Armani Privé Bleu Lazuli

I came across Bleu Lazuli on my search for a good tobacco based winter fragrance, and I was absolutely taken aback by it. In a sea of turbo charged superambers and club bangers such as Side Effect and similar offerings, Bleu Lazuli represents a step back to a more restrained approach to an oriental. The scent opens with a hint of bergamot and a very clear mate note mixed with cardamom. Shortly after it's joined by florals and plum given this fruity tea impression. Once Bleu Lazuli in the dry down its all about the honey. The plum and mate persists, joined by a tobacco note and everything is backed by a very delicious and edible honey note. The tobacco is of the typical pipe variety as found in Tobacco Vanille and Herod, but rather than being front and center, here it's a supporting player serving to add depth and darkness, but never overpowering the composition. What really sets Bleu Lazuli apart is the compositional style. In todays market many sweeter oriental scents are exceptionally heavy with nuclear persistence. They can feel like a sledgehammer to the nostrils. Bleu Lazuli is a trip back to a time when perfumes had air. Air between the notes, allowing the composition to breathe and where the notes felt natural and not amplified. I havent written a review in 10 years, but after getting this - I had to rejoin and share my thoughts. For me this is what I consider a perfect perfume. Is it worth it over the more popular tobacco centric hypebeasts? Thats up to what one wants. But if you miss the older style of orientals and want to try one created with a modern sensibility then I can wholy recommend this.

Sophisticated, smooth, and suitable for year-round use: this is an excellent creation from Armani. It's not something you'll smell on just anyone, but it's not too niche that only overly pretentious fragrance nerds will appreciate and enjoy. It doesn't smell cheap; it's very well-blended. It's not a bright scent; it's actually kinda dark--but not overly. Really, it's more neutral. I got a tester for a steal on eBay at $145 or so. Some say it's feminine, but I think it's more masculine. While I'd enjoy it on a woman, it's more at home on a man. Take that with a grain of salt because I'll wear many rather floral fragrances that some men wouldn't. The longevity on it is pretty good. I can put it on at 7 AM and still detect it by 3 PM and sometimes even 7 PM, although with reduced sillage, which comes around the 5 hour mark. I've got this, Bleu Lazuli (edit: just bought this), Vert Malachite, and Rouge Malachite. Bleu Turquoise is of a similar vein only by bottle design and smooth, suave feel; they're 3rd cousins at best. Of the series, this is the most versatile. Vert is gorgeous and fairly feminine, but unbelievably loud. Rouge is elegant, lasts forever, and sexy. Turquoise is beachy-ish, kinda woody, and sophisticated--the most niche of them all. Then there's this: the all-rounder that ties together the collection thus far with smooth and wearable bliss. Overall, I think it smells classy, and if I had to choose just one fragrance in my collection for year-round use, I'd likely go with this because it's all season, office safe, both casual and formal suiting, and smells great! 9/10

I have the relaunched bottle with the square gold plaque bearing the fragrance name. Bleu Lazuli feels impeccably blended, almost to the point where the official notes disappear into one glowing accord. On paper, I know there is honey, tobacco, osmanthus, plum, mate, vanilla, and sandalwood, but on skin I do not experience them as separate pieces. The mate is detectable, giving the fragrance that slightly dry aromatic lift, but the whole composition gives me an unexpected and very specific impression of fresh nutmeg. Not powdered spice, but actual fresh nutmeg with all its warm, aromatic, slightly woody, sweet, and dusty facets. What makes this fragrance special to me is how seamlessly everything melts together. Nothing sticks out awkwardly, yet the composition still feels textured and nuanced. The tobacco here is especially beautiful. This is how tobacco should be used in fragrances. Not raw green leaves shoved into the composition for realism, but woven smoothly into the structure until it becomes rich, warm, elegant, and atmospheric. Easily one of the best uses of tobacco in the Armani Privé line, if not modern perfumery in general. Bleu Lazuli does not smell like a typical honeyed tobacco fragrance, nor does it behave like a loud amber. It feels polished, deep, spicy, smooth, and mysterious with a quiet richness that keeps unfolding without ever becoming messy. For me, this is a 10/10 and honestly one of the finest Armani Privé releases in the house’s history.

This is AHHHHHMAZING. This was a LOVE at first sniff. You know when you have a handful of samples you just ordered and your are so excited your finding different parts of your body to put each one so they don't mix and then you start writing initials on your body to label each fragrance? Of the 6 samples I tested my nose kept going straight to this beauty. Then you look at the label and realize dangit this thing is $$$$$ expensive so you try it again after it wears off and the fog of the other perfume samples weans away. Then you realize you can't stop smelling your wrist and you tell yourself don't panic let's give it another day of testing before you pull the trigger on a $340 (not including tax) bottle of juice. Of course, it doesn't help that the bottle is stunning and as a self-proclaimed and unapologetic lover of packaging whore who has been known to purchase things just based on presentation, I knew I was in trouble. This is very hard to describe and while my nose is not as sophisticated as other "fume heads" this reminds me of Sunshine Woman by Amouage. Maybe not cousins but very distant relatives. Blue Lazuli is more sophisticated, with a subtle sweetness not cloying candy sweet but creamy sweet, with a splash of pipe tobacco, and osmanthus. I love it from initial application to dry down. Full bottle worthy for sure.

I tried this today along with half of the rest of the Armani Prive lines. I was looking for a year round scent or two, and the SA suggested this and Bleu Turquoise. She sprayed them both on each wrist and I left to go grocery shopping while they settled. An hour later I popped back in and bought them both. I don't know what I was expecting when I read the notes but this exquisite, soft but lasting fragrance that's slightly sweet, with hints of exotic spices, really was not it. I have travelled to India myself and when I think of it in terms of a scent profile, I don't think of it as soft, I think of it as lush and vibrant and rich and actually this fragrance is all of those things but in no way overbearing or harsh. I ADORE it. I don't think it is the year round fragrance I'm still looking for, I'll keep this one on the shelf in the hot humid summers we have here unless it's a mild balmy evening. But Lazuli has such a comforting sweet softness that I would happily spray it on for an evening spent at home curled up in front of the TV as easily as I'd wear it out on a dinner date with my husband for it's gentle sensuality. 10/10 for me.