Splendid Bronze (Into The Gourmand)

Excuse me, what?? If this is what alien smells like, how on earth can anyone not absolutely LOVE IT!?!? What!?!? This is BEAUTIFUL! Omg! Some say this is a more “wearable version of alien” what does that mean? It’s “less offensive?” This is so gorgeous i think i might love alien! I tired a tiny tiny sample in one of those dabbler bottles and i really liked it but it was so light maybe bc it didn’t spray and it was a small amount it evaporated off my skin super fast! But this!!! This seems stronger and stays!!! I adore this!

I bought this yesterday. Wow! Zara have got a winner on their hands with this. Beautiful and long-lasting. I love Zara perfumes and this one will be a definite repurchase when I finish it.

An incredible Alien dupe 👽 I have both and they're very similar to me! Alien is a bit smoother than Splendid Bronze but overall they're extremely close!

As others have noted, this is soooooo not a gourmand. Not even some haute cuisine version of gourmand. This is a straight up HEADY white floral, and if you don't like brazen jungle jasmine and juicy orchid, orange blossom, and heliotrope accords, I don't know what to tell you aside from, "This juice is not for you." This is soapy enough to tone down the jasmine's natural indolic notes, but not so soapy that you're not thinking about them. It's not listed as a note, but I almost get a tuberose vibe from the orchid and/or heliotrope. Ostensibly there are some nice woody notes somewhere, but all I smell are the white florals and a touch of wet green leaf. There is strong vanilla throughout, but it reads as floral vanilla, not as cupcake vanilla--more like the fragrance of the beans as you scrape them than like a concentrated extract baking vanilla. It does settle down quite a bit, and it's not nearly as invasive or polarizing a fragrance as Alien, to which it is understandably compared. This does smell a bit like something Bianca Jagger might have worn to a club in the early 80s, but how could that possibly be a bad thing? It also reminds me a little bit of Beyond Paradise, a favorite EL EDP that I hoard in my refrigerator because it is inexplicably discontinued. It's not as complex as that scent, which doesn't knock you over the head with the jasmine/black vanilla/orchid/heliotrope juggernaut right off the bat, but it has a similar headiness. This also reminds me a bit of my beloved Gardenia by Elizabeth Taylor, the best bargain fragrance of all time. But where that is creamy and soapy, luxury-soap gardenia, this is wilder and screechier jasmine, which has more indoles and general insolence. This is not the dirtiest jasmine I have ever smelled by any means, but it's by no means demure. I might upgrade this to a love depending on how it dries down and endures. I don't really understand why it's called Splendid Bronze, which to me suggests coconut oil, but maybe they're thinking more about general island vibes that the person who is splendidly bronze might be gratefully inhaling, not so much the smell of Bain de Soleil, which is what the name Splendid Bronze evokes to me. But in what context could splendidly bronze possibly be gourmand? Were they imagining some sort of fancy cookwear--in which people would distill jasmine? The whole concept is wack, but the fragrance is quite beautiful. Another successful blind buy from Zara. That's two in a row--not bad at all!

Possible Alien family dupe (it has elements of the edt, Extraordinaire, and just a smidge of the powderiness of Absolue), but more light and with noticeable heliotrope. There is some strong cashmeran and jasmine, this smells like an Alien flanker actually, it has that dna but it is much more suave, light and even green. Not as syrupy, not as thick, not as sweet. More vanillic even and powdery. Yet it is different from Zara Royal Fressia (which too is very similar to Alien by Mugler and Marfa by Memo, like a light version of Alien but with a more dirty/stinky jasmine and without strong cashmeran). The jasmine in Splendid Bronze is less high-tech and more natural, less indolic and even less soapy then Alien, and more green. It has a quite rarefied texture, lasting power is extremely good. This fragrance has the added bonus of heliotrope which remains in the background with a sort of bitter almond quality, a little liquor like but very subtle, it is only a retro facet really. Vanilla is light in nature but strongly present. I don't smell orange blossom or orchid at all. Many reviewers on youtube are speculating this may be an inspiration of Alien Essence Absolue, personally I don't think so because the thick myrrh and strong incense which almost became a liquor in the Absolue is an element that it is totally missing in Splendid Bronze, I think the most close Alien iteration that we can compare to Splendid Bronze is the Alien Eau Extraordinaire, I remember it was more green and powdery just like Splendid Bronze. Lastly, this is absolutely not a gourmand, not even a floral gourmand (this one and Velevet Shadow are labeled as "In to the Gourmand", but only Velvet Shadow is truly gourmand).