California Dream

Seeing by my username this is an honest review from an average guy with some colognes. I immediately loved this fragrance as soon as I smelt it at the Louis Vuitton outlet at my local shopping centre. I tried every single fragrance that they had in store on both the testing paper and my skin and yet California Dream caught my nose before my eyes. I was initially drawn to Pacific Chill, Ombre Nomade, and Imagination due to how popular they are on social media. Despite them being nice scents, this scent stood out to me the most. What I love most about this fragrance is how it smells sweet, citrusy, and musky all together topped off with a gorgeous mandarin. In all honesty, this fragrance does not project or have the longevity that lives up to the price tag being charged. Despite this, you get one of the best looking bottles imo, magnetic lid, perfect atomiser, and still mediocre projection (half arms length) and longevity (3 hrs) until it becomes a skin scent. I understand that this could be tedious or unappealing for some, but I wholeheartedly love this fragrance and recommend this to anybody who is looking for an all round summer fragrance. Although they may have to reapply once or twice throughout the day :) I hope that this review could help somebody out there, best of luck for the future everybody and may you find only the best success in your fragrance journeys!

The benzoin, ambrette, musk and pear notes had me expecting something in the direction of Another 13, which this definitely isn't.. Its a photorealistic mandarin through and through, this aspect is very impressive. Its like the whole process of picking up a mandarin, smelling it, breaking into its rind then peeling it, and finally eating its juicy flesh but played out over a 6 hour drydown. The musk is the other major note, the pear is noticeable, the ambrette and benzoin not so much. California Dream definitely belongs in the Les Colognes collection, so if you are expecting something more complex with interesting development, this unfortunately isn't it. The bottle is just gorgeous and almost made me blind buy, fortunately i sampled first and im glad i did as i was looking for something more than a super juicy citrus musk. I will revisit it in summer as im sure i will appreciate it a whole lot more. Longevity is impressive for what it is, projection is low-average, perhaps it will pop better in heat.

Let tiktok continue to hype Imagination, Meteore, L'Immensite, and Pacific Chill while this absolute gem stays under the radar. California Dream is like experiencing a good modern classic. Be it a film, an album, a painting, a book; It's the subconscious feeling of familiarity coupled with fascination. When you experience it part of your brain tries to dismiss it because its not a particularly unique experience, it is a classic after all, many are like it. But then comes the other part of your mind that tells you to relax and enjoy the craft of the artist. Pear, mandarin, musk, ambroxan, the faintest touch of benzoin, and its not listed here but an unmistakable orange blossom note. It's just gorgeous. It's LV doing their best impression of a Le Labo type fragrance and absolutely knocking it out of the park. Easily the best offering of the current LV lineup and surprisingly long lasting for a fresh fragrance. I'm not saying I'd spend $400 on this, but I'd completely understand if someone would.

Bright, warm and fuzzy Summer time in a bottle.. Jacques again catches magic in a bottle with California Dream. It’s truly amazing how well the names and bottles matches all of the Les Colognes scent profiles perfectly. Here with California Dream you are met with an absolutely stunning, bright juicy mandarin orange opening and no one does mandarin as good as Jacques himself, after all it is his favorite fragrance note. After that initial blast of juicy mandarin the fuzziness of the silky smooth musk comes in all the while backed by a very mellow Benzoin note. What an overall pleasant experience this fragrance is from beginning to end.. nothing intricate and complicated about California Dream but it does what it’s supposed to do extremely well. Extremely glad to have it in my collection along with the rest of Jacques Louis Vuitton creations.

Jacques Cavallier has this incredible talent taking notes that would usually be sharp and making them soft and round. It's a beautiful signature he's given to LV. California Dream is everything I hoped it would be. On the initial spritz you get the beautiful rounded and soft Mandarin orange. Once it starts to gently dry down, that soft musk comes into play and lingers dancing around your skin. In my honest, humble opinion, it's my favorite from LV. It really, really reminds me of dusk on the California beaches or driving down PCH with the windows down. It has just the right amount of sillage and marvelous longevity. It even passed my sweater test. I smelled it the next day. Someone already asked what I was wearing because it smelled amazing. Happy spritzing! -Silky