Bvlgari
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The top notes announce themselves with unusual vigour—neroli's waxy brightness colliding with bergamot's citrus snap, whilst those salty notes create an almost saline mineral quality. It's crisp and immediate, like washing your face with something vaguely perfumed.
As the aldehydic top notes settle, orange blossom absolute reveals itself with delicate restraint, softening the trajectory considerably. The cypress and cedarwood become more prominent, lending an almost woody-green character that feels more botanical than richly aromatic—imagine the scent of a freshly pruned garden.
The fragrance becomes increasingly whispered, the woody notes flattening somewhat as ambroxan and musk provide barely-there support. What remains is something gossamer-thin, almost skin-scent territory, lacking the persistence to carry through an entire evening.
Bvlgari Man Wood Neroli occupies a peculiar middle ground—neither quite fresh cologne nor proper woody fragrance, but something restlessly caught between both territories. The neroli and bergamot open with a bracing saltiness that recalls sea spray catching on skin, though this maritime quality feels more conceptual than genuinely ozonic. What distinguishes this composition is how Alberto Morillas has threaded orange blossom absolute through the heart with considerable subtlety; rather than sweetening the whole affair, it emerges as a delicate floral whisper that prevents the woody elements from becoming austere.
The cypress and white cedarwood form the spine of the fragrance, offering a cool, almost medicinal woodiness that never quite warms into the creamy or resinous territory you might expect. Instead, there's a persistent greenness—that herbal snap—which keeps everything feeling slightly crisp and slightly distant. The base of ambroxan and musk attempts to ground proceedings, but struggles against the fragrance's fundamental lightness; it's rather like trying to anchor tissue paper.
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Birkholz
3.6/5 (89)