Bleu Byzantin

Blue for people who dont like blue. 4/5 approved I’m not big into blues, or aquatics. Dont get me wrong, I dont dislike them. They are fresh. Not offensive. Safe. Its just, for the kind of occasions I would wear them, I cannot justify a mid to high designer price tag. And for the kind of occasions that do justify a decent price tag, they feel either too casual (aquatics), or not deep and interesting enough (blues). This goes for practically all the blues. Including the big ones. Yes, even bdc and sauvage. I tried to love them. So manny people can’t be wrong. But I can’t. I can only be okay with them. They smell like a calone and/or hedione overdose to me. Play it out, add even more, add a few fruits and you call it an aquatic. Try to tone it down by a shitton of woods, and call it a blue. Maybe I’m oversensitive to one or another ingredient in them that puts them out of balance to me. Or maybe I’m not refined enough to get the subtle nuances. Most likely I’m not, my nose isn’t the sharpest. Or maybe they are just not my thing. But one can only smell what one smells and claiming otherwise would be dishonest. This one however, smells different. This, I love. I did not find my favorite blue in the place I expected to find it. Rituals in most regards sells overpriced okay smelling low quality beauty products. I did not expect much sampling this for the first time to be honest. The presentation is nice enough. The shops smell nice. The staff is beautiful and friendly. They clearly care about the image they try to paint. Some red flags here and there that might indicate marketing is more important than honesty. My perfume box claims 89% natural. I guess alcohol is made from sugar, and if you really want to stretch it petroleum was a plant too, at some point. They do name and give credit to the perfumer on the box who made this, which is something I can appreciate. Its Christiane Plos, for those who care for things like this. Its hard to point out why I like this. To me, this feels like a blue that isn’t in denial of its aquatic side. Its an aquatic that manages to resist the temptation to go fullblown cloying pinacolada cockatail party at the beach, and retain some style. To me, its a middle ground that I have not smelled before, a best of both worlds . I dont get much of the mint. To me, the opening smells like hot pool water in the best way imaginable. Not the community pool, a fancy pool at a wellness, the kind you find in 5 star hotels. I get an aquatic feel, joined by the juniper and a bit green and a bit woods. Slightly sweet, not cloying. It feels like summer in a bottle. I have smelled this in late winter. Oh its so comforting in this cold, wet depressing weather. A promise of better weather to come. Warm, but not exotic. European. Mediterranean. Maybe the power of suggestion is at play here. Its after all named after the ancient greek city of byzantium. Which the romans later named constantinople and the turks istanbul. Once the capital of the world, at the gates of europe. Still, I think the scent profile really does fit the theme. In the drydown the woods come to the front. There are still hints from the sweetness and the juniper and the green, but its the woods that take the forefront now. For what its worth, I had my wife blind-smell this on one hand and bdc on the other and she, to my surprise, preferred this, too. Both on the opening and the drydown. This does perform quite well on me, especially for an aquatic. Stayed on my skin till the end of the day. I smelled this for days on my jacket. This was in cold weather though, summer temperatures might chop off a good chunk of that performance. But still. I did not expect this performance for a product from a store like this. But at the same time, at this pricetag (45€ for a 50ml), bad performance would probably be a dealbreaker. This is non offensive. But still, I would not recommend to blind buy this. If you are interested in this, you most likely like blues. I dont, which means our tastes most likely dont overlap. If you do, maybe get the travel size, which are all things considered reasonably priced. (16€ for 15ml). I do recommend, if you see this in store, to atleast give it a sniff, even if you think you won’t like this. You might, like me, be pleasantly surprised.

I actually really enjoy this fragrance. Kind of puts me in the mind of a YSL Y Iced Cologne, but less sticky, if that makes sense. It's a simplified, green version of the Y DNA, in my opinion. Projection is good, the atomizer is pressurized, which is fantastic, and longevity is decent as well. It might get intimate after a little while, but it's definitely still there and creates a nice little fresh, piney bubble, at least for me. As for the cost, it's well priced. For a 50ml (which is their top capacity model) I paid 49,90€, which is fairly decent. Kind of puts it between an arabic and designer price bracket. Not too cheap, but also not too expensive. I truly believe this is a great entry level blue fragrance, precisely because it doesn't smell so much like shower gel. Minty, green and very, VERY easy to wear. It's gonna be my casual, dumb reach fragrance from now on.

The silage and longevity is amazing. You can smell it in the room and sometimes it leaves a tiny trail. It smells fresh and a bit spicy, but not in a bad way. Spicy perfumes tend to tickle my nose and make me sneeze, but this one is just really nice and fresh. It brings me back to when I first started dating my girlfriend and she wore this perfume. Now, every time I catch a whiff of this perfume, it brings me back to December 2016. It’s more of a mens scent, but I haven’t smelled this one in a while on anyone. It’s a scent I could recognize within a second. I hope it stays a little hidden gem, so that I can enjoy my memories in peace.

Somewhat aquatic but mainly juicy fruity berry and minty with slight green tone perfect for spring and summer and can also be worn year round. From the whole line this is by far the most appealing. It lasts longer than the other 4 I have but layer it with molecule 01 and a primer and hello beast mode performance.

This was really strong, spicy a couple of years ago. I had a bottle. I rebought a travel size but it seems it has been reformulated. Weak performance, undistinguished notes, more generic than before. Results of the current economic situation maybe?