Bombay Bling!

Oh Bombay Bling...How can I even begin to honor you as you deserve be honored? When Neela released her first three, of now five epic India-themed fragrances I sent off right away for the sampler set. I just KNEW that I would love Trayee, because I'm an incense fiend (and I was right, AND even more pleasantly suprised!) Mohur was an immediate love affair for me. I LOVE FRESH ROSES, Bertrand and Neela captured that aliveness so brilliantly. That being said, I was afraid that I would hate Bombay Bling simply based on it's name. The concept of "Bling" to me had grandiose ideas attatched thereupon. I soon learned that my intolerance of an "idea" would be unfounded. Reluctantly I sprayed some on my wrist. It's opening. Simply sublime. See? I was wrong! Rather than my notions of "Bling" and all it's connotations, it took me to a mango grove, ripe with fruit and greenery. The white flowers were so delicately done that I could smell the jasmine vines wafting their fragrance in from fence rows and lattice work. It's ripe fruity sweetness, blends so naturally with those perfectly selected flowers. The sandalwood begins it's journey in after about an hour or so, and really rounds out the fragrance and makes it wearable for the long run. Such a fun creation! I really reserve this for fun times, colorful clothing and good friends. It's a Bling I can definitely get into, and should be worn with pride! Love it!

What a pretty perfume this is. Complex, subtle, yes reminiscent of the plethora of exotic/tropical/floral feminine leaning perfumes out there but if you can't smell the inherent quality and craftsmanship of Bombay bling, I can't help you. I love the opening, it's big but not brash, you get that smooth Indian spice, and cardamom AGAIN! (This line is full of cardamom but used to different effects) Then there's a tropic fruit and frangipani accord but it's not like some cheesy shampoo bullshit, smells really natural to me as does the frangipani. Then the unrelentling vanillic sandalwood and amber base which is very tenacious. I get it. If you are well versed in feminine leaning trop/exotic floral/heavy creamy vanilla woods/amber perfumes then I don't doubt you can pick something up which approximates this, hell it might even be made by Dachaufour, but I think this is some fine perfumery right here. However, for all my praise it's a little too vanillic and sickly with the santal at the finish there for me, after the fresher fruits, florals and spices have retreated. Basically I feel it's a feminine perfume and I wear Coco and all sorts of stuff like that, so this says something. Bombay Bling! just has that energy for me, nothing wrong, I enjoyed it immensely and I have to say it's yet another fantastic perfume in this line, I've tried four others at this point and they've all been really good.

I love it and am moderately obsessed. Bombay Bling manages to be bright, fruity, floral, and clean, yet evolves into a glorious, slightly powdery, amber, skin-scent dry down. It’s magical and perfect for the heat. It’s definitely a fun, brightly colored - pink, yellow, and orange- yet perfectly balanced affair. It’s intoxicating and addictive. It is a bit sweet, but from the perspective of someone who does not enjoy sweet fragrances at all, I don’t find the sweetness central or juvenile. Something in the composition that is slightly bitter, crisp, and dry, perhaps the labdanum, grounds the sweetness of the fruits and heady florals rendering the whole an elegant and sophisticated feminine leaning fragrance, not a cloying, mango girlie-pop. It’s as sweet and sophisticated as Amouage Sunshine Woman, but less dense. Though these juices are in completely different categories, the slightly sweet, amber dry down of BB reminds me of the dry down of MFK Grand Soir every time I wear it. Douchafour is a genius with fruity fragrances. If you like this, you may also enjoy his La Belle Helene, a stunning pear chypre composition. Douchafour is one of my favorite perfumers.

A vibrantly coloured blend of fruits, florals and spice, BOMBAY BLING is the perfect carefree summer scent ☀️ The fragrance opens with a burst of ripe mango and blackcurrant with just the slightest hint of cardamom and cumin. As the fragrance develops a melange of rich florals including Turkish rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, tuberose, frangipani and gardenia add an exotic touch to the fragrance. Despite the excess of florals used here a strong base of tobacco, sandalwood, cedar and patchouli firmly ground the fragrance in unisex territory. Simply, BOMBAY BLING is hedonistic and addictive. I find myself craving it’s electric buzz on warm sunny days, and when I do reach for it I cannot get enough 👏🏻 BOMBAY BLING is undoubtedly the best mango-centric fragrance I have come across (yes, it’s better than CRUZ DEL SUR II). So, if you are looking for a beautifully rich, complex and balanced fruity fragrance do yourself a favour and get your nose on this ASAP and thank me later 😉 Performance on BOMBAY BLING is also fantastic. On my skin, I get around 8 hour longevity and a moderate sillage which drop’s down to a skin scent around the 6 hour mark. IG @Nathan__Jamesj

I always find floral ambers challenging... there's something about having two high-femme, heavily rich accords vying for your admiration that feels rather like watching fearfully as two 8-foot tall Amazonians glare at you from above. Duchaufour attempt to solve this problem by adding a third warrioress to the mix - in this case a fruity note of mango - and so Bombay Bling arrives at a quite cluttered final composition which is floral, fruity, ambery and above all very very SWEET. It smells extremely "golden", a tiny bit of spice works in the background to lend some texture, but I think the quality of the ingredients is what saves this from becoming too much. It is a rare frag I find too femme to wear myself, but I do genuinely like the way it smells - it has the same "bigness" as such classic sweets as Arabie by Lutens - it's one of those huge frags which dominates and takes no prisoners. It's really beautiful, and quite different from other tuberoses I've smelled, but like I say it's a challenging composition and you must have a high tolerance for (masterfully done) feminine sweetness to get one of these.

Bombay Bling is like the spirit of Mardi Gras or Carnival captured in a bottle. Ebullient fruits, a decadent mixture of both tropical and white flowers and a generous dose of spices make for an olfactory celebration. This is one of the most non-linear, kaleidoscopic fragrances I've ever tested. Wearing it is like being inside a soap bubble and watching the iridescent colors swirl by. BB opens with Duchaufour's signature sourish black currant, tempered with the sweetness of lychee and mango. The presence of caraway and cardomom adds zest and depth to the fruity opening. The heart of BB is comprised of gardenia, tuberose and jasmine, rendered exotic by the addition of lush ylang ylang and sultry frangipani. Just when you begin to think BB is a femme fatale of a fragrance, she drops the mask and morphs into a somewhat masculine, robust blend of patchouli, tobacco and woods in the dry down. BB has great sillage and longevity. It is brilliant and adventurous without being at all weird, and would be a great choice for a party or celebration, especially in hot weather, which suits this fragrance perfectly.

Wow, so fruity and luscious! I do get the grapefruit, mango, blackcurrant! Then the flowers come gently wafting through. This is definitely a keeper for me. The dry-down is warm, gentle and thoroughly sniffable! I don't get the labdanum or cardamom or even caraway in the opening - usually scents with cardamom can be heavy - but this has been crafted so well that all the notes mingle perfectly. The middle notes are made in exactly the same way - not a blast of jasminy white flowers - just a gentle, almost perfect, floral. And the warmth of the drydown is quite something! I have to agree with Jeca in that there is definitely an animalistic, slightly sweaty stage but it is not unpleasant! Initally, I thought spring and summer but as it dried down I thought, no, this is something for all year - day and evening. Quite unique and worth buying. Keeps me smelling my wrist with joy! I also liked the personal note from Neela enclosed with the perfumes! Very nice touch. Thank you Neela.

Bombay Bling opens with a pleasantly dry, sharp aldehydic floral; a little golden sandalwood, a little civet, a little butteriness. Then it blooms out into tropical flowers and bright fruits. There’s still a sharp green bite to it from the green mango, and a zingy, aldehydic kick. Far more elegant than your typical fruity floral. It settles into a glowing vanillic sandalwood, a bit sweeter than Trayee’s sandalwood and more “golden” or “blond” rather than ruddy, but similarly “lit from within.” Flashes of tropical color still pop up now and then in the periphery, but we’re basically in vanilla sandalwood land for the rest of the day – which is a good thing. Think of Bombay Bling as something like “what if Guerlain Vega but tropical and modern.” It’s a very classical, high-glamor scent, with a sleek golden glow...and a rainbow of fruity-floral flavors on top. It’s fun and timelessly beautiful. A hell of a balancing act.

I never thought I’d love a fragrance like this. Ashoka alone has taken me out of my usual fragrance territory, but when I received a free 15ml of Bombay Bling with my Ashoka purchase, Neela ended up taking me even further away from my normal dark, oriental fragrances. Bombay Bling is so incredibly well blended. I do get white/yellow florals (which I can either massively hate or love) and the fruitiness of litchi and mango, along with creamy vanilla, it ends up being very exotic but at the same time delicious. Definitely a year round fragrance and the season meter surprises me, because while well-balanced, there’s heavy hitting notes in here that would make it good even in colder weather. I don’t have much to say since I have sprayed it exactly once, and if I somehow manage to go through the whole 15ml then I guess I’d have to buy it.

Damn. This is a masterpiece, no joke. A bright, colorful, fresh, sweet, spicy, fruity, creamy, cheeky trickster of a perfume. Mango is the star, but this ain't an Escada situation. This is a complex, grown-up mango with layer-upon-layer of complementing notes giving it depth and intensity. I'm not good with notes but I can sense cardamom, ylang ylang, tuberose, cumin, vanilla and whatnot supporting the mango. It's a delightful cornucopia of flavors, colors and textures, but the end result is perfectly balanced and wearable, somehow! It's creamy, fruity and spicy in equal measures and it's so well-blended that I can confidently wear it in the law office I work in without offending anyone. It even got me a few compliments from colleagues! The price stings but it's totally worth it. Great performance too.

What a beautiful perfume. The opening is a blast of fresh, green mango. Imagine Charo! in a fruit hat right when the music begins. Black currant fruits for the red hair, cardamom pods for the green lamé top and matching short salsa skirt, with caraway hippie hippie fruit shake. The heart and base notes make up the body of this gorgeous scent. Something that can only be described as a new Gumby doll. A waxy, fragrant bouquet of subtle rose, tuberose, and some tropical ylang ylang. These are in the pools adorned with stage dancers as Gumby steps into Charo!'s fruity hat center stage and performs plasticky wobble moves to a salsa. A wonderously intriguing scent that will never leave you with a soliflore slump! It smells so romantic and fresh at all times. Very uplifting.

I love Bombay Bling! It’s so joyful and sunny, perfect for summer. I didn’t always love it though, when I tried the tester I wasn’t prepared for the intense complexity of the opening. But I couldn’t forget it and kept going back until I’d used the tester and needed a full bottle. On my skin it lasts forever, 8+ hours with good projection. It’s neither cloying or too sweet but zingy and fresh. It’s not a linear fragrance, starting fruity with the fresh green mango and spicy cardamon. Then mellowing with the vanilla and woody notes. My go to summer fragrance. Definitely not a blind buy but prepare to be enchanted.

Bombay Bling initially leaps out as excessively fruity, but within a few seconds it starts humming along beautifully: jasmine, tuberose, and orange blossom accented with a green, almost airy fruit accord ( guava comes to mind, but it's not a very literal: it might be any member of a tropical fruit salad ). The drydown has a dusting of sandalwood and some vanilla, but otherwise this is a linear scent. While nothing makes Bombay Bling stand out as unique ( tropical fruity florals are plentiful at all quality levels ), there is a certain tender, living quality to this scent that raises it above most others.

What a great mix of fruits, tart green notes and white flowers! I've just sprayed it on my hand, I got mango and black currant at first sniff, then delicious greenness and now I am smelling white flowers... but I can't say it's a very feminine fragrance. It's unusual very interesting perfume, fresh, very fresh. 20 min later: now it turns animalic, warm and even slightly sweaty (magical black currant, it has something that it shares with grapefruit, urine-like note, but not explicit), but I like it! Amazing scent! I smell now tobacco. It now smells like a warm skin, but not clean, very-very sensual.

The party-girl of the Neela Vermeire Creations line. It’s a fun and colourful, but not at all in-your-face mango scent with a creamy, woody feel that comes from judicious use of tropical floral notes, ambery-woody aromachemicals and the lovely mysore sandalwood present in pretty much all the NVC perfumes. This dominating creamy-woody-fruitiness is also delightfully contrasted by a warming dry cumin/caraway-like note (possibly also combining with the tobacco facet that is present within the scent though I can’t say I personally detect it in its own right).

I love this, and it's my new favorite mango fragrance! It does not have the weird plastic note that most other mango perfumes, even the pricey Manguier Metisse by Huitieme Art, seem to have, and it's much more dimensional and interesting than Escada's Taj Sunset, which starts to fizzle out after just a few minutes. The florals are beautiful and the spices and base notes all work together perfectly. Bombay Bling is delicious, sexy and so juicy I want to lick my arm! The drydown is warm and friendly and lasts well. This is a winner!

Well this is a fun one! Fresh, fruity, long lasting and so different from mainstream. It takes me to a happy place! Thankfully in this one, the fruit never reaches that "too ripe fruit" stage that a lot of perfumes do. It's not cloying and not too sweet. I still might splurge on a bottle, even though I am not getting any labdanum, tobacco or patchouli coming through, which is what I really wanted!

This is a recent discovery for me. I love the burst of green mango and the headiness of the sweet fruits and florals in the opening. On my skin that settles after an hour or so into a creamy, softly spicy and still sweet phase that lasts through the dry-down. To me it’s a perfect evocation of Bombay/Mumbai in party mode - a city dear to my heart. I’m now the happy owner of a full bottle.

Really amazing fresh fruity/floral perfume that projects just right as to not to be too loud or too soft. After spraying in the morning I could still detect this courgeous aroma eight hours later, still the same scent throughout. Started off more fruity and then settled within 30mins to the most amazing fruity floral mix that's perfect for both sexes.

Bright, tropical, fruity at first settling into a warm pineapple sandlewood (to me). It's sophisticated but youthful and everything is blended so smoothly. For what it's worth, my mid-60s dad hated it and had to sit about 10 feet away from me for the first hour or so. Maybe I'll treat myself to a FB on a special occasion. It's truly special.