FiDi

I fell in love with Lafayette Street by this house and I decided to explore other Bond fragrances. I headed over to Jomashop and saw FiDi on sale for a steal of a price so I pulled the trigger and purchased it blindly. At first, I absolutely LOATHED this fragrance. I found it to be too peppery, too dense, and slightly suffocating. I shelved it for a few months until one day I accidentally sprayed it on not paying attention thinking it was Lafayette Street. I don’t know if it needed some time to truly blossom or if my taste has evolved since first purchasing this but I found the wear absolutely delightful! What I once found to be too thick, dense and suffocating became a rich, robust hyper masculine, virile, spicy composition with just a touch of sweetness to round out the fragrance. It kind of smells like Armani code with a heaping of peppery spices and the vanilliac sweetness dialed down one notch above the absolute minimum. There’s even a slightly leathery/suede animalic accord in the background (which could be coming from the Lotus and nutmeg heart) just like Armani code. It performs really well too with longevity reaching the 10 hour mark and projection maintaining at about a foot or two for the life of the wear. The sillage is alluring, wafting about giving your an air of masculine sophistication and virility. Less is more with this fragrance, 2 to 3 sprays yields the best results, any more and you’ll be choking out, and triggering the allergies of everyone within 3 feet of you. I wouldn’t say its a potent composition but it is very robust and rich and can become cloying if over sprayed. I’d recommend if you’re into spicy masculine fragrances, even if you’re not FiDi is still at least worth sampling.

After an initial blast of black pepper, this settles down to include musk and watery florals. As it dries down, it seems to gain complexity. At the point of dry down, I wasn't sure I could hang with the strong, peppery, burnt plastic smell, which is probably just the natural consequences of combining this much black pepper with fresh notes like bergamot and lotus. As this matures, it truly morphs into something lovely. The soapy aspect comes out and the peppery note fades into a background role. I made the mistake of reading some of the reviews while trying this for the first time — the reviewer who said this smells like Dial soap is *not wrong.* I'd say this is a very traditionally masculine, yet unique fresh spicy, slightly musky, clean/soapy scent. I'm considering getting a bottle simply because it reminds me of my dad, who passed a while ago and always used Dial soap. Longevity is quite good on me, but it's not so strong that it'll clear a room because of that initial, peppery blast. As someone who adores clean, very soapy scents, I'm thrilled to have found one with the kind of lasting power I need and want in all day fragrance.

Smells so interesting, in a good way. Girls love it and it has manly smell to it. The base finished with this fizzy like feeling, not sure what not that would be from. 12 hour longevity on my skin with moderate projection. People hate on Bond frags because they don’t have anything better to do. Bonds are nice mass appealing scents for people that want to dip their toe into a safe niche brand. Update: this smell is the best bond by far. Lasts forever, 36+ hours on skin and smells just so great. I showered twice and it’s still not off haha. I have literally had so many compliments with this fragrance that I’m considering buying another bottle.

Absolutley beautiful scent. This is a beautiful fresh spring and summer scent. To me it smells a lot like Prada Luna Rossa EDT - but FIDI is much better. Luna Rossa is nostalgic for me, so it explains why I love this one so much. I gave it a wear today and got a good 6-7 hours with it. It does not have beastly longevity, but for the scent profile it does really well. The projection is moderate, nothing crazy. This smell is gorgeous - smells like spring in a bottle. I will definitely be picking up a bottle for the summer season.

I got a sample of this yesterday and I've worn it the last two days. The main notes I pick up are Pepper, Mandarin Orange, Lotus, a little of the cedar, and a little of the musk. It's a peppery, floral, a little citrus...It's not bad. I let a fellow fragrance enthusiast at work smell it, and he was like, 'that's not bad. I like that.' It's a nice fresh scent. The price tag is still a bit too high though. As much as I love the Bond No 9 brand, the prices on their new release fragrances keep going higher and higher.

First Impression on skin: opening spicy citrus that dries down to musky powdered cedar on my skin. Reminds me of a high end milled soap and I love soapy clean frags. 🫧 Could be worn in any situation. Need to test further but so far I love it and I will probably buy a full bottle. Scent 7.4/10 Performance 5/10 P S. Bought a full bottle and eventually got tired of it and sold it off to a friend. The lotus is annoying, the drydown is solid. Performance is suprisingly average for Bond which usually perform.

One of the safest niche blind buys you could possibly get . Easily mass appealing . I call this “expensive deodorant “. So clean , masculine and sits on the skin for a while. Becoming one of my favorite freshies at the moment . Recommend if you want a suitable introduction to niche. Rating: 8.9/10 Edit : this one doesn’t last the longest but one of my favorite freshies . Suitable for day time business casual type of vibe in hot climates . Rating : 8.4/10

There’s always a stereotype with bond no 9 and usually they don’t get the best review. But on the grey market I feel like this fragrance is a complete hidden gem. I get a smother Prada Luna Rosa smell to it, nice soapy clean refine scent trails it defiantly blew me away and will be a keep in my collection. Perfect top 10 for spring and summer

Wore this today and I just have to reiterate what a hidden gem this is! I’m very surprised this doesn’t get more love but it’s a long lasting, interesting fresh/spicy fragrance with powerful projection. It’s extremely people pleasing without being boring. Show some love!!!

Dressed up tonka beans. This one is definitly strong and comes to life with the right body chemistry, you need an active lifestyle to enjoy it. Choking hazard when oversprayed.

Great office scent/daily if you want to smell different without offending others

It's essentially a bougier, much more refined version of a Sauvage-esque fresh spicy DNA. To me the name is misleading, as I don't find this scent to capture the energy and vibe of NYC's Financial District at all. I actually find this to be better suited to Brooklyn or the Lower East Side, while Chez Bond is a better match to the Financial District vibe. It's somewhat harsh, abrasive and synthetic, but in a niche way, and while it has moments that can induce slight headaches, it's nowhere near as cloying or potent as Sauvage, at least to me. I personally have no problems with the performance--as with most Bond No. 9 fragrances, that really isn't much of an issue. The scent profile leans masculine to me, just because of the heavy pepper and musk accord, but anyone of any gender can pull this off on the right occasion. I am personally not the biggest fan of the way FiDi smells on my skin, but I have to give props to the overall scent profile because I think this could potentially smell really nice on someone else. I'm currently selling my FiDi bottle on eBay, and if anyone's interested at purchasing the near-full bottle at a reasonable price, please feel free to DM me on here.

The opening is repulsive but the dry down might be one of my favorites. If only the opening was much better. I spray it well before I leave the house so no one else has to smell the opening. Opening is a very dirty musk. But then the dry down is beautiful. Good rainy day fragrance as I think it smells a little like wet wood. Anyone know of a fragrance with a similar dry down?

What attracted me to this is that it leans so masculine. I get citrus. I get aquatics, to which I'm partial. I get smacked with black pepper & the vanilla is the perfect accent to tame the citrus sharpness. On dry down, I get some musk & wood to balance the citrus opening. I'm a bit sad I don't get nutmeg but i likes very very much anyway. Great for warmer weather.

To me I get a lot of vanilla and cedar with a Savauge like opening of bergamot and pepper. With about 4 sprays from I get about an hour of good projection then settles in to a close almost skin scent. A great office scent, completely non offensive but also not that interesting while being very pleasant and subdued.

Ordered a bunch of decants and got this with it on a whim. Wanted to dislike it until it settled into my skin. Another solid bond fragrance. No BS review: 8.5/10 Might pick up a grey mkt bottle. Would pay ~150-170 for it, but not a penny more. Good stuff.

I really struggle with this one! I really wanted to like FIDI but to me it smells almost identical to Armani Code (the mens perfume). As a result, it doesn't really have that unique Bond No 9 smell and every time I smell it, I think of Armani...

It smells like a luxurious Gold Dial Soap . Projection and longevity is what you’d expect from bond no 9. Average at best.

I am reminded of I love NY for marriage eaquality as Fidi is just as spicy and peppery. Thumbs up!

I'm continuing my Bond No. 9 journey today with FiDi. So far my experience with the house has been meh. My first fragrance with the house, New Haarlem, was a success. But since then the fragrances have just seemed weird or uninspired. Maybe I'm picking the wrong fragrances to review? I'm not sure, but maybe FiDi can turn the tide. Let's get into it; Scent: The opening is floral, fresh, and citrusy. The primary notes I get are lotus, musk, bergamot, and black pepper. The strongest of the notes are the lotus and musk. The lotus takes point in the opening of this fragrance with a heavy dose of light and airy florals. It comes across as fresh, clean, and slightly aquatic. Up next is the musk, manifesting as a familiar clean, fuzzy note. It doesn't necessarily stand out as a note on it's own, but it imbues a noticeable fuzziness to the other notes in the opening. This is followed by the bergamot and black pepper. The bergamot is detectable in it's usual form of a citrusy and aromatic note with a bit of fresh spiciness on the backend. Lastly, the black pepper adds just a bit more spice in the background to tickle the nose. The dry down is musky, woody, and powdery. The primary notes I get are nutmeg, cedar, musk, and lotus. The strongest of the notes are the musk and cedar. In the dry down the musk has become a primary note in its own regard; clean and fuzzy with a strong powdery accord. It is joined by the cedar that gives the dry down a sturdy and pronounced woodiness. This is followed by the nutmeg and lotus. The nutmeg has emerged to confer a warm spiciness that contrasts the freshness of the musk. Lastly, the lotus is still present in the dry down with the same airy floral note, but it lingers in the background to let the other notes have the stage. Performance: Performance for the first hour is strong; projection at about 6 feet and an easily noticeable scent trail. After a few hours the projection had died down quite a bit to about arms length and the scent trail was faint but still noticeable. The fragrance became a skin scent shortly thereafter. When to wear: FiDi is a spring/summer fragrance best suited for daytime wear. This is more of a casual wearing fragrance, and I can see it being worn for outdoor activities or just lounging around. That being said, it's a bit too airy and playful with the florals to feel appropriate for formal occasions or office wear. Blind buy: I think this is a pretty safe blind buy so long as you enjoy floral, musky fragrances. It doesn't have any weird notes or strange accords that would turn people off. Do keep in mind that you may need to re-apply to have it last all day. Final verdict: FiDi started out as something I didn't really like, and ended up being something that I think is okay, but still not great. In the opening I was surprised by how strong the florals were. It's marketed as unisex, and the votes here on Fragrantica would lead me to believe it leans masculine; but the opening was overwhelmingly feminine to my nose. Once it got into the dry down it evened out a bit, but still not anything close to what I would consider masculine; more true unisex. Still, I think the scent profile itself was interesting and enjoyable. The performance was a bit lacking compared to what I've experienced so far with BN9. Projection and sillage were strong for the first hour, but it fell off quickly after that and became a skin scent around 4 hours later. Versatility for FiDi is average; it works well for casual settings in warm weather, but that's about it. The fragrance does have a mass-appealing quality to it though, and it will be enjoyed by most people. At the end of the day, I think it's a decent fragrance but not something I'm going to be spending my money on for a full bottle. As I stated, the opening is just way too feminine for my taste. And even though it balanced out by the dry down, the performance left me a little underwhelmed. But it's definitely worth a sample to anyone that likes this type of DNA. Scent: 7/10 Longevity: 5/10 Sillage: 5/10

FiDi is an odd scent, yet it doesn’t captivate me either, it manages to achieve both creativity and boredom in one. To be fair, what else can you expect from this house? It seems to be their trademark. The scent is a soft citrusy, powdery woody affair. It’s got a pronounced black pepper, but thankfully this isn’t sharp or punchy like some can be, instead it’s delightfully delicate, balanced well with soft musks, white florals and vanilla. It’s a pleasant scent, you can’t really hate it, but I can’t see how you can love it either. It’s got an odd mix of notes which should breed intrigue, but instead it feels quite flat and boring.

The first hour smells like bad breath and rubber with little whispers of pretty floral-fruity notes around the edges. This is an oddball in the early going! Later, the scent relaxes into floral-fruity notes over nutmeg and cedar. The nasty halitosis-rubber vibe thankfully fades. I'm not sure I want to journey with the opening of this fragrance to reach its eventual destination, even though it's a pleasant frag in the end.

This smells nice. Reminds me of a super high quality deodorant. Powdery, masculine, and fresh and still has a sexy edge imo. Kind of accomplishes what the OG Armani Code did back in the day but this is more modern. Wear this out of the shower and you’ll smell and feel like a million bucks. Super underrated.

Musk heavy with a clean and powdery vibe. It's not that strong to my nose, but I think this would smell nicer on a lady. Overall this smells good.

I'm just going to say this — no one calls that area "FiDi" in New York. That was invented, and if it is used, by newcomers and out-of-towners. It's Wall Street, WTC, or whatever specific place name, or just generally "Downtown." So I suspect that "FiDi" is just some marketing thing, and that worries me about the premise for this scent. Like it does not have a real identity, so Bond just searched for something, anything in the city, that hadn't yet been put on a bottle. It has nothing to do with the real place, which is fairly far away from the idea even of nutmeg. It's a funny marketing decision, one that tends to repel me from trying this scent at all.

FiDi (BN9). Best opening of any BN9!! Very sexy lemon citrus opening. Drydown, however is like a wierd synthetic doughnut or diaper smell. Unpleasant. Pass. Summer

Does Bond No 9 care about making good scents anymore? Just rerelease New Haarlem already.

A watery floral rubber mask. Ick.

Oooof! I do not like this, it’s far more musky floral than I was expecting and it really doesn’t bode well with me. I get a very strange “synthetic rubber” note, I’m assuming it’s the combo of bergamot and musk with the lotus, it just doesn’t seem to translate well on me at all. I do not detect the black pepper at all and that’s one of my favorite notes ever, I can detect a tiny bit of the vanilla and nutmeg, if there’s mandarin it’s mandarin rind, and not the sweeter note of it. I can see someone who likes very musky florals enjoying this, but this is just not for me. It translate very feminine on me as well, reminds me of a debutante from the 1920s who is trying to fit in with the well established women of the time. This is a pass for me, but if you like musky florals you might like this. It’s not a very complex fragrance to be honest, there are some instances I get a soapy vibe from it, kind of reminiscent of those seashell soaps that were popular in the 80s and 90s. Try before you buy for sure.

Straight to the point, clean, dry, fresh. Not sure why, but I get the image of traveling thru an airport and sitting in first class when I smell this. At the same time, I get gray imagery when I catch a whiff. My favorite Bond No 9 so far. I don't get Prada Luna Rossa Sport whatsoever. Maybe a little Prada Luna Rossa Carbon. If I had to compare, I'd say this smells like Bond No. 9 Bleeker street, just without the blueberries. Both Bond No. 9s have a cooling effect. Bleeker street achieves that with the violet leaf, whereas FiDi gets there with the black pepper and lotus flower. Two different approaches, with a similar feel.

not bad but immediately reminding me of a cross of Sauvage with its peppery aspects and perhaps Issey Miyake L’Eau D’Issey with its heavy lotus and light aquatic facets. Maybe even a little Sedley from PdM in there? It has an interesting little facet to it that reminds of Sedley or ELdO Ghost in the shell to an extent to my nose but not as daring and more wearable. A chlorine-like quality in a way. Some people love such profiles but I am not one. Will update if this FiDi evolves through wear more

Smells like Prada Luna Rossa Sport mixed with Creed Himalaya.. and a tiny bit of Creed Love in White.. if it had less Love in White vibe (white musk) it would be better .. also a little less cumin or lotus that resembles the super sweetness of Luna Rossa Sport.. or a swimming pool (cumming for men) <[Fragrance].. the dry down is great... but this is one of those fragrances that last too long and dont even come off after showers etc .. good but.. a case of its too strong for its own good.

Pepper pepper and more pepper in the opening. It does come across as Dior Fahrenheit and Bleecker street (without the blueberry note). Maybe even CH men without the sugar note, grassy and woody. Smells nice, slowly growing on me even more. Unique smelling to the general public. Performance seems to be really good when I tested.

I read somewhere that Jo Milanos "Wildcard" was a clone of this, Wildcard is actually my new favorite next to Black Afgano. Most people have never heard of the house & I must say Jackpot by them is another beautiful fragrance that I must have. Bottle & presentations is top notch! Concentration is PARFUM 🔥🔥🥰

Super peppery scent. Wouldn't really recommend this. It just doesn't smell good. Good thing about it is that the bottle sort of has a mystique to it. The font and name looks a bit imposing. Looks cool on a shelf, not great as an actual scent.

Le Labo makes a shower gel called Hinoki, and this smells like that. It’s a pretty good fragrance. A nice alternative to traditional fresh blue men’s fragrances. This is definitely best for men.

When sampling its an easy dumb grab. Moreover, the dry down is somewhat heavenly with the lotus. But it is really just an amazing high quality sauvage flanker.

My first review from 50+ frag collection. I love this one . I think it’s very sexy-versatile .

Smells like 80% prada luna Rossa sport and 20% Armani code EDP with a good dose of musk.

Is it just me or does this one smell like Bleecker Street mixed with Body Kouros?