The Cologne Podcast

#268 - Wulong Cha by Nishane: Have Our Opinions Changed After 200 Episodes?

April 15, 2024 Myke & Ryan Season 5 Episode 268
The Cologne Podcast
#268 - Wulong Cha by Nishane: Have Our Opinions Changed After 200 Episodes?
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Have you ever been whisked away by a scent so evocative it's like time travel in a bottle? That's exactly where Myke and Ryan take you in our latest olfactory escapade, as we unearth the divisive "clean linen and cheap iced tea" fragrance that once stirred up a storm. Climb aboard our scent time-machine, where we also pay homage to the '90s classic Ralph Lauren Polo, questioning whether its latest rendition stands up to the ol' aromatic giant. And for those who relish the chase, we tease the upcoming segments featuring the elusive vintage Drakkar Noir and much-mourned, discontinued Tom Ford wonders.

Imagine a scent so vivaciously citrus it could jolt you out of bed quicker than a triple espresso. That's the centerpiece of our aromatic discussion, a fragrance that has been with us since the early days and yet continues to dazzle and challenge our senses. Myke and Ryan unpack the rollercoaster of memories this scent evokes, interspersed with laughter and the odd hayride anecdote. Plus, we spill the beans on how to get your hands on your favorite fragrances without breaking the bank—because let's face it, smelling great shouldn't cost a fortune.

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Ryan:

what's up everybody? Welcome to the cologne podcast I'm mike and I'm ryan.

Myke:

We're two best friends. We're going on a fragrance journey. We're smelling throwback fragrances yet again because we're going all the way back to episode 35. This is our first revisiting of a fragrance, I think yeah, we've had people request that and and this one.

Ryan:

It has some good reasons why we're going back to it. Yeah, we got to.

Myke:

I've got a reason from Fragrantica Ryan, From Yazakashba Alright, who says Lots of squeaky clean laundered linens with a hint of cheap iced tea. Hmm, If you like fresh and nothing else, this is it.

Ryan:

Damn he really just painted a. I mean for me, because I've got quite an experience with this fragrance. Now he kind of hit that mark a little bit, but at the same time I don't know, is he fully right? I don't know.

Myke:

And it's a negative spin on it.

Ryan:

Yeah.

Myke:

To some people, people, hey, that could be great. You know what's wrong with clean linen? Yeah, with fresh crispy and some cheap iced tea just spilled all over it. Hmm, could be slurpy. We're gonna find out. First, we've got to go back in time and talk about that 90s ralph lauren polo we got to smell, courtesy of our friend forbes yes, hit the music, todd.

Ryan:

Yeah, one night stand review. Yeah, one night stand. I wouldn't mean they did the voice, no, it was me.

Myke:

Being sexy Not.

Ryan:

Well, Mike, after spending the night with Polo by Ralph Lauren, the vintage bottle.

Myke:

Yeah.

Ryan:

Look, I get it right here. What do you have to say? Because we just came back in here and it's been a minute since we smelled it and, first off, this vintage shit is still in the tester strip Loud AF, loud AF, and it smells fucking phenomenal. Yeah, I wish I wasn't. Just like I'm not playing this up, by the way.

Myke:

No, no, no, he's being serious. I'm looking at his face. He's deadpan. I'm looking at his big, dumb, stupid face, stupid ugly face.

Ryan:

It is legit amazing, yeah. And when we got done with that episode that day, even throughout the day, we're like man. This thing is hanging on now again. Is that old formulation? Is that old shit? Before they got rid of real civet glands or something you know?

Myke:

I don't know yeah, I, there's no telling. I mean, it has something to it that has not been replicated. I even, uh, the reform, what do they call it? Reformulation? Yeah, reformulation of fragrances like this, others, I mean, we haven't smelled this one, yeah, but they just don't do what these did. No, I haven't ran into one where I was like, oh man, this smells like quintessential 90s.

Ryan:

This one's it, dude. This smells incredible. Now, here's the thing we're revisiting our decision. I think I said hard sample to a possible buy. Yeah, I'm definitely going to keep that and say this is for sure, without a doubt Easy layup. Nobody's in front of you. You're somehow michael jordan right now, and there's no way you're gonna miss this is an easy sample, right okay to a very possible buy. The reason, though, I'm saying sample, it's not because, like, I need to make sure it smells good. This motherfucker smells good. Yeah, oh yeah, but I need to make sure the new batches are, you know, pretty good yeah, close enough if they're close enough to this.

Ryan:

This is a certifiable lock of the century. Buy for me. You would get this. You would wear this very loud kind of very upscale wearing, almost like a badass suit kind of vibe. Now I mean, I'm just I feel it. I don't even feel like it's an older person now.

Myke:

I feel like it's like 35 and up yeah, I think it does what anything hyper concentrated would do, which is right out of the bottle. It's loud, it's slapping your nostrils back and forth, it's like hey wake up, yo, yeah. But then after it dries down, it is really nice, very nice, still hyper, masculine, still leans, mature. But the dry down isn't as mature as that, like initial. Yeah, the initial smells like you just shaved and you still need to shave, you know god, this is, this is badass, this is so badass.

Myke:

Yeah, good job forbus I don't know how he got this thing we had mentioned in the episode too.

Ryan:

It's like I don't know where it came from at all this has been sitting on his shelf in his shop, yeah, for a year or more, for sure. Yeah, fucking incredible, okay. Well, there you go. There's our one night stand review of polo.

Myke:

The green bottle, vintage ralph lauren, hey, also we have vintage dracar noir and discontinued tom ford sent to us.

Ryan:

We gotta hurt and get up on those dude. I gotta smell this vintage shit. I gotta smell what the, what it used to be like, yeah, before it got watered down.

Myke:

I don't know if you guys remember, but early on in the episodes I mean this was like within probably the first 10, 15 episodes I want to say I started talking about tom ford by tom ford and at the time they were discontinuing it. This is just like a good smelling men's fragrance. It didn't do anything spectacular, but after they discontinued it, I think this does it for a lot of people. You kind of then are like Ooh, now you really want it. I want it Cause I can't have it. It's out of reach. Yup, and we're going to find out. You want what the heart can't have Exactly, but the question is just because it's hard to attain, does but the question is just because it's hard to attain does that actually make it valuable or is it just hard to attain?

Ryan:

I think that should be a fragrance philosophy episode. Mike, oh, you're trying to put too much on this episode. I can't allow that. We got to lock this behind a paywall?

Myke:

Yeah, for sure, okay.

Ryan:

Well then, in that case, let's mosey on over to nishane's wulong cha, the revisitation by the way, before we spray this, this episode is definitely being brought to you by kajal, that's right. Mo was very kind enough, as we said. Uh, he helped out with the trip to Italy. Could not show enough gratitude to this guy.

Myke:

To be fair, they didn't even ask to sponsor episodes Correct Again. They just wanted to take care of the podcast. Because those guys care about us, they care about the podcast. We're just trying to communicate that to you guys. If there's anybody out there that loves us, loves you guys, wants us to keep doing what we're doing, it's Kajal, and they have opened up the door to multiple interview episodes we're going to have in the future with some of your favorite fragrance influencers and enthusiasts.

Ryan:

Yeah, and also we had told y'all, I think an episode or two back, that we're going to do the Lamar Caviar. Yeah, and we're still going to do that. Obviously, things happen. We've moved past that. Now we're going to be doing it. I think let's do that next episode, okay, after this, because I'm wanting to record kind of like my first time experience with it as well.

Myke:

Right, because not only is just a different vehicle, for sure for the fragrance to get on the skin, it's innovative, it's new, it's spectacular and I have not tried it.

Ryan:

So I'm like, super, like pumped and ready to do it, but I'm also I wanted to, like, I want to record me interacting with it. I want you, the people, to see what I'm gonna see for the first time. You know what that means, little pov. You know what I'm saying? Oh, we love those, don't we? You'll see these beautiful hands just making a nice presentation. Oh yeah, a little vr action first person fragrance okay well, and if you're in Texas, you're going to have to use a VPN to watch it.

Myke:

One hundo. All right, go ahead.

Ryan:

Fucking idiots. All right, you know that we got to use VPNs now.

Myke:

Is this a?

Ryan:

stone age or something. Over here I'm going to freaking, have my shit out looking at what the fucking what they used to call that back in the day, where cavemen drew on walls and shit yeah.

Myke:

That's what they used to call that back in the day where cavemen drew on walls and shit. Yeah, that's what they called it.

Ryan:

Here we go oh baby, god Damn. So there's a reason we want to revisit this. Yes, it's because this fragrance is obnoxiously and that's a good word for me in the fragrance world For me, I love this. This is obnoxiously loud. I mean, it is the loudest citrus fragrance I personally have ever smelled. Yeah, Same.

Myke:

I started wearing it again because I mean this is definitely like a warm weather fragrance. And you know, we went through winter, we're just now getting into spring and, by the way, we're already in the 80s over here, Hell yeah. And then I went over, I had dinner with some friends and we told this on an episode two back. His wife said, oh, got to find a fragrance like this. This is a room scent that they put in some fancy hotel and you can buy, like the wallflowers that you, you know. And she let me smell it and she was like it's a white tea fragrance and I immediately thought of Wu Long Cha and then Renaissance by Zerjoff, which are they're different. Renaissance seems spicier to me, but they both kind of have this citrus vibe. So after that dinner I started wearing Wu Long Cha again.

Ryan:

And look, let me tell you who the first person was to notice it was me. Notice it was me, it was me. So, uh, we might get back on the uh, selfish health podcast, but uh, we've been taking our health pretty damn serious. I have lost almost 17 pounds, man, but we've been walking a lot.

Myke:

I've lost five pounds and gained three pounds of muscle.

Ryan:

Ooh man. Hey, by the way, have you seen that Netflix show where they take the twins and they make one eat an omnivore diet and another one eat the other type of diet, and it's like they look at their metabolic stuff? No, I haven't. Pretty interesting stuff on there.

Myke:

I've been doing that with my own kids because I have twins, so I only let one eat a certain diet and I force the other. I'm kidding.

Ryan:

No, I didn't even know I was going to go with it. Now you threw me off base on my thing. But yeah, we've been taking our shit serious, yeah, and this guy's been wearing this a lot. It's like he heard me say something really good about it one time. You know we were walking. I was trying to tell him hey, it's the pleats and uh, yeah, you were walking like bent over kind of in a weird way, but this you know how jogging pants treat you guys.

Ryan:

Come on so he's been wearing this religiously and every time I'm like man, this smells so good. But I will say right now, off the rip, it smells totally different yes, I was to say the same thing.

Myke:

It's funny when I wear it I don't smell it like we do for an episode, and I'm picking up so much more right now when I'm actually focused on smelling it.

Ryan:

Yeah, right now I get more of the tea vibe than I get the citrus, but when you've been walking by me, all I've been smelling and it's nuclear, ladies and gentlemen, fucking nuclear. We're talking openheimer, okay, yeah, but I feel like I'm really bringing it today.

Myke:

I don't know what I did I woke up on the right side of the bed you're a fantastic podcaster right now.

Ryan:

I really am a really great podcaster right now.

Myke:

I'm proud of you finally, so I don't have to carry the weight of this whole thing.

Ryan:

But yeah, this thing is so fucking loud and it's a citrus so I smell't have to carry the weight of this whole thing. But yeah, this thing is so fucking loud and it's a citrus so I smell like a citrusy. I don't know. I don't know if it's like lemon, orangey, both zesty, I don't know, but it smells great and it's like you can smell it from like 10 feet away. You're not hiding from anybody, yeah it is shockingly loud, which we did.

Myke:

The episode, if you want to go back and listen to our initial impressions of it, episode 35. So there's been over 230 episodes done since this episode. That's scary. And when I first smelled this because growing up my grandmother had rose bushes and I could just remember the smell of roses after it rained it had this the roses that you smell in a fragrance to me don't exactly match what it was like, at least the roses that we grew, pink and white. They had a certain almost the citrusy tea type quality after it rained. There's just a lot going on, of course, where we, where we're at even the weeds, have tons of flowers.

Myke:

Everything has flowers here, the cactuses have flowers, everything so it could be just a mixture, but for me it reminded me of that. I remember early on and I loved it and I started buying decants of it and eventually, when we found, uh, discounters that had it for a good price, I bought a 50 mil of it. This is the second 50 mil that I've had and gone through. Okay, because I love this fragrance.

Ryan:

It's amazing, it is it is so loud, guys, it smells so good. Revisit it now. I appreciate it more than I think I did the first time yeah, I really do especially now that I've smelled it a few times on you. I'm just like that's a badass fragrance. It really is.

Myke:

Yeah, it is incredible. And, by the way, in the second bottle I'm down to about maybe, there's 10 mil, maybe a tiny bit more, 10, 15 mil left in this bottle.

Ryan:

Up close. This almost has has. I can only think about it. When I was a kid and I almost feel like I must have said this on. I promise you I went back and listened to it, but I'm going to check. It reminds me when I was a kid and you would go on hay rides, like in whatever. I smell a little bit of that. Hey, you're sitting in the back of a thing. You know, some idiot with a chainsaw fits in her gum. You know, just do something crazy.

Myke:

Only it was like it either didn't have the chain on it or it was a weed eater. We used to do this. My family would have a like a spook house. You'd walk through it's just the neighborhood thing, yeah and it was just a like an open carport but we blacked out everything with like trash bags and tarps and stuff. So you walk in and it's just pitch black good lord in there. And then we would just have two of our cousins with weed eaters without strings on them. That would just fire them up, you know, and uh, and then, of course, if you're going through, like, if you're under like 10 years old, that'll scare the hell out of you. And then the rest of us are just like screaming, like we're getting killed, you know, and you just walk straight through and at the end I don't know you get like a mini crunch bar or something for you know, taking five years off your life look guys, let me just go ahead and just settle your nerves for a second.

Ryan:

Yes, that sound effect was legitimately him of all. He does that once in a while. It is hyper realistic and, man, that was really good. I do the pool, yeah he does the animation for it everything. Sometimes he does it where the core gets stuck a little bit.

Myke:

It's like low, you got to pump the little bubble.

Ryan:

Fucking hell, oh Lord. Okay, let's get to the price and trend of this thing. Do it. The price for 100 ml? That's going to set you back about 300 and some odd bucks. Retail, yeah, that's retail. However, if you were to be like Mike, be a little savvy now, you might find on the gray market which he did 100 ml and got it for $120. For that price, that's great. And the trend? Let me tell you, the trend has just been slowly gaining traction. I just think it's one of those fragrances. I think people are finally kind of coming around and they're going wow, this is fucking good.

Myke:

It is weird that and I remember saying back and maybe it was multiple episodes ago, I don't remember I remember saying it is low, key way underappreciated in the fragrance community and it feels like it's slowly growing up. Maybe that's because last year they released the X version of it. Yeah, I'm sure too. Maybe it's growing in attention right now, but it is really underappreciated.

Ryan:

Guys, I'm telling you it's super good, it is so good. I kind of want to go over the pros and cons a little bit too that they have listed on Fragrantica. If you don't know what that is, it's a website. It's where we and a whole bunch of other weirdos just like us lurk, comment and talk to each other, show off each other's bottles, but you get to rate stuff and say what you have in your collection. But you also kind of get to give pros and cons. The pros for this. They say it's clean and fresh fragrance, High quality fragrance, Suitable for both men and women. I agree with that. Yeah, and the cons were not suitable for those who dislike citrus scents. I can agree with that because it is a loud.

Ryan:

Heavy, heavy citrus. Not suitable for those who can't. Okay, not suitable for those who want alpha male fragrances. Huh, wow, that's a weird kind of specific yeah Con Is it saying if you don't want to be that alpha male out there, don't wear this, because it's kind of intimidating.

Myke:

That's strange. I got a compliment on this yesterday From me, right Well, and somebody else. Who else, who?

Ryan:

the fuck else told you about it.

Myke:

Just a random passerby said oh, you smell really nice and I'm always curious what it smells like to people. So I actually just said what do I smell like? I'm curious. And they said cologne.

Ryan:

That's a hey you ask stupid, stupid questions, you get stupid answers.

Myke:

Okay, no, I think that's a great answer for people. I'm just always curious what they're like. You know, because me and you will try to break it down and be like, oh, this fragrance on my skin. When I get really close up and smell it, it honestly to me smells like I'm peeling an orange, like more of that, like sharp zest yeah, like you're breaking the skin. Okay, on the card it's something different. On the card it's got almost like that pine tree and not like pine tree fragrance, but like you're literally out with a handful of pine needles. So that together is just so unique. I love it. But I'm always curious what other people kind of smell. But I guess some people just don't want to labor the thought of what it smells like. It just smells good. Okay, it smells like a cologne. Get the fuck off me oh lord it does.

Ryan:

It smells fucking great. Can I make a random rant? Yeah, please, this is totally off subject. I've already talked to you about it too, but I gotta say it again the movie free fire is fucking garbage. I is, I implore any of you people out there I think it's on amazon prime or whatever me and him were, you know, obviously had this weekend. It was a lot going on, but we also had some moments of chill. We were kind of texting each other back and forth and he's like I just saw the new movie, monkey man. It's fucking great. Yeah, and I'm like man, I'm watching a fucking terrible movie, but it was so bad I had to keep watching it. There is a movie, guys, that has brie larson, the main character from district nine can never remember his name. South african accent, really great actor. Uh, some other actors that are good. It's a movie about a shootout that happens in a warehouse and that's it, guys.

Myke:

That's fucking it no, like uh hard-hitting story points or plots or anything like that not a damn thing.

Ryan:

I mean for almost what feels like two hours straight. It's all in one warehouse. A shootout of a gun. Deal gone bad. It's in the 70s. Everybody's got handguns, unlimited ammo. People get literally shot in the fucking head and somehow they're still alive and walking around everybody by the end of this movie. I could not make this up they're using those like little knee. Uh, scooters, you put yourself on everybody's gravely injured and then you know, just that's all this is grueling like everybody's trudging through the shit pipe like andy defray or something.

Ryan:

Yeah, and shooting guy. It's like the slowest, dumbest shootout I've ever seen in my life. I can't believe it got produced. It's garbage. Save yourself the hassle. Who directed?

Myke:

it like a high schooler. Fuck man, I don't know. That's like every short film we ever made in high school was just like no plot points, just all action.

Ryan:

Legit. Whatever you made in high school, it was an Oscar compared to this shit. It was atrocious to have this kind of caliber actors in just a terrible movie. But then you know, it's just. I just had. I, I have to say I have to get off my chest. I've vented to you but I want the world to know that me ryan of the cologne podcast hates that fucking movie and I think it was a british guy who's directed a couple of, like you know, thug, british thug type movies which I think went over well. But this one, just like dude shit in the bed, is not even like a statement here, it's just like it was coming out of both ends okay well, that's the polar opposite of monkey man cuz I felt like a great story to it and the action was phenomenal and it was A directorial debut of Def Patel, def Patel, yeah, and that's the guy.

Ryan:

I don't know if you guys have seen it, but it's a great movie.

Myke:

Green Knight, yeah Well one of my favorite movies got to be the best Christmas movie of all time. Apart from Die Hard, what's?

Ryan:

that Die Hard. Wait, wait, oh no, no, no, say that part again.

Myke:

I didn't understand how you said the sentence got to be the best christmas movie of all time. And then I made a cheeky little joke about die hard wait.

Ryan:

So which movie is the christmas movie? Besides, die hard, is it green? The green night, green night's a?

Myke:

oh yes, hey, sorry man have you even seen this movie, ryan?

Ryan:

hey, dude, get off me dude there's a lot going on, okay now remember.

Myke:

Yes, which circles back around to the pine needle scent that we have here in wu long shot.

Ryan:

He's desperately trying to get off the movie subject now. I can see, as soon as I mention it he's like oh great, here we go, he's got to fucking do it.

Myke:

No, I think that's what makes this podcast fun Not actually doing the podcast, just complaining about stuff. Mike, are you going to skip it? Who's wearing it? Ryan, oh shit. It it? Ryan, oh shit, uh, it's definitely. He's right under six foot. You know he's wearing boots six foot half an inch.

Ryan:

It's definitely, I think, 30s and up.

Myke:

Yeah, very citrusy, I think you're or if you're younger, you're it's summer fragrance.

Ryan:

You got the button up out on the beach look, if you got your shit together and you're, you know, you know who you are, you know who you are. Out there you're walking down the beach. You got sexy, yeah, real sexy. You got the fucking that little see-through white, you know beach shirt that, for whatever reason, never looked good on me because I have a chess piece tattoo and I don't know my nipples show through it, but it's like these guys, nobody likes male nipples poking out nobody, but you're just walking the beach.

Ryan:

The breeze is coming through and it's doing that wind thing to your shoulders, like, like that you know.

Myke:

It's just fanning the fragrance out to the world everybody you're walking by.

Ryan:

I don't care if it's a man in a speedo or a woman in a thong, they're like. That guy smells good oh they're complimenting you like.

Myke:

I gotta brag on this compliment and of course, it's maybe a little taboo to say because it was at the funeral but I decided to wear layton. I feel like Layton is a good fragrance for you want to smell good, but it has that almost medicinal type menthol smell added to it that makes it appropriate to be in a more professional setting as well. I'm wearing Layton, I go to sit down and I'm sitting down next to it's in this order, my friend, his girlfriend, then me on the pew. It's in this order, my friend, his girlfriend, than me, yeah, on the pew. And as I sit down, his girlfriend looks over at me and says you smell really good. Yeah, let me hold on. Looks over at me and says, wow, you smell really good I thought you were visiting clean.

Ryan:

This I could make it, I don't know. Cordial, fucking go ahead, go ahead yes.

Myke:

So she says you smell really good, yeah, yeah. And I look over and say well, thank you, okay. And she says modest mike.

Ryan:

Yeah, no, thank you he did smell good that day because we stopped here before we left. Yeah, you smelled really good that day and you said Leighton yeah. I said yes, sir, and you said thank you, and I said no, thank you. Oh shit, okay, are you going to skip it?

Myke:

sample it or buy it. What are you going to do, ryan?

Ryan:

Well, you've got this much left and I'm kind of spoiling your answer here. Yeah, spoil it, spoil it. He's buying this thing because he done bought 100 ml of it.

Myke:

Yeah, it's out for delivery today.

Ryan:

Yeah, he's about this fragrance. So for me, I'm in close proximity to mike, I know I will run into this and be able to sample it more, but it's leaning pretty damn close into the buy territory, especially for that price. Because, yeah, this is super loud and, for whatever reason, smells completely different than what I'm smelling it close up like this from a distance. All I really get is mainly a little bit of the tea, but it's mainly citrus.

Myke:

Yeah, it's like the closer you get, the better it gets. It smells great, it's hard to beat and God, at that price. This is one of the only citrus fragrances that we've said lasts so long.

Ryan:

You almost wonder it's the only one I can think that lasts this long. This lasts forever. You know all your youtube friends, you watch and they're all like uh, this thing's a pretty much a 12-hour beast mode and all this stuff. Hey look, this thing is legitimately look. If it doesn't work on your skin, there's something wrong with you.

Myke:

Drink some water yeah, the other day I sprayed this on and as soon as ryan it, I heard his panties hit the floor. Certified panty dropper. Ryan's panties.

Ryan:

And I was like I got to keep wearing this. Oh my God. Look guys, it's been a really wild few weeks. We've seriously been really appreciative of all you and we've gotten quite a few new patreons, which is, if I'm being honest, is a little shocking, because I feel like we haven't been able to put our full gusto out there, right?

Myke:

yeah, we had obviously your, your father passed and then forbis passed. Yeah, it was kind of back to back yeah, so we have.

Myke:

I thought we've neglected, everybody right, yeah, and I'm just glad to see that you guys are holding strong in there, that actually new people have showed up, and if you're new to patreon then you know you have a lot of content still to consume. But we're back in the swing of things. In fact, we just posted another patreon exclusive episode yeah, so you've got that up there to listen to which was a Cartier fragrance that we were really impressed with, and that one was a discontinued fragrance. We have just the best listeners. You guys are sending us the most fun, exciting things to smell.

Myke:

We are so grateful for that. We're so grateful for you, patreons. We said it a couple episodes back. We're so grateful for you, patreons we said it a couple episodes back. But for real, your response to helping the family out on the gofundme like we cannot thank you enough, shocked at how quickly you guys jumped in to raise, at this point now, over nineteen thousand dollars for his family crazy. We could not be more thankful, and especially to you guys as patreons who, uh, we sent that out first. You were the first responders to that sort of a thing. So, uh, we appreciate that. Got some fun stuff coming up, as you guys know we had because of everything that went down, we did have to push the live back. So we've got the live coming up for patreons only and plus lots of exclusive content, and we're just grateful to have you there yes, and until, and, until next time spray it up, y'all.

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