Midnight Riviera

Wow, I am shook, shocked, appalled, surprised. I got French Riviera, and I love French Riviera, even though it’s one of the most critiqued perfumes on social media. But it’s €150. When I was writing a positive review for French Riviera, I suddenly saw people upvoting this one under it, and I was like, hey, from FOMO too! I’ve had Gary’s Den from them, it wasn’t like Dior Parfum like everyone said, but it was a nice scent. Cool that they released a new one! This came at a time where I was also like, I hope I can find something to replace FR so I don’t have to spend so much money on it, and keep FR for more special occasions. I saw Midnight Riviera, gave it a shot, €30, you won’t hear me complaining, and out of all the inspired by fragrances I’ve bought in the last 1.5 years... This one had me jumping with happiness. You spray it, and it’s literally French Riviera. FR is more well blended and deeper right from the start, whereas here you immediately smell FR, but with a bit of that alcohol opening. Give it 10 seconds... BAM, French Riviera, but a little more airy, a bit more citrus, not insanely, just a liiiittle bit. Still that sunscreen vibe, just toned down, but not toned down in projection! To me, it’s like 95% FR. I’m amazed, this is a hit for me. Not sure about longevity yet since I just sprayed it, but if this lasts 8+ hours, I’m going to stock up on this one, because damn!!

This might be the most fresh fragrance I've ever smelled. It's super fresh and uplifting. Only sprayed it once on my hand, and that's all I can smell. So it projects like crazy and just smells heavenly. Citrus fresh aquatic, with a little tiare white floral. This is definitely a W. Highly recommend. ✅

I love it. Unisex. Summer day. Uplifting and fun scent. I get citrus, salt, marine and aromatic.

Mancera's French Riviera is a nice scent. It isn't exactly special, or groundbreaking, but sometimes it's nice to smell like a good quality suntan lotion. French Riviera is a scent I would like to have in my collection. The price it has, is just too much in my opinion. So, how does the highly praised FOMO alternative compare? If I'd get something close to French Riviera, with a fraction of it's price, I would be more than happy. I'm honestly not too happy. Midnight Riviera clearly smells something like French Riviera. It shares similar notes and construction, and in a way is a decent alternative to Mancera's more pricey fragrance. Unfortunately, the saying; "You get what you pay for" holds true with this scent. For under a third of French Riviera's price, you just aren't getting a scent that is as good quality as the original scent. Midnight Riviera's opening is more citrusy and blueish, compared to French Riviera's more sea breeze like opening. The dry down, that with French Riviera is just like some nice, good quality sun tan lotion, is also quite noticeably different. The Midnight Riviera feels much more synthetic and sharper. Thanks to these qualities, I actually have to admit, that the FOMO scent has a stronger sillage, and better staying power than the Mancera one. So in that aspect, this actually wins the original. Midnight Riviera doesn't exactly smell cheap, or bad quality, but it is still easy to tell that it is a much more affordable scent, than the OG it tries to replicate. I still have a tiny bit of my French Riviera sample left, and when directly comparing these fragrances, I can tell I prefer the Mancera one by far over this one. For 30-40€, this is a decent buy, but nothing praise worthy in my opinion. Wearing this is not in any way unpleasant, but it's clearly not as nice of a scent as Mancera's is. I have owned my bottle for over a month now, and it has not improved. Will probably just try to sell it. Now I'm looking for French Riviera, or Intense French Riviera on discount. Sure they are expensive scents, but a cheap alternative just didn't do it for me in this case. TLDR; I don't consider this a good enough alternative for Mancera's FR. It's fairly similar to the OG, but clearly a lower quality product.

This one I have thought about on and off, and given the cheap price range, it’s one of those “blind buy” fragrances. Fresh aquatic scents were never my jam, but in the last couple of months I have been getting into them more. I had heard good things about French Riviera, but there were some elements where It just sounded a bit naff. For example, when I hear salty, on my skin it just comes out as boring, compared to say black pepper, which is much more vibrant. On the back of a TLTG review, he mentioned that the coconut was toned down – great because coconut can be gross to some people, and I fall somewhere along that line with it. However, it can be used to add layer an texture rather than being a main scent note, and I have appreciated it in this form. On to the fragrance itself. Big strong opening, synthetic blast of citrus, this calms down in a very short time leaving a scent that evolves over time (I was surprised about this for the low price). On me, close to the skin it was giving a very rich texture I kept going back to and smelling. The mid is more complicated than I expected, yet it does not come across as difficult to wear. The long-term dry down is very bitter musky, which I can find a bit gross with fragrances, but this one comes across as less sour/ urine like. This fragrance projects- and I mean really projects- I had someone at work try it and the whole office smelled like this fragrance all day from one spray. It gives off a sunscreen vibe in the air, with some light florals. Against the skin, again it remains very interesting. In terms of longevity, I sprayed this over 24 hours ago and wash my hands fairly regularly, and I can smell that lingering musk smell on my hand. So it’s a very powerful fragrances for something so fresh and floral. It has been blended very well. I have not tried Macera’s French Riviera, and probably won’t bother as this is very nice. I am getting to the point where if I do buy a clone I try not to compared because nothing will be 100%, and if you like, you like it. Nothing screams buy the original to me, although I would like to get the intense version, which is meant to be more mass appealing.

Beautiful aquatic scent! Fresh and watery! Reminds me of a beach! Amber is anchoring this to the skin, white florals are almost non existent. Just smells of a beautiful towel that’s been sun dried on the beach! Love it, can’t compare it to Mancera I have never smelled Mancera. The pine doesn’t stick out which I was worried about it just lends to the freshness! Beautiful quality strong long lasting scent last on skin well over 12 hours very green and ozonic

I'll be honest I haven't smelled the original, I imagine its pretty close. This has been one of my favorite summer fragrances and it is most definitely good performance wise, especially after having it for about a month at this point. Definitely going to pick up a bottle of the original and the intense version when I get a chance.

Watered-down, significantly less radiant version of Riviera Lazuli, French Riviera fragrance type. Slightly masculine leaning