Apogée

I find this perfume very beautiful and not basic at all. I don't know why most people here seem to think so. To me, this is a beautiful and high quality white floral that centers around the lily of the valley, followed by the magnolia and the jasmine. It is mainly a green tinged white floral due to the lily of the valley, but the magnolia and the different types of citrus fruit in this of course add some citrusy tinges here and there that add a bit of freshness and juiciness to it, without turning it into Fairy Soap a la J'adore Infinissime, which was truly awful. I can smell a tiny hint of the rose in the heart notes and a small hint of the musk in the base notes, but it is very subtle to me. And the woody notes aren't present to my nose at all, which I don't mind, since I'm not a massive fan of woods. To me, a truly basic perfume would be those awful fruity florals scents that are so popular right now or worse, a saccharine sweet gourmand perfume. Those smell cheap and are incredibly cheap for perfumers to make, since the ingredients to make gourmand notes in perfume are exceedingly common and not at all rare, unlike a jasmine, a magnolia or a rose absolute. Floral notes are far more sophisticated and take a much more trained nose to properly understand all of its facets, as opposed to very linear and juvenile gourmands. Apogée had a moderate wear test of 5 hours and an arm's length sillage on my skin. It is a very feminine and romantic fragrance and anyone who likes florals (especially white florals) will love this! It is a reasonably realistic lily of the valley too, though Pur Muguet, Lucky and Diorissimo are still the best and my absolute favorite lily of the valley scents so far. It indeed has some of the basic scent personality that Lucky has, with a touch less greenness and realness than that one. I'd give it a 8/10 personally speaking. It really is lovely! The lavender painting I got on my bottles white cardboard box was beautiful as well and definitely a nicely added touch.

I find this perfume beautiful and truly my favorite of the whole line, other than Fleur du Dessert. That makes sense though, since I love my white florals and this is filled with them! It is a sumptuous and realistic smelling bouquet of jasmine, magnolia, rose and of course, lily of the valley! The lily of the valley is the star of the show and she really sings here in all of her green tinged and fresh glory. I feel very innocent and virginal while wearing this, like a beautiful young bride who is about to get married in a stunning white silk wedding dress. There are hints of musk and citrus too, but they are subtle and thankfully never overpower the bouquet of flowers in Apogée. I get medium sillage and moderate longevity from this, which is pretty good for a lily of the valley dominant fragrance. I got about 5 and a half hours of wear from it and I feel that it wouldn't be at all overpowering or too much to wear to work. It is perfect for both spring and summer and is a very feminine and pretty fragrance that isn't at all offensive. I feel that it is a safe blind buy for white floral lovers. It has an airy and fresh quality to it that smells very clean in the best way possible, like a dew dropped Easter morning. This reminds me most of both Lucky by Dior and Pur Muguet by Cartier, apart from the magnolia that you find in this and differentiates it from those two fragrances. The citrus notes make it a tiny bit different as well, eventhough they aren't the main story here. Altogether, I'd give this an 8.6/10. It's absolutely lovely and I am glad to have bought it!

As nobody took up the challenge i suggested in my earlier review (last year) of confronting Apogee with Guerlain Muguet 2016, I did it arm to arm with Apogee vs. Guerlain Muguet 2017 (i didn't buy Muguet 2016 I found to be too green), that is after having used a good part of my 200 ml Apogee and 125 ml Muguet bottles separately. What these 2 frags have in common is the outstanding quality of their natural ingredients - you wouldn't see Vuitton selling artificial leather bags ... However, after confrontation, the quality is about all they have in common: Muguet 2016 is the cleanest and purest LOTV scent one can imagine (very difficult to assemble with this mute flower using a combination of greens, roses, and jasmine), while Apogee is a lot more complex white flower composition, with a distinctive touch of tangerine/orange staying well beyond the opening, perfectly discrete base notes which are never invasive, and a quite wonder- & powerful magnolia which gives this frag an original twist. Only the remaining skin scents (after 5-6 hours) are closer, but magnolia still makes the difference in Apogee. So once my bottle will be empty, I'll go for the 200 ml refill of Apogee for 250€ which I consider as rather cheap for this quality ! @Hernri345que : thanks for excellent review !

Such a beautiful perfume and it has me interested in other Louis Vuitton perfumes as this doesn't do anything new or groundbreaking, but what it does, it does well. An excellent use of high quality ingredients, there's no screechiness to be found in this fragrance. It opens with a fresh citrus and white floral burst where the orange is prominent and like you've freshly peeled it. Then it develops into a green, lily of the valley dominant scent that makes you feel like you've been transported to the background watercolor painting of a light-dappled meadow in an old Disney cartoon, like something out of Sleeping Beauty. In the dry down, the rose comes out to play (truthfully I feel like this note is discordant to the rest of the accord) before it dries down to a linen fresh scent that's so similar to Byredo's Blanche. The journey of this perfume is wonderfully executed even if it's longevity is moderate. An easy wear for class, for shopping, and for brunch with friends. Possibly full bottle worthy, I think depending on what I think of the other perfumes from this house. I have to say that there is something in this that is reminiscent of Estée Lauder's Pleasures to me, but I seem to find that connection with most musky, lily scents I think.

Jacques Cavallier Belletrud Is a genious. This one is perfection to me. You can barely smell the tangerine, it opens up with a super classy white flower smell, the jasmine + lily of the valley combo is beautiful on this one, which to me, feels like a very fancy upgrade of J’Adore. It resembles the structure of J’Adore, but MUCH classier. I do not know any other perfume that is similar to Apogee, and I would love to know if there is one, cause then I wouldn’t have to pay usd300 a bottle.