Metal Rain Banana Republic 2020

In an abstract sense, I firmly believe there's no such thing as gendered fragrance. It's all made up! Who can say which flowers and leaves and spices and woods are for women and which are for men? The entire concept feels ludicrous.

And yet, as they say, we exist in a society. I grew up being told some fragrances are masculine and some feminine, and you can't shake that programming overnight. I blind bought this fragrance for myself, and even though I think it's a decent fragrance, I cannot shake the idea that I'm wearing a "man's" fragrance when I wear it. It feels "too masculine" for me, which I report with a twinge of shame, but that's where I am, and I'm not going to force myself to wear something I don't really enjoy wearing. So, onto Mercari it will go.

One thing that impressed me: It really does smell like metal and rain, somehow. Like rain water bouncing off a sheet of stainless steel and there's a field of grass nearby. Also, I tried a sample of Creed Silver Mountain Water (not knowing that it is similarly "masculine"), and within seconds I thought, "Oh, THIS is where Banana Republic got the idea for Metal Rain from." It's not an exact dupe, but they are siblings.

Finally, because probably mostly men will be reading this, I want to say I do think this scent would smell very fresh and modern on a man. I associate it with a well-dressed, clean dude. It feels both office-friendly and date-appropriate.

This fragrance lasted less than 30min on skin which is disappointing. Unfortunately this lacks complexity and feels unfinished. Not sure what direction the was going, but I assumed there would be a wet metallic ozone finish. What you get is a citrus floral opening, and then absolutely nothing. Regardless of the price, it's not worth the money. I wouldn't even give this away to anyone.

If i could describe this scent with one word, as the title suggests, it would be pleasant. It's a very smooth scent. While not very complex, you can easily identify every note.

It opens very metallic and citric, and becomes smooth as it dries. At that point it becomes a woody-ozonic-musky masculine scent that anyone could wear, leaning slightly younger. It is not your typical fresh spicy and overly masculine scent like a "blue" fragrance, just a pleasant, fresh and clean scent that you probably wont smell in anyone else. While longevity and projection are not it's strong suits, i get around 5-6 hours with 4-5 sprays with medium projection, it is so good it quickly became my go to for warmer days. If you´re not into very loud fragrances or want to be discrete but still good smelling, this is a great option.
For the price i don't mind over spraying and i doubt it would offend anyone. Definitely blind buy worthy.

Hey y’all this is a decent Release for BR, it could be considered unisex but in my opinion it leans a little more to the male gender. Starts off citrus mostly lemon, and fairly natural. The florals come through the mid and the dry down is more woody but still pretty fresh. I’ve noticed with the Icon line they typically sway either more feminine or male. This could be a blind buy for someone wanting a dumb reach freshie that takes some interesting turns, this one os not to linear longevity and performance are average. This is fairly typical of the Icon line. For me this and a few others like Vintage Green are decent releases.