¶ Intro
hello , ladies and gentlemen , welcome to the cologne podcast . I'm mike and I'm ryan .
We're two best friends , right , yeah , yeah , we're just . Yeah , we're two friends , just friends going on a fragrance podcast adventure . God , I'm out , I forgot the whole tagline . I've been gone so long , good lord welcome back .
He just got back from milan , italy . Yeah , just , we're at assance . You got to hang out with a bunch of cool people , the coolest people , and we'll dabble in that throughout the episode yeah , we're gonna have some episodes coming up where we talk to the guys and get their opinions on it . Yes , sir , and he just slept for 12 hours .
I had to . I had flight delays . I got trapped in Paris again , good Lord , yeah . So I walk up to the counter , I'm in Milan flying out and they keep pushing my flight back . And I had before . The flight got pushed back whenever I landed in paris . I had 30 minutes to get to my gate . Damn to get on the flight from paris to atlanta to get back .
And the flight got pushed back an hour . So immediately I go , I'm missing my flight . Then it got pushed back two hours . So I go up to the lady at like the ticket encounter and she goes well , do you want to see if you can try to still catch your flight before we change your tickets ?
And I'm like , unless that plane is also a DeLorean , we're not making this flight , because I'm like I would have to be on it an hour ago .
By the way , speaking of all this plane shit yes , you know , you guys out there rip me all the time , say I'm a fucking loser because I won't get on a plane . Mike's telling me everything's good . From the time you left till you got back , it's been one incident after another in these planes , man . Some are landing upside down , some are crashing out .
Yeah , some are literally barely missing each other . One's taking off , one's running through the freaking runway there Right and people are riding first class with freaking dead bodies .
Yeah , heard about that as well .
Dude , I'm like what the hell ? I'm good . Our patrons are like we really need to start a fun for Ryan to go on this trip Like through a You'll never go .
What's it called GoFundMe ?
Well , they were saying GoFundMe , but they were saying they want to book a cruise , like I'm doing it by sea .
Oh my God , that would take you like two months to get there . What is this ? The Demeter ? This is Bram Stoker's Dracula .
Oh God . So yeah , it would . Just , it would take an act of God , I think , to get me going , ryan . Columbus selling the .
Seas of Blue . Yeah , but you're back .
I'm happy for you to be back . Yes , I'm happy for you to be back . He brought tons of goodies back . Tons of full bottles . We're going bag tons of full bottles . We're gonna pass it along to our patrons . If you're not a patron , I'm telling you I'm not saying this in an insulting way . Stop being a fucking idiot . Become a patron .
Well , yeah , so the one we smell today going out to the patrons , then we're also doing another episode for the patrons that another full bottle's going out so we don't keep full balls here .
We pass that on to the friends of the podcast , and that was our patreon members . Yeah .
I mean , here's the thing we see people go . Yeah , they're just out there for the free bottles , the free bottles . We don't keep the free bottles , we don't , they go out , and that's our freaking spiel .
Literally if we like something . This has been more Mike than me , but we'll ship it out . You'll go and buy the bottle you want it , it's true .
Speaking of liking something , okay , I've got a review from Fragrantica , from Dumplings .
Is it spelled D-U-M-B ? Yeah ?
So Dumplings says love Kajal fragrances but always been a hater of cherry and almond . Let's see if Kajal can finally make me a fan of the cherry and almond fragrances . Excited to test this , but I have a feeling it's going to have the play-doh or medicine smell from cherry and almond combos . Interesting also it just got released , not even a couple weeks ago .
It actually launched on a valentine's day . Yeah , so there wasn't any reviews from people who've actually smelled it . Yeah , so that's why we got that .
Before we get into it , though , we got to give our one night stand review that's happened over a week ago now , yeah Of Tom Ford's Boise Pacific Geek or whatever . How do you pronounce that ?
Hit the music
¶ One Night Stand Review: Bois Pacifique
, todd . Yeah , one night stand review . Ryan , I actually let Clement CC Fragrances hear the way you said that Okay In previous episode and she thought it was super cute . She actually thinks it's cute when people try to do the French names . Really , yeah , because me , her and Steve were having a conversation .
We were asking her is it super annoying to hear people just absolutely butcher it ? Okay , and she's like , no , I actually find it charming . Oh well , that's cool . Yeah , and I was like because , yikes , right , yeah .
Mega yikes on my part because I know , yeah , you know , I know people have told they've written in and they're like I love you and mike's voices and stuff like that . It's so funny , though I'm just off , so shoot . But you know , obviously again I'm bringing it up , marvel rivals , I play the hell out of it .
But anytime I'm like , uh , hey , don't line aside the healer . They're like who's this country , motherfucker ? I'm like god damn , am I that country sounding ?
Hey , now y'all Good lord , so you're getting on the mic with them and they're like jeez .
Yeah , I'm like playing rank and I'm always playing healer like a strategist class or a healer , and everybody this is me being nerdy now , right now , but I don't know if it's just console players or whatever , but God damn , my teams always suck and I'm like trying to literally do everything .
Yeah , everything , and I'm really not just saying that , I'm just being blunt and honest . I'm not great , but I'm doing everything I can .
Well , the funny thing about accents . I was talking with Chris about this . He was asking me could I notice the difference between his and Steve's accent ? Because he said , you know , whenever I listen to American accents I can detect a Southern accent , like a Northeastern accent . And I was like no , I can't either .
I can't really distinguish the difference between those two . Now , them in strong style fragrances , yes , big time . And them and berry , big time berries is so different that I kept telling him I'm like to an american , we'd think you were like scottish or something . Yeah , because that's just like my ignorance of the area over there .
Yeah , but yeah , it's funny that , yeah , here in america too , you can like really pick up on the differences . But uh , you guys have more subtleties over there across the pond .
Definitely . I would feel like it's more subtle there . Here I feel like it's very more distinct . I mean literally To our ear at least Dude . Literally you go next door to Louisiana and the accent there is crazy , yeah , especially when they have that Cajun accent Dude it's wild dude .
Yeah , okay , we should probably talk about tom ford boy . Pacific um the woods of the pacific .
It wasn't bad , but it wasn't . Was it crazy memorable to you ?
yeah , it was . It was decent . I actually talked with licky because she got to go smell it . Okay , what'd they think ? Yeah , she gave me a full breakdown of her wearing and she liked it , but her complaint , I think , is our complaint , which is it didn't really last that long shocker yeah , what do you know ?
I shouldn't tear it down that hard , but uh , yeah it was . It was not bad , it smelled good definitely woodsy .
Do you think they're handicapping them to make you want to buy higher concentrations in like the designer world ? You think they're handicapping them to make you want to buy higher concentrations in the designer world ? Do you think they're intentionally doing that ?
To some degree I would have to say yeah , because I can think about older stuff that I've bought in the past , like old school designer fragrances that were loud and proud and lasted forever .
That was Tony with Turdermes . Yeah , you could smell it . It was great it was popping off of him and he was wearing an EDT .
See what I'm saying . Yeah , like the original Acquadugio EDT , like now . I wouldn't even swear to God . You know , I bought it for my dad , I'll turn it down . That's what he wore , and I'd always be like you smell good , dad , and his joke would always be like well , I would hope so . I drank some of it because he that's how much he used it .
Well , well , the fact he had to use a lot of because he felt like it didn't last long , oh so he was just like drowning himself in it , gotcha so , but I agree , yeah , I just think it lost its uh thing , which makes sense . If we just look at anything corporatey , they're like we got to make more money we can , where can we make cuts at ?
so yeah , I do believe there's something there .
I don't know what , I'm not an expert and it's obviously an opinion but yeah , well , I know there's been some distance , but at least what did you think of the actual smell ? Longevity aside , so somebody doesn't care about that it did smell good .
It was this really cool woodsy type of vibe and I did really like it and I actually got somebody smelling they . They liked it as well , but it was .
It did feel like a skin scent to me I think that there are other niche fragrances probably for a decent price , yeah that are similar to that , that I think you could get away with , just going the difference in the route . I think I kept seeing like andy tower and stuff like that as well you kept mentioning that .
yeah , like so like a big andy , like that as well . Yeah , you kept mentioning that . Yeah , like a big Andy Tower fanboy .
Well , compared to that , I remember that one was so loud . Yeah , you know the problem with the Tom Fords now is you kind of run out of you know runway , if we're going to keep the airplane analogies going . Yeah , it's a skip . Yeah , I'm with you . I think it's a skip too .
It's a skip , because if it was really strong enough to be a sample , I'd be like hey , that's a good thing , go sample it , because you may like it . I just feel like it's kind of you know .
Yeah , look , we're not going to like just completely slurp off a Tom Ford just because it's brand new . No , you know , you can trust this guys .
Now let into today's fragrance , because I'm really excited about this . It's brand new . Yeah , you're taking pictures at the photo booth there , beautiful red kajal shimmering .
Yes photo booth . Yeah , they've started doing that . I think the last two years they've done that I liked it .
It was really cool . I liked uh , they got your opinion on it . Posted that that was cool .
Yeah , I did . That was my first instagram live I've ever done really with .
I was with them . Yeah Well , dang gum . They popped your cherry on that . Huh , cherry almond . Let's smell it . It's a brand new fragrance and we're going to open this package up , look at the bottle , smell this bad boy ,
¶ Scent of the Day: Ruby
and then later on we're going to tell you who won this thing . Oh baby , you want to do the honors ? You go ahead . Okay , get ready for the ASMR part of the show .
Okay , this is the exciting part about opening . A Kajal is always a presentation . They go all out , out , wow that is pretty .
It is a ruby red bottle and it has little . What would you call that ? I mean they're ruby-ish . I know they're probably not real rubies , or this would cost a fuck ton no , I think they're real rubies actually , right ? No , do not say that , but it does look really cool .
I've always been a fan of their bottle caps , just because I don don't know , it's just kind of intricate and something new and different .
It's something that's like very authentic to them . Yeah , very much so . Nobody goes like , oh , that bottle looks like so-and-so's brand . No , Kajal doesn't look like anybody else .
No , it doesn't ? It's really cool , man , and let's smell this bad boy .
I'm freaking pumped or bad girl . So we've got to hit the listeners to a little secret . What's the secret ? I tested you yesterday . I lied to you Really and I loved lying to you .
Ryan , really Okay , that's great , I'm glad you love being deceitful towards me , your best friend , apparently .
I didn't actually lie , but what I did was I was like I'm going to catch Ryan and see if he actually likes his fragrance . I'm going to test him to see if he's just a Kajal fanboy or if he really likes this fragrance . Okay , so I sprayed Ruby on a tester strip and you went off . I don't know what you were doing .
You're out in the world exploring things . You come back to the studio and I had sprayed it like 15 , 20 minutes before that , yeah , and I go hey , what do you think about this ? You know what is this and you get it and I don't say anything . I just let you smell it . I want to hear your reaction .
I didn't want to preface it , you know , because we love Kajal . So I didn't want to tell you it was a Kajal , because then I thought , just in case him going oh , it's Kajal , I better like this because they've done so much for us . So I'm just like just tell me what it is , it's just something , it's just something from the bag of goodies .
And you smell it and you go oh my God , this is gorgeous .
Yeah , that was actually the exact words I used . It's really gorgeous .
Yeah .
So no , lies it . Now it's smelling a little different because it's actually first rip here . Yeah , but it is definitely a unique scent . This smells really good . It was loud yesterday or the other day . Yeah , it's loud today . Oh , they're so loud . I'm saying this , but it's not a bad thing here .
Mm-hmm , is this the first cherry almond thing we've ever smelled before that I can think of ?
Hmm .
Good question . I think we've smelled maybe some cherry but not cherry almond . But I think we smelled something maybe some cherry but not cherry almond . But I think we smelled something like a Guerlain Home IDL or whatever the hell it was at time .
Oh , or Heritage , was it ?
Heritage . I think that one's supposed to have like a cherry one . That's been a long time ago Maybe , so yeah , but I can kind of see where somebody would think cough syrup a little bit .
I'm not really .
I'm not getting that , though . Specifically , I'm actually getting more . God , should I say this I actually like these things . There's a certain kind of almost like candy , like a lozenge , yeah , but they're . They're not like the hauls , they're not crazy , you know . Oh , it's like luden's cherry .
Yeah , yeah , they're sweet , very sweet . It's like a piece of candy .
Basically , yes , basically , yeah , it's more of that route , but then it's immediately that I guess that fruit part is kind of like softening up and what's under here is really soft and gorgeous .
Right . So I think dumplings is right then , and I don't know if this is what happens with that combo . There is a certain medicinal quality to it . This is what I say whenever I smell it for the Instagram live , because they're like we want your first impressions , okay .
So I'm smelling it and the first thing I get is it's like a sweet red fruit yeah , I don't know any of the notes at the time . And then I was like and there's this medicinal quality , that one , I think , cuts it from being too sweet , I agree , and then also it makes it kind of addictive to smell .
I remember going like I can't stop smelling this whenever I did the live . Yeah , because I'd take it away from my nose and I'd be talking about it and then I'd immediately want to smell it again and keep bringing it back up , and I was like I can't stop smelling this thing .
And I think typically , when we smell sweet fragrances or fruity fragrances , they lean really sweet and I like that . There's a little bit more attitude to this . There's a little bit more bite to it with that sort of , like you said , that kind of medicinal type smell in there .
That kind of makes it more palatable and not so like sickly sweet it's really good , like seriously really good .
I don't know if this is a bad complaint , but the only hang up and I may be skipping ahead too far here , stop me if I am is the demographic I think this is for no go into . Okay , so obviously , mike's over milan enjoying the fucking time of his life . Of course I'm . I'm just over here , sappy Ryan .
Your choice . It was your decision .
But we did get a chance to talk briefly a couple of times and one of them , when you were talking about smelling this , the first thing he says I think it's kind of feminine yeah , for sure , not as a bad thing , just like you think it leans , more feminine .
And so when I smelled it the other other day , the first thing I said was obviously I was like , wow , this is really gorgeous fragrance . And then you said what it was and after our you know we had that conversation said , yeah , I agree this is . It may be unisex , but I definitely think it's more feminine , leaning for sure .
And the fact that it came out on Valentine's Day kind of makes sense because , let's just be real , valentine's is for the ladies , not for the man .
Yeah , it's for us to shower others with gifts , exactly , which is fun . Yeah , it's always nice to give someone you love something special . Yeah , like I don't know Chocolates or something . I'm smelling a fragrance right now .
Speaking of chocolates , guys , let me tell you about old chocolatier boy over here . Oh yeah , he comes back . He brings a little bit of chocolate , mm-hmm , he makes me try one , and he's like I watched the fucking chocolatier himself .
I didn't say that . I said you can watch him make it .
Well , yeah , he said you can watch the chocolatier himself freaking , make these freaking things , and he got me to try one that was rose , and what else ? Raspberry .
Yeah Well , I was guessing on the raspberry , but it had rose in the name . My Italian sucks guys , so it's like trying to break it down . I have no clue .
Let me tell you , though legitimately , just straight up I'm not crazy about just eating a chocolate by itself . It's usually a chocolate chip cookie , yes , but hands down , the best chocolate I've ever put in my mouth , that rose vibe to it was was insane , so I screwed up .
Last year I didn't do it , but the year before as well , I brought back chocolates from italy , yeah , and we had a moment where we were trying them and talking about it and so , yeah , I I feel like that's a great tradition that needs to kind of happen . But I find it so interesting , especially over there , because I don't really see it .
We have a local candy shop that you can go in and they actually make the candy back there and they make the chocolates and stuff too , which is great , but they're not as artistic as it is over there . And to have these rose notes and stuff like that in the actual food , it does make it interesting .
And I just remember tasting it and going like this is the first time I've really tasted rose in a candy , 100% , and really liked it . And it actually connects to Kajal because , remember , that's where Mo started . Yeah , mo started on the culinary side and got interested in it , and I think the two go hand in hand . They absolutely do .
In fact , if you lose your sense of smell and you become anosmic we've talked about this before . That's what happened to the Ben and Jerry's guy yeah , then you don't have a taste . Yeah , this has to correspond with your taste buds .
So I'm tasting this chocolate that he brought and I'm literally going . This tastes like some fragrances we've smelled . Yeah , exactly , it was intense , it was easily just straight up chocolate by itself , the best chocolate I've ever had . And it was also .
The texture was perfect , right , yes , but I will say they don't call them turtles here , because apparently we found out that oh , that's owned by Russell Stover . Yeah , but they have these things called caramel rounds here that are giant chocolate , on one side , big gob of caramel and then on top of that huge fucking Pecan , pecan Like half-holed pecans on it .
And they're goddamn ridiculous . They are , and so is his fragrance . Let me tell you the notes , since we have been talking about notes a little bit here . Top notes , which is strange . I didn't get this Pineapple . Do you get that any ? Huh ?
I don't get that at all . I wonder if that's like kind of connecting the house with Lamar .
Maybe , but it's pineapple , cherry , red berries , coconut I actually do get coconut and almond I do get that as well . Middle notes are brown sugar , whipped cream , ice cream , and then base notes are amber , tonka , bean , musk , vanilla and benzenoin .
That's interesting . I really want to continue to wear this and smell it . I did not spray it on skin in Milan . One of the reasons is I didn't have any more places on my skin to spray anything and plus I just kept wearing I can over and over and over again .
We just posted a picture with all the stuff that you brought back in that one and another one where people want to know what that smells like . And guess what they're going to find out today ? Because we're going to be doing a special bonus episode for the patron of I Can't After this , yeah , and giving away that bottle .
And then meeting up with George Zaharoff and he asked me . He said , hey , is there anything in the line that you haven't smelled , that you want to smell ? And I said I would like to smell Coco Loco . I haven't got to smell it yet , but that's what I've been really interested about .
Yeah , so he immediately got on his phone and shot us samples of everything he makes . So we have all those as well .
Somebody's gonna get those , yeah , the whole line , the whole fucking line . You get to test it . Yeah , after we test . Yeah , we're gonna take about 75 out of it . Now , I'm kidding , but this is really . It dries down really soft and beautiful .
It's very beautiful . That's kind of where you got into it . You know , 20 , 30 minutes in when you smelled the tester that I had sprayed this fragrance is . It's not for everybody , because it really is strong in one direction , but we ask for this all the time . We ask for a fragrance that has a strong identity .
We don't need the generic designer type things anymore . Take a chance . Yeah , we need something that speaks to a small demographic of people .
Yeah .
That makes it where it's like . Oh , this smells like you , right ? This is what we're always hunting after . We even had a Patreon say that , that they're giving themselves till 2016 , 2017 , something like that to find their signature fragrance 2016 ?
You mean 2026 ? Yeah , oh my .
God , where am I Still working out the lack of sleep ? Goodness gracious , I just took away a decade there . I'm sure we'd all like that , yeah , giving himself the next uh , one or two years to find a signature scent . Then he said he's getting rid of his whole collection and he's just going to commit .
Yeah , I think he goes by wild card that's right yeah , he is the wild one of the bunch . It looks like so far we got our eyes on you , buddy .
So that's kind of the thing , though , with this is like it's so strong in its own personality . It could be that one fragrance you find that you go . If this is you , you go . This is me
¶ Price and Popularity
price and popularity .
For 100 ml , this bad boy right here , $252 . That's a great price , not bad .
Not bad Retail . I mean that at retail for a niche fragrance . Again , we talk about this all the time . Sub 300 is the way to be .
Yeah , you got designers trying to be like that price . Yeah , you know what I'm saying . So , yeah , good deal on that Popularity . And I think it's just because it's new . It hasn't had a lot of votes yet , but it's 3.27 out of 5 , 15 votes only on Free Grant today . I mean , it's brand fucking new . Yeah , it's not even two weeks old .
Yeah , I can smell the coconut a lot actually I feel like it's that and some cream thing going down . It has whipped cream in it . It says , yeah , the fruit part is like after that initial burst , which is the strongest part , but after that kind of cools down , you kind of got that very light fruit .
But it's mostly to me like coconut and like a cream , maybe the little ice cream kind of vibe going on , which , admittedly , I guess that leans towards a gourmand . So it'd be hard for me to wear personally .
Yeah , I'm not going to peg this as you , ryan , it's not because it is to me . In my opinion , it's so feminine , which is not a bad thing . It's also slightly on the mature side , I feel , because it's sharp and less sweet , yeah , which is good . We kind of need that .
Most people making fruity fragrances are making them hyper sweet , which to me says youthful , like a younger sort of audience .
Well , flesh it out . Who do you think is actually ? Who's the prototypical , as you would like to say , avatar for this ?
fragrance right here , I think it's going to be 35 and up . Okay , and someone , male or female , that leans really heavy into feminine fragrances ? Gotcha , yeah , that wants the softer side you don't want it to be . I don't know that this is masculine at all .
Yeah , it does say that it is unisex , but I definitely think it is . If you're looking at a thing going , you know tilting , it is more feminine .
Yeah , and that's okay If that's your route . I think that you're going to find fragrances like this and you're going to be like , oh perfect .
Is this for a dressed up occasion ? Is this an everyday wear ? Is this office friendly ?
I think it's office and out yeah , I don't think it's like everyday , probably not spraying it on to go to the store , unless that's your personality . Yeah , that's your personality . Yeah , if you're dressing up to you know , go to target , yeah , then splash it on .
But this to me is there's an elegance to it that I don't know that you're walking around in sweat pants and smelling like this yeah , I think , yeah , yeah , I'm with you on that but I do think it's beautiful and I would like to smell it on a woman absolutely .
It is really a gorgeous scent . I think whoever gets this is gonna fucking love this . Yeah , and that person is denise . That's right , denise . You've been a patron for a while yeah , our little cowgirl out there . Yes , ma'am and uh , we are gonna give this to you . I think you will enjoy this . I really do . It's very unique .
And uh , thank you for being a patron . If you want to be like denise , become a patron . But , mike , are you gonna skip it ?
sample it or buy it . What are you
¶ Skip it, Sample it, or Buy it?
going to do , Ryan ?
Well , mike , for me I hate to say this it's like I can't technically say sample for me because it's not something I would personally wear . Right , it's a sample out there for somebody else . It's a skip for me personally , but it's a sample out there If you want to try something unique . It definitely is gorgeous , it is definitely feminine .
A young lady wearing this , I'm telling you , this smells really good from a guy's perspective here , but personally , it's a skip , yeah , I would say I'm probably leaning in a similar vein , although what I need to do is just try it , yeah , and wear it .
And here's why Chris had a couple of his normal dude bro friends come out on a trip as well , which is what I wanted you to do , but no big deal . One of them was Ben , and he was able to secure a Zerjoff . You got a full bottle . We'll be doing an episode on it .
Okay , when I smelled this fragrance initially thought , oh , this is because for the ladies , yeah . But he wore it a few nights and it wore really well on him , and so sometimes I may be writing things off , going oh , it's too feminine , without actually trying at first to just see what is . What are people going to say if I wear it ?
Yeah , and then maybe they go , oh , I like that smell on you . I don't really know what it is or how it dries down , because you know nine times out of ten , me and you can spray something on our skin , it's gonna smell different on you than me .
So I do think I need to be trying fragrances that I would write off , initially going it smells beautiful , but it's not for me . And if I think it smells really good , then maybe just give it a shot . So maybe I I'm going to say sample on this , but I'm right for you .
My initial brain reaction to it was this is not really the type of fragrance I'd wear . However , I really like it and I do think you should get out there and try it if it sounds like something you'd be into .
Absolutely . And just to let you know , Denise , he's not going to be spraying from this . You actually brought home some travel atomizers of it .
Yeah , and we'll be giving those away as well to other patrons . So we have two travel atomizers of this that we will be giving away , but we also have samples from Kajal and that's what we'll be using . So this will be full bottle , full presentation for Denise .
Also , denise , just a heads up . You're going to get to sample the other latest , kajal Lamar Noir . We're going to send that with this , that's right . Well , he's officially back . Guys , you have to bear with us . We may have to get our swimming legs back under us over here Right . But it's good to have you back . I'm glad you're able to take this trip .
Thank you to Kajal for making that happen as well , yeah , and for giving us some great fragrances to check out . 100% . Guys , we seriously love you all . We're glad you've been going on this journey with us , for is this year four now ?
Yes , so this is year four of the podcast , and , man , you guys have constantly showed us love , constantly showed up , and that you guys have constantly showed us love , constantly showed up , and that's what we're trying to do for you guys . I know we missed this last week because Mike was over in Milan . My bad , he's back . I would do it again .
Yeah , he would love to neglect all you guys . Yeah , but seriously , thank you all , because without you the listeners , first and foremost none of this would be possible for us or for Mike , and so a big thank you to all you guys and , as well , thank you to Kajal .
And until next time , spray it up y'all .