Drakkar Bleu

#1433 in my "Tour de Fragrance" I began wearing Drakkar Noir in 1982. I stopped wearing Drakkar Noir by 1985, and not because I no longer liked it. By the mid-80's all the young women were brutally mocking guys wearing Drakkar Noir. The darkly lit Drakkar Noir commercials with the hirsute and sweaty kickboxer working the bag had run 7x24 every hour for months. It was overexposed, and the fact that I was the college martial arts coach made it a little too "on-the-nose" for me. In fact, bottles of Drakkar were showing up in the trash bins of every dorm on campus. The Drakkar commercials running constantly had cut it's popularity short. It had become the "Brut" or "English Leather" of the 80s. L'Oreal, unsurprisingly, has done almost nothing with the Guy Laroche brand since Drakkar Noir. Guy died in 1989 (I don't know if he died of boredom with the release of "Drakkar Dynamik", a completely forgettable scent that never caught on). In 2014 they came out with "Drakkar Essence", a poorly performing and run-of-the-mill EDT that also never really caught on and they never promoted. In 2022 they finally released an EDP, "Drakkar Intense" to no fanfare whatever, a scent that performed well enough that I bought a bottle. And now in 2025 we get another EDP called "Drakkar Bleu", which given we already had a blue-colored Drakkar in "Essence" seems an odd marketing call to me. (They should have discontinued "Essence" before releasing "Bleu." The bottles and color are identical, which creates consumer confusion). Anyway, don't get too excited. "Bleu" is just a spicier EDP of "Drakkar Essence." But I think "Bleu" is worth owning at the $35 price point I got on Walmart.com. Of course, it's completely unoriginal. If you have Montblanc "Legend Blue" or "Legend Night", this gives you nothing new, though for me, I didn't care for the heavy cardamom in "Legend Night", thought the performance of "Legend Blue" was really bad for an EDP, gave both away. So this is a good blind buy for me.

So what I get with this is an ever very minty accord. The green apple is kind of prominent with this, but it has this lively, energetic, tingly sensation when you smell it and I know that’s from the Moss accord and it’s actually a good quality mossbecause when you smell it deeply, a lot of people tend to be allergic and I get that slightly scratchy sensation at the back of my throat which tell me it’s a good quality and not fully synthetic. It smells reminiscent of something in the past that I’ve smelled and I can’t think of what it is it kinda has that vibrant nuance that you get from Abercrombie and Fitch fierce but it’s not fierce. It just has that sparkling attitude that fierce used to have. Overall, I say I actually like this, but I’ll have to come back to this once I give it a full wear and update it. But if you’re looking for something that shines through the air and has this crisp energy accord to it, I would say this is what you’re looking for Very mass appealing and potentially a good dumb reach.

From the rip I got a vibe like a blue version of early 90s old school polo green I really get that fougere smell but a clean fresh Y twist to it. I love this stuff, I wish it had more punch like throw some ambroxan in it I want to get punched in the face by this scent. I got this one free from that giant ecommerce place named after a South American jungle but once it hits discounters in the $17-$20 range like Intense I'm buying more, much more. This is a super easy freshie fougere, a bluegere if you will, safe blind buy all day I can't stop smelling this stuff I want air freshener with this smell and body wash!

Apple dominates in the opening, and citruses also come. Slightly scratchy/harsh at the beginning (sour/green apple), but lavender/violet leaf rounds the dry down. Patchouli is coming too. Soapy aromatic, manly, but it's a bit generic. Carpool/gym/office/blind buy safe scent. As time goes by, I reach for it more and more often. At first, it was good (solid 4) for me, but it has really good performance, when it's hot outside (35-40 C) :)) So it's 4.5 which is almost 5 ;) Plus, I managed to get it for under $30 - has excellent quality for this price.

Very nice fragrance, I just got mine in the mail today, so this is a very short review. I don't think it resembles Cool Water that much. For me it smells something like, if Bad Boy Cobalt and Eros made a baby, it would smell a little like this. It has a faint hint of some kind of black liquorice. Sorry, as I have just gotten it, I have no idea of Longevity and Sillage. But it is a masculine scent. I am very happy with this.