scent they offer. Talk with the SA and "impress" them with your knowledge of the industry. I think this is the most fun technique to use.

I spend between 1 - 2 hours perusing the different scent offerings... having spent time here at B&B only helps to focuss my efforts.

Cool idea! Well... I'll throw a few out, but I'm sort of on the new end of things myself.

Fougere: Penhaligon's English Fern or YSL Rive Gauche Pour Homme

Leather: Trumper's Spanish Leather

Oriental: Guerlain Shalimar

Chypre: Guerlain Mitsouko

Aquatic: Davidoff Cool Water or Armani Acqua di Gio

Oud: Montale Black Aoud

Vetiver: Guerlain Vetiver

Those would be an ok start!

In theory your idea sounds good, however, there are a few things I must point out.

1. Suggestions will be all over the map in terms of which frags represent well the different genres because YMMV plays such a huge role in fragrances. Subjectivity is eminent. For example, while I might agree with some of Justinp's recs made above, I certainly would not recommend Black Oud as a good representation of an oud based scent. Rose? Sure. Everyone's ideas will be all over the map.

2. You can't judge whether or not you like or dislike a genre based on 2-3 scents. You may dislike the 2-3 sampled, but adore several others in it. You'll have to sample several to make your decision. Keep in mind that you can also hate 99% of the scents in a genre, but one will "wow" you. Dont dismiss trying things from a genre that you may not think you like, because you might surprise yourself.

Good luck and have fun!

I usually do not refer folks to old threads, because I would rather encourage folks to ask questions, whether they have been asked previously or not, and because the answers are often amazingly different and thuse all the more informative.

But you might want to dig up a not so long ago thread in on a similar question, which I though got really down into this kind of question. I am not discouraging anwers here, I just remember the other thread as very comprehensive!

The Knize said:

I usually do not refer folks to old threads, because I would rather encourage folks to ask questions, whether they have been asked previously or not, and because the answers are often amazingly different and thuse all the more informative.

But you might want to dig up a not so long ago thread in on a similar question, which I though got really down into this kind of question. I am not discouraging anwers here, I just remember the other thread as very comprehensive!

Click to expand...

I don't know if one of these is specifically what you had in mind, but all of these threads might be useful.

"Must Try Fragrances"

"Random Test Flight Reviews"

[URL="http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=205182]"Good Fragrances for Under $20"[/URL]

I was thinking of the first one, the must try frags one!