Isola Sol

ISOLA SOL Roja Dove 2024 People have seemed to have stereotypical expectations of this fragrance, which led to disappointed reactions. However, by taking a closer look at the notes and taking into account where the flowers in question grow and Roja's style of making fragrances, the description of the fragrance is not misleading. Tropical doesn't always mean splashy edible fruits (lastly in Roja’s perfumes) - here it means flowers, Ylang-Ylang and Jasmine, the both of them are growing in tropical regions. Roja’s style has always been classy and this scents fits into that style. Then we move on to the fruits. Fruity notes are in the opening and I know that many was expecting to detect them clearly from the scent but those you can’t find in that way. Roja’s perfumes are always complex and rarely you can separate individual notes. He uses a lot especially Peach, you can see that note in several perfumes. But can you smell it always clearly? Mostly yes, if it’s one of the middle notes but now all the fruits are in the opening. Honestly I was still expecting more than a subtle hint of Apricot and Peach as well and I really don’t know why. And to the third important point: the name of the perfume is Isola Sol but have you seen somewhere a mention of solar notes? I even saw someone complaining that the scent is not solar. Or what defines the word beachy? “Marine” is an accord but beachy is not, it's a term which people can imagine in very many different kind of ways. There is an idea behind the pair Isola Blue and Isola Sol. First one is the scene on the sea: fresh air on the yacht, refreshing Coconut cocktail and water with citruses in the glass (I don’t concentrate on that now more), and the latter one Isola Sol is the scene on the beach. Bright beautiful Jasmine scent on a sunkissed skin after the swim in the crystal clear salty water. Coconut - which here reminds me immediately of the sun - is lingering around mellow Jasmine and restrained Ylang-Ylang while Neroli brings freshness maintaining the concoction from turning sweet or creamy one. Jasmine is very natural and I love so much that there is not Tuberose at all. In this fragrance, the middle notes tell the most essential part of it. This lasts 6-7 hours an the longer it’s on the skin the softer it becomes. This is not so complex than perfumes in Roja’s other lines but it’s in the same level with those in Women’s Collection. It’s the quality which you pay for. Top Notes: Lemon*, Bergamot*, Mandarin, Petitgrain, Apricot*, Peach* Heart Notes: Neroli, Jasmine Sambac*, Ylang Ylang*, Coconut* Base Notes: Pink Pepper, Cedar Wood, Sandal Wood*, Amyris Wood*, Salty Accord*, Musks, Ambroxan *Key notes Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗

Absolutely gorgeous tropical floral! In the opening I get a hint of clean peach and apricot. The ylang, jasmine and salt appear almost immediately as well. The salt has a slightly cold, piercing quality. The neroli and cedar keep the overall feeling light and fresh so this never turns into sunscreen. The coconut is faint to my nose. The Amyris really shines in the dry down, it still has a light citrusy freshness even at 5+ hours. I imagine Parker Posey wearing Isola Sol in season three of White Lotus- it’s rich, loud and a little audacious. It’s very much a grown woman scent. This has a sheerness to it that makes it wearable in the heat. Excellent projection. Definitely splurge worthy if you like this scent profile! Compared to the ‘Reminds Me’ section: This is less creamy & sweet than Soleil Blanc edp; Isola Sol is much more floral dominant. This also has different florals and a fresher dry down compared to Sunkissed Goddess, which is Tiare focused.

Gorgeous, smooth tropical floral. The fruits are not the star, just adding support. Very very smooth. This would be a lovely gift for a woman who loves these types of beachy fragrances because this one is superb. The florals have a bit of an indolic-green feel to me but they're very creamy in their presence which helps keep it tame. Overall this feels expensive - like you have to be in the top 3% and vacation on yachts in foreign waters to wear this. It's not my vibe. I am more of a GIARDINI DI TOSCANA Bora Bora girl when I'm looking for something similar (not same*). Bora Bora is louder, has more vanilla and more of a tropical floral-gourmand feel (versus just floral or fruity-floral). But I still appreciate the level of Perfumery here. *bravo*

This is by far the smoothest fragrance in this genre I’ve ever encountered. I sometimes find tropical florals to be screechy, but not here! The quality is impeccable & perfect for tropical vacations. My only qualm is projection might be lacking, which is unfortunate considering the steep price, but truth be told I can look past that. I don’t mind over spraying this because it’s one of the few tropical florals for me. If you love other tropical florals this may be a turn off for you.

This lived rent free in my head for a while thinking that it reminded me of Borabora or even Lust for Sun, but nope, this drys down beautiful! No cloying sweet vanilla or shampoo vibe like the first two mentioned. Peach can be tricky and would smell like Body Odor on a lot of people, on this one, blended perfectly. Magic! Totally unisex. I’m glad to have this in my collection.

Testing my sample; florals galore, this is all about ylang, jasmine, and neroli held in balance by soft citrussy fruits, a hint of coconut, and a musky saltiness. It opens quite heady and a touch indolic on the skin and slowly tapers off once it settles and mixes with your skin, feels warm and sheer at the same time. Perfect for warm/hot weather, spring and summer.

I wore this and strangers started asking me if I knew any reputable yacht brokers and where I was going to be “summering” this year? I fear if I wear this within a 100 mile radius of Washington DC I will receive notice of an IRS audit within 12 business days.

I can't wait to try this with that peach and apricot note!! Sounds like heaven!

Isola sol is a refined fragrance that on my very cool skin presents as floral coconut scent. I get equal amount of florals (on me it’s jasmine and ylang) and coconut. The scent is very creamy and slightly salty. I do not get any woodiness or citrus whatsoever. Surprisingly, I do get a whiff of a gorgeous peach note here and there, but it’s not constantly present throughout ware. It will be beautiful for the summer day afternoon. I can see how this fragrance can be extremely personal skin chemistry dependent (as in on different people different notes will strongly dominate) so I would recommend testing before buying. When tested on a friend, she got citrus and jasmine heavy scent that we both agreed was nothing special. On me the performance is moderate overall. As for the dreaded “Does it worth its high price tag?” question, I have to say that it will again depend on how it will open on each individual. With the way that it opened on me, I find it to be one of the better scents in this category of summer fragrances and to me it is worth the price tag. However, as it can open completely differently on different people, there can be a possibility of better and cheaper alternatives. FYI: I do want to touch upon the packaging and presentation of the new fragrances. While I don’t mind the new rounded bottle edges, I do feel that the removal of Mr. Roja Dove’s signature engraving from the cap greatly cheapens the overall appearance of the fragrance bottle. I also feel that the new use of the cardboard only box feels much cheeper in comparison to the older silk lined slanted boxes. Now, I am not that much of a packaging person (but other people definitely are) so it does not make that much of a difference to me, given that I like the fragrance, but I do feel that packaging and presentation is part of the price and if the company chooses to use cheeper recyclable packaging and presentation it should be reflected in the price a little bit. I don’t know and maybe the new packaging with colorful picture may as well be more expansive, but to me the new packaging and presentation feels cheeper.

Isola Sol by Roja Parfums is an excellent, easily wearable summertime fragrance. Indulge in the essence of summer with Isola Sol. Bursting with sweet and fruity notes, complemented by the delicate allure of ylang-ylang, it's a symphony of scents that transport you to a sun-kissed beach. Each spritz is a journey to paradise, where the warm embrace of the sun and the gentle caress of the ocean breeze mingle harmoniously. It's the perfect companion for those balmy days and sultry nights, adding a touch of exotic allure to any occasion. Embrace the essence of summer with this captivating fragrance, and let your senses wander to distant shores. I rate this 8/10.

Beachy, summery, feminine, and a great scent. I have few complaints other then the redundancy. The price is pretty much as expected with high end ingredients and a masterfully blended fragrance. And with all you get, I'd say it's an OK price, leaning a little towards overpriced. Because it's redundant. There are So many "Beach vibe" fragrances. I would personally rather have a bottle of "LV On The Beach". The sand note is fantastic, and the whole Beach feeling is captured in a bottle in a way no other brands have. Personal score: 8/10. It's Great. But far from the best of the best.

This is not beachy to me. Mainly florals, fairly powdery and smooth. It's nice 8/10.

Testing from a purchased 1ml sample which I’m presuming is legit and these are initial impressions only. I like a summery vacation scent as long as it’s not overly feminine although unisex is fine so I was intrigued to see where this would land. Firstly, I don’t particularly find it that beachy or tropical. On my skin, from the initial spray, I get straight up heady floral that dominates all the other notes. There’s some muskiness lurking behind and some creaminess but I can’t say I pick out much fruit, citrus or salt that would take it more in the direction I like. These elements are there but they’re very faint to my nose. It’s soft and pretty but not what I’m looking for. As it dries down the coconut and the salt become slightly more apparent, taking it more into a vacation style fragrance. It doesn’t seem as nuanced as other Roja’s in that the individual notes don’t pop out as much, as such the quality seems diminished compared to Roja’s of old. It’s too feminine for me from first impressions and is far from unisex. Although bright and sunny, I can’t say this gives me vacation vibes either. Personally, I found Isola Blu too bitter and this one too floral, something in between would suit my tastes best so I’ll stick with LV’s On The Beach.

Another disappointing release from Roja within a matter months. Evident that the brand is heading towards acquisition and is release mass-appealing cash grabs of dubious quality to broaden the brand's market share prior to sale. It's sad because, though the price points have always been disgustingly expensive, the quality never wavered until now. Isola Sol is scratchy, thin, and unconvincing take on the listed fruit accords. The sandalwood feels like a cursory gesture towards javanol, with some musks used to smooth the edges...The peach/apricot accord feels keen, sharp, screechy...It honestly wouldn't be out of place from any mass designer liner, which begs the question of how this price point can be justified (?). It's sad. While Roja's brand began with a range of derivative fragrances, which borrowed heavily on established classics and had *dubious* providence from ghost perfumers, there were many real gems: Diaghilev, the soliflore extraits, Roja Haute Luxe, Great Britain, Enigma pour Homme, Vetiver extrait, Danger pour Femme, A Goodnight Kiss - all impeccably blended by very talented perfumers. These last two releases have been inexcusably bad by comparison.

@Yalcin05 Acquisition hasn't happened yet but I'm aware of talks going back to 2020 where a private equity firm where sent of 1 of every SKU (literally everything from candles, diffusers and perfumes to his book, PdV and Semi-Bespoke lines). It's been on the cards for a while and pretty evident that the discontinuation of the lovely but frankly illogical model of the Heritage Collection (where nothing really got discontinued but instead became a sequestered smaller product batch), the new colourful flacons, the new flankers of bestsellers and the fruit-musk releases are an attempt to pivot to a wider (and younger) customer base to get the best valuation pre-sale.

Don’t be fooled by the “similar to” section, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Isola Sol opena with a blast of very heavy white and yellow flowers, followed by luxe sunscreen, and dries down to ambroxan overload. Honestly, I don’t really understand this journey, and I feel like there are other fragrances that do each of those better. If I’m looking for any of those scents, I’d rather go respectively with Rouge Malachite, Soleil Blanc, and Another 13.

The Ylang-Ylang/coconut pairing is so beautiful here. Stayed on my skin for almost 3 hours. The most expensive, well-blended fragrance that reminded me of last summer's vacation, sitting on a beach in Mexico, and pulling out my bottle of Tom Ford's Soleil Blanc to spray on my sun-kissed skin. 🙄 Just get Soleil Blanc and save some coins, for Pete's sake.

Salty. A bit of an eyeroll, price considered. Like Enigma and Oceania had a baby.

Isola Sol is such a strong yellow floral that I found it overbearing. It has the power of the summer sun. I was only wearing one spray on my wrist and the luxurious but heady lily style pollen scent was wafting up to my nose and making me feel swamped by an overwhelmingly grand bouquet. Such strength of character but too loud for my understated mood at the time. For bold lovers of ylang ylang and jasmine - you’ll feel like you’re powdered with the sunny yellow pollen from a happy bumble bee. Isola Blu is the more wearable and unisex option.

Such a disappointment. Maybe I was expecting too much because I have really enjoyed other Roja Dove fragrances, but to me this didn’t smell high quality or natural at all. Putting aside the question of whether this meets the marketing description of being a summer or beach scent (not in my opinion), it smelled strongly of chemicals and I had to wash it off.