Question:
I am in that age group and I wear what ever appeals to my nose men womes oils perfumes .....

Answer:
If I learnt something with age: it has become easier to withstand hype and fashion, and focus on quality instead. I cannot be bothered any more with trivial, 'wearable' scents. Every one of them has to be special within its category. I grew up in a time when just a few new scents (male/female/nothing in between) entered the market annually. They were not even counted like that and forget annual awards! But nothing seemed really missing then, and I owned less than five bottles, and they were gifts.
I bought a lot in recent years and consider some newcomers as truly revolutionary. Some classics have therefore become obsolete, but others not at all! Result: my 'wardrobe' has undergone some drastic changes but also grown the way a book or CD collection does. So far, well known classics dominate , but that is bound to change with recent new classics from old houses, and outstanding niche products which turned things upside down (Lutens or Villoresi who made traditional 'orientals' look a bit silly in our days, not to speak of Comme des Garcons who make can turn asphalt into perfume).

Call it old age follies - I discovered soliflorals as a hobby of recent years and even wear them if the mood and situation is right! I get amused any time a young man decides to be shocked by colognes with a pronounced character of their own (Knize, Givenchy Gentleman, Polo, or some of those Spanish frags from Puig and Rabanne, etc.). I wonder what may have been different in my own scent education that my heart still embraces such colognes - the eighties maybe! But my own frag experience starts with things from much eralier (parents' drawers, or those of relatives): Jicky which I find sinful and puzzling to this day, Chanel's Cuir dR, Mitsouko, Tosca, and a frag called after a famous Berlin license plate '1A-33'.

Answer:
As usual, narcus, you bring a logical, balanced and intelligent view. Agreed: age does give (or should, anyway) one the ability to withstand the vagaries of fashion. I'm fast approaching my 40s and that seems to concentrate my senses so that I seek out what I truly, really, deeply like for the "long-haul," if you know what I mean.

Answer:
I know what you mean