OM

How I would love to have another bottle of GAP Om! Oh the nostalgia, it would probably bring tears to my eyes. This perfume was the first time I ever asked someone to tell me the name of their perfume. I was sitting in high school biology class directly behind one of the beautiful popular girls. She smelled so amazing, like nothing I had ever experienced. I had to know!! I don't think I had ever spoken a word to her but I tapped her on the shoulder and complimented her perfume and she told me it was GAP Om. I had seen ads for it in Seventeen magazine. I didn't have much money but I went and bought myself a bottle and wore it throughout the last two years of high school. I wore it during a very special summer, when I was dating "the one that got away" (Admit it we all have one!) It's this amazing musky mix of spicy and woody notes. Smoky but still young and fresh somehow. I have never smelled anything like it again and I am heartbroken that it seems impossible to find. I wonder how close those "reminds me of" perfumes would get. If I had a bottle of this potion again, I would douse myself head to toe in this resinous sandalwood and I don't know, probably listen to Dave Matthews Band and read my old love letters (Admit it we all have those too!)

I loved loved LOVED the original, so I bought the new version on a whim. The packaging is terrible compared to the OG (obvs), but to me it smells just like I remember. I immediately got that sweet scent nostalgia feeling immediately after spraying it. Then, for confirmation, I took it to my cousin who also owned and loved it back in the late 90s, and she agreed it's the same Om. So if you really love and miss this scent, get the new version instead of trying to find a dupe, bc there isn't anything else out there that's going to bring back that memory. For 20$, it's worth taking the chance! As for longevity, it's not great, but I don't really remember the performance of the 90s version, and this is an EDT, so it's not going to be a beast. Manage expectations and you won't be disappointed!

This was absolutely my favorite scent in high school and as soon as I heard it was being discontinued, I ran out and bought the last bottle I could find...and I still have it. I wore this year-round, but eventually, it turned in to my goto fall scent. I'm horrible at describing scents, but to me it was woody and sort of creamy...a very comforting scent. I've been afraid to use too much of it because it was discontinued and have been looking for something similar for years, but I finally found something that smells EXACTLY like this. Juliette Has A Gun - Sunny Side Up smells exactly like Om...I compared it to the bottle of Om I still have and its exact. So for anyone still looking for a substitute, try Juliette Has A Gun.

My favorite Gap offering ever. I think it was ahead of its time, look at those notes! Can't wait to receive the 2020 reissue in the mail! I hope it's as good as the original. Edit: smells like bug spray + original. I still like it. Might try to get an old bottle to compare. Perhaps my nose has just changed.

OM and GRASS were my favorite Gap scents when they came out. This to me was so different from the cliche Pear and Fresia from the 90s high-school corridor. I miss this fragrance and I have not found brand the I can say is 1:1 to this :(

I have finally found something that reminds me of this wonderful nostalgic late 90s perfume. Kilian Angels Share. I love Angels Share anyway, but if you want to be reminded of Om, go smell this. Thank me later :)

My ex got this one in the divorce. I got Grass, which I love but man, do I miss OM. Such a lovely, soft incense at play. It's very much a warm Winter scent.

Such a shame it's hard to find a cheap original version, only using a dupe body spray I got off Etsy I'm certain I would go to war for this.

Oh my gosh, I had this when I was in the 7th grade in 1997 and I loved it. I totally forgot about it til I got a sample of Carner Bacelona Rima XI and it took me a few minutes, but it reminded me of Om.

An easygoing warm incense that wears lightly with just a bit of sillage. Has a distinct but not unpleasant rubbery note, and is virtually gone--at least on me--within 3 hours.

I loved so much this perfume because it was quite original. I don’t know why but I would associate the smell with funerals.

The original Gap Om has been my signature scent for going on 25 years. I lost my virginity wearing that perfume (seriously!) and the smell is tied to so many of my memories. I am privileged to still own a half a bottle of the original formulation, that I bought on eBay for $150 a few years ago. I don't shop at the Gap and just learned that they re-released it. Got my hands on a bottle and the old saying is true - you can never go home again. It's close, but not the same. There's a sharpness in the original that's missing in the new version, it has too much of a soft musk vibe for me. And as others have said, projection and longevity are weaker. It's still nice, but not close enough to make me start using up my precious original version - I am going to continue to hoard that and break it out for special occasions (like when I know I'm going to see that old boyfriend of mine, ha ha).

I remember when this came out a it was so different and mysterious, especially being an offering from The Gap. I do remember it being rather impactful when first smelled on someone, then rapidly nose-blindness happened. I bought some and experienced the same effect. Very much a light, incensy skin scent and a hint of musk. Very poor performance or tenacity. No oud scent either from what I recall - well, there’s nothing real or natural in this anyway. I think there’s a fair amount of iso E super, hence the radiance and disappear/reappear effect. Still, a unique fragrance, but not one I’d spend the money they’re asking for second-hand. Maybe good for a serious tween’s first “incense” perfume.

I actually remember the Gap scents from the 90s when they first came out really well, like it was yesterday. They were incredible. Super strong, one or two sprays lasted all day, very unique complex scents unlike anything else on the market, and they were DIRT CHEAP. They used to sell scented candles that were so soft and oily, you could touch the wax on one and wear it as a perfume solid. I owned OM, Dream, Heaven and Grass, and that's the order I'd rank them in from best to worst. Around the very late 90's/early 00's I couldn't find OM anymore and stopped buying gap scents/started shopping elsewhere. I moved into my first ever apartment near a Gap outlet. I went in, and was excited to see OM back in stock! But when I sampled it, it was a sad, flat, watered-down version of the magical fragrance it once was. The original was very warm and spicy, incense-y and touch animalic. In comparison, the reformation is cool, damp, and mild, no incense, no pepper, no ginger-chai-like notes anymore. I realized all the gap scents had changed, all seeming really watered-down. It was so bad I didn't end up buying. Eventually these scents were all discontinued, since the early 2000's reformulation was awful. I've now been searching for dupes of the 90s OM for 20+ years. No luck. I picked up a bottle last year with white paper label re-release, and dear god did I regret wasting my money. Pure water. Subtle fragrance that vanishes immediately, not even a skin scent, requires 20 sprays for less than 30 minutes of fragrance. Originally, 90s OM was very rich and complex, addictively spicy, with excellent staying power. It was such a warm and spicy unique scent and it was impossible to identify the notes clearly. The new OM smells like it has only a couple of the original notes. Even if I heavily overspray, OM is a ghost of what it was. I seriously blew through half a 3oz bottle in a few wears, and my spouse was only able to smell it on me once right after I sprayed with his nose to my skin. I searched many forums for smell-alikes, bought a handful of perfumes I never would have if someone hadn't whispered "OM" in the dark corners of the internet. Nothing was ever even close. I couldn't even find separate scents to layer to get the same vibe. Bvlgari black was discontinued before I got to try it and the reviews for every Bvlgari scent I've read about complains about the abysmal performance and lasting power, so I passed on buying an overpriced discontinued bottle of that one. I also was turned off by the idea of "rubber tire notes" in a perfume. The best way to make me throw away a fragrance is to have any sort of synthetic plastic rubber type note in it. I bought a very pricy bottle of Le Musc & La Peau by Pierre Guillaume after an OM recommendation, which is a very wonderful unisex skin scent, but not OM, not spicy, just sweet and musky. Someone somewhere suggested Love and Luck by Ed Hardy - never expected I'd buy Ed Hardy anything. Surprisingly the drydown scent is nice and musky, yet somewhat fresh after the opening harsh burn, but it isn't anything like OM, not spicy at all. I blind bought a bottle of Sunny Side Up by Juliette has a Gun thanks to the other reviewer out of hopes that I'd find some 90s OM in it. It's an amazing scent, similarly unisex, vanilla and coconut blending with sandalwood and musk, and most importantly, the addictive warm spicy woody scent I associated with 90s OM dominates! But I've now bought two bottles, both are VERY faint, lacking any projection at all, even if you spray over 20 times. It also takes an hour, sometimes more to fully develop into the OM spice, before that it smells rather bland and vanilla-like. The dry down, which does last several hours, is a divine intimate skin scent. It's ultimately too pricey for such bad performance, though that may be due to some manufacturing issues, according to many Sephora reviews, a whole lot of bad bottles of Sunny Side Up were released between 2020-2022. Basically if you can afford it, Sunny Side Up is a nice grown up alternative, but they’re not the exact same scent. Sunny Side Up isn't cheap - over $100/bottle retail price, though the price wouldn't be an issue if it weren't one of the worst performers I've ever encountered. Katy Perry's Indie also has a similar musky spicy scent to Sunny Side Up and 90's OM. It's also a super faint skin scent though that fades quickly, but it's dirt cheap ($10/oz or 3.3oz for $18). I'm going to try to layer Indie with the OM reissue and see if that gets me a bit closet to 90s OM. I haven't had luck layering Sunny Side Up - anything you wear with it completely takes it over and makes it vanish. Still crossing my fingers that one day I'll find a good dupe of the original OM. In the meantime, I need to

I had a scent from 1999 that was from a zodiac collection. It was in a dark green bottle (Scorpio) and it smelled exactly like this. I got rid of the original scent because it reminded me of a boyfriend I had broken up with. A few years ago, when I started collecting scents seriously, I remembered that smell and wanted it back. To hell with that old boyfriend lol. I couldn't remember if I bought the original at The Body Shop or Bath and Body Works. I spent hours trying to track it down. On vacation recently we needed a couple extra tee shirts, so we just stopped in The Gap to pick up a couple. Normally I ignore the fragrances because they are a little younger skewed than I want to smell but my daughters were poking around the hair clips and such and because it was there, I started sniffing. When I picked this up it was exactly the scent I had been searching for. Different brand and a different bottle, but the exact same smell. I bought it immediately and wish I had picked up a back up. It is light and clean as expected from edt. There is a mild sweetness but nothing overwhelming. The sandalwood in this is very pleasant and not the pencil shavings type. The scent overall is creamy and fresh. I will probably pick up a back up after I finish about 50 other fragrances.

I remember finally going to the mall with friends alone when I got my driver’s license and stopping into the gap (after bath and body works of course but that’s a whole other story!) and of course smelling Dream, and Heaven, the scents my two best friends wore. Those scents will always bring me back to high school in the 90s. But THEN, came Gap OM. I was OBSESSED. Wore it most every day my junior year of high school. While the other girls smelled like Subflowers and Clinique Happy I smelled like OM every day of my life. My friends said it was too masculine but for me it felt just right. Smelled woodsy and incense-y and mysterious and sexy. I loved it so much that maybe back in 2013 or so I purchased some (very much overpriced) bottle on EBay. I was actually really disappointed because it seemed weakened and not at all like the original fragrance (I was kind of fearing that due to its age). I have smelled the newer version at the gap but did not purchase (although I do remember it smelled LIKE the original but just seemed to be missing something.) Anyway it will always bring me back to high school along with Heaven and Dream, and BBW Plumeria, Happy, CK1 and so many others, but this was def MY signature scent.

Just got my hands on a sample of the rerelease (was quite literally a newborn in the 90s when this first arrived on the scene, so unfortunately I can't compare it to the original). To me, it smells like a weaker, less spicy version of Régime des Fleurs' Blood Spider Orchids. My partner said that it smells like Hobby Lobby, and I don't necessarily disagree. It is warm and comforting and very ambery, but also very reminiscent of a fall candle you'd find at Bath & Body Works. It is 1000% a scent that only works well in cold weather. I can see this choking you to death during the summer

I wore this back before perfume was a thing for me. It was the first scent, other than my Grandma's Giorgio that I really liked. It was warm and clear and enjoyable. I'm surprised that there are no citruses or musk listed in the notes. For me, the green notes, coriander and lotus/ginger (guessing that combo is responsible for the citrus musk feel) dominated. Sandalwood held it down. Sheer and kind of enveloping. Mild. I'd love to find it again without the crazy price,, but who knows. This far into my perfume fandom it might not seem like anything special!

I have the modern reformulation (also discontinued). I remember when the original GAP scents were sold but never had any of them. All tragic reformulations aside, I still like the modern Om. It’s thankfully not like Glossier You (some of my least favourite iris), but reminds me more of the discontinued Nest White Sandalwood, which smelled like pencil shavings. Om is the Nest White Sandalwood with a dirtier aspect (oud/incense). No, not Juliette Has A Gun. It’s still something, and thankfully no ambroxan.

gap has apparently reissued this along with grass in clear cylinder glass bottle I inherited the OG frosted bottle from an older cousin. it was quite spicy and almost medicinal smelling the new release is half OG om and half Bvlgari black. the white label on the bottle reads: a zen blend of spicy amber and muguet paired with sandalwood musk I would say if you love unisex spicy smells especially along the lines of Bvlgari Black (the "tire" shaped bottle) you will certainly like this too