Shaquille O’Neal

I've had this Shaquille O'neal fragrance around a week now, and have been able to spend some time with it. Haven't yet seen an official review, so figured I'd be the first. To my nose, this immediately smelled familiar, yet not necessarily like anything that is currently trending on the market... What it smelled most similar to is the original John Varvatos fragrance (Silver top, black gloss bottle, black leather wrap with silver John Varvatos on the front). I was able to pick up on this as JV has been one of my signature scents for 10+ years. JV is an amber, woody, vanilla, slightly fruity, slightly leathery, yet somehow clean and professional scent. This felt very close to that, only perhaps a little spicier in scent profile. That was until I had the chance to smell the brand new John Varvatos XX Elixir just yesterday. If you haven't gotten your nose on that, forget the note breakdown on it's fragrantica profile. It's also the original John Varvatos, only made a little more robust, spicier and slightly boozy (a very good fragrance also)... THIS smells almost exactly like THAT. The resemblance is uncanny. And if I can trail off a tad, what's even more - and this is what causes me to wear the tin foil hat in the fragrance world - is that both of these scents are released around a week apart from one another. The scent profile is very similar. And then if you look at each bottle, right down to the color profile is the same. It literally smells like they just switched bottles, and the only difference aside from name and bottle design, is one fragrance is $165 for a 2.5oz at Macy's, and the other is $55 for a 4.2oz at JCPenney. Back to Shaquille O'neal. The performance is decent for what it is at around 6hrs longevity and projection at an arms length for the first couple hours before it settles to a noticeable skin scent. Can't really complain for $55 retail. The quality is tremendous, and honestly, this fragrance is better than it had any right to be, in my humble opinion. I chuckled at first when I saw the Shaq kiosk set up at JCP promoting this scent... I thought to myself, "Well, let's go see what Shaq has cooked up now!" As someone who seems to have his hand in many business ventures, this off the rip just felt like another celebrity cash grab...Boy was I wrong. I immediately placed a bottle on the purchasing counter. First time I'd ever done that... I chuckled at that too. For a celebrity scent, this may be the best I've come across. It does truly smell the way he promotes it in the ads and write ups. It smells like luxury at an affordable price. It's classy, it's mature, well put together... It doesn't follow any mainstream trends. This could have a major designer label, be sold at Dillard's and Macy's for $130+ and people would buy it, and influencers would likely serve it up as some new hype. Yet, it's $55 at JCPenney. What a great fragrance. Shaq and his partners did a fantastic job. Definitely get your nose on this!

To preface, my diverse collection has switched up vastly over the past several years and I don’t often make reviews or comparisons unless they resonate significantly in my mind/olfactory memory. I generally only type about scents that I either own, or am firm in my familiarity with before making a distinct comparison. Anyway, I’d assume that not too many of the newer folks have had the privilege to get their nose on some highly regarded previous releases which have since been discontinued but THIS smells right up the alley of CH Men Prive. Actually, even that seems as if I’m diminishing this juice’s quality... it smells EXACTLY like CH Men Prive! (maybe a tad lighter? 🤷♂️😅 I think I’m more-so saying that in an attempt to try and separate them, It’s like I want to point out some key differences between these two but it’s now at a point where I’m confident that even the most serious “it’s CH Men Prive or NOTHING 🙅♂️😤” type of person would be pretty satisfied with this.) This has to be what Shaq EDT was going for, I mean It’s so similar that I’m surprised there isn’t at least ONE ☝🏼 comparison in the ‘reminds me of’ section; The note breakdowns are reminiscent of each other too; This absolutely has that same citric sort of boozy pop up-top that gets aromatic, wood-y ambery and slightly leathery in the dry down (and as someone who isn’t the typical fan of leather in scents, I still appreciate how well-blended this is, in a profound way.) I’ll put it like this; are you seeking CH Men Prive?— whether it be for trying not to run thru the supply you have, looking for backups, or even if you’re totally unfamiliar and just curious to know what this hidden gem scent profile smells like, I seriously recommend you consider Shaq EDT and don’t waste your time and $$ chasing discontinued bottles of CH Men Prive. Especially for the discounted rates that this can be had for too, AND Shaq EDT comes in a 125ml presentation instead of the typical 100ml! That extra 25ml almost feels like the Shaquille O’Neal stamp of approval (with how well known he is for tying his name to offering things that offer affordability without sacrificing quality.) I mean you can grab a few Shaq bottles for what you’d get the CH for and you can spray to your heart’s content. At least an 8/10 in my book. Well executed, great value, has an alluring adddictive quality, even signature scent worthy. Not particularly beast mode, but the scent does linger through a full work day. Unless you know that you completely dislike CH Men Prive, I don’t think you can go wrong. Got mine for $20, surely in my top 10 of 100’s of ‘cheapie’ grabs. For a first signature scent release, this is seriously good stuff!

I’m actually very curious about this one, $55 at MSRP??!!?? Yeah, gotta grab it....

At first spray into the first 45 minutes or so of this fragrance's life, myself and my family really disliked it. I usually love grapefuit, but for whatever reason the grapefuit here alongside the pepper is a LOT, and it's bitter until the drydown stages. However, once this mellows out it doesn't even resemble the opening whatsoever. Most fragrances aren't linear, but this is one of the most morphing fragrances I've experienced in recent history! I didn't anticipate it turning quite as sweet as it does. It's a tad masculine, but this is smooth enough, warm enough, and definitely weet enough to be worn by either gender (I believe in wearing whatever you want regardless). I could happily find myself in this any day! The amber is really quite lovely, and the suede is tastefully placed within the bed of vanillic tonka. Pleasant stuff, truly! I didn't plan to try this today, but I'm glad I did.

I am buying 2, just cause it most likely will be discontinued.