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?

Call me crazy, but this smells like fresh watermelon! Absolutely amazing on my boyfriend and lasts 8+ hours easily. Super crowd pleasing, yet unique and very high quality. Outside of the depth of winter, this can be worn any time any occasion.

Lemony fresh, office safe, warm weather. This was a gift, so I'm emotional attached to that special person -filling standards. 4 stars, moderate across the board — a pleasant, easy wear for the summer!!!

This very fresh mature hawas ice but with good touch of berries. I love this but longevity are the concern about rituals product. It always not long lasting.

A more mature, refined EDP version of Nautica Voyage, great for spring and summer, smells amazing!!

My first introduction to Rituals was an advent calendar I got for the missus and ended up going 'wow that smells nice.' to many of the products. The one I liked best was the Rosewood and pine but unfortunately they don't do a perfume of that, but when I visited my local store to discover as much, I sampled some of their perfume offerings and I've gotta say I was impressed. The therapy vibe is extremely apparent in everything, and I have to say they all make you sigh a little sigh of comfort such is the cerebral nature of the creations. This one, Bleu Byzantin is probably the most accessible and has a more fresh approach. The juniper note at the beginning of this is really big and unlike the usual dry, g&t, quinine vibe it comes across as watermelon and salty aquaticness circa 1992. This could be a distraction but the herbal pine in the base is very zen, soothing and with a touch of mint it all comes together to make something vaguely familiar but extremely well executed. This wasn't my favourite from the line by any stretch but the solid, salty sea and woods drydown was pleasant even if the fragrance itself is perhaps a little shortlived. The price is great and packaging and overall look of the stores made me think their products were far more expensive than they are.

Fresh and fruity! During the whole lifecycle there is always a certain sweetness (I guess from the juniper berries) that prevents the scent from beeing to green/fresh. The balance between this sweetness and freshness from the mint make this interesting and kinda unique. However, it does not change very much during its lifecycle. Longivety and sillage are average but would be more suitable for an EDT than an EDP (which it is).. Occasion: pretty much every Age: <35-40 I got this as a christmas present a few years ago which is why this is more of a winter scent than a summer scent to me. In fact I can only recomment you to try this in colder weather. At a clean, cold winter morning this works brilliantly! I really like this scent, but I think it is rather expensive for what it is. ~40€/50ml is about the same that you would expect for a designer scent. But Rituals is not D&G or Gucci! Also the scent is not that extravagant that I would consider it as niche. Considering that about 80% of a perfumes price are due to marketing, I dont see why Rituals is charging that much, or have you seen an ad for Rituals recently?

Sweet, woody and spicy! I had a mixed experience when I first got it, but have come around to liking it. It is very well suited for summer/beach days, so I sadly haven't yet been able to try it out in the right weather. However, I'm a fan! Slightly too sweet for me to wear, but I'd love to smell it on other people. The bottle on this is amazing! I got the travel-sized version and the atomizer is INCREDIBLE! It gives a long, controlled and uniform spray and is honestly one of the best I have ever used! The bottle-cap is also wonderful, being real dark wood and having a very satisfying 'click'. In summary, a great niche summer fragrance! The scent is a 7/10, but in combination with the bottle quality I'll bump it up to a; 8/10

Nice fragrance a style that’s a bit different from the typical fresh scents. It smells pleasant and fresh, After about 20 minutes it improves and becomes really enjoyable to smell. It’s a simple, good scent and unique, yet still simple. I’m usually not a big fan of mint in fragrances, but here the mint blended well and doesn’t hit the nose too hard. The opening projects strongly, and on my skin it lasts fairly okay. It smells high quality and not synthetic, and in my opinion it works for all seasons. Overall, I don’t have anything bad to say about it. If the longevity were better, I think it would be *much* more popular. But if you’re not expecting eternal performance and you love the scent, then it’s perfect for you.

Better than I expected but only in warm and somewhat humid climate. I get a juniper, sweet and fruity top note. The sweetness dries down pretty quickly and turns into a light peppery aquatic smell. Not a good office fragrance in my opinion, it's too youthful. Tried it on in winter in very dry air and it hit the back of my throat almost immediately, definite no-go in cold weather Good for a fresh and clean smell on a sunny day. I got mixed reactions when wearing this.

Rituals is really stepping up their game, amazing presentation, the bottle, the box, especially this one with this gorgeous blue, just beautiful! Now the scent, this is edp and targeted for male audience, very fresh and aquatic, in the same style as nautica voyage, but much more natural and more subtle. My favorite from this line, definitely worth a test, and it's on my want it list now, let's see till summer.

This is very nice. Fresh, sensual, clean and a bit sweet but not sickening. It smells really natural. A bit more masculine than feminine, in my opinion. It’s a great choice if you are looking for a green fragrance for nighttime or colder days. I really appreciate that it doesn’t smell like shampoo. It actually smells more expensive than it is. It was a pleasant surprise to me. Thumbs up!

For me the smell reminds of a fresh showergel at a midrange Hotel. The Perfume smells aquatic, fresh and slighty sweet, but not overwhelming. The smell is not long lasting and not very complex. I like the Flacon it looks the part, but the spray is sadly not that good. For the price it‘s not bad.

Very well blended, expert packaging and addictive mildly sweet and super fresh aroma. Long lasting freshie as well, definitely worth a pickup not talked about a whole lot either so you’ll easily stand out with this.

Great value for travel size. Sweet aquatic/blue scent. Strong projection on me and very simpl e composition that holds. If you like the initial spray, it will stay so a long while. At least it did so on me

Fresh, youthful and energetic. Of the 4 new male fragrances from Rituals, this and Rio de Orient are prime. The others are also niche quality. Never smelled anything like Blue Byzantin before.