[Dr.Brian]

This topic came up about a year ago, and it dawned on me that I should probably expand my humble fragrance collection a bit and see what is out there.
I, like many of my generation, graduated from good old RL Polo in high school to L'Eau d' Issey. I had another that I wore frequently, a nice marine scent, but I cannot remember what it was. For the last 10-15 years I've been stuck on Hermes l'Eau d'Orange Vert, which is absolutely magnificent but sadly very, very short lived, and Hermes Rocabar, which has a nice gingery spicy vibe and is heavier and longer lived on my skin.
For months I would wander into one of the high end department stores sampling a few at a time, slowly trying different designer and niche scents, then 2 things happened. I found Basenotes and fragrantica, which are websites with thousands of reviews and notes on pretty much everything out there, and discovered that there are reputable decant shops which will sell you reasonably priced samples of hundreds of fragrances. So for around two hundred dollars, the price of a nice bottle of cologne, you can sample dozens of expensive colognes from the best noses in the business and really get to know what they're about over several wearings. There are also a number of good you tube video reviewers who regularly post reviews of fragrances.
I like some of what Creed has to offer, particularly Green Irish Tweed, but many of their fragrances use ambergris in the base notes, which is fine until it's other more short lived notes fade, leaving what I perceive as a stale note on my skin. I really liked Bois du Portugal for example, but I can't stand the stale smell on my skin around 8 hours later, though I expect that it doesn't project at all at that point.