Afternoon Swim

FOUR I discovered Afternoon Swim this summer with a free 1 ml decant in a sampler. I have been skeptical of LV since Imagination is pretty mid for me, so I would not have tried this otherwise. This scent kicks. It is refreshingly simple. Not 40 notes like Mandarino di Amalfi. It is joyful, fun, and summery. It ended up being my second most worn summer scent after Dior Homme Cologne. I went through 1 ml, 5 ml, then most of a 10 ml. The vibe is youthful leisure. Picture a good-looking 24-year-old, rich, lounging at a hotel pool that overlooks the ocean. White Lotus energy. It is a leisure scent. Unless you are an actual rich pool boy, wear it when it is plausible you are coming from boating, the beach, or tennis. Wearing it will remind you of hanging out by the pool on hot summer days as a kid, and that’s a good thing. TL;DR The greatest leisure fragrance I have smelled. Starts with a vibrant, joyful orange that steals the show. The opening rides for about two hours, and it welcomes frequent reapplication without offending anyone. The dry down is fine, but the opening is why we are here. Opening rating: 4.6 Dry down rating: 4.1 Opening It is orange. Just orange. Likely some bergamot hiding in there. It reads like fresh orange juice. It makes you happy and projects for about an hour. Apply right before you plan to be smelled. Carry a decant and reapply if needed. If you have never tried this, get a decant. Every enthusiast should experience the opening at least once. Heart At about 1 to 2 hours, most of the projecting orange is gone. On a close sniff you get a very dry ginger as a skin scent. Not the spicy ginger of Tygar, more a subdued ginger that stretches the citrus. Ambroxan starts to show here too. I am somewhat anosmic to ambroxan, so I mostly get a soft salty feel. Dry down By 4 to 7 hours the scent is essentially gone. The ginger fades and leaves a salty skin tone. Pro tip: spray the hairline for little flashbacks of orange late in the dry down. Performance on me Performance swings with heat and humidity. On a hot, humid day it is gone fast. Either way, it is low performance, but projects well at first. Expect up to 90 minutes of fading projection and 4 to 7 hours total as a skin scent. That is still a bit better than Dior Homme Cologne (My summertime GOAT) on me. Overspray at will, or better yet carry a decant and reapply. It is not cheap. Four sprays work for most situations, but you could go four sprays three or four times in a day. At that pace it is about four dollars a day. Versatility Wear it for leisure, ideally the expensive kind. It shines for fun, casual settings. Feels wrong in formal or office environments. Not for board meetings. Perfect for fishing, sideline soccer parent, or a sunny leisure drive. Use cases Wear any time you could believably be arriving from the beach. Lunch with friends works. If you are coming straight from an office, it does not totally fit. Use it to underline that you just had fun. Vibe Fun in a bottle. Instant summer. Pool-day nostalgia. Blind buy safe? Yes, if you accept it is expensive and performance is mode Comparisons Dior Homme Cologne: DHC gives colder efervecent lemonade. Afternoon Swim gives juicy sweet orange peel and pulp, sunnier and sweeter up top, simpler in the base, with more initial pop in its projection. Tom Ford Neroli Portofino: NP is soapy neroli with a floral-citrus blend and a polished soapy heart. Plenty of orange, but woven into florals. Afternoon Swim is photorealistic orange with a ginger lift, less floral and more playful. Chanel Allure Homme Sport Cologne: On paper it is soft orange plus aldehydic sparkle over a clean musky base. In practice it is not that similar. The orange is softer and less joyful, and the neroli reads floral. Afternoon Swim is brighter and juicier, with less soap, a quicker fade, and no woods in the base. Tom Ford Mandarino di Amalfi: MdA gives layered citrus and herbs with basil and mint shimmer. More complex and aromatic. Both have great citrus up front, but Afternoon Swim is straight orange joy, leaner, louder at the start, lighter after an hour. Bvlgari Tygar: Tygar is grapefruit amberwood pop with a spicy ginger buzz and bigger projection. Afternoon Swim is sweet orange and salty skin, friendlier and less sharp, with smaller sillage. Tygar is cool evening citrus for a networking event. Afternoon Swim is your beach day. Overall take Afternoon Swim is joy in a bottle. A perfect orange blast that invites frequent top ups and pays you back with smiles. Built for leisure, sunshine, and movement, not boardrooms. Keep a decant, spray before you arrive, touch the hairline for surprise wafts, and enjoy the ride. Expensive for the hours, worth it for the mood. A keeper for hot days and anything that feels like vacation.

I say with my absolute fullest confidence and having been regularly wearing and collecting fragrances for 20 years now that this is the greatest orange dominant citrus fragrance ever created. Starting off this review by saying Belletrud’s favorite note to work with in fragrance is orange, he has said so himself. It only makes sense he knows his way around it perfectly and this fragrance is blatant proof of such. I’ll also say I get quite good performance from Afternoon Swim which seems to be the opposite of what most people experience, I’ll explain more about that later.. Starting off with initial sprays blasting into the air and deeply penetrating your nostrils you are met with one of the most photorealistic orange smells you’ve probably ever smelt. This is a very realistic slightly sweet and rindy orange. Think cutting the whole ripe orange in half and squeezing it to death.. Amongst the beautiful and captivating orange your olfactory will also be met with a very bold and piercing bergamot note and interwoven with that you’ll catch traces of a subtle ginger blended perfectly in with all of the citrons. At the base and the absolute main back bone of this fragrance is the amazing quality ambergris. In my opinion some of the best ambergris ever used in a fragrance in how it envelops everything and ultimately sends off this fragrance. The best way I can describe it is your warm skin slowly drying off in the sunlight after coming out of a swimming pool. Not necessarily chlorine like either, just slightly airy yet warm and nearly aquatic like. As I mentioned earlier about my performance with Afternoon Swim I do in fact get good lasting power with it, even smelling it the next day on clothing. In fact my wife has complimented me smelling good the next morning after wearing it the evening/night before. I will say it’s not that bright photorealistic orange still holding on, that would be next to impossible giving it being citrus. What it is though holding on tight is that gorgeous ambergris.. It really holds on for me and continues to do its work. I would fair to say maybe Afternoon Swim is lasting longer on people than they really think but due to the high amount of ambergris in it people are suffering from olfactory anosmia. Regardless this fragrance is one of my all time favorites and always will be, expertly crafted from beginning to end and the name couldn’t suit it any better if it tried.

I wish I didn't smell this because its SO GOOD and now I'm itching to drop the big bucks on this bad boy I went into my local LV store and this one wasn't even on my radar because I heard the performance is abysmal That being said, I sprayed and sniffed every fragrance they had on hand and this one stuck out over everything else, so I did what any reasonable person would do, I sprayed it twice on my hand and have been wearing it all day ever since While this is a 'review' - its more of a first impressions which I'm sure will evolve over time but I have added it to my "Buy" list for when I accomplish a few more things and decide to treat myself In terms of scent profile, this is definitely a photo-realistic orange smell. That description never captivated me until I actually smelled it. There is something oddly comforting and soothing about this. It screams summer but also hits a nostalgic part of me - I'm not sure if its the image of my grandmother (RIP) peeling and eating an orange beside me, or if I've smelled something similar growing up as my mind does picture the mall for some reason. Performance is not as bad as folks say - I sprayed both this and Imagination on each hand, and they are both roughly at the same point in their cycle (4 hours later). Imagination is a touch stronger (as a skin scent) but Afternoon Swim isn't too far off. The point of the dry down I'm at does have a bit more of a "sour" smell to it, like the rind of an orange after its sat for a bit of time after peeling. Now while I love this, I will admit - my fiance (34, F) said that it "smells like sweat" - which is something I am not picking up on at all. Apparently this is a common thing for some people with Ambergris, but I've thoroughly enjoyed this one. Definitely a summer scent but arguably my favourite from the LV line up. I plan to pick up a decant soon to do a more thorough wearing analysis and evaluate performance but probably one of the few I smelled at the LV Store that seemed worthy of a purchase from me. Time will tell. Current score: 8.9/10

When I first held the bottle, I truly needed the deep coolness promised by that vibrant blue glass. Afternoon Swim is one of those rare creations that lives up to its name with the very first spritz. It feels exactly like getting up from a shadowless lounger in the July heat and plunging into an ice-cold pool... The opening is simply magnificent. You are met with a sharp, non-synthetic blast of juicy Sicilian orange and bergamot that feels freshly plucked from the branch. Jacques Cavallier is a true master at crafting citrus notes; the citrus here never resembles a standard cologne or a cleaning product. It is incredibly natural, bright, and luxurious. It has a structure that instantly lifts your mood and puts a smile on your face. In fact, the real magic of this fragrance is hidden in those first 15 minutes. However, keeping things completely unbiased, this dream is unfortunately a bit short-lived. As much as I adore the natural beauty of the scent, its lifespan on my skin left me disappointed. After the first hour, that magnificent energy sits very close to the skin, and by the third or fourth hour, all that remains is a very faint whisper of salty mandarin. Looking at the Louis Vuitton label and the price tag, you can't help but think, "I wish this incredible feeling stayed with me just a little longer." As a refreshing summer fragrance, the scent profile is an absolute success, but it will let down those seeking heavy performance. If you are the type to say, "It is worth it just for the joy and freshness of those first 1-2 hours, I don't mind reapplying it from my bag during the day," then this could be the star of your summer rotation. But if longevity is a dealbreaker for you, I highly advise against a blind buy. instagram.com/etatelierparfum

This is one of the best citrus scents I have ever tried. It doesn't get muddied by neroli/petitgrain or the common use of heavy, woody or musky fixatives to extend the longevity and become a wood scent after a few hours...because it never makes it that far. Even the use of Ambroxan in this is very light when compared to Imagination or Pacific Chill which becomes the main scent during the second half anyways. For the hour or so Afternoon Swim does last, it is heaven for a citrus lover. This is purely a hedonistic fragrance you use on a hot day, especially after a shower or its namesake to enjoy for yourself. It's what you put on because you have 3 hours to kill before going out to nice dinner when you put on the heavy hitter for the rest of the night. It's the halftime show when you want to smell something but little too early in the day for an evening fragrance. It's not there to impress others, it's not there to get compliments, it's not there to get you a date. This is a "Treat yo self" scent so everyone looking for a perfume thinking it's going to get you laid, look elsewhere. As someone that uses their sense of smell professionally in everyday work, this smells as natural and photorealistic as it comes in the fragrance world, everyone else stating that it smells like cleaning spray/pledge/bug repellent has a broken sniffer and anything else they say can be safely ignored. At $350+tax, it is absurdly overpriced for the longevity and simplicity and not something anyone should be buying. That said, I own a 100ml bottle and will refill it when its done and will do so until it gets discontinued.