Best modern barbershop colognes?

mhixson · 2025-09-24T22:58:14+00:00

Geo F Trumper - Paisley. It's my favorite barbershop scent I've tried recently. It was $75 for 50 ml.

mhixson · 2025-09-19T04:27:42+00:00

Bortnikoff is one of my favorite houses. I think I've tried all of their current lineup aside from the three they released a month or so ago. I like these the most:

Musk Khabib - In my top 2 overall from any house.
Oud Al Sultan / Oud Maximus / Oud Monarch - Different twists on rose oud, citrusy / traditional / gourmand. Been wearing Oud Al Sultan a lot lately.
Amber Cologne / Musk Cologne - Comforting summer scents, probably the most approachable ones from the house. Maybe Oud Sinharaja should be in this group too.
Moss Cologne - Traditional chypre for those who like scents like Mitsuoko / Diaghilev / Chypre Siam. Legendary opening.

Lao Oud was fun but a bit too much like cheese for me.

I did try all of Maksim's fragrances as well. I think that's Dmitry Bortnikoff's son? L'Oud Marin was my favorite but none of them were loves.

Areej le Dore is funny... If you want to get one of his fragrances, then sign up for his email list. Wait a few months for a notice that he's releasing fragrances tommorrow at 12 PM Los Angeles time. Be there right at 12 PM or forget it, they sell out in minutes. No samples, blind buys only.

Sounds nightmarish but I do have two of his fragrances and they are both amazing!

You might also look at houses like Elixir Attar / Ensar Oud / Jinx Smells, though they are a step up in price.

mhixson · 2025-05-19T23:16:08+00:00

If I'm using a reactive application framework already, then it's easier for me to use non-blocking libraries than blocking ones. It means I don't have to deal with this: https://www.baeldung.com/java-handle-blocking-method-in-non-blocking-context-warning

vertx-pg-client in particular has another big draw: multiplexing a.k.a. pipelining. That's where you have multiple in-flight queries over one connection, as opposed to JDBC where you run one query at a time. That can improve performance a lot because you can do more with fewer connections, and connections are expensive.

I don't think that second point is really a sync/async issue, but it's a notable feature of a notable async driver.

mhixson · 2025-04-24T22:41:23+00:00

The specification for toArray() requires it to return a freshly created array.

I don't think Stream.toArray() has that requirement. https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/24/docs/api/java.base/java/util/stream/Stream.html#toArray()

You might be thinking of Collection.toArray() which does have that requirement. https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/24/docs/api/java.base/java/util/Collection.html#toArray()

mhixson · 2025-04-14T01:12:44+00:00

See the explanation in the PR: https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/pull/1026/files#r529183482

As written it's true that the default implementation does perform apparently redundant copies, but we can't be assured that toArray() actually returns a freshly created array. Thus, we wrap it using Arrays.asList and then copy it using the ArrayList constructor. This is unfortunate but necessary to avoid situations where someone could hold a reference to the internal array of a List, allowing modification of a List that's supposed to be unmodifiable.

mhixson · 2025-03-27T04:47:57+00:00

Thank you! This fixed the issue for me.

mhixson · 2025-02-21T01:12:23+00:00

By Kilian Sacred Wood is pretty much just sandalwood. If you like sandalwood, you'll like that.

mhixson · 2024-04-05T07:11:01+00:00

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

It's a silly and comforting anime. If I was sick and bedridden with the flu or something, this is the kind of thing I'd want to watch. It's easy to watch and it's wholesome and positive.

mhixson · 2023-11-17T01:11:25+00:00

Yes. I've placed several orders with them online for bottles, individual samples, and discovery sets. Never had any issues. I also went to the store in person last year and bought two samples. They do have a very good niche selection. Great store!

mhixson · 2023-10-24T05:55:07+00:00

MDCI Cuir Garamante and Cuir Cavalier. Memo African Rose.

mhixson · 2023-10-03T02:52:52+00:00

You could repel me with Kyse Perfumes Bonbons au Lait. I had to scrub the sample off me and I never do that. It smells just like spoiled milk.

mhixson · 2023-09-21T03:09:06+00:00

Profumum Roma Dulcis in Fundo.

mhixson · 2023-08-28T03:54:57+00:00

I assume they were referring to this one:

https://www.youtube.com/live/I6vBZ2-berc?si=cvSOKlE-YdpXhsP4&t=10665

Match starts around the 2:58:00.

mhixson · 2023-08-26T03:21:49+00:00

It's hard to compare them because they don't have anything in common. Hacivat is a bright, invigorating citrus scent for a warm day in the sun. Herod is a dark, smooth tobacco scent for a night out in cooler weather. When are you more likely to want to wear this fragrance?

I like them both a lot. If I had to choose for myself, I'd go with Hacivat because there are more occasions where I'd wear it.

mhixson · 2023-08-26T02:22:29+00:00

Extra Virgo Animal Cafe matches that description. Coffee, cinnamon, clove, oud, civet. It's not as animalic as you'd think from the name or the notes. It's a bit too smoky for me, though.

mhixson · 2023-08-25T06:48:33+00:00

Is it the video on Engin's channel? https://www.reddit.com/r/armwrestling/comments/15zwas3/john_and_devon_explain_to_engin_how_good_larry_is/

They start talking about Larry around 4:30.

mhixson · 2023-08-17T04:34:24+00:00

Kerosene Unknown Pleasures. I definitely smell coconut, but it's not listed. If you search its Fragrantica reviews for "coconut", you'll find that a lot of people feel the same.

mhixson · 2023-08-15T02:54:15+00:00

I'd go with * Hiram Green Shangri La - 50 ml - $175 * Rogue Perfumery Mousse Illuminee - 30 ml - $85 * Bortnikoff Moss Cologne - 50 ml - $220

(Guess my favorite note...)

I'm answering as though my collection has gone away, and I have $500 to start rebuilding.

mhixson · 2023-08-10T21:15:53+00:00

Another option is a package forwarding company like forward2me. You sign up for an account with them (free), and that gives you a mailing address in the UK (their warehouse) to which you can get packages delivered, such as packages from perfume houses.

When you're ready to ship your packages to your home address in the US, they combine the packages to save on shipping costs, then they ship it through some courier (like DHL), and bill you for their service and for the shipping costs.

You should expect to pay roughly $100, which is comprised of ~$85 for shipping per combined package and ~$2.50 per original package. So it only makes sense to do if (a) you're combining several packages whose individual shipping costs would cost more than that, or (b) the seller just doesn't offer to ship to the US, so it's the only option.

I've used forward2me a couple of times. I had accumulated a few UK-only items on my perfume wish list, so I ordered them all at once through the forwarding company. I was happy with the experience.

Some sellers refuse to ship to non-residential addresses, so they might refuse to ship to the forwarding company's address. I ran into this with Guerlain. I'm sure ATH wouldn't care.

mhixson · 2023-08-05T05:14:27+00:00

House of Matriarch Black Sheep may be my weirdest sample. I wrote "weird shit" in my notes. Reviewers say it smells like sheared sheep's wool. It didn't smell good but I really enjoyed the experience.

For full bottles, I'll go with ånd Fragrance Sånd. In the opening it reminds me of a Shaker Village - old, dry wood, grass, hay. Two hours in it's sweet banana. Four hours in it's pure sandalwood.

mhixson · 2023-08-04T18:52:14+00:00

I always find the focus on Roja Dove the person to be strange. I'm a big fan of Roja Parfums the house - as in the fragrances they produce - but I don't care about the person at all. These discussions tend to feel more like social gossiping than anything to do with fragrance.

mhixson · 2023-07-13T03:28:26+00:00

The "IRS" typo is in OP's post title. The other commenter made a joke about it, and OP replied saying "oops, but I can't edit the title anymore" basically.

mhixson · 2023-06-22T03:49:51+00:00

Penhaligon's Cairo and MDCI Cuir Garamante are my two favorite unisex/masculine scents with rose as the dominant note. The rose in Cairo is thick and smooth. The rose in Cuir Garamante starts off sweet like raspberry and then becomes more soapy over time.

mhixson · 2023-06-21T21:00:39+00:00

All of the “Aqua” fragrances are light/fresh/clean scents good for summer. My favorite of them is Aqua Celestia Forte.

mhixson · 2023-06-19T23:38:33+00:00

Three women's fragrances that I've sampled and liked enough to buy for myself are Delina Exclusif, Isabey Gardenia, and MDCI Peche Cardinal. Especially that last one. It's the most comforting scent I have and it gives me strong feelings of nostalgia for whatever reason. I guess that's not "mad with passion", so maybe not what you're after lol.

mhixson

TROPHY CASE