Curator's Journal

Creed Aventus Dupes: Four Versions, Compared
Creed Aventus Dupes: Four Versions, Compared
Aventus isn't really one fragrance anymore. There's the original, the batches collectors chase, the anniversary bottle, and Absolu. We make four versions, and they aren't interchangeable. Here's how they differ... Read more...
Ralph's Club New York Dupe: The Designer I Couldn't Cut
Ralph's Club New York Dupe: The Designer I Couldn't Cut
<p>Most of what I make comes from niche houses, and that's on purpose. I've stopped adding designer fragrances to the catalog. I'd rather chase the odd, expensive, hard-to-find stuff the... Read more...
Killing Frost 30 mL — Marc-Antoine Barrois Ganymede dupe
Marc-Antoine Barrois Ganymede Dupe: What It Actually Smells Like
Ganymede is the fragrance people describe badly. Ask ten enthusiasts what it smells like and you'll get "salty," "metallic," "like a wet rock," "apricot leather," and at least one person... Read more...
Pencil drawing of an empty dirt road curving into fog at the edge of the woods
Haints: Eight Fragrances for the Things in the Woods
Everybody raised in these mountains has one. A light on a ridge nobody could account for. Something at the edge of the road that was too tall, or stood wrong.... Read more...
White blackberry blossoms covered in frost on a thorny cane, on a cold overcast morning in late spring.
What Is a Blackberry Winter?
A short glossary of Appalachian weather, work, and season. Most of the words below describe things that only matter if you do them yourself. Weather that only matters if you... Read more...
Penhaligon's Fragrance Dupes: Five, Honestly Reviewed
Penhaligon's Fragrance Dupes: Five, Honestly Reviewed
Penhaligon's sells theatre before it sells fragrance. The Portraits collection comes topped with ceramic animal heads — a stag, a ram, a hound — attached to Victorian characters with names... Read more...
Creed Fragrance Dupes: Five, Honestly Reviewed
Creed Fragrance Dupes: Five, Honestly Reviewed
Creed is the most cloned house in men's fragrance, and it isn't close. Aventus alone has spawned more imitations than any release since Cool Water. Walk into any fragrance forum... Read more...
Louis Vuitton Ombré Nomade Dupe: What It Actually Smells Like
Louis Vuitton Ombré Nomade Dupe: What It Actually Smells Like
Of the nine Louis Vuitton fragrances we blend impressions of, Ombré Nomade gets asked about more than the other eight combined. Here’s what it actually smells like, why it’s so... Read more...
Le Barbier Collection fragrance sampler — five extrait de parfum vials inspired by Creed, Tom Ford, Guerlain, Xerjoff, and Penhaligon's
Five Sunday Best Collection Fragrance Dupes, Honestly Reviewed
There's a specific genre of men's fragrance that never really goes out of style: lavender, cedar, a clean shot of citrus, maybe some spice or moss underneath. It's the scent... Read more...
Soleil Collection fragrance sampler — five extrait de parfum vials inspired by Louis Vuitton, Creed, Kilian, and Tom Ford
Five Summer Collection Fragrance Dupes, Honestly Reviewed
Summer fragrance has its own set of rules: brighter citrus, more salt and skin, less interest in being subtle. The houses that do it best — Louis Vuitton, Creed, Kilian,... Read more...
Hearth Collection fragrance sampler — five extrait de parfum vials inspired by Kilian, Xerjoff, Maison Margiela, and Parfums de Marly
Five Fireside Collection Fragrance Dupes, Honestly Reviewed
Cold-weather fragrance has a type: smoke, cognac, tobacco, resin, something that smells like a room with a fire going. The houses that do this best — Kilian, Xerjoff, Maison Margiela's... Read more...
Louis Vuitton Fragrance Dupes: Honestly Reviewed
Louis Vuitton Fragrance Dupes: Honestly Reviewed
Louis Vuitton fragrances occupy a strange position. They are expensive enough that most people never buy one, distributed narrowly enough that you cannot find them discounted anywhere, and good enough... Read more...
Tobacco: A Heritage Worth Remembering
Tobacco: A Heritage Worth Remembering
Tobacco has, for many, become a misunderstood crop. But for me, and for many who grew up in Appalachia, it was something else entirely. It was a heritage crop. My... Read more...
From Mall to Maison Appalachia
From Mall to Maison Appalachia
Long before I knew what a niche fragrance house was, I knew the fragrance counter at the department store. In high school, I loved stopping by those counters and discovering... Read more...