Blood Oranges

Paper sprayed last week with Jo Malone Orange Bitters (JMOB). Blind buy of Shay & Blue Blood Oranges (SBBO). Sample of Atelier California Clementine (ACC). Each opened with blast of oranges, with JMOB a little more soft, while other two smell like fresh squeezed citrus. JMOB opening not as fresh/orangey blast as others, but did not change much over time, and the fact that the paper still has a trace scent is pretty good. But it ends up kind of powdery ...good but more feminine to me. ACC citrus blast opening was gone in minutes, then I became scent blind. But on further inspection, has settled into a nice appealing, not sharp/tart, scent. This is what I would imagine an orange, well clementine, scent should be. No nonsense clementine only. SBBO orange blast also did not last long, but settles into a more leather scent, with orange on top. Definitely masculine. Has strongest end note/projection of the three so I think will last longer. Unfamiliar noses might think strong citrus scents are "cleanser-like"...but SBBO will not be mistaken for that at all. If you want soft/feminine orange = JMOB...also pricey If you want straight orange (well, clementine) = ACC...also pricey If you want masculine orange = SBBO...best value Scent wise, I think I like ACC best, but for scent/price/value, I like SBBO.

Just absolutely straight-ahead orange juice and zest. I don't get any musk or amber or leather whatsoever, although maybe they are just there working hard in the background to extendi those short-lived citrus smells. My impression is simply of delicious, refreshing, uncomplicated and beautifully succulent natural orange. I was looking for something in the same ballpark as Hermes Concentre d'Orange Verte, but the Shay & Blue is almost as different from that as something so orangey could be. It's much wetter, less complex and less powdery than the Hermes; also much more acid to the Hermes' sweetness. I love them both, but not living in a hot climate (see below) find the Hermes more useful; on really really hot and humid days I might want to wear S&B more as it's a little fresher. It doesn't project much after 4hrs or last much beyond 6 so I too would recommend the smaller bottle for refreshing in the day, unless you plan to decant and get through it pretty quickly (the price per ml on the larger bottle is loads lower.) A terrific scent for spring and summer but I'm not sure how motivated I would feel to use it - or indeed how it would perform - on a cool or cold day.

If you love the photorealistic orange note but find it dissipates too quickly, I recommend getting the body wash and body lotion and layering. It’s basically pure blood orange note and SO so juicy. I actually tried this first as the body wash because I was wary of the leather note. Leather and suede notes tend to make me nauseous for some reason, and make a fragrance lean more masculine than I like. I really didn’t get the leather note at all in the body wash version, and pure citrus is always a good body wash type scent. The personal fragrance does have more complexity and depth than the body wash, but that’s not saying much. I definitely do get the leather note, and it’s mild and subtle enough that it doesn’t make me nauseous. It gives the fragrance a warmer tone, but is nowhere near as impressive as the opening blood orange note. If you like this but are disappointed in performance for the price point, definitely check out the body wash and lotion. I can’t promise you that they’ll have better longevity, but they’ll certainly save you money.

I have a love hate relationship with Blood Oranges. Love in that I absolutely adore it and hate in that it has the longevity of goldfish-memory on my skin. I literally get no sillage from this whatsoever and it fades into a skin scent on me (and one you basically have to work to even smell on the skin) within five minutes. I think to get other people to notice this I would need to spray it on them and not me! I initially thought I had maybe got a bad bottle but I am on my second bottle now so it is definitely a poor performer longevity-wise. As against all that, the scent itself is stunning. I get the burst of citrus but with a very sexy and insistent undertone of burning rubber or tarmac. It reminds me of holidays in France in the height of summer and I love it.

This is a hidden gem for me. I bought a 10 mL bottle along with some others from S&B just to try it and it ended up being my favourite. It doesn't have huge sillage but it's noticeable. Longevity was good for me, including the orange note. The orange is realistic but is kept from being too sweet by the suede in the background. I find this to be a clean, unisex smell which works well for the office but would be OK for a summer evening or weekend. Edit: I like to layer this with Escentric Molecule 1 (iso-E super) - I'm not normally into layering but it accentuates the clean feel and helps with longevity as iso-E super is also a fixing agent.

Very beautiful. As the previous commenter has said, it really does smell like freshly squeezed blood oranges, so delicious and juicy on the opening. Surprisingly masculine on the dry down, quite a contrast with the fruity beginning, a definite combination of the leather and woody notes, I didn't detect a trace of blood orange left. A very lovely fragrance overall, definitely unisex, verging more on the masculine side. Don't be fooled by the fruity opening if you are looking for something more feminine.

Very realistic sweet orange smell. Shay & Blue's perfumes are usually very linear and this one is no different. The way it smells the second you spray is what it's going to smell like when its time to wash it off. A huge dose of juicy oranges and a mist of amber in the background. Longevity varies. Hot days - 6+ hrs and cooler days - no more than 3 on my skin Overall, lovely inoffensive orange scent. Signature worthy. Dare I say CM without the sharpness

My god, this is good. The most realistic orange I’ve ever smelled. The orange with the leather is unique, delicious and a bit sexy. Perfect for summer. It’s not super projecting or long lasting but it’s a citrus so that’s typical. It performs better than most orangey citruses I’ve smelled. It’s incredible and unisex to me. I’m a 39F but would definitely enjoy this on a man in warm weather. If you like orange or leather, get your nose on this!

I am a fan of cherry-leather-amber scents, so seeing a new fruit option I was excited. And this was beyond a win with a blind buy! This has a reminiscent leather-amber base note similar to Cherry Punk or Lost Cherry, but the opening Blood Orange is so juicy and bright! Wasn't sure how they would blend together, but the bright opening lasts quite a while for an opening note, and mixes so well with the cozy base.

This one is super underrated. I fell in love with Orange Sanguine but the longevity wasn’t there. This is very similar but with a light smooth leather twist. It’s a touch darker. This last super long on me. Both my fiancé and I can use this! Very much down the middle unisex fragrance. The price point is mind blowing for this one.

A deep, unisex, dryish orange fragrance. I love the musk and leather with the orange. If you want a long lasting orange fragrance then this is the best I have ever come across for longevity. A very cosy fragrance thats perfect for wearing in cool and cold conditions. Moderate sillage and definitely on my want list.

Orange and leather sounded horrible to me--but this was the Shay & Blue that I invested in a big bottle rather than a 30ml for. It's just so sweet, golden and yet animalic, and a little bitter. Lasts and lasts, feels both elegant and playful.

Mmmm...dark orange...this is a slightly naughty citrus...deep blood orange with a bit of black leather coming through...but this isn't too strong or uninviting...feels rather light and close to the skin...I like this...

This is a lovely perfume that smells like sweet, fresh oranges. It has a happy, morning breakfast scent, which will fill you full of optimism for the day ahead. I smell like oranges now, yummy.

I love Blood Oranges by Shay & Blue. It is fresh, ripe, oranges...with a woody undertone. So well done and hits all the marks. Try a sample for sure. Full bottle worthy and highly recommended.

This is a very realistic orange scent with subtle woods and leather underneath to give it some depth. I reach for this in the spring and summer when I want something fresh and energizing.

Amazing, linear and photorealistic scent of blood oranges. Juice, zest, everything. And it lasts! It is the perfect citrus scent for me; a bit warmer and juicier.

I got a 10ml to try. Now I have a 100ml on the way - it’s so delicious that I need a full bottle so I can spray it every few hours to get that orange hit.

So fresh, like a breeze from a citrus grove. Bought the 100ml and livin the dream 🍊

Tangy, familiar, short. Shay & Blue Blood Oranges EDP gives a fresh, crisp scent that smells just like it says on the tin, Blood Oranges. It's light, 100% unisex, and made for summer days. It's my first orange fragrance and smells exactly like the thing... however, after a bit of trialling, it hasn't left me with the best impression. This fruity frag opens with a fresh burst of orange with a very light leather, suede-like hint to it that gives a sweet, desserty smell. I always find suede notes add a chocolatey vibe to fragrances. I've found that the scent stays fairly similar from start to finish without much complexity and is actually quite nice for it. The start is definitely more orange heavy, and fresh, but the dry down slowly gets more and more leathery until it fades. This is 100% made for a warm Summer day, with picnics in the park, walks, or good ol' BBQs. However, while Blood Oranges smells great, I've found the projection to be dissapointingly weak right from the start. It also fades within just a couple of hours, even after double sprays, which means I have to reapply it for it do anything for me. I only have a small 10ml bottle which has been fine for a tester and sprays well, but I am a fan of the bigger Shay & Blue bottles. For the price, this short-lasting scent is affordable but feels underwhelming for what you can get nowadays, especially compared to something like S&B Black Tulip which is more unique and performs brilliantly. Even though it has a pleasant, well-balanced orange scent, you have to directly sniff your skin whenever you want to smell it and for that reason the score gets pummeled down for me. I wouldn't mind wearing it but it wouldn't be a go to choice. OK: 6/10

Smells like realistic oranges. A bit of fresh squeezed orange juice, a bit of hyper realistic orange peel. I have smelled a lot of citrus openings in fragrance and this may be the most realistic rendition of an orange I have ever come across. Pure orange, no bergamot or grapefruit. This part is awesome. Once the orange dissipates I find it to be a generic sweet musk. I am very shocked by the “animalic/leather” accords cited by fragrantica’s main accords and some of the reviewers. If this is animalic leather then I am truly nose blind. Actually, if this had a potent leather note it might actually be more interesting! Too bad. Longevity isn’t great for me. Not abysmal. About average for a citrus styled EDT. It is well made but I’m don’t find it all that inspiring or creative. Sideways thumb for me. If you want a monotone orange bomb it will work for you. 7.2/10

The initial spray is overtly orange, and it stays within that juicy citrus note for a few minutes until it dries down, where it then transforms into a woody, leathery scent pretty quickly. The hint of orange is still there, but it's a bit musky and masculine (and quite sexy)! The longevity of this fragrance isn't the best, honestly, but the scent is very light, as most citrus based fragrances tend to be, and I appreciate that. While it lingers, it's quite delicious, but after the four or five hour mark, there isn't even a faint hint of the scent left. However, I've fallen head over heels for this fragrance, so reapplying it doesn't bother me at all!

NA soapy orange. It doesn't finish to convince me. Sicilian Lime got me hooked in a second. But I have to say that so far most of the Shay & Blue fragrances have something particular that makes them special. It's like a refined version of Atelier Cologne. Blood oranges is basically a warm fragrance ( not sweet or heavy) the orange and soft leather is a magnificent combination. I tilt more towards Sicilian Limes because it's more fresh and light. But Blood Oranges might be the nighttime counterpart!

Got a decant.. Opens up with a gorgeous blood orange (less sweet and spicy than Kalan by PdM but in the same vein). As several reviews mention, it turns into a leather scent fairly quickly (40-60 minutes). I had it on today in a sunny spring day and in a certain office where it gets hot, almost summer like). Performance was below average on skin and clothes. We are talking barely detectable on the skin 4 hours later!! A nice scent, not on my "buy a full bottle list".

Perhaps my nose isn’t nuanced enough for an expansive review but this is a straightforward, one note orange scent to me. None of this leather, woody, animalic slant others have mentioned. Just straight up orange oil. I’m neutral about it. I love the smell of oranges, but don’t know that I wish to smell LIKE oranges. It lasts about 2 hours on me, so it’s not something I’m likely to buy a full bottle of.

A beautiful realistic orange scent. I adore this fragrance. Lasted around 5 hours on my skin. It started at arm's length and then became a skin scent around 2 hours in. I smell oranges, oranges, and oranges. Like standing under an orange tree full of ripe oranges that you are picking off and eating. Delicious. Now I want to go eat an orange....

A very bright and fresh blood orange followed by a smoky leather note. It feels like a good contrast between light and dark accords and they balance to make a rounded citrus scent. The dry down is dry woods with warm musk and remnants of the citrus. This is perfectly unisex and lovely for spring.

The amazing realistic orange does not last very long but the leather-musky-smoky dry down is something quite appealing. Given the dry down and given the fact that orange season is in autumn/winter in Italy, but for me this is the epitome of a fall/wintery perfume

Bought a bottle on Luxury Scent Box. I like it, but it is very strong with the orange. I knew it would be but wasn't quite what I expected. Still nice. My boyfriend likes it!

Lovely fragrance and very realistic interpretation of blood orange but very poor performance. I think it is totally unisex and would not describe it as masculine.

love the bitter blood orange top but then dries down with a little wood and to a soft sweeter powdery orange almost like baby butt that doesn't project or last

Aubrey Plaza in a bottle. Brandy Klark from The To Do List wears this.

Too bad that it fades away in 20 minutes...what a shame.

Beautiful fragrance but a bit on the weak side for me.

I was expecting something more from this due to word of mouth hype, as others have said the performance is pretty dire. The initial hit of orange is sublime, I've been looking for an orange scent that isn't too bright or youthful and I had hope this would be it. The drydown takes this distinctly into unisex territory for me, the leather is there but totally pleasant - definitely not biker bar. Then it's just gone. Perfectly fine and a good value perfume, but for the amount of reapplying you'd need to do that value would quickly cancel itself out.

This goes on the ‘Perfect for Summer’ list, but this does not last as long as I’d want it to. After two hours there’s just a faint woody scent. I am slightly disappointed with it, I would be very happy if this lasted more than 5hrs. The orange is soo good, so good! Like I can see the colour of the skin, the deep vermilion of the fruit. That scent is magnetic yet soo fleeting. Initial scent: 7/10 Longevity: 3/10 Overall: 4.9/10 - like a beautiful volleyed own goal.

This is a photorealistic blood orange peel fragrance in the beginning, it starts out really promising. I love the slightly leathery feel but the synthetic woods in this come close to ruining it for me. I bought 10ml and resold it, I couldn't see myself reaching for this. Certainly one of Shay and Blue's better and more inventive fragrances though of the 9 I've tried.

At first spray it smells like pure orange oil - no subtlety at all. As the orange starts to fade, the leathery base notes come up, which actually blend really well together with the orange note before it fades completely. There's a really nice fragrance in there somewhere, but the sillage and longevity are lacking.

Smells just like orange sherbets to me, light and fizzy, all day long. I didn’t get anything of the darker leather or woody notes. Great longevity for a citrus. Pretty linear and doesn’t really develop, but that’s ok if what you want is the refreshing orange all day.

Blood Oranges - A True Crime documentary:- At 14:03, the victim (the opening note) was last seen alive, vibrant, and full of citrusy promise. By 14:17, witnesses reported a faint whisper of something that might have been orange... or possibly a memory of an orange. Shay & Blue, the prime suspect, is basically a cast of beautiful but tragically fainting characters. Motive? Unknown. Longevity? Also unknown - it didn’t live long enough to be measured.

I had high hopes for this fragrance. Even though I find most fragrances in this house are weak and short lasting. But love bright citrus scents. This smelled completely like orange oil household cleaner on my skin. Not a fan. Gifted it to a friend who likes it. I would absolutely recommend getting a sample to try on skin before purchasing.

This smells of leather. The smell of blood oranges it is very short-lived. Purchase only if you LOVE leather. Although it says unisex, I think this is more masculine.

I'm not wild about this one. I know it's a cult-classic, but on my skin it smells mostly of oud and pettigrain with a little bit of orange. Rather overpowering.

The knowledgeable gal at the Scent Bar in LA said this would dry down to leather - but it didn't. A pity. It's just orange that doesn't last long enough.

Way too citrusy... Smells like cleaning products or like you just cut a blood orange and rubbed it directly on your skin. Will be getting rid of this fragrance straight away. Don't waste your money.

This sounded lovely and the reviews made me desperate to try this. I squirted straight to skin (something I almost never do, I was just so sure I would it). It started ok. Bit of juicy bitter blood orange but not fresh more musty oranges when they start to grow mould?! Then it went very downhill...perfumes are normally light on me and don't project much but by god this did! I got in the car and the musty heavy leather smell made me start to gag. Couldn't wait to get home and scrub (I mean REALLY scrub, this stuff is so pungent). I couldn't smell orange after the first few minutes, I honestly don't know what I could smell but it was hideous, (closest thing I can think of is the cork off a badly corked wine) Did I test a bad bottle? Did my skin totally disagree with this and destroy it? I don't know but I won't test it again and hope to never smell it on anyone.

This has terrible performance period. One of the very worst of all niche fragrances I've ever experienced. 5 minutes after a good amount splashed on my wrist and the ambery blood orange top note was 100% absolutely irrevocably gone, lefting in its place a weak meaningless flat leather note. And that's it. I wouldn't really recommend even testing it. It's a shame, because that top ambery blood orange is incredible, it's a instant like, BUT then, 5 minutes after, that love has gone into thin air, just like all illusions in life. If SHay & Blue were an intelligently managed company they should sleep on these facts (the general love for this smell and its shameful performance) and launch a "intense" or "extreme" version, correcting that terrible fault and making themselves some serious doe. With this no doe, at least not from my pocket.

Longevity is decent but after the initial, VERY sweet hit of orange the smell of suede quickly takes over. It’s not a particularly strong scent and the hint of blood orange still lingers but I have to say that personally, I’m not a fan of the leather note. It’s an interesting, original but weird combination in my opinion - but of course it may work for you! For my money, Monotheme Verde D’Arancis has a better (ie downright delicious) and stronger quality of orange. But I do love the whole ethos of Shay and Blue, so I'm a little sad that this was not the scent for me. I have quite a few of the others in their range though, so clearly they’re doing something right for this fragrance addict.

A very good fragrance. The notes listed above are pretty bang on. Opens with fresh tangerine/orange. Good quality fruity orange without being overly sweet. Not like an orange candy or lollipop. The leather appears and pine shows up and turns this into a masculine-leaning fragrance. Musk in the background as well. For me the orange always remains though not nearly as powerful as in the opening. Shifts to the rind but an amber sweetness holds on throughout. Overall very nicely done. Similar in many ways to Hermes various renditions of orange-themed fragrances. Not really for a romantic dinner night out, but a pretty cool scent. Will likely get noticed and get favorable nods.

This didn’t work for me and here’s why: the initial spray is like a refreshing blast of beautiful blood oranges but then, as the orange starts to fade, it develops into this super masculine wood and leather combo. Case in point: I tried a sample of this and caught a taxi 20 min later. As I sat in the backseat, I kept throwing glances at the taxi driver and thinking “overspray much?!” After I got out, I realised that the “overspraying dude” was me! It was Blood Oranges who developed this...alter ego, shall I say?! So, no - it won’t be a fragrance for me. And by the way, this had a quite moderate longevity on me, lasted about 4 hours.