Salt & Pepper

Alright, someone's gotta be held responsible for the audacious gatekeeping of maybe the best fragrance that exists. Before I get into the heart of this thing, I can not believe how broken some of you people's noses must be to not understand how out of control incredibly amazing this juice is right here. I have been doing this for a long time. I'm not a noob, and I'm sure as hell no shill, and I have smelled virtually every popular designer scent you could name or some flanker of them as well as many many niche fragrances. I'm here to tell you right now, if you put off testing this stuff and don't believe what I'm telling you, you will regret it in an insane way later on. Dramatic? Bet your ass, because I have straight up wasted my time and money on fresh scents and all manner of hyped things that turned out seeming generic and fell flat in the end. Yes, this stuff is expensive, but if your goal is to get the best there is and save money by taking a short cut in your interminable trial and error, just give this grey juice a sniff. It performs as well as anyone could possibly want it to also. It's detectable from great distance, leaves a phenomenal sillage, and is very durable and lasts so long I'm flat out astonished. It will project for 8 hours on my skin, and I can't think of many fragrances that I actually enjoy in the slightest that will do that. People who say they can't smell it need to either get a second opinion to see if they got a bunk batch or something, or they need medical attention. Seriously. There are a few things I can compare it to, and it is going to sound completely stupid. To me, this stuff smells EXACTLY like what Aventus was trying to be mixed with what Acqua di Gio dreams every night of becoming. It is surprisingly citrus forward even as it dries down, but in a dark and masculine, sort of musky way, the way people describe Aventus's musk as smoky sometimes, only so much higher quality that you just have to try it to understand. When you catch a whiff of it, it isn't blatantly apparent, but the citrus, greens, and musks used are as important to the composition as the pepper that everyone is talking about. It definitely leans more toward the ADG side of things overall with the pepper, but it is so much better that I feel bad even comparing it. If you want the closest possible picture of the scent profile via a(n overly simplistic) comparison to something you have probably smelled, Acqua di Gio Profumo or Parfum is definitely it, but again, this is like comparing a cartoon of a pretty lady to staring into the eyes of the love of your life. The people saying the word sauvage must be 19 years old and didn't spend their lives smelling ADG every damn day 😂 because this has virtually nothing in common with sauvage in the actual smelling. Its characteristics overall (not that it smells even very similar) could be compared with Kalan, in that it is slightly on the dry, peppery, fresh side of things, but not at all to the point of Kalan where you might want to cough. Makes sense, because women seem to really like Kalan even though men don't as much, similar to S&P. Kalan might be a little insane, especially in the opening, but the deeper drydown and sillage at times are to freaking die for. Like, best on earth. Great bang per buck too with its strong performance. That's one to try if you want a nice unique one that is slept on like crazy and has a dry peppery but slightly citrusy profile to it. I will expand on all of this at a later time, but believe me when I tell you (I'm looking at you, people buying niche fragrances for 250-350 a bottle retail and things like Aventus 😭 what a tragedy) this stuff is not prohibitively expensive for what it is if you get the 40 bucks discount or better, especially. I'm not ruining my review by hooking up some influencer, but you can figure it out. I'm not exactly poor, and I'm not exactly rich, but I am going to buy as much of this as I can afford while I can. The stuff is great for layering too, so feel free to get creative with it and combine things to extend the life of your bottle. You could wear it with anything else, honestly. It's that versatile. I tend to do CH Men, just because I like that sort of leather and sweetness. CH Men Hot Hot Hot is pretty slept on, too, and is still cheap so I'd try that one out before it becomes unobtainable. There's more to say, but it is downright criminal that such an exquisite masterpiece as this, the ultimate world-class state of the art must suffer the slings of sauvage comparisons from such a bunch of anosmic coal-nosed stoners 😂 I'm sorry, I'm just joking around and couldn't help myself, but I'm dead serious 🤣😉 it does blow me away how this can be so subjective if all the shit-talkers are being sincere. You just have to sample this stuff. That's it. And not just yourself, share it with your girl or friends who have the noses that you apparently do not possess if you're writing a review that says "I can't smell it." Just 😵💫 You've gone straight out of your tree, my son. I'll expand on all this later, but if you are looking for the end-all be-all of safe, mass appealing scents for any dude AND THEN SOME, I'm here to tell you that this is it right here. Believe it. And one more thing. With my first bottle of Salt & Pepper, they sent me little sprayer samples of what seems to be every single fragrance in their collection, 15 of them :^° like freaking whatt?are you kidding me? If that's not a classy bonus for the ages, no such thing exists. Freaking epic beyond all reason. I'll be testing and hopefully liking those. The packaging, box and bottle are also absolutely top-notch. The stuff will catch on eventually, even at its price if it sticks around. I pray to the Lord that it does, because by the time it's gone I'll be done with this place lol. As Chris Farley once said, in the land of the skunks, the man with half a nose is king. Stay fresh ya skunks ✌🏻

My frame of reference for this "review" is Hacivat, closest thing I can compare it to. That spiky pepper and woody undertone (not the oakmoss) you get from Hacivat is basically what this fragrance is all about, but it dives DEEP into it. Luxuriously rich peppers complimented by the subtle nuances of the other listed notes. For example, I'm not really getting any detectable bergamot but I absolutely get the bright olfactory sensation when smelling this. There are absolutely no actual woods in this but you feel like you're smelling a freshly cut tree or something (not that I've ever smelled it, but to my imagination). One would imagine a fragrance like this to have a bunch of peppers and different kinds of cedars and such, but the olibanum they use here is clearly of a great level of quality. Either that or the patchouli and violet leaf just compliment it that well to paint that picture. You would expect this to be super spicy and potentially close to choking levels of dry but it's actually a very rich composition. A must-own after trying a sample. When I finally get this, it'll definitely be at the top of my collection. This is absolutely a modern classic fragrance, on par with those like platinum egoiste. I really hope this isn't genuinely a limited fragrance, I can easily see this being a flagship to put the company in the spotlight. I had a stronger reaction to this sample than I did to the full Parfums De Marly discovery set, and they have some real hard hitters in there. But this... the versatility, scent profile, and performance make this a perfect fragrance in my eyes. Simple enough to be layered with so many other different scent profiles but bold enough to make a complete statement on its own. Leans slightly more mature but not at all exclusionary in terms of age. You just definitely wanna have some maturity in your personality to match the well-composed man that this fragrance describes. If you like simplicity taken to a level that makes you want to go look at the definition of the word, this is for you. It's as if someone gathered the rarest paints in the world and decided to paint a circle with them. Just a circle. But the paint is so vivid and well blended, you just want to keep looking at it and studying the decisions they made while composing it. How they made the purple blend with the yellow so seamlessly, like a gradient. It's a simple fragrance in terms of its direction being highly versatile. You won't find anything that leans you any particular way, especially seasonally. Unless you just find spices to only be good during those seasons, that is. This is Aventus 2 imo, and not in terms of smell at all. I mean in terms of its attractiveness, confidence boosting, and appeal. Doesn't have the citruses that attract most people to Aventus but I feel with how many people wear citrusy fragrances regularly (myself included), something like this will stand out the way Aventus did back in the day.

So, this is very peppery. Somehow aromatic as well. I do like it a lot. Got a 2 ml sample after Melissa from (melissanacional9662) and Justin Copeland (stayfreshproductions) heavily recommended. Try it at the office for 2 straight days and deffently it will get you notice. You might need to adjust the sprays because it might get too loud for some people if it's used indoors. Great scent trail, and girls do like it more than men's. Deffently sample it first. It might be a bit strong for some people. If younoverspray like me, after 8 hours you will still get a little whifs. I have been reading that smells like Sauvage, but not at all. For me, it's way better than Sauvage. Will be on the lockout for a deal because right now is very pricey.

Salt & Pepper I was a bit skeptical of this at first as I am not a big fan of immediate pepper hits in fragrances.... But luckily this sucker is smooth from the get go. Not metallic like Sauvage but definitely fits into that category of blue freshies but at a higher quality in my opinion. Due to the price point it may be worth sampling for some but there is always a discount. Also since I ordered direct samples were thrown in of their other fragrances and I am definitely impressed. One last note...my business partner smelled me from over 10 ft away outside our office....4 hrs in. So even though I thought it had went away, it pushes hard. Still on skin after a shower and walk after work, 10 hours after spraying.

This has mass appeal but smells nothing like the fragrances in the smells like section, maybe achieving the same thing I guess? Fragrantica needs to add the new fragrances from this line because there are some great scents coming from this house. Id say get your nose on this before you skip it because someone added Dylan blue and Sauvage to the smells like section. Those scents are okay but this needs a wear for you to figure out they are miles apart. Salt N' pepper isn't my favorite but it’s got me some crazy compliments to the point I was surprised, pleasantly. For niche lovers that may not be the point but what’s achieved is a special balance of mass appeal and complexity. Good stuff.