Vibrant Leather Summer

Fantastic summer fragrance at any price. On sale, it's an absolute steal. (Full price was $29.90 for 120 ml; bought mine on sale for $17.99; at the time of writing, it was on sale for $9.99.) Here's some additional background, since the basenotes and fragrantica entries are pretty bare. To start, worth noting this is supposedly EDP strength, which might draw some skepticism considering this is Zara and citrus is not known for longevity, but there's something to it. The box identifies the perfumer as Jerome Epinette, and he gives a little blurb about capturing summery days while listing the following notes: Top: mandarin, ginger Middle: neroli, lotus Base: blonde wood, ambroxan Packaging is very high quality: box is nice and gives lots of details, and the bottle is a heavy chunk of smoothly rounded glass with a well-crafted, sturdy plastic cap... best of all the cap is magnetic and the atomizer is excellent. If it didn't say Zara on the bottle, you would think this is rather high-end. (Much nicer than my Guerlain Vetiver bottle that comes with the lame Habit Rouge-style square-shouldered bottle). On to the juice: this is clearly a modern summer citrus in the same lane as Dior Homme Cologne (DHC) or Chanel Allure Homme Sport Cologne (CAHSC), i.e., a clean and pristine, minimalistic update to the classic EDC style, focused squarely on the citrus but with synthetically enhanced performance. I get why people call it a DHC clone, since they're similar enough to wear almost interchangeably. They fit the same mood and share certain aspects, but they're not identical and I find they do have slightly different use cases. For context, before getting my bottle of Vibrant Leather Summer (VLS), I had been casually questing for the ultimate summer citrus. Earlier this year I picked up decants of DHC and CAHSC as well as a few Atelier Cologne samples (Bergamote Soleil and Cedrat Envirant), so I've been able to directly compare them all and see where VLS fits in. To dispense with the obvious, the Atelier Colognes are both a bit more realistic in the top notes, but both have completely different woody drydowns (they do feel synthetic in the base notes but the end result is quite different). I love both and would like to get bottles at some point, but they're ultimately doing something a bit different (and cost much more than VLS). Compared to DHC: VLS has a slightly brighter, fizzier opening note than DHC. It's quite similar and still reminds me of bergamot, but the presence of ginger gives it a slightly rounder / spicier feel that might explain why it's presented as "mandarin". Whereas DHC has more of a "chilled lemonade" opening. VLS also feels a bit weightier, partially living up to the promise of an EDP; it hangs on the skin with more density than DHC, which feels almost ethereally light and wispy to me. In this sense, VLS reminds me more of CAHSC; that has a more complex citrus opening (perhaps lemon, lime, bergamot, and tangerine) but that sometimes gives off a faint celery note that's not at all present here. In terms of performance, I find CAHSC hangs around on my skin a bit longer than the others; VLS is closer to that but not quite as sustained; and DHC is very light and requires a heavy hand on the sprayer to last more than a few hours, and even then I need to reapply. The heart of VLS has a touch of floral presence to my nose, similar to CAHSC, plus a noticeable hit of ginger, which gives it it's own character. And the base of VLS does feel ever so slightly woody or even faintly vetiver-ish in a way that the others don't. DHC, by contrast, feels like a bright citrus note that fairly quickly transitions to the light white musk that accounts for most of the wear. I still like DHC a lot, but I think it's greatest strength is that it's the most minimalistic of all of these. It's a total distillation of the style, and you can give yourself a single spray and smell perfectly decent without alerting anyone to the fact you're wearing a fragrance. Both VLS and CAHSC have stronger projection and last longer, so I'm not sure either of these is truly interchangeable with DHC in that sense. Though of course all three are quite similar and I would happily wear any of them. Directly compared to CAHSC, I find that scent has a bit more going on; more citrus constituent parts in the top note; more florals in the heart; and a slightly different dry down (that I'm not equipped to describe particularly well). I have found that one cloying if I spray too close to a workout; the sweat brings it to life and can make it a bit too intense. It also lasts very well, and has a high quality feel to the blend and performance that I tend to associate with Chanel fragrances. That said, the opening of CAHSC often smells like celery to me. I've never seen it described that way elsewhere, and I've come to like it more over time, but I ultimately prefer the simpler approach of DHC and VLS. In terms of performance... 2 sprays feels quite powerful on me in terms of projection. (By contrast I usually apply 5 or 6 DHC sprays from my decant and 2 or 3 of CAHSC.) It lasts a decent time for this kind of citrus-forward scent, maybe a few hours of solid projection plus several more as a fairly present skin scent. I know Zara fragrances have a reputation for terrible performance and longevity, but I can confirm that's not the case here. It's not beastly, but great for a summer citrus. CAHSC doesn't project quite as strongly, but I find it lasts a bit longer in the drydown. The important takeaway here: VLS is excellent for what it is. In some ways, it's arguably better than DHC and CAHSC, depending what you're looking for. As a daily summer scent, it's fantastic and easily at the level of quality of Dior and Chanel, which is absolutely insane considering you can buy 4 oz of this stuff for $10 plus shipping. I assume that also means they're fully discontinuing it, because that's how the world works. If you already know you like DHC or CAHSC, or just want a good summer citrus, I would say this is blind buy worthy considering the blowout pricing. Epilogue: rumor has it this is identical to Zara's other offerings, From Paris to New York and Vibrant Leather Cologne. (Vibrant Leather Cologne is still available for $29.90.) I haven't tried those and cannot confirm. There are apparently also similarities to an older Zara fragrance, Blue Hole. Again, I can't confirm. But I'm impressed enough with the quality here that I'll be curious to explore other Zara scents.

So this is a very quick review having tested out and compared Zara Vibrant Leather Summer (VLS) and Dior Homme Cologne (DHC), Jimmy Choo Man Ice (JCMI) and MBZ cologne side by side from decants I own. I can confirm the similarities are between them are CRAZY. Personally I feel DHC is probably slightly nice just for the fact it holds the sweet iced lemonade vibe in the opening for a bit longer compared to its clones. However, I feel that this scent VLS is definitely the closest thing to it in the opening with that lovely iced lemonade vibe with an addition of a nice sharp invigorating ginger for but settles into the musk a bit quicker after about 30 mins. The dry down of this scent is definitely more musky compared to DHC but it also lasts a lot longer on me last for 5-6 hours compared to 3-4hrs of DHC. Overall its about 90% similar to me nose and lasts longer so win I guess. I also think the inexpensive nature of it makes it great for layering with other citrus based fragrances currently love wearing this with L'homme Ideal Cologne. (Solid 9.5/10) I personally think it's the best clone available right now and when you consider the price ITS A NO BRAINER GRAB IT . You get something almost identical for almost a 1/10th the cost of DHC. MBZ is on par but hard to find I believe. Don't get JCMI its bit urm ... well underwhelming compared to the rest. DHC - 9/10 VLS - 8.75/10 (if the opening lasted longer it would be 9/10 but I just respray at random intervals to relive that blast) MBZ - 8.5/10 JCMI - 7.5/10

I love this fragrance, I am so glad I got it. $10 in that Zara summer sale, this smells just like Dior Homme Cologne. At first I didn't really think so but I smelled them side by side and yeah, it's the same thing. Very simple fragrance but I spray it on almost every day. Something draws me to it and I have 50+ other choices lol. But the smell on this is so fresh, clean, and pleasing. The ginger really mixes nicely with the cedar, and the bergamot is really amazing in the opening. It smells like lemon and orange and lime together. It's beautiful. Zara isn't known for longevity but I can smell this on my skin 4-6 hours later. It projects about 30min-1hr but I am still smelling it on my skin, noticably, for a lot longer than I expected. Some people say it lasts very short on them. Vibrant Leather, the original, lasts about 20 min on me. But this one has quite good performance. Regardless, it is a simple and fresh, citrusy fragrance that I reach for consistently. Hopefully it pops up again next summer because I would love to get more of it.

08/05/20 I bought this back in May. I wasn’t to impressed with it but My wife loves it on me. This is one of her favorites that I own. I don’t wear VLS to often, but man I wore it today And this is a gem. I sprayed this on at around 6 AM. Just 1 spray on each shoulder. I work in the OR, and every time I took my North mask off I would get the best whiff of VLS. Smelled AMAZING! It’s smells like fresh citrus with just a little bit of ginger to make it a little sweet and cedar to give it the masculinity. Now I got home at 4pm and I still smell this on my scrubs! Mind you I constantly put on surgical gowns throughout the day, and it was still on my scrubs! Literally just 1 spray on each shoulder. I blind bought this and I’m happy I did. This is a great fragrance for the price. Scent 8.5/10 Longevity: 8.5/10

WOW!! My favorite Zara ever and one of my favorites for this summer! This reminds me of the Dior Homme Cologne, one of my favorite summer fragrances ever! It's only about the sparkling, fresh and uplifting citruses, i don't get a lot of more in the background, maybe some musc like clean clothes. The smell is easy to like, it doesn't develop at all, it's just citruses but the crazy thing is that these citruses last! I get about 7 hours longevity and good projection for the first 2 hours. It's a summer fragrance, for day casual wear and perfect for the really warm weather! Overall this is AMAZING! The most amazing part of all is the price 12,90euros for the 120ml!! It puts into shame a lot of summer fragrances that cost 4-5 times more!