Be Exceptional

First let me introduce you my journey to this perfume. I grew up in a small town near the Atlantic Ocean in Brittany, France. I was raised by my mother who is a great lover of all kinds of perfumes (cosmetics, diffusers, incense, etc.). However, I never wore perfume myself until the day when I moved to a big city in the south of France where there is a lot of public transportation and where I sometime find myself bothered by the smell of people. That's when I became interested in perfumes. At that time I knew a very small store (Intemporelle in Montpellier) specialized in niche perfumes and in which I often buy gifts for my mother for the holidays. As I was a student at the time, I couldn't afford most of the those perfumes. The owner of this shop had kindly indicated to me the existence of several other niche perfumeries in the city, notably the oldest pharmacy of the city. But there too, perfumes were too expensive for me at that time. Nevertheless, the pharmacist offered me a lot of testers of Acqua di Parma, Lubens, Eau d'Italie and some Caron, especially Caron Pour un Homme le Soir which I fell in love with. But again the price was too expensive for me to buy a bottel. So, when you don't have enough money, what do you do? You buy cheap perfumes that you usually buy blind. And that how I discovered Be Exceptionnal which for me, besides the fact that it has the same drydown as Caron Pour un Homme la Nuit, is an incredible perfume on absolutely every level to the point that I'm impress when I look at it, like we can be impressed by some very well built stuff. First of all, the brand is iconic. On the website of the French National Library you can find 1900's advertisements for S.T. Dupont. Largely underrated brand in my opinion. Secondly, the perfume is outstanding. It's not versatile, more for autumn and winter, but it magnifies the iris to perfection, giving it a subtle tasty taste thanks to the ambery/patchouly mix of tonca bean. Nevertheless, the perfume remains very masculine thanks to the leather. It's an Iris that we want to taste and make it taste too, a pure delight! Elegant, subtly tasty appealing and totally modern. As for performance, it's a robust, deep and engaging fragrance that project up to 4 hours and will stay on skin for 6 to 8 hours. Finally, the bottle is absolut perfection, so much so that I am absolutely convinced that it is impossible to make a more perfect bottle, period. I could write a PhD only on this bottle so much I can say great thinks about it. It is entirely made of opaque black smoked glass and mirror effect polished metal. The cap is magnetic and also in polished metal with great grip. The whole is sober, modern and of an extreme elegance. In the sun, it's possible to distinguish the perfume through the black smoked glass. The polished metal produces a perfect, non-distorting mirror, that occupies the entire back of the bottle, which is extremely practical and, again elegant and exceptional. In conclusion, Be Exceptional is one of those indecently underrated perfumes to my opinion. I would be very sad if it disappear, because it is a perfume that invites us to be a better version of ourselves and I think it achieves its goals quite remarkably well. For that, thank you Natalie Gracia-Cetto and thank you S.T. Dupont.

Blind bought this on special, out the box smells great. Decent projection and can still smell it on my arm even when not intentionally trying to, very masculine and night time luxury style of scent while not being overly dark or bitter on the nose, has a slight sweetness to it which pairs very nicely with the surrounding notes. Day 2 of owning this fragrance, can still get a very small hint at the perfume on my skin after sleeping, this is very similar to YSL but better. Especially on the dry down and in terms of cost. 8.8/10 Day 42 of owning this fragrance. Wow, I genuinely haven't smelt much like it. Not a massive fan of the opening, but the dry down? And the smell after about 30min? Surreal. It's an evil scent, but not evil like ultra-niche, blood and concrete note evil, so much leather, so much ginger but it's done just right. This works SO WELL on a cold day or a rainy day. 9/10, and so far it'll just keep moving up the ranks. Will admit however, even though the spray angle of the atomizer is perfect, the atomizer itself is a bit small, wouldn't hurt to have a slightly bigger one. You feel the "power" the bottle holds when you hold it in your hands in the morning before you head out to whatever it is you need to do, it's cold, heavy, and everything snaps, especially the cap, very nice and tight close which i love on fragrances. More often than not i find myself shining this bottle with my shirt beacause its not only so nice to hold, but so nice to look at with the shiny black and the chrome. Will buy again when it gets finished, unfortunately we don't have very many cold days in SA so can't use it all the time :(

love at first sniff. and yeah, "Code-ish" opening is correct. my friend still uses the original Code while I have Absolu and those two immediately came on my mind. in truth, bar opening they aren't that similar at all, but it's basically the same vibe and I'll be using this in same occasions and seasons I am using Armani. to average fraghead it may seem generic these days, but it's still something both you and those around you will enjoy and it WILL get you compliments. keep in mind that vast majority of people aren't really into fragrances neither they are like your typical fragrantica user. when they smell you, they don't actually recognize the notes they're smelling neither they're doing comparison with other fragrances in their minds. at that moment you simply smell good to them and that's it, no need to think about the rest. all in all, it's an excellent deal. when I put the name of the brand aside, compared to some much more expensive fragrances I own it's hard to see where the difference in pricing comes from. it gets even worse when I compare it with houses like Lacoste for example, who basically sells water these days yet they still insist on much higher prices. maybe it's "Be Exceptional" the one that is unnecessarily inexpensive for what it offers, who knows. who cares.

Underrated Fragrance! Score 9/10 To me smells like Riflesso with better longevity and without apple. It also smells like Valentino Uomo. Projects well 2 hours, then sits on the skin another 4 : total 6 hours of trail on clothes 8+ hours. I wish it was less amber , because reminds me of Versace The Dreamer , just because of the amber - dont get me wrong - they are 2 different type of fragrance. Be Exceptional is just like it shown - classy, modern, maybe suit, mysterious , dark. For the price of 20$ is way better than his range & competition , I mean is hard to find so cheap and so good fragrance. I've tried a lot of cheap fragrance and this one will stay. The details are just perfect - bottle, cap - the designer and the brand 10/10. I wanna see when this perfume macerate after 1-2 months to see his full potential. I would wear Fall/Winter/Early Spring/ Scent 9/10 Projection & Durability 8/10 Price & Presentation 10/10 ******************* UPDATE: I wish it was more FRESH SPICY - I would like it more if it was. Just missing the fresh spicy note (maybe lavender would suit) So I go for Lower rating like 7/10

Got it as a tester for 20$. At that price you don't expect much. But this one is very good IMO. Starts very generic with a commercial tonka smell (Armani Code-ish), but after about half an hour goes into a pleasant leather (not animalic) smell with some powder and some ambery-fruitty touches. It resamples a scent that it's discontinued and is very dear to my hear: Canali Black Diamond. It is not the same, but I see myself wearing this in order to preserve the few ml I have of that. If you like that commercial tonka-leather smell, that is somewhat generic, but very pleasant, you will love this. Sorry to say, but I don't get the DHI comparison. All-in-all, very good IMO, especially for the price, very versatile (maybe not for hot weather) and I see this getting a lot of [you-smell-good]s from other people.

Man this things lasts. And lasts. Last evening after shower I put it on. 8 hours later is was still going strong. The next morning after 13 hours I still could smell it from 4 inches. That is a lot with my bad nose. The Iris is hardly there in the first hours. I only noticed it after 4-5 hours. It gets heavier with time. After 8 hours it was stroger than ever. The projection is not huge. Moderate I would say. But after 13 hours it was still more than a skin scent. As I woke up and got up from bed, I putted a different fragrance for the day, so I don't know exactly how long it lasts. I have been waiting for weeks for reviews on the Gold edition but there are none to be found. So I will buy it blind and deaf and probably be the first to rate it.

Very catchy and rich scent. It definitely smells like luxury and an expensive fragrance. It's a bit sweet, but not to the point where it's starts feeling like a unisex fragrance, it's like a masculine sweet scent, which is great. Performance is great, lasts for up to 8 hours on my skin and probably 12+ on my clothes. The only downside to this perfume would be, that's it's not very versatile. It's not really a good idea to use it when you're out for a casual coffee with a friend at summertime, or when you go to your lectures at college and so on. It's more of a night-time scent, a combination of seductive and formal. Good for 20 - 40 year olds in my opinion, definitely smells more like a perfume for younger people. Overall, recommend. 9/10

To KJS88 - I absolutely agree with your wonderful review! Be Exceptional S.T. Dupont is very nice and complex scent, with mature vibe, but put in a pleasant, seductive way. I think people who love the idea of Dior Homme Intense, Midnight in Paris Eau de Parfum Van Cleef & Arpels, Valentino Uomo Intense and so on, will like Be Exceptional as well. It's not the same of course, but it got that kind of deep character. I love in Be Exceptional the vetiver note - it's on the smoky side and that make the composition even more deep, truly masculine and mysterious. I highly recommend for a test and the next EDP version - Be Exceptional Gold EDP.

Well I recieved an 1,2 ml - 0.04 fl.oz. decant with another purchase. Be Exceptional starts with a pungent explosion of mixture from the ginger and patchouli. Very destinctive blast with a dry leather on the backseat. After around 30 minutes the tonka bean and the iris adds a little bit of sweetness. At this time for the next 8 hours the main note is the dry leather with all other coming toghether making the scent smelling like a very dry fruitty kind of thing. Very masculine and modern perfume. Reminds me of S.t. Dupont Passenger but without the creamy and powdery texture.

I was put off this fragrance after reading the reviews, as they would have you believe the opening is a complete mess. This couldn't be further from the truth. The opening is a beautiful blend of bergamot and iris with a gentle fizz from the ginger. A very close comparison is Armani Code Absolu Gold, the opening is very similar. The backbone of the fragrance is a very gentle leather, together with a muted tonka and sweet amber. The vetiver gives the scent a stylish foundation. I wouldnt hesitate to purchase this offering and Natalie Gracia Cetto continues to impress.

A gorgeous spring / summer scent with moderate projection but a great trail, lasts forever and is class in a bottle! It’s also unique and smells nothing like ANY other fragrance out there. Not even close! Very versatile. Very gentlemanly and very modern without being a wimp (like 99.9% of scents these days!) Safe blind buy too! For the price, you cannot go wrong (unless you happen to get a bad batch of course!) Campaign for scents to be provided with a small tester bottle of the same batch number? I think it’s time and way overdue!

I really love the opening on this one, it reminds me of Le Male.. the Tonka bean and Iris give off a fresh creamy classy scent, the longevity is decent enough, sillage not too bad either... Overall I am happy I have this in my fragrance arsenal

Powdry, leathery, sweet from the beggining to the end. smell very good to me, good projection and longivity (6 - 7 hours longivity & 2 - 3 hours of soft projection ) can be used all season except summer, good for night out. Thumb up

Be Exceptional is a really nice designer type of fragrance. This is 80% YSL L’Homme/La Nuit de L’Homme with 20% Dior Homme Intense. It’s very sweet and ambery with ginger citrus and a light iris note.

It's a la nuit de l'homme opening and a less buttery powdery Dior homme intense nice romantic scent, it sits close to the skin most of the time, but it smells perfect.

it's very vey nice perfume , it's remind me of Montblanc legend night scent .

What a pleasant surprise... gorgeous bottle and packaging. Scent itself is fresh spicy oriental scent but quite modern. Opens with blast of citruses ginger and tonka. Quickly leather and woody nuances join in. Lot of transitions and complexity. Settles into nice ambery leathery dry down with a pinch of Iris... Aboce average performance... DIOR QUALITY FRAGRANCE. 8 out of 10 considering how cheap it is....

To me this smells like 90% Mont Blanc Legend Night and 10% Dior Homme Intense. What you get is basically a more powdery and airy Mont Blanc Legend Night thanks to the Iris note.

It does remind me of Halloween Man Shot but that one is a bit sweeter and more to my tastes. I don't think Be Exceptional is a bad scent but I expected it to be better and richer but it's a rather flat scent of iris and leather with not too many dimensions. I'll test it again and update my review if anything changes.

I find this pretty weak but an OK juice. Have to let it develop. if it stays like this, it's a give away. Update......Not for me.......gave it away

For me very synthetic and low originality. Very close to others leather-iris combos (with a tiny twist, spicy and sweety in it), like Valentino Uomo Intense, Dior, etc. It was a blind buy because I have other frags from ST Dupont which I enjoyed. Not this time! Leather accord re-construction it's not enough, dull and soft. 5/10

Not blind buy safe. I love ginger, I love iris, this smells like neither. Not horrible just not worth owning.

Familiar & flat...forget the top and base notes because this fragrance has the middle notes only (dull iris- leather)...0% warm notes... 0% ginger... 0% citrus...when it settled... I get nice soft notes.. a bit different than the opening.. fewer leather thank God! ..changing to more powdery scent but not same as Dior's lipsticky .. nothing groundbreaking... I was expecting and hoping it to be more warm citrusy and found it not citrusy at all.. now I'll have to layer it Performance? moderate projection 2 hours.. lasts for around 6+ hours ... good performance for an EDT. The presentation is good...I like the bottle ⭐ VERY classy ! ..mirrors on both sides..transparent black glass..silver .. very manly look👌 high-quality bottle..expensive look! Versatility?... I think it's an all year round fragrance .. day/night time .. outdoors work..& for the office. Anyway..It's ok ..it was discounted 50$ 1ooML ... I wouldn't buy it if I can go back in time. 5/10 scent profile 7/10 for the quality. Try it first... don't blind buy!

I bought this purely as a throwaway extra to get free shipping on an order. Wow. I'm in my early 30s, so this DNA is not really "for me" but if I were ten years younger, I would drench myself in this juice... At the $19 price point I bought this for it has to be one of the better deals out there. It's not the greatest quality, but it's decent/not screechy, and I've definitely smelled A LOT worse in terms of quality at prices even higher than this. I wonder how this has stayed so far under the radar since 2017; if this were bottled in a Mont Blanc bottle, then it would have flown off the shelves at this cheap price point... If this had been released just a couple of years earlier, then it would have been a great Gen Y date night fragrance during the height of the YSL La Nuit de l'Homme hype of the early 2010s. Again, this isn't my kind of fragrance, but for its price point, you can do a lot worse.

A surprisingly good quality fragrance. At first I wondered if I was anosmic to it, but I think it just took my nose by surprise because it’s got the same notes contained in most other fragrances I enjoy, but combined or constructed differently. The scent: reminds me of the soft ambery-leathery dry-down of Creed’s discontinued Royal Delight. Wore it to work the day after I purchased it and a number of people in elevators and in the office said it smelled “expensive.” Double thumbs up from me because it calls to mind a discontinued favourite and doesn’t give me a splitting headache.

another generic simple perfume but with the very good price.i got more leather and tonka than iris. not cheap scent but not very classy too. average sillage and above average longevity. for me 2 sample(that i owned) is enough.6/10