Babylonia

I sleep bought this, woke up to a confirmation email an hour later. I've never been happier with an accidental purchase in my life. This is stellar. The resins are well rounded and slightly sweet, the florals are intricate and well blended. The black currant holds up well as well. The citrus blast in the wet is slightly overwhelming but it fades quickly and goes right into this magnificent blend. This is a floral aromatic resin type fragrance with fruity notes and is solidly unisex but could be feminine depending on personal skin chemistry. The packaging was very good. The bottle is a great size and easy to hold, it has a magnetic cap that clicks into place with a solid report, and the atomizer is fantastic. I'm not sure why people are disliking this fragrance and/or not reviewing it. This seems like a real sleeper (pun intended) fragance for having something not mainstream.

I was guessing (and hoping) this would smell like Penhaligon's Babylon given that Xandria smells almost identical to Alexandria II from Xerjoff. I was wrong. Babylonia smells like black currant candy with soft tanginess, I believe it's from bergamot, making it even more candy-ish. I don't get any praline character other than sweetness. There's no nuttiness, no chocolate. As it dries down, black currant makes way for violet. I get faint, incense-y smokiness, too, which reminds me a little bit of Satya's Super Hit incense sticks. Overall I like it, it's fun and pretty. Is it FB worthy? Not sure. For now, I'm happy with my travel spray and I might buy it again. It's one of many reasons why I love OJ - I can individually purchase travel sprays. Please don't discontinue travel sprays like you discontinued gorgeous 50ml bottles!

I actually really enjoy this Fragrance. Although, not earth shattering still very pleasant, long wearing and made with high quality ingredients. I find in an uplifting perfume with a lovely, soft comforting, dry down. since Fragrance is very subjective, depending upon chemistry and preferences, it’s definitely worth getting a sample and trying it for yourself.

‘Babylonia’ has a strong and dominating top scent. Kinda oriental, which makes sense given the name of the fragrance. The black currant is prominent and sweet and if you are familiar with LUSH it gives ‘The Comforter’ vibes in the best way! Other than that, the other notes blend well together and plays different scenarios in my head; Walking around at a market in southern Europe and smelling whiffs of homemade soaps and oils whilst you feel the salty sea breeze once in a while. Or visiting family or family friends that you only see twice a year and aunts that want to kiss and pinch at your chin and asks about school. To some that may sound traumatic, but I mean it in the best of ways. The initial drydown gives way to the orange blossom, but the powers from orris and violet saves the top from being too cloying and sweet. Though, the perfume is described as first and foremost sweet and vanilla, but I would place the vanilla way lower down. Or is it just my skin that don’t want to embrace the vanilla in the cold weather? Amber and musk are way more prominent than the vanilla, and usually I pick up the vanilla in scents way before those two... Nevertheless, all of the notes in this perfume gets to shine in its own time and way, and all of them blends beautifully together even though the composition tend to lean slightly soapy. But soapy is absolutely not negative when the longevity is close to 12+ hours on my skin, and the sillage is actually perfect. People can smell you and notice you without it being too much.

I’m surprised at how many people dislike this one. It was one of my favorites from the tasting menu set. My immediate impression was it smells like walking into a Lush store. You’re hit with quite a strong melange of smells: sweet tart blackcurrant, some citrus, some indistinct florals, a bit of powderiness. It’s like you can smell everything and yet no single thing. As it dries down it becomes a soft powdery floral. It’s not exactly groundbreaking, it feels more designer than niche, but it’s a very pretty fruity floral with decent lasting power and throw. It also doesn’t feel specific to any one season or occasion. It’s kind of generic enough to be worn to work (with conservative spritzing) but feels lush and feminine enough for date night or special occasions. I don’t think the bottles are anything special and I’m not sure I’d pay full price for this but I’ve found discounted bottles for a reasonable price and am considering buying if I still like it enough once I use up my sample.

To me, it doesn't smell similar to La vie est belle at all. Yes, it is sweet, but not overly sweet with a nice black currant note. It may smell a bit like a designer perfume but with better quality, without that typical plasticky musk that designer perfumes often have. I think is a pretty, all year round wearable fragrance.

The iris (not listed here but I get iris) and violets last a long time, I'll give them that. The slightly tart and juicy blackcurrant in first whiff was quite pleasant, but I never got anything remotely chocolatey or praliney in the base. The musk is subtle and carried the perfume through. I got gentle reminders of the first sprays a good 6 hours later. Summed up, this is a generic floral musky perfume. Nice and long-lasting, nothing spectacular.

A lot of Jayne Ormond perfumes have an interesting top/heart but dry down to a familiar musky/amber-y/vanilla-y mush. This one starts there. Is there a hint of bergamot and maybe a little blackcurrant to keep it from smelling totally generic? Sure. But it's not enough to distinguish Babylonia from a hundred other (often less expensive) perfumes.

I quite enjoyed this but it is such a basic fragrance. I feel like I've smelled several perfumes like this before, so I personally wouldn't splurge on it.

I’ve given this fragrance about five chances now and I have to throw in the towel. I love it on initial blast... powdery blackcurrant with some chocolate. I wish it stayed that way but alas, it does not lol. This screeching plastic note comes through after it settles a bit... what even is that? I guess it’s the benzoin. It reminds me of the perfumes my classmates in high school would choke everyone out with after gym in the ‘00s lol. Very loud but no real substance. Not my thing but the performance is pretty great - strong and I can get a decent 8 hours of this before it turns into a skin scent.

It is very bad, so bad that I even can't believe it is OJ. The whole red collection is so disappointing, scents are just copies of the popular perfumes and Babylonia is even worse, it smells like a cheap perfume somewhere from the low shelves. Horrible! It is interesting only for the first 1-2 minutes, you may feel lipstick, violet and orris, then it smells like sugar all the time.... Good for the 20$ perfume, but not for the OJ house. The real masterpieces were created in the transparent bottles, red bottles don't tell anything new. Sorry!

Beautiful perfume with a designer vibe. I can see why some have compared it to La Vie Est Belle but there is some more muskiness to this. This is EXTREMELY strong and potent. I put about 1mL on and although I liked the scent, it was biohazard strong- which for me, is a lot since I'm an infamous over-sprayer.

This is shockingly bad. Flat, overly sweet and plastic. It's not something you would expect from a brand that used to have one of the best perfumes in the game (Champaca, Tiare, Ormonde Man to name a few). It smells like something you could grab from perfume shop on high street. The praline note is the most present here, the smell of cheap chocolate is almost suffocating. I really hope this brand comes back to creating beautiful masterpieces, because the whole orange collection smells like imitations of other perfumes and it's painfully commercial.

Had a chance to test this fragrance as a sample and simply...it’s not giving. Anything. The notes are flat, the sweetness is soft and insistent, and the fragrance does not transform or bloom into anything interesting. It’s pretty, I guess? It smells like a fragrance you could easily find in an Avon catalogue.

Reading the comments here I first thought people were just hating on it but when I tried it 😮💨 I was shocked. They were absolutely right . It’s bad . I expected more from ormonde Jayne.

Really nice realistic and juicy blackcurrant that is nicely blended. Underrated note in fragrance. Winner.

La vie est belle with more sweet cassis base

Reminds me of Bal d'Afrique by Byredo.