¶ Intro
hello everybody , welcome to the clone podcast I'm mike , I'm ryan and we're two best friends usually . But we've got another best friend in the studio , ross . You guys know him as tltg reviews . Welcome to the show again , pal , it's a pleasure to be back .
It's been a little while since we did anything together when you guys reached out . I'm not going to sit here and act like I wasn't thrilled . Conversation's always fun . I love what you guys do and what you guys bring to the space .
Well , you're chiseled and sculpted now , my friend .
Yes , my God dude , we went the opposite route . We just started to get really sad .
Yeah , we're in a bulking phase right now . I'm bulking right now as well , but I think it's a little bit different . Yeah , yeah . Well , hey , as of two days ago , we've ended our bulking phase . We're , you know , back on the horse again . We're watching each other's caloric intake , Uh-oh . But today's episode is one that you recommended .
We were kind of chatting back and forth on Instagram and you said we should check out Boss Bottled Absolute Indeed .
I have my bottle handy .
There we go . We've got a carded sample we got from Dillard's , so we're going to be smelling that .
Also shout out to Felicia for giving us Absolutely . She was super sweet about it .
Also shout out to Abbott Ter who says on fragrantica , this is just a leather scent for me , nothing more . Sorry , but I'm not a fan of leather and this one is all about it . Be cautious now , ross . You've smelled this before . Is this crazy leather forward ? Or ?
I think that's an interesting take . They might just not be fans of leather and the things they've heard , because no one's speaking on it being a leather accord bomb . Okay , they probably didn't expect it . That's what my takeaway is from that , because there is prominent leather , but it's not dominant leather .
Okay , gotcha , it's prominent but not dominant I like that .
To me , that should be a t-shirt .
Alright . Do you think we're going to be disappointed like we were with dark leather from Spicebomb this year ?
No , no , this is far superior to that , gentlemen . Okay , if you're a fan of their last several flankers anything from the vegan leather take of bottled parfum to the incense dominant elixir , or even the addition of violet leaf to triumph elixir to the elixir DNA If you're a fan of any of their last three releases I don't see how you could not like this .
This is basically a sweeter take on the evolution they've been going through More leather and a little bit more sweetness .
Okay , that's what we were looking for with dark leather was just like a sweet leathery fragrance and it was garbage , absolute garbage yeah .
You know I've had a lot of people say that and I don't think it's total garbage , but I do think it's a disappointment Huge . I think it's literally the worst fragrance they've released in the line . Yeah , absolutely .
And you know , if literally every single human that's tried it says it's a weak performer , it's definitely not nose fatigue yeah , well , not only that , but I think it was the build-up to it too , because we knew it was coming out for so long with a name like dark leather .
You just have so much you're expecting out of that fragrance for then it to just kind of smell like a kind of spice , balmy , not so leathery .
You know , I hate it ever my issue with it was when they first announced it , because my favorite designer release of 23 was infrared eau de parfum . Oh yeah , that was great coming off such a great effort . That was based around leather already spices and leather and resins . Yeah , it's like okay , why are you following this up with a leather dominant fragrance ?
It's like it can't . I doubt it's going to be better . Your best bet is it's a linear move or it's going to be worse . Well , it's speaking of linear because it's a linear fragrance that doesn't offer near what the previous release had . It was destined to flop because anybody that's tried the previous it just it can't measure up right , yeah , infrared edp .
We were blown away with that one .
We love that one I think of what's on the market . It's their best fragrance right now really I'd agree with that . Yeah , they're at least tied with available in their library .
I think it's their best yeah , for me it might be tied with , uh , spice bomb extreme , just because that one is just such like a you know prevalent fragrance . Everybody , everybody , loves it . I've had a couple bottles of it and enjoyed it . I haven't owned the Infrared EDP yet , but I'd be happy to because it was pretty juicy .
I think all of them , even Night Vision EDT , for the kind of flack it got years ago when it came out . I still think it's a solid fragrance , just not their best fragrance .
I had that one before . It was pretty good .
They never disappointed me , until this newest release .
I had a bottle of the Night Vision one far before we got into doing which one though ? The EDT or the EDP ? The EDT it first got released . I was new to it . Ryan had just told me about Spice Bomb . I'd went through maybe three bottles of that . That's the only thing I wore , and then , you know , I go to get another bottle of that .
And of course , I got suckered into . Hey , this is the new release and I went through an entire bottle of it and I don't even remember it . Wow , wow , yeah .
So , but that's been five , six years well , I have to throw this out there because I'm a big fan of its Eau de Parfum Flanker and if you enjoy the EDT enough to go through an entire bottle , you owe it to yourself to try the EDP , because it is a deeper , more nuanced and stronger fragrance based around that EDT formula . We'll have to give it a try .
Man Got pistachio and nutty notes that's literally how they list it . It's a very creamy , nutty type of opening with that DNA it's really good .
I got a random question to ask before we get into our one-night stand review . It just hit me Absolutely how many fragrances do you think you smell a day ? Do I smell a day ? Yeah , because I feel like you do this so much .
You've got probably more than us , for sure I mean it depends on the day , but if I had to average it out , some days it can be high single digits to mid single digits and some days it's double digits . It all depends on what's going on . Yeah , what all ? Did I get a bundle of things in at once ? Am I , am I doing a fragrance haul ?
Am I , am I doing a live stream with five or six fragrances that I just got ? It all depends . I would say , on a given day , let's take content out of it . Yeah , yeah , just pulling a cap and sniffing stuff close to double digits , damn man that is fun , though , right , that's . That's on the light end .
Now , if I go to getting in the mood to start spraying stuff that does happen almost every day it could be easily a dozen plus , not counting content god , that is just insane .
I asked it's me just asking because we were kind of talking today . I was just like you know , we sit on a lot of decants and we should just be smelling them . I was like ross probably smells a fucking thousand fragrances in a month . It's like , yeah , he's not like he's losing out on content and you're just gaining more knowledge about it .
That's a safe take . It's a little exaggerated with the number , but it's in the hundreds every month for sure . Now , some of that being repetitive , like I might be sniffing a couple of the same things for several days in a row , but on a day-to-day basis , if you just look at the sheer number of grabbing a fragrance and using my nose with it .
The principle is right , ryan . Okay , yeah , for sure , all right . Well , let's get into our one night stand review of LeBeau , because we know you've smelled it , ross , and we've kind of started talking before we pressed record . We're like wait , wait , wait , we got to press record . This is some good stuff . So , without further ado , todd , hit that music ,
¶ One Night Stand Review: Le Beau
yeah .
One night stand review . Well , mike and Ross , after laying in bed with John Paul Godier , lamar LeBeau , edt , what do you guys think about it ?
Well , I think it's a really good base dna for them . I think they have a lot of avenues to explore . I think , with it being so basic yet so commonplace , like there's a lot of fragrances it's it's gotten to the point of almost folklore where when you get a citrus coconut fragrance from some other brand , they immediately compare it to laboe . Oh , it's .
It's to that point where things , yeah , are being said they smell like laboe . So it's got that level of popularity . So , overall , pretty beloved as its naysayers . Because it comes down to do you mind chemically synthetic ? Because that's one thing I have to give it is it is chemically synthetic but out in the air and that's .
It's really only bothersome if you're sniffing it up close , if you let the magic happen out in your sillage , it is really enjoyable . As long as you like that beachy coconut , tropical type of thing , where it's not a creamy coconut so you don't get the sunscreen smell , it's more of a coconut water kind of thing going on With some powdered tonka bean .
You get that sweetness and it's one of those dnas , because if you like designer fragrances , especially modern stuff , more than likely you're okay with sweet fragrances , because this is a tropical sweet fragrance at its core and so far , so good . With the two flankers , in my opinion , I feel like they , just they .
They keep doing better than what the original is . The original is my least favorite of the three , but I have a lot of respect for the original because without it I wouldn't have the Le Parfum , I wouldn't have Paradise Garden , I wouldn't have , potentially , the . I don't know if it's make believe or not , but I've seen an absolute bottle work up .
I'd love to see that . I'd love to see an elixir .
I feel like there's only two that I knew of well , the paradise garden is like a flanker of it , right ? Is that what you were saying ?
yeah , that came out at the beginning of the year .
That's the third , okay yeah , and I've heard a lot of great uh words about that we have a Patreon member .
I think that's sending us a thing of that for us to smell . So I can't wait . But for me personally , it was just kind of eh , I don't know , I just didn't feel it . It felt I don't know , I just did not vibe whatsoever . No , I'm not giving like in-depth critique here , but it just felt too generic .
It felt so generic for all the hype that me and him have heard for so long . We've had so many fans of the podcast ask us can you guys do LeBeau ? Can you do LeBeau ? They're so excited . And I was just like I'm not feeling this .
I don't know , maybe I just went into it thinking too highly or think it was going to be something unique , because it just wasn't .
Plus that original LeMall is just fantastic .
Yes , because it just wasn't . Plus , that original Lamal is just fantastic . Yes , me and him both love the original so much and , honestly , the golden , whatever bottle that just came out .
The Lamal Elixir .
Yeah , that one's actually pretty good too , for real I agree .
But yeah , I just didn't feel this one man , I don't know , ross , did you get like a saltiness off of it , Not aquatic , but like just a saltiness . That's what I kept getting off of it too , which I did think was unique about it , because I was like it's not for me .
I have to watch out for aquatic fragrances , because they kind of smell a little weird on my skin .
Are you one of those that when ?
it comes to modern synthetic aquatics , you get the rotten egg smell , I get , yeah , I get , like the wet dog , like lake water smell yeah , so so the culprit that I've narrowed it down to , because a lot of people have told me about this , I don't experience it .
I think it comes down to either a specific synthetic ambergris or the amberwood note . I think it's because all the ones that I see they say that about your bulgari aqua atlantiques , your dolce gabbana light blue owen tints they all have those particular notes that tie them together .
So I'm kind of thinking it's a skin chemistry issue with those synthetic amberwoods or ambergris . Potentially . That's just . This is an assumption , but it's me gathering info over the years .
Yeah , for sure no it's bringing it up to me especially as , as you smell more and more fragrances , you kind of build that rolodex of of different kind of uh , common commonalities between them . But , uh , that's the one thing I did like about it , that it gave it . That's the unique part about it . I haven't smelled a fragrance that did that .
That did the saltiness that didn't go aquatic on the skin , yeah , but where it kind of fell flat , was it ? Was that plus just kind of your typical designer sweetness , that , um , that makes a lot of people love it .
And look , we've since brought friends in and let them smell $500 , $600 niche fragrances versus the $80 discounted designers and they go gaga over the designer stuff , absolutely .
So it's like I know we can be niche heads and we can get all pumped up about these special fragrances , but when it comes down to just smelling good and smelling appealing , they figured it out with the designer fragrances . The approachability of it , absolutely yeah .
So there is something in it that I did feel like made it unique but also kind of kept that around . But that being said , comparing it to some of my favorite fragrances that have more personality , it still wasn't enough to push me , push me over to go .
I gotta buy this thing yeah , I think I'm good on that take but I definitely want to smell the paradise garden .
It's my least favorite of what they've done so far , but , like I said before , at the same time , without it I wouldn't have the two that I prefer . Right , because the two that I prefer are deeper fragrances . Yes , they have added a lot to them . Well , I can understand where you're coming from with generic .
I think of the three , it's definitely the most generic well , well , there you go .
That's our takes on that . I'm ready to actually get into this next one , because today we were having our back and forth . You know , hey , what fragrance have you done ? You know we know you smelled everything , but have you not smelled this ? And you recommended this one . Yeah , and you also recommended after you dog walked super allegria .
So now I won't feel bad if I don't like this but I am curious if this is gonna be good like you want , to not like it , because exactly that on your chanel fragrance .
Look , I love ryan like a brother , but this guy will hold a grudge to his death . So we're , we're gonna find out . Uh , we're gonna spray this bad boy on . Let's see , let's do it . I'll do it right along with you guys , all right guys , I'm excited .
¶ Scent of the Day: Boss Bottled Absolu
Oh , gentlemen , gentlemen , no , no , no , no , we got to do skin guys . Oh , I'm doing skin too , don't worry . Okay , I was about to say you're not going to get up the full story without it .
There we go , you know what , in the air , out the gate . I don't think Ross steered us wrong for a second here .
Guys , for a designer it's actually pretty damn impressive . It's hard to think when you look at the last 15 years of Hugo Boss . The last three years make up for all of it .
Well , let me actually say something really quick , because we , or at least I , have not experienced any of the Hugo .
Boss line line . It's true . Actually , this is our first time to ever smell a boss fragrance . This is the first time yeah , personal .
If you listen on spotify , my jaw would drop none of them .
We haven't smelled a single one and , and to go with your sentiment , I was reading some reviews of this earlier and everybody was basically saying how weak the other stuff was and they couldn't believe that this just came out of nowhere . Being this badass .
Like if I was to blind test this with you , you would not tell me it's a Hugo Boss bottled flanker . There's no way you could tell me , even if you were familiar with the line .
I would almost say I wouldn't guess that it was designer . It smells so woodsy and boozy on my skin .
And it's so resinous too . Oh , that's the best part for me . It's leathery , like the comment spoke of , very resinous . It's smoky . There's a sweetness that balances it . Like you said , it has this booziness to it . It's ambery , it's a rich fragrance , you can tell I love it . I'm just going into cutting a promo no , dude , we're , we're about it .
Man , this is , uh , this is one to to start on , for sure you didn't lead us astray on this this is honestly what spice bomb dark leather should have fucking been I didn't say it , you said it .
This is what it should have fucking been , man what the hell yeah , this is much more impressive than something that we expected to be impressive yeah , for sure it's got some real attitude to it .
You don't ? You kind of don't expect that I , if I'm being real , what I expected this fragrance to smell like was going to be warm , sweet yeah you know a little spiciness but but overall you know kind of down the middle generic dude , it smells great .
It's got a little bit . Might may hate me saying this , but it's like it's got a little bit of that , not as harsh , but like that vitamin kind of vibe , kind of going on .
He's talking about , like the intro to red tobacco , that kind of light bite the way that pungence is it kind of has that pungent sweet smoke dude . If red tobacco started like this , I'd I'd have 10 bottles of it this is way smoother on the intro .
You know for sure it smells fucking good wow , I have a question , since you clearly don't like red tobacco have you tried the intense we ?
did . I liked it better I did like it way better yeah same . It's the wrong name I've been saying red tobacco privé yeah , okay , there you go see , that's what I've been saying . Yeah , it's red tobacco for people who don't like red tobacco .
And I like red tobacco . But that opening it's great that you mentioned that . That's the people that don't like it . That's why it's the opening that's so pungent and in your face . This mutes that sweetness . And it's more about the oriental stuff , the spices , the woods . It really brings out the depth of the profile .
Yeah , and this kind of does remind me of it a little bit .
It's funny that I could yeah , I could kind of see it like the similarity , but it's definitely not like a clone of it or a one to one .
No , no , not at all , but man , I do it though .
For sure yeah .
Yeah , I mean hands down . I prefer this , just like right out of the you know atomizer .
I know this is our bottle of it . I'm like it's a good and a bad for me right now , just because I'm happy that this does smell good , but I genuinely do feel like dark leather should have been this . This is 100% what it should have been like . Do better , victor and Rolf . Sir man , I love it . I was wanting to hate this again .
I know you were yeah , based on our conversation earlier , I had a feeling that was in your mind he preached probably a 45 minute sermon .
when we got in the truck after we got this about what y'all were saying and I was just like dude for real and of course he's agreeing , but he's like I kind of see Superlegger being kind of whack .
I was like what ?
Well he went to . It's not even that , it's whack . It's that . My argument for those of you that obviously didn't hear our private conversation is if you can sit here and tell me that it's better than any of the flankers , I'll apologize . Any Aloram flanker . Yeah , and I'm apparently outside of our conversation . I'm calling the MFs 10 ways a Sunday , apparently .
I'm like I'm ready to go get my fucking pump on right now , yeah well , I mean he , I was telling him too , like all of the Aloram stuff is , he's got to try , but he went to like I was basically reaming him up and down as he was pressing record and he had to stop because he was like it sounds like you're ripping into Ross , but I was like I was
staring into Ryan because he's throwing a bitch fit over the fact that you didn't like that .
No , and it's not that I don't like it , I just I wouldn't take it over . Yeah right Sport , the Cologne , yeah the Edition Blanche , or especially the O Extreme I think it's a stripped down version of the O Extreme .
For sure I can't ever get my hands on the Edition Blanche . I'll look for it , but I think they did they re , they re-release it in a different way . Was it like discontinued for a ?
So it was an EDT initially . Then they re-released it as an EDP . Okay , I've only tried the EDP .
I want to try that one for sure .
The whole line's good and sadly I've never tried the original . Shame on me . Yeah , I hear it's a timeless classic . I just have that . For some reason I've never gotten around to it .
Now let
¶ Price and Popularity
me hit you guys with the price and trend of this Hugo Boss bottle .
Absolutely yeah , we're all over the place .
No , no , no . This is every episode we ever do . By the way , I'm not going to help the situation .
Price 140 bucks for 3.3 ml and popularity is like a 4 point . I want to for 3.3 ml and popularity is like a four point . I want to say three . Yeah , 4.31 out of five on fragrantica , but that's only like 300 something votes , so I'm assuming this is fairly new , right ? New ?
though . Yeah , brand new release . This just came out recently . Um , now , I would strongly encourage shopping around . I picked up my 50 ml from Fragrance Buy . They're currently out of stock . They had 50 and 100 milliliter a few weeks ago . That's how I got it . Just to let the audience know what I paid , let me log into my Fragrance Buy account real quick .
That's what the keyboard clicking is , as you guys know . It's just to give an idea what you can kind of hope to pay for it on the discount market when they come back in stock . I paid $65.18 US for my 50 ml . Wow , that's not bad . And it came out like two months ago . Wow , that's great . Yeah , it's well worth the money .
At that point , and I have so many fragrances , the only way I'd buy a 100-milliliter bottle is if that's my only option .
Yeah , what else is it doing , though ? It's doing something here that I'm trying to figure out . I'm not going to say gourmand , but there's something in there .
There's a sweet edibleness to it , for sure .
It's getting creamier as it settles down . Yeah , that's probably with the sweet accord that they have . It's probably with the sweet accord that they have .
It's probably giving you that feel . Yeah , it's sweeter , it's warmer , as it's kind of drying down on the skin , which is great . This is a sharp fragrance . Now , as a man who frequents the gym , are you wearing this to the gym , or what ? What do you typically wear ?
Not at all . I know a lot of people like to wear ouds and montals and I smell Ultramel and Eros often . Oh , really , specifically those two . Yeah , I can see Eros . And not long ago there was a gentleman walking ahead of me . We were going to the same set of cables and I was trailing him and I was like , well , there's Ultramel .
And I was like , well , there's Ultramail , we do it . So I was like , oh , you bet , like he saw me , he's like , oh , you wanted this . I'm like no big deal , do your thing . I said . But while I got you I said 9 pm or Ultramail . He looked at me like I was crazy . Then he smirked and said 9 pm and I laughed it off .
I was like yeah , man , I smell your trail .
You're filling the whole gym . You smell good man .
Yeah , that was the interaction . Do you ever get recognized ?
You can stop and talk about somebody's fragrance . Tell them they smell good .
Yeah . Do you ever get recognized when you go out ? Anytime , it has happened , yeah . How is that starting to ?
feel I live in a vacation tourist area , okay , and I had a guy that was vacationing from Georgia it was the most recent time . And then David Isley I don't know how many of you are old school wrestling fans . He's an AWA wrestler . He's wrestled Flair and Harley Race and all these guys . He walked up to me randomly .
Now look when you look at me tattoos , normally flat bill potty mouth . You don't think you know . 60 plus year old white guy watches me right . Yeah , it's like just a nice . You know past middle age , you know relaxing in retirement in the Florida panhandle . Nice white guy . Hey , how are you ? That guy walks up to me . He's like you know .
I wasn't sure it was you , but then I saw the hand tattoos . Man , I love your channel . I just wanted to come tell you and just blew me away . Good man , I love your channel . I just wanted to come tell you .
It just blew me away , good Lord .
It doesn't happen often , but on occasion I do get recognized once in a while . Now I have these distinctive outliers .
There we go . Yeah the hand tattoos .
It floors me every time because I don't think I'm any damn body , but it's sure nice to have a conversation .
Are you going to be able to handle the fame when people start coming to you ? Just want to just take random selfies with you , like jeremy france or some show outside of people that are really into perfume .
I don't think that's going to be the issue . I need to concern myself . We're such a small hobby worldwide , uh , that you know , even though the online community is a few hundred thousand people . When you spread , spread that across all the countries , it's a drop in the bucket .
It's not getting any people , so it's awesome when it does happen , but it's not something that happens often .
Do you ever plan on doing conventions or anything like that Assance or SynthExplorer or anything ?
I did SynthExplorer in 2019 , the first year Every year , because it's Novembermber , december I travel a lot , yeah , every year , and that's when it is , so it's never like I've just pretty much exited off as it's not going to be a thing . Yeah , yeah now exxon's .
I did want to do this past year , just didn't shake out , and now I have competitions going on during exxon's next year , so it's not going to happen next year either . Eventually I will get will get to Italy for this , yeah man , I will , that was .
I don't fly , but he says it's fucking amazing over there , so you should definitely try to check it out .
Well , I know Mike that you were hanging with Chris doing little scooters and everything .
Yeah , oh yeah , yeah . We did scooters the first year Dinner with George . Yes , yeah , which , again , I will always talk about how great of a human he was . In fact , a little funny story about him this past year we briefly just brushed up against each other and he said hi , and he was busy running around .
And then later , smell of truth , ran up to me and said , hey , uh , george zaharoff is looking for you and I was like I wanted to apologize .
He didn't have time and he was busy .
Yes , and I was like I said I said , no , he's not looking for me , I think you're missing , he goes . No , he's looking for you . And then he came up and , yeah , sure enough , he was like was like hey , I just wanted to tell you I'm . I'm sorry . We didn't really get to connect Like I wanted to earlier and I was like he didn't have to do that .
He went out of his way to do that he is such a rare person .
Yeah , he never wants anybody to feel that he looks at them as less than or unimportant in any way . Yeah , and that's just who george is . George is a wonderful , wonderful person yeah , I this , that's exact . You see , I I could have finished .
Yeah , a hundred percent , yeah , yeah , yeah . So it's such a nice guy and it's . It's cool that it's so weird that it's over there . I mean , I guess all our connections are primarily either in the states or uk , but uh , and then over there it's just like uh , it's all glued together .
Everybody you've seen from all the channels and stuff like that they're all kind of in one place , which is pretty fun , but you kind of lead the pack up there too , so you know you'd probably be swamped the whole time just taking selfies with people ?
I doubt it , man . I'm not saying I wouldn't see some people . I'm sure you know , a couple people might want to talk to me , a couple people I'd want to talk to and all that stuff , being friendly and cordial with everyone . But outside of that , again , I never view myself as anybody special man . I'm just .
I'm just another guy that's really into this weird hobby of perfume . Treat the wardrobe item as a hobby .
Well , back on this really quick . What would you guys or who would you think wears this fragrance In your mind ? Who do you envision ? This really fits well . What do they look like , what do they do ? What are they wearing when you wear this fragrance ?
I think this is somebody with an abrasive side . Okay , this is not necessarily heavy attitude , but there's a particular presence , an edgier presence , to someone that wears this Normally . I'm for the yin to the yang . If you're going to have an outgoing fragrance , it's more for the introverted .
Yeah , if you're more outgoing , you want a softer fragrance , but this is one that paints a picture of out on the town bomber jacket , leather jacket , evenings . So I think this is one where the attitude pairs well in both instances , with your personality as well as the personality of the fragrance . I think it pairs well like that .
I see that it's like , just like the fragrance , it's a little more abrasive up front , but as you kind of get to know it , as you're like , oh , he's sweeter , he's a sweeter guy , you know . Yeah , he just looks , he's got the shaved head and the tattoos , but he's really just a sweetheart .
What age do we think this person is that can wear this ? We think this is 30s and up . We think it's a little bit younger . I think 25s and up .
Because it still has that approachability for being a deeper fragrance and kind of a bordering niche type of blend , even though it's not necessarily on par with the level of oils . But it still doesn't smell like a basic synthetic designer either , Right . I would put this upper tier for these middle level , mid-level designers , for sure , I think .
Because of that , I think a younger man will enjoy it , but not very young , not teenagers and early 20s , I think 25 plus . that's maybe got his stuff together , yeah , active more mature five-year-old is still waiting tables , you know , hitting the bars at night , that's still partying .
But maybe the guy that's kind of settling in after college , he's you know , he's going out on the weekends , maybe with with his girl going to have drinks . Maybe that guy . Or , if we start going 30 plus , maybe the single guy 30 plus , because this smells like it could be on the prowl for a single guy as well , but not the younger ladies .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , I feel that . Does that make sense ?
Oh no , it makes perfect sense . I was about to say I want to save the rest that we have because I would love for Ricky or Nikki to smell this . Get a female's perspective . I have a feeling that a lot of women would like this . I really do .
Women , not girls .
Yeah , a hundred percent .
Yeah , because this does have . I'm with you , it has a maturity to it , but the sweetness , like you're saying , the approachability of it , it does make it a little bit more palatable than something that's that's just going to stay .
With that opening , that boozy , woodsy you know sort of thing , the sweetness that this kind of has , it's almost like , uh , yeah , we're so , we say this wrong , but that with that warm caramel base that has got to it , that , just that ooey gooeyness , that that makes you go , makes sense Makes sense .
I like it . Okay , are you going to skip it , sample it or buy it ? What are you going to do , ross
¶ Skip it, Sample it, Buy it
?
I mean , clearly it's a buy . Yeah , absolutely . And look , I went into it blindly , I just liked the line , okay yeah they've been really , really doing a great job with both the scent line and the bottled line with their last three releases each okay .
They've been contenders , top three designers of the year for me in both lines , like this year boss the scent elixir , and boss bottle absolute two of my top three wow released this year . So I got two hugo boss fragrances from two different lines that I think are just the upper echelon of what's come out this year I gotta have to .
I went into this with that expectation . I give brands an opportunity when they start impressing me . I'll keep giving you the benefit of the doubt until you disappoint me . So this was a blind buy this was a blind buy . Wow , this was a blind buy . Wow , this was a blind buy .
And I had looked at the notes , obviously , and they only give you so much in the notes . They kind of hide what's really the full formula these days . Right , they'll give you just a few , but again , it's the trust I have in what they've been doing over there that I was willing to take the blind leap of faith . And boy did they deliver .
Did you get to smell Old Fashioned by Killian ?
Not yet .
Oh man , I can't wait for it . Please message us when you smell that one .
Okay , so high hopes here .
I think so . If you're rating ones that you smelled released this year , I really want you to smell that one For sure .
I do need to get my nose on it so I can fairly assess it , because I do my annual stuff in in december where it's best best of the year , most worn of the year , worst of the year for the different categories , niche designer , cheap , all that yeah , it's definitely one of the top ones for us .
I know that chris was saying it's either his top or one of his top ones this year as well released this year . So , man , I'm with you on this , though this is as especially for a designer , this is such a strong release . I'm blown away and I'm mad at myself that I haven't smelled more of the boss bottled stuff well , this is what I'm gonna ask , though .
Going off this , though , did we fuck up by starting here with hugo boss ?
yes , we're just downhill from me . Well , it depends if you're gonna look at boss bottled elixir , boss bottled triumph elixir . Boss bottled parfum . No , that it just depends on your taste . The parfum got a little flat because not everybody , I think , could really appreciate the vegan leather . It's a green leather , okay , with some iris .
I really like it personally , uh . But the elixir seems like like that's the battle . The argument is this , or the elixir seems like that's the battle . The argument is this , or the elixir for everybody . Until this came out , it's like that's the unquestioned best thing they've put out . Now it's like , okay , there's the .
I'm on this team , you're on that team because they're just both so good . I would suggest checking out the last couple of years releases . The only problem with that is if you start going with the classics , some of the stuff can be a little disappointing . But the main thing I would suggest is smell boss bottled . Okay .
Boss number six , the original release , it's not what it was in 96 . Okay , but it's that sharp dress man , gray suit kind of fragrance . Okay , apple pie , wood spice , it's a classic . Vanilla , it's a classic . It's what started all . It was actually called Boss no 6 . It got the nickname Boss Bottled and it kind of caught on . Now they've named the line .
Oh , that's no 1 , boss no 5 . It was .
Boss no 6 . You're teaching us something we didn't know , that we didn't know anything . Yeah , still keeping it uneducated over here .
Well , I will say this really quick . I would have to say for the price that you told me earlier , because that is juicy . Yeah , was that ? 65 is what you said you paid for ?
Yeah , because that is juicy . Was that ? 65 is what you said you paid for . I think the 100 milliliter was around 90 . Okay .
Right around that .
Like 50 bucks off of retail .
If you are somebody that you don't like red tobacco , but there's like something there that kind of intrigues you , I feel like this is good . This is really fucking good . It's not red tobacco , obviously , but it has certain pieces that just remind me . But man for sure it's not a .
It's not a , it's not red tobacco , obviously , but it has certain pieces that just remind me .
But man for sure it's like a distant cousin . I feel like it's closer to Carlisle than it is to red tobacco .
I could agree with that , I agree , yeah .
And stuff like that . And the sweetness it's not real earthy , yeah , like that tobacco right like dried tobacco I think this is closer to something like Carl wow .
I'm genuinely impressed with this . I seriously thought me and Mike would be able to take our pants and just I mean , it's no little room , sport super leggero yeah now , ross , I gotta ask this what was , what was the scent of the day at the competition ?
oh nothing , oh nothing .
What was the scent of the day at the competition ? Oh nothing , oh nothing really . A lot of people ask me that because you don't want to spray alcohol on a spray tank . Oh yeah , that's true , it would have made it splotchy . What would it have been ? It definitely would have been Evening Mystique or Business Over .
Oh yeah , that's true , I brought them with me just in case , because I did wear evening mystique that evening after for dinner and stuff like that uh , just creating memories . It was a very special day for me .
so the right move was , you know , one of my creations with george and uh , hey , I wore that the other day and ryan was like what the hell are you wearing ?
and I was like just gets better over time evening mystique .
It is seriously , god . I hope I'm not causing like uh , inner fight with anybody over there , but I think of those releases that was probably my favorite , one for sure , like without even questioning , it is really good , it's shocking , shocking .
Well it fits us probably most out of it . It was definitely . I remember this was before we even had you on the episode , but I wore it to a shoot that I did photography shoot , and it was a group of moms and every single one of them was like , oh , that's the smell good guy , that's the guy that smells good .
And I was like Ryan , we're buying a bottle of this . No need I sent them your way . That's the guy that smells good . And I was like Ryan , we're buying a bottle of this . No need , I sent him your way . That's right , you sure did , man , and yeah , we appreciate it . I appreciate you guys .
Let's get personal just a little bit , because I want to know what it felt like . Obviously , you spent years kind of building up to the competition , because I , I think , was it 2021 ? You posted kind of like your before photo , ish . And then the competition what ? Because you , you took home the gold that day right in your division .
So I did four classes in classic physique . Classic physique was the division it's the in between physiques with the board shorts and like they're on the beach . It's the in-between physiques with the board shorts , you can like they're on the beach . It's all about aesthetics and abs . Why the heck they got like two poses ? Yeah , legs aren't as important .
Um , a lot of them still work on their legs . They want mainly the calves , you know , yeah , classic physiques , the in-between . It's not the over the top mass monsters , it's a more aesthetic yet massive physique overall . Like it's the happy medium , yeah , between physique and open weight bodybuilding . Um , that's where it's all about .
You know , shredded , peeled to the gills and as big as you can possibly be right uh , with the colorful bikinis and classic physique , everybody's got to wear black . It's very structured , okay . Um , just to give you a little idea of what the division is specifically . So I was in true novice , because you can only do that when it's your first show .
So a true novice .
Then I did novice class A because for my height and weight I was in class A . I did the open , which is for any level of experience . I did open class A and then I did master's over 35 because apparently I'm old enough to be in a master's . Hey , we all are here in this room when my dad was doing it , they had masters 40 plus masters 50 plus .
Now it's 35 and 40 , 40 I don't know if they do 45 , but I know 50 and 60 . Yeah , sure , because there's different levels to it . I mean there's hey man , there's some 60 year old men that'll come in there and wipe the floor with some 38-year-olds .
Man dude . I've seen there's a couple guys on YouTube . He's like in his 50s , all natural Dude is freaking shredded . I can't even remember his name . There's a bunch of them , yeah , but he's , yeah , freaking crazy .
But with True Novice I took first first and then I took um , so bo was his name , was my main competition for the other classes and uh , so once I took the first second place to him , I knew it was the rest of the way , so I got second place finishes after that , right , because it was me and him and me and him were were the two .
They were the biggest comparison because I was in a class where it was two of us , four of us , five of us and three of us , five of us and three of us .
Yeah .
As far as the number of competitors in that class and then the winner of Open A goes against the winner of each other class in Open B , c , d , depending on the height and weights that , the bigger the guys got Right and the winners of each of those go for an overall . Guys got , you know , the winners of each of those go for an overall .
So , uh , you know , I wouldn't , even if I would have won first . I was not going to beat the guy that . He was always going to be the guy that took the overall boat and stand a chance against him either . Yeah , but it was .
I was mainly there for the experience of it and but to have a really good showing like that , a first and three second place finishes , was absolutely , absolutely yeah . I mean , I don't think I really could have asked for better in my first outing .
For sure , and that's what I was going to ask . Man , you've spent a lot of time working up to this , and at times with great opposition , honestly , so how did it feel when you got that first place ?
If you look at some of the footage on my instagram page , um , it was one of the videos that I think it was either george and my wife had filmed from because they were in the front row . Yeah , um , from the angle , I just have this shit eating grin on . You know , because it ?
Because the first thing we did was true , novice , it was the first class when we got to my division gotcha , yeah , and I won right out the gate , so it was just I was happier than a pig and shit . No matter what happened after that , I at least got one first place absolutely , man , yeah I was very happy with it .
Just yeah , you know it , it's a , it's gratifying and satisfying , yeah , to know that the hard work and effort you put in , because there's a lot of sacrifice that goes into it . Enhanced or not , natural or enhanced , it doesn't matter . Well , dude , the diet has to be crazy it's still a real day-to-day , long-term sacrifice nutritionally , physically and mentally .
Yeah , To go through that from months on end to get to that point , to do that .
And you kind of have to dehydrate before those shows too right .
You do , yeah , we do so . You water load leading up and then you dehydrate right before , literally right before , like the morning of right before prejudging was the best my abs looked . It's like a pinned picture on my page .
So proud of that picture , yeah , Well , dude , a bunch of hard work into it and if I had to guess , you're probably like us where we're cursed , where it's like , once you hit that from there , it's like it's still you , you're still judging things you could have done better , and then you're constantly , you know , it's like on to the next feedback , and it's if
you want to pursue doing more , here's the things you need to work on .
More here's the things you need to work on , so you can do even better next round or at an even bigger show regional shows or the bigger shows . So I got the judges' feedback . I'm with a different coach locally which my first coach was great . She's known as the queen of bodybuilding in .
My posing coach won his class and almost turned pro at the Olympia this year .
Wow man .
At the amateur Olympia . They go on stage two days before the pros do .
Yeah , yeah .
Dylan did . I was so proud of Dylan , but it's just point being like I had a really good because I wanted to do my first show in my home state . I wanted to do it in Louisiana . So I got with who my friends use , who just happens to be the best bodybuilding coach .
She's a former IFBB pro in women's bodybuilding herself Shout out to Lacey , I doubt she'll hear this , but she's phenomenal , great human and she knows her shit man hey , send her a link Produces winners and then so there's someone I built a bond with that I see every day at the gym I go to here because I'm in Florida , yeah , and I had it in my mind
because me and John really get along . Big sneaker head , he watches my sneaker channel and all this stuff and he produces winners here . He's kind of like her counterpart here . So , as heartbreaking as it was because I didn't want to upset her , she was very professional I broke away from her and then just recently got with John because I wanted to .
You know , this is more in person this way , yeah , I'm doing everything over the phone and virtual checkings . So I like literally day after tomorrow I have an in-person check in in my trunk so we can evaluate any adjustments we need to make . It's a it's a week to week thing , even in the off season real quick .
Uh , you , you , you also do a channel for sneakers , right ? Yeah , how's that been going ?
uh , doing really well . It's . It's starting to , you know , have some decent earnings um it's rapidly growing . It just uh , just hit 5350 subscribers today , okay around 100 000 views a month . I mean it's nothing compared to what the fragrance channel does , but it's . It's climbing . That's another one of my hobbies . It's .
It's literally what I wanted to do years before the fragrance channel , when I was still too nervous to just press record and be on camera .
I've been wanting to do a sneaker channel for like 10 years I used to be like really big into I still kind of am , I just I have kids so I can't but but I was really big into it . You know , while there I collected . I still have some of my old collection , but it's not big , I mean nothing crazy , but what has been like your all-time favorite sneaker .
I've got to know .
I'm a Jordan 12 guy . That's my number one . Okay , I'm a nostalgia act when it comes to the Jordan 12 . 12 through 14 is my favorite model Models in general . But if I model models in general , but uh , if I had to pick one silhouette , that's like if .
As long as I can have jordan 12s , I'm good . God , I never got a pair , but I wish I would have got a pair of the .
Uh , dr doom , uh , what do you call like foam posit shoes , man , don't fucking do it , don't you fucking do it there went my plaque don't you dare look how slick this shoe is fuck yeah , this is my number two phone number one is the unc and white foam posit pros from 2000 .
They've never re-released them , but this is the 2016 release of the doctor that literally I never got it , but I was so tempted that is probably my favorite shoe . As far as like the overall look , I love this ?
yeah , I got them not long ago .
They've been on the bucket list do you , do you have a pair of nike sb ? Uh , gibsons , do you have those ? No , I don't . I got I got those . I'm still proud of those . It's like a . It was like a brown leather nike dunk but it's got like pink fur on the inside .
It looks like the inside .
Inside looks like yeah , it looks like inside of a guitar case . That's like one of my favorite ones , so it's funny that you bring up pink .
Uh , the jordan 4 orchids they haven't released yet . I just got them in at the video yesterday . They're like a pale pink suede . Damn , look like an oreo print cement on them . Thank the jordan 4 silhouette . I picked them up . They were out yesterday . But oh man , god man , god damn it . I'm a sucker for pink .
I can't believe you just dropped that phone positive on there .
I had it right there , I knocked over my silver play button .
Well , I've got a question then about that . You hit 100,000 and you get first in your first showing . What was the bigger moment of satisfaction ? Because they both take a shitload of hard work .
That's a hard question because I've put in way more time , day in and day out , for years longer for the Silver Playbook . For sure , yeah , I think I have to say that there's a lot of different sacrifice that went into that . Yeah , no doubt that's a hard question , though .
And you're about to lap it again . You're at like 140 last night .
Good Lord , dude , I'm going to be up there before you know it . One day you'll probably have a million dude .
I don't know about all that I'm not saying it's impossible . I just don't think it's realistic , at least not right now . If it ever does happen we're talking many years down the line I would think if and when . I think it's more of an if than when , but I appreciate the compliment .
Nothing else . Well , on closing , what do you see as the direction for the channel ? Do you , what do you have coming up , or what are your your big long-term goals for the tltg reviews fragrance channel ?
so in particular . It's just you know our , our hobby is a bit of a revolving door . You have people that stick around for years and years but you have your come and goes . For a few months they get into it for a little bit , realize they they spent too much money . Then they disappear . That happens a lot . That's the revolving door side of it .
So you'll have bursts where all of a sudden the views are up , the subscribers are up , then you'll have a low , then you'll have a burst , peaks and valleys , right . Yeah . Yeah , we got caught in that door a couple times .
I expect it to be similar to that long term because there's always new people coming into it as a hobby , more so than just getting a quote unquote clone to wear every day . Yeah , people get into it .
Everybody's a hobbyist for something these days and I think the space's growth has shown that over the last five years I've been in it for five and a half years now , that over the last five years I've been in it for five and a half years now and I've seen exponential growth from my first video to now , not just for me , just for the space in general .
We have so many content creators across so many profiles from people that could care less to know a thing about a fragrance . They just want you to buy through their TikTok link on to the most technical of the tech .
You've got every end of the spectrum at this point , and the more you can have kind of a very authentic presentation where you're really bringing you to the forefront , I think that's the people that will continue to thrive . Yeah , which I try to do . You know I'm very unfiltered at this point . I'm 100% on camera at all times now .
Well , once you go live , man , it's a whole new beast right .
That's really what it is . The live stream crowd's only so big on YouTube , but you create a loyal live stream base . I call them my core audience , yeah for sure . And , point being , to answer your question , I'm getting kind of long winded and kind of circling around it a bit . Hey , it's a podcast .
Basically , what I'm looking at currently will be the pretty similar path for the next several years , because I don't really see a whole lot to change . Because I'm not the fancy editing type . Yeah , I'm very much the you know , outspoken , opinionated type . It's all about personality and emotion with me .
So it's when you come to my channel you know you're not getting all the fancy graphics and cuts and edits , because I don't personally feel like I need it . Yeah , so as far as channel evolving , I don't think it's going to evolve a whole lot beyond what it is now , at least for the time being . Yeah , so I guess kind of it's kind of a boring answer .
It got a long time to get here , but more of the same yeah , you know and I think that's probably the right answer , though , because that's the answer to people who know what it takes to stick around a long time is just consistency over time , right ? Yeah for sure .
Yeah , there's no like magic bullet of oh , if I put lower thirds in every video , then I'll get bigger . You know , it's really just doing the damn thing over and over and over and over and over again hundreds of times , thousands of times .
You want to try different things from time to time , sure , but never anything major . Yeah , this is the old saying if it ain't broke , don't fix it , yeah , but if you feel like you're stale , the audience already feels that way if you feel it . So anytime you feel that , coming on , try something to freshen things up . That's how I've always done it .
But if it doesn't seem necessary , it's not .
Well said . Yeah , and Ross , we look forward to seeing many more years of you tackling a lot of stuff , man , because I feel like you got a great fragrance channel . You're also very inspirational with the bodybuilding stuff . I mean just showing that you did it .
I mean gives mean , gives me hope , you know , because I've been called the dollar store version of you multiple times by the fragrance community .
So really , yeah , I'm like the , I'm like the cheap , you know the well , there's some unflattering things that get said about me , so that might not be the compliment that you .
Hey , we've made our ode jerks debut as well , so we're good , we get . We got chewed up a little bit , but uh , now of honor fellas that's it that's what we said . I was , I think , the first time it popped up . I was like , finally . I was like come on , we're out here , guys . You know something ?
yeah , you get hated on for make-believe reasons , because that's what the reasons always are .
Yeah it's somebody that just screenshotted a thumbnail that you know didn't watch anything and just you know they they got triggered by something .
But uh , those , those guys always be out there as weird as it is to say it's the truth , it's actually a good thing . Yeah , for sure you know , because if the mentally ill side of every community wasn't talking about you , you're not really making any weight .
I forget who said it , but it's like , if , only , if . What is it like they only have good things to say about you ? You're not reaching a large enough audience , no so and if everybody likes you , you're fake .
Yeah , yeah , for sure . That's just the guys on the street . If everybody likes you , you're being fake .
Mike Tyson said if you're a friend to everybody , you're an enemy to yourself damn valid point , yeah , so there you go well , you know what ?
Okay , well , on that note , ross , again , thank you so much for coming on this podcast a second time . It was a blast . I hope it was fun for you and definitely a great recommendation . I wanted to hate this , but I can't . This smells really good and for that price , man , that's a buy man Just quickly .
what would you say out of what we've smelled this year ? Where do you think this would rank ? Because I feel like it's pretty high for me . I feel like I'm very impressed with this .
I would probably say can I do top 10 to make it safe ? Yeah , It'd be in my top 10 . I don't want to say top 5 , but top 10 this year so far . And it might get narrowed down to top . Yeah , yeah , I think I , I definitely think it's . It's probably top five for me .
I mean it's shocking that it smells this good and it's kind of designer you know I wasn't expecting to kind of have a niche quality , but man , this thing's pretty fucking nice .
Man for real yeah , what a great recommendation . I'm glad you both enjoyed it . Man , it's never fun when you recommend something and somebody thinks it's terrible . I try to minimize that as best I can .
Well , this was absolutely a great direction to send us , man , and with that you've earned your , your invitation for another episode . We'll have to get with you sometime and set that up .
Gentlemen , thank you so much for having me . It's always a pleasure . I can't believe an hour has flown by that quickly . I feel like we've been doing this for 10 minutes , I know . I'm looking at the timer , we're over 56 minutes .
Well , we appreciate your time and you hanging out with us , for sure , man .
The pleasure has been mine .
gentlemen , and until next time , spray it up y'all .