Heavens, no! Creed is an esteemed perfume house that dates back to the late 1700s in England. They are truly masters of their craft. Nothing to do with the squeezin's you mention.
(First time reading through this thread) Do you have a minute to give us a run down on the basics of appreciating fragrance? I personally have become a Givenchy man, specifically π (pi). I find that using a consistent scent helps people remember me. http://www.parfumsgivenchy.com/
Ahh, excellent choice. It is indeed wonderful to have a signature scent. My rule is to first and foremost to wear what you like. I read a lot of posts about people who buy expensive niche perfume and then spend all this time trying to force themselves to appreciate it. What the hell is the point of that? So they can brag that they're wearing the most expensive couture perfume? Bah. Likewise, there are people who disparage certain brands as inferior, when other folks really enjoy the scent.
As a nerd, I enjoy breaking things down and seeing how they tick. I think that perfume as a hobby is similar to being a connoisseur of wine or Scotch. You learn how it's made, you learn about the raw ingredients or varietals that are involved, and then you learn about all the different notes.
Take a trip to the department store. Don't necessarily listen to what the sales associates tell you, for the most part they just know what the company reps tell them. If they're good, you can tell them about a certain scent you enjoy and they can recommend others for you to try. Givenchy has made other variations on the Pi theme, such as Pi Fraiche. There are multiple fragrance families, for men the usual breakdowns are marine/aquatic/fresh, aromatic/woodsy, and spicy/oriental.
Some others that I think you might enjoy, all of them you should be able to find at a regular department store except the Creed:
M7 by Yves Saint Laurent, this was a perfume that was designed by the same nez (nose or master perfumer) who created Pi, his name is Alberto Morillas. This is a cross between aromatic/woodsy and oriental, and it's incredibly sexy. There is a famous ingredient called oud/oudh/aoud, also known as agarwood. It is hugely popular in Arabian perfumery. M7 has oud but it is tempered with other notes.
Green Irish Tweed by Creed, this is an iconic aquatic that spawned a million knockoffs, most notably Cool Water by Davidoff. I personally hate Cool Water...and GIT is easily twice the price...but it's fun to compare the two. Creed perfumes are made with natural ingredients as opposed to synthetics. Cool Water and many of the other aquatics contain the repulsive Calone 1951 synthetic compound, which is used to give a "marine" smell. It burns my nose and I hate it, but many people like it. Acqua di Gio also contains massive amounts of Calone. Yuck.
Bulgari Black (also spelled Bvlgari), this one is smoky and unique. It might be classified as an oriental? I'm not sure.
Vetiver by Gurelain. (aromatic/woodsy, vetiver is a tree-like shrub) I adore vetiver and this is a classic, yet still smells "modern" and fresh.
There are tons more, but give those a try. Sniff them from the bottle or on a tester strip, do not let an overzealous sales associate spray you with anything - only apply a perfume/cologne to your skin if you've narrowed down your choices to two (one per wrist). There are so many wonderful colognes out there, and I LOVE it when men wear judicious amounts of cologne. I still get a little weak in the knees when I smell certain colognes like Aspen, Polo, or Safari because various former crushes of mine wore them.
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Topic: Fragrance, my latest geeky hobby (Read 27408 times)