CKIN2U

(Update: I caught up to Liz and edited this post to include her comments below Sari's...)

This week's scent du jour is CKIN2U. It's a good thing we don't rate the names because I'm torn between considering that to be a bad license plate or some tweens phone-texting shorthand... but perhaps that's their target demographic.

Sari's first reaction was an immediate liking. She thinks this might be our first true bad boy cologne. Sari also thought it was more business than casual. I asked how it can be both business and bad boy and she claimed to envision a very assertive man wearing a nice suit. That's definitely a mental image I'd like to convey when trying to impress a woman. She described the scent as musky and a little powdery, but not sweet. I asked her where she might expect to buy such a cologne and she speculated an upscale department store. We had quite the discussion about which department stores were upscale and which weren't, but I won't burn any bridges by naming names here. I asked Sari what type of date it put her in the mood for and she picked dinner and a movie, but amended the scenario by specifying a very nice long dinner and maybe no movie. In other words, I think she's talking about a fancy high-class establishment, an excuse to wear that black dress with the heels... you know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah, this cologne is another winner. As a matter of fact, I'm heading out right after work and I'm going to wear this one tonight.

Liz's reactions were eerily exact matches of Sari's. She said it was familiar. Familiar good or familiar bad, I asked? Good she said, with a twinkle in her wide eyes. I asked her to describe the man she envisioned wearing it and she painted the picture of a clean-cut serious business man wearing a fine suit, just like Sari had done. I asked her how such a man could also be a bad boy and she explained that he's a lady killer. Liz continued to define her vision by explaining it was something an anchorman would wear; "the guy in the studio behind the desk, not the report," she clarified. Both ladies had such a strong and positive reaction to this cologne I think I'm going to order a crate of it!

Meet the Ladies, Part Two: Sari

Sari (rhymes with cherry) is the youngest member of the Stinky Chic Squad (I just made that up). And, as I alluded to earlier, she's the creative one. Perhaps some day soon (hint!) we'll be able to showcase her creativity with some spiffy graphics on this blog. Although Sari and I are natural mortal enemies - she attended University of Florida and I am a Florida State University alumnus - we have come to a mutual compromise of tolerance towards each other for the sake of the greater good: reviewing colognes.

Sari has a weakness for soft tacos and Starbucks, although she always seems to get tea there, never coffee, what's the deal with that? I promised her I wouldn't talk about her car being a graveyard of empty Starbucks cups, so I'm afraid you'll never get to know about that quirk.

You may thank Sari for this blog since she's the first one I pitched the idea to and she was so enthusiastic about it I just had to follow through. But then again, she's pretty enthusiastic about everything. I guess I should have taken that into consideration :-) Oh well. We're on this train now, and there's no getting off.

Like Liz, Sari isn't married (yet) and has no kids (yet). But, unlike Liz, I think Sari's a lot closer to those "yets" since she lives with her boyfriend. Having been there and done that, I've warned both ladies, and Annette would back me up, but this isn't our bio, so I wont get into that ;-)


We'll have a new review up this week, and if you look back at the old reviews you'll see I've added some photographs of the bottles.

Dolce & Gabbana: Light Blue For Men

This week's scent is Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue. Annette was with me when I picked this one out, and the reason I picked it is because it was a tie for her favorite that day, so there's no need to interview her on this one. Liz and Sari, however, had to succumb to my interrogation.

Liz declared the scent to be sweet and kind of flowery, while Sari insisted it was definitely fruity and reminded her of melon and apple. Liz claimed it made her think of a "happy place." When I asked them, "Surfer or CEO?" Liz chose surfer and Sari chose CEO. Both agreed it was a ladies man rather than family man fragrance, and both agreed it was nice guy rather than bad boy. I'm not sure how ladies man and nice guy go together, but who am I to judge? :-) I asked them what sort of date it reminded them of. Liz chose a walk on the beach and Sari decided on dinner and a movie. Liz added that it reminded her of the classic movie cliche where are man and woman are running across a field of flowers towards each other to be reunited at last. She also noted that it was her "favorite so far."

On a side note, Liz missed a phone call from her boyfriend, who is traveling this week, while she was testing the cologne. I hope he doesn't read this blog ;-)

It seems that we've got yet another winner with Light Blue. I may not have expressed it well in words, but the reaction to this one was noticeably more favorable than the others, so much so that I'm going to pick up a bottle for myself.

On a side note, I hope to have Sari's bio done by the weekend, and Sari has promised some graphics to spice things up around here. I'm putting this out there to keep us honest. We're crazy busy with our careers and personal lives, but we should be able to find the time to keep things rolling along here.

Meet the Ladies, Part One: Liz

I'll start with Liz since I've known her the longest. Liz is the consummate optimist, giving everybody the benefit of the doubt, always seeing (or holding out hope for) the best in everybody. I've met some of the people she has to deal with on a daily basis, and let me tell you this woman is a saint to have such a high level of tolerance! But, even though she's always sweet and polite, I am confident that if and when the time comes that I bring in a stinker of a cologne to test, she'll have no problem expressing her disgust.

Liz has two prominent characteristics that set her apart from the crowd. First of all, she's an uber-athlete. I kid you not, she runs so often, so hard, and for so long, that she actually broke some bones in her feet. That's hard core. I'm surprised the doctor didn't put her in a full body cast to keep her from running long enough for them to heal. Secondly, she's a vegan. She was only a vegetarian when I met her about four years ago, but she eventually fell off the deep end and made her diet as extreme as her fitness regiment. You can't knock her for discipline and perseverance.

I wont go into too much detail about her personal life, other than to say Liz is a bachelorette, never married (yet), no kids (yet), and a handful of years younger than myself. She's not the youngest in the batch, that would be Sari, but we'll get to her in the next installment.

Oh yeah, one last thing: Liz blogs about her vegan culinary adventures. Check it out!

Two and a half gals

Oops. No luck with Annette this weekend. I did meet up with her, but we didn't get around to testing the latest cologne. My apologies. This is probably going to be a common occurrence with her, so I've updated the blog tag line accordingly. Sari and Liz are just going to have to pick up the slack and put in the extra effort ;-) I'll have a new scent this week, and I hope to get those bios up ASAP. Stay tuned.

Ralph Lauren Romance Silver

Our scent this week is Ralph Lauren Romance Silver. This week's review is going to be another two-parter as I've only collected Sari and Liz's impressions so far; I'll have to touch base with Annette later.

Sari was first to test, but I'm going to splice her and Liz's comments together as they were in agreement on most points, but the disagreements provide a nice contrast.

Sari described the fragrance as masculine but not intimidating. Sari denied any muskiness, but Liz felt it had a hint. I threw out the adjective "pungent" and Liz nodded in agreement; but she's an agreeable person so take that with a grain of salt :-)

Sari and Liz agreed that it was more business than pleasure, but Liz added it would be a good night-time cologne for a trip to the opera, not the club. Liz expanded on that thought saying it reminded her of a playboy or a sophisticated jock. I asked what she meant by that, and she was at a loss for examples. So I offered up Lance Armstrong (an idol of hers) and Dan Marino (a local retired football celebrity) and she conceded they might fit the bill.

Sari declared it to be light and fresh, but Liz described it as strong and "not subtle." Sari took the test first and I didn't re-apply any more before interviewing Liz, so there's no discrepancy in how much I used. If anything it should have been lighter for Liz. It seems some women might have drastically different impressions or reactions to certain scents.

Sari wrapped it up by describing the aroma as something you might expect from a fine expensive soap.

Both ladies agreed the fragrance was more nice guy than bad boy. Sari thought it reminded her of a cologne her father (a successful dentist) wears to work. Liz insisted it reminded her of an old boyfriend.

After hearing about Liz's nostalgic reaction, Sari advised me to warn our readers to be wary and conscious of fragrances that remind our significant others of past acquaintances and broken hearts.

I happen to know that this is a favorite of Annette's, so before I even give her the test (which I hope to post this weekend) I can safely declare Ralph Lauren Romance Silver another hands-down winner.

I think for the next test I'm going to spice it up a little and just ask one question: "Close your eyes, take a whiff, and describe to me the man that appears in your imagination." That should provide some colorful and entertaining commentary.

The SALT of the blog

Ah, I'm so clever. Sari, Annette, Liz, and Ted. The first letters of our names spell out SALT. Unfortunately, pointing out the acronym is about as clever as I can get with it; Sari's the creative one around here. And speaking of our individual talents, I hope to post some short bios of everybody in the coming days, as well as review our next fragrance (it's sitting on my desk, just waiting to be sniffed). Liz is a bit under the weather and Annette is crazy busy, but we'll get it done.

Burberry Touch for Men, Part Two

The triumvirate is complete; I successfully coaxed a third female companion, and her nose, to join the fun. And so last night I collected another opinion on last week's cologne.

Annette, our new reviewer, began the test by sniffing my wrist and letting out a sensual "Mmmmm." She then joked, "Excuse me while I drool on your arm." Annette classified the fragrance as clean, crisp, and fresh. She wouldn't concede to any flowery tones, contradicting Liz and Sari's impressions. She did agree with the general consensus that it's a good guy (versus bad boy), day life (versus night life) aroma. I asked her if it was more board room or dance floor and she claimed it would work both ways. She finished off with the unusual comment that it's "not too tangy."

It looks like Burberry Touch for Men is a hands-down winner with a 3-0 record. I'll have to spice things up this week and see if I can't find a more controversial scent.

Burberry Touch for Men

Our first scent was one of my favorites: Burberry Touch for Men.

Liz was the first intrepid inhaler, and her initial comment was it reminded her of her boyfriend's usual scent (we'll track that down and review it in a later post). She gave me the typical "it's good" and "I like it" so I had to dig a little deeper, like some investigative reporter. She eventually conceded that it was sweet and flowery. She considered it to be a night-life scent with a youthful impression that would make "a good date cologne." Liz also made me chuckle commenting "it's not something your grandpa would wear." I wrapped up the interrogation asking if she liked her colognes thick or subtle, and she advised to always wear them in moderation. After the Q&A I revealed the name of the fragrance and she scowled, "I hate Burberry; they are mean to animals." I can't vouch for the validity of that statement, but being a devout vegan, Liz assuredly knows more about it than I.

Second to take a whiff was Sari (rhymes with cherry). She caught me off-guard by going all nostalgic and explaining how it reminded her of a scratch-and-sniff book she had as a child. Apparently the book had a page where somebody had spilled some cologne, and this fragrance reminded her of it. It's funny how strongly a scent can be tied to a memory. Sari agreed with Liz that the scent was flowery. Sari added that it was smooth, casual, and not overwhelming, adding credence to Liz's advice on wearing cologne in moderation. She liked it.

I think it's clear that this one is a winner.

I think we all had a lot of fun with this little exercise and I look forward to doing it again with the next entrant. I also hope to add a third female reviewer; I'll have that decision by the end of the holiday weekend.

If you have any comments on this particular product, or want to suggest a product for future review, or have any general comments, questions, or criticisms, please leave us a comment. Thanks!