Blue Hole

Zara Blue Hole is an amazing, amazing fragrance. To me it is fairly mixed between Perry Ellis Night and Ferrari Bright Neroli. If Dior Homme Cologne, Jimmy Choo Man Ice and Mercedes Benz Cologne have that feel, this nailed it pretty good. I can't say as I don't recall what I smelt in Dior Homme Cologne. Blue Hole opens with a lemon scent, and a Bright Neroli like neroli undertone to it that goes into the mid as well, mixing with another white floral, jasmine. Ginger is also in the mix with this neroli like accord. The base has a slight patcholi and some cedar like in Night. Blue Hole is a great spring summer scent for work, casual and active settings. It is a slightly stereotypical citrus scent but it is a great stereotype. Blue Hole has really good performance. It may project for about an hour/hour and a half before fading into a skin scent that will last for about eight hours. Overall do NOT skip on Blue Hole even if it is a discount Zara scent. Selling for $12.99 USD as I write this, I'd pick up a bottle of it or maybe even a back-up bottle. Blue Hole is a 8.5 to me. I find it better than Perry Ellis Night. Night is a tart smelling kind of barbershop scent, but this is a clean scent and one of the best in that aspect.

Citrus and ginger. Borderline-oldskooly citrus. Not dry but actually little sweet like lemonade. Unusual to Zara fragrances this has good longevity! This is equally a good... no, a great fragrance for formal wear or to gym. Ages between 15 to 95 yo. So yeah, quite versatile. For summer days! I see this is compared to Jimmy Choo Man Ice and Dior Homme Cologne 2013. I totally get the comparison. Zara Blue Hole is not as sweet as those two. Not saying Jimmy Choo & Dior are that sweet either. Just trying to emphasize that although this is gingery lemony fragrance, it is not overly dry although it might seem that way when sprayed the first time. My personal preference: both Jimmy Choo & Dior have a musky smell in background and that ruins it for me, personally. So... Blue Hole is a real winner indeed. (feels funny to say that name: Blue Hole :D ) This is 10/10 for what it's trying to do and concidering all the factors: smell, longevity, pricing... I didn't buy it (and regret it already), but I highly recommend it! Great idea for a gift too. One of the best Zara juices... And there are many, many poor ones. It's great to find something like this in Zara!

Picked up a few Zara offerings to give the company a whirl. Great sprayers, this one has a very nice bottle and who could argue with the price? This is almost exactly Jimmy Choo Man Ice (which I really like). Icy lemon, patch. Doesn't really change throughout, the lemon dies down a bit but is still around in the drydown. I get a bit of a classic cologne vibe in the drydown. Couldn't pick out any of the other notes though. Smells great and definitely better than I expected. All year scent that would shine in spring/summer but did pretty well on a cool day. Casual, office friendly. All ages. Pretty versatile. Much to my surprise, this is far superior to the Choo and Dior Homme Cologne in strength. I got a solid workday out of it at 10 or so hours. Sillage seemed quite adequate for many of those hours. The only downside? Worst name in my collection. Blue Hole? Other than that, winner winner chicken dinner.

Back when this was (briefly) released I tested it at Zara, and after leaving, I couldn’t get enough of it, so I went back and bought a bottle the next day. It was an absolute hidden gem - still is if you run across a bottle. I recently picked up Dior Homme Cologne, and side by side, I can see the similarity, maybe that was the brief that Blue Hole was supposed to clone, BUT it’s slightly different, and in a way that makes it enjoyable in its own right. Where DHC is super lemony, fizzy and bright, Blue Hole has a subtlety, a gentle spicyness (the ginger) and even slightly more staying power than its inspiration. It’s kind of got a gentleness to it, bordering on generically pleasant, but it also doesn’t smell exactly like anything else. Great stuff for summer. It’s like they missed what they were aiming for and wound up making something really good!

I don't own Dior Homme Cologne so can't say if it is supposed to be a clone of that but what I can say is that it smells EXACTLY the same as Merceces-Benz Cologne which is one of my favourite casual summer fragrances. It has the added bonus of two things over the Mercedes cologne: Price - 100ml for under £13. Even better than the already cheap MBC. Performance - on my skin this projects nicely for a good 4 hours and then I get a further 5-6 hours as a skin scent which is awesome for a citrus bomb like this. Zara are going to do really well with this one as it is a great uplifting citrus scent that is ideal for the gym or just casual or office wear when the heat starts to beat. 9.5/10 for me.