Blu Mare

#155 of My Fragrance Journey - Giardini di Toscana Blu Mare: The one that smells like the drive, not the destination There's this stretch of road on the Tuscan coast that never quite decides if it belongs to the land or the sea. Half the time you're driving through pine forest, the next minute the water's right there. That's basically what this fragrance is doing - it doesn't just drop you on a beach, it makes you drive there first. Opens bright, citrus-forward - grapefruit, bergamot, lemon, all sparkling, with a little pink pepper flickering underneath. First impression, honestly, it reads like a fairly standard Mediterranean cologne. Nice, approachable, nothing shocking. Then the road bends, so to speak, and the salt comes in properly - this marine accord shows up with actual conviction, and cypress rises alongside it, tall and a bit shadowy. That cypress is doing more than adding green here. It's giving the whole thing structure, almost architectural, as you can still see the forest behind you even once you've hit the coast. What I like is it skips the usual sun-drenched aquatic thing everyone does. This is wilder - cliffs, dark water, pine resin mixing into sea spray. Peppery, mineral, alive in a way that feels almost fougère but somehow still wet. Hard to explain, you just have to smell it. Settles into ambergris and oakmoss eventually, and this base doesn't fade so much as it just expands - feels relentless, honestly, in a good way. On skin it's less like a fragrance and more like weather, moving and shifting. On fabric though? It sticks around for days. Sometimes longer than that. Projection's strong too - this fills a room well past where you're actually standing. That performance is the whole story with this one, really - it's the best thing about it and also the reason to be careful. Great outdoors, coastal walks, evening drives with the windows down. Indoors, in a small space, that salty ambergris base can get overwhelming fast, even a little harsh depending on your nose. People are split on it for exactly that reason - some think it's one of the best modern marine fragrances going, others find it too much for a regular Tuesday. You'll hear it compared to Megamare and Black Sea a lot, and fair enough. But Blu Mare's got a brighter citrus opening and that cypress heart doing something neither of those really attempt. More approachable, still uncompromising, just a clearer profile overall. Honestly though, what stays with me isn't the strength of it. It's that image - driving out of the hills, watching the pine trees give way to coastline bit by bit. This fragrance nails that shift with a kind of precision I didn't expect. Citrus turns into wind. Cypress becomes the edge of the coastline. The sea doesn't show up all at once - it just slowly surrounds you until you realise you've been breathing it in for the last hour without noticing. Most aquatics are trying to smell like a holiday. This one smells like the drive there. And sometimes that's the part you actually remember. Vibe: Pine resin turning into sea spray. Cliffs dropping into dark water. A coastal road that can't decide what it is. Performance: Big projection, long legs - days on fabric, hours on skin. This is not a quiet fragrance. Fit: Open air only, really - coastal walks, summer evenings, long drives. Skip it for the office or anywhere small. Anyone else got a fragrance that reminds them of a specific road rather than a specific place? More scent stories and visuals on Instagram - @lavendercloudsjd

Gentlemen, for you: I had one spray on my wrist in a shop. Went sight seeing and a few hours later in a museum a girl approached to ask for the name of my perfume, and said it reminds her a lot of her ex boyfriend. This perfume (and some others of the house) are all beast mode even though when you spray them they all seem delicate and airy enough. The drydown is really musky and a bit animalic, I think it’s ambergris. But on a man it is SEXY. The opening is gorgeous - fresh zesty salty sea breeze, exactly how I would want my sea perfume to be. Just clearly too masculine for me. Generally I am shocked by the low ratings of the house. I’m guessing it’s because Bianco Latte exploaded and loads of people that normally buy their frangrances in duty free shops starting trying others of the house (sorry...) Another reason may be that virtually all perfumes are heavy on synthetic molecular notes that work for some people and decidedly do not work for others (I’m normally in the second camp so some of GdT work more for me than others) The house for me is very Italian - perfumes are complex, strong, with character, some a bit “over the top” for those that like modern your-skin-but-better stuff. Anyways, gents, this is a BANGER masculine scent for summer, do try it out. Also performance-wise worth every penny of the price.

I have never smelled anything like this. All Giardini di Toscana perfumes smell amazing on my skin and seem to have fantastic performances, with Celeste currently being my signature. But this one is beyond nuclear. I've sprayed in the morning, it's 22:33 now and I am in disbelief, sniffing my wrists and trying to understand how come it is still so potent. The only longevity similar to this I have ever encountered so far was Maison Crivelli's Hibiscus Mahajad (but it still wasn't as potent as this after 14+ hours). In terms of scent, I can't even really pinpoint what is smells like, because it's definitely not a simple scent. It opens up with a combo of salt, pink pepper and lemon/ bergamot that somehow manages to smell extremely deep (unlike most citrus-y scents). Then it starts to morph, revealing pine and oak-moss, but the salt is still there, very potent. Then cypress takes over, with the bergamot barely there and the salt still very prominent. It's now a fresh, salty, green, aquatic yet very deep, smooth and rich smell. So far I've never been able to describe a fresh/green/citrus-y scent as deep and rich, so that's a first. I definitely don't think it will be a mass-appealing perfume. But it will for sure be my go to for summer.

I love this! It goes slightly creamy and sweet on my skin and smells like the freshest, briskest ocean breeze. In Monterey, CA area there are old cypress groves all along the coast. This fragrance captures that place perfectly. It’s a cold but sunny morning in spring. The marine layer has burned off and the seabirds are calling to each other. I hear the waves breaking and peek into the tide pools to see purple anemones, sea urchins and tiny crabs, and rocks encrusted with barnacles and mussels. Just off the shoreline, a huge pod of sea otters are floating above the forest of giant kelp, smashing shellfish open with their favorite rocks and feasting on the briny nuggets inside. A bit further down the shoreline a colony of sea lions slip out of the Pacific after a successful hunt to take a long nap in the sun while they bark as they jostle for the perfect spot. Blu Mare captures all of this in a small, white bottle and takes me to that blissful place every time I wear it. The perfect marine for me and I love it so much that I honestly don’t care what it does to the people around me. Rude, I know. Lasts forever and projects like the bark of a sea lion so apply with a light hand.

I've been wearing this fragrance out of a discovery set. When I first tried it (on paper), I was not a fan. It has a pepper note that almost takes your breath away at first. But I did a wear test of it while we staying at a cottage on the ocean --trying to channel the vibes. I fell in love. On skin, it's a clean, yet spicy peppery aquatic scent --truly a journey. You get whiffs of yourself all day and it gives such a dopamine hit. It's bold, incredibly long lasting. I think this fragrance is the dark horse in Giardini Di Toscana's collection. Unisex but leans masculine. I've been layering it now with fruity or sweet/feminine fragrances (mango skin, pas ce soir) --throws a little stank on it that I can't get enough of-- and you don't need much. I got stopped by a woman in Shoppers Drug Mart 2 days ago asking what I was wearing! She then proceeded to show me a few of her faves in store that she thought I would like --it was so cute! Anyways, if you were turned off by this at first, DO A SKIN TEST, I swear by it!