Galaor

Galaor, from the Lubin Aristia Collection, is my fourth try from the collection. Like Gajah Mada, I’d primarily describe it as a “sweet and spicy” balance, but with the smell of the outdoors as well as some foody ingredients, a similar bit of a “marketplace” vibe. It’s sweeter than Gajah Mada, though. It’s primarily a mix of cinnamon, Peruvian balsam, myrrh, rose, patchouli, and citruses. Galaor is similar, in some ways, to Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb, Initio Rehab, and other familiar sweet/spicy/smooth/powdery-type options, but has its own character that leans on the cinnamon and resins, more so, than, say, pepper, not present in Galaor but a part of some fragrances of this ilk. It has nuances while not reinventing the wheel, feeling familiar, in a way, but still providing some intrigue and mystery. I feel that it’s very well executed. Like the rest of the Aristia Collection, Galaor performs very well comes in parfum concentration and is priced at $290 for 100ml, sold only at select boutiques like Perfumology. Overall, a strong entry in the line, my favorite so far, though I’ve still two more to sample. 8 out of 10

I got a carded sample of this recently and it was chosen as my scent of the day yesterday. It's a nice enough fragrance but honestly, to my nose, it smelled very, very similar to a much, much less expensive fragrance. It smells like the original Zippo for men. After I sprayed on Galaor and allowed it to dry down, I was struck by the smell, and I knew I had smelled something very, very similar before and then it hit me. The price of Galaor is $400 CAD and the price of Zippo for men is $20. There's really not enough of a difference in the two for me to justify paying $400 for Galaor. The performance of the two is even similar. I got 4-5 hours longevity, no sillage, no projection. It became almost an instant skin scent. There was nothing outstanding about Galaor. It's such a shame that a company can release something at such a price point when there are similar things out there that have similar performance but at a fraction of the cost. Zippo came out many years ago, so Zippo isn't the copycat. The only thing that's special about Galaor is the full bottle presentation, which is beautiful but it's really all about the juice and this stuff is just not worth the hefty price tag, in my opinion. Scent : 6/10 Longevity : 5/10 Projection : 4/10 Sillage : 3/10 Overall : extremely disappointing Final thoughts ... Don't believe me. Try Zippo for men and Galaor side by side and you'll see exactly what I mean. Even though both fragrances boast different note breakdowns, the two smell almost identical. Very disappointing as I enjoy many of Lubin's offerings but this is just a niche version of a $20 cheapie that doesn't break any new ground. Definitely not worth the price tag.

Underwhelming and very basic start with an unexpected Fougere like nice dry down. I already forgot if the start was Amber like (I am testing perfumes every 2-3 hours since last few days, so I will update this if I spray it on me again) So far probably I wouldn’t buy it!

After citrusy opening, pretty well balanced very nice minty myrrh rose heart. Balsamic patchouli vetiver base is fine but nothing special. Gajah Mada is much more interesting.