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Riverside Drive Bond No. 9 2003

7.0 / 10 41 Ratings

A perfume by Bond No. 9 for men, released in 2003. The scent is green-woody. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Green

Woody

Floral

Spicy

Fresh

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Violet

Basil

Watery fruits

Heart Notes

Pineapple

Lily of the valley Rose

Rose

Base Notes

Oakmoss

Cedarwood

Patchouli

Sandalwood

Perfumer

Maurice Roucel

Ratings

Scent

7.041 Ratings

Longevity

7.835 Ratings

Sillage

7.430 Ratings

Bottle

7.745 Ratings

Value for money

5.511 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 09/25/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Drakkar Noir Eau de Toilette

Reviews

4 in-depth fragrance descriptions

02/01/2018

7.5Scent 9Longevity 8Sillage

Smora
155 Reviews

Smora

Helpful Review 3

Summer Fields

Scentrack: Nicola Conte - A Time for Spring

To fall in love, the phrase we often use to easy. Concerning Riverside Drive I use this phrase in the right context.
Relatively simple, but charming fragrance. The smell of the late spring or early autumn. Strong green violet lea, cuisine basil and sweet pineapple mixed with patchouli and Roucel's lavender. The base is consisted of warm and transparent sandalwood, cedar and oak moss. It sounds very serious, but it's non formal and laid back. I suppose because of the funny pineapple.
Riverside Drive gives me the vision of a walk in the fields during summer. I can feel some linden blossom, taking me to the early summer vibe full of hopes.
This fragrance is my compliment getter No. 1. For people who cannot imagine love, Riverside Drive is Narciso Rodriguez for Him meets Cool Water meets Hypnose Homme (only much more).

Rating: 7/10

12/10/2012

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Helpful Review 4

chilled H2O

Riverside Drive is a thoughtfully composed, buoyant, green/lavender aquatic men's fragrance. It's a descendent of Cool Water, but it's not one of the cheap imitators hurled at the market since about a minute after Cool Water hit in 1988. In its favor, Riverside Drive is more a reflection on Cool Water than an imitation. It tones down the 'aquatic', turns up the green, and leads to a very well-balanced drydown. The drydown, in fact, is what I think an armful of the Creeds of the last 20 years have strived for and missed. Poised, comfortable, stable. The drydown of these Cool Water wannabes, including the Creeds, is usually described as: (synonym for nice) + "but, well, you know" + ( antonym of nice). Riverside Drive's drydown is likeable. Actually, it's enviable. Coherent, harmonious, firm yet without aberrant sillage.

Against it, it's a thoughtful version a hackneyed genre. How much better than the worst, is the best grilled American cheese and white bread sandwich ever made? I appreciate Riverside Drive for its composition, but am not interested in it. Who needs another descendant of Cool Water? (... asks the man with a closet full of green chypres. Spoiler alert: glass houses.) But I do feel it is important to acknowledge quality work however it comes across your desk. Not my bag, but outstanding.

12/30/2020

7.5Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

Leimbacher
2869 Reviews

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Leimbacher

Top Review 9

Riverside, Motherf*ckers!!!

"Riverside Drive" connects two extremes - something like "Aventus" with "Grey Flannel". Hard to imagine and certainly not great or even acceptable for every nose - but it undeniably has a certain cheap arrogance.

Hairspray, violet pastilles, green meadow, a splash of exotic fruitiness - and there you have this danceable beast. A greeny gone astray. Undoubtedly unisex for me. A powerhouse in relaxation mode. Very 80s, very piercing, very much a matter of getting used to. But somehow still attractively enough. You definitely stand out as a man if you wear this often. Not everyone will like it - but a few will jump on it like Schmitz' cat. A bit trashy, a bit rough, a bit rockish, a bit shocking. And yet at its core, it's simply a dusty-spray green thing.

Bottle: 2 - without stars
Sillage: a bit above average
Longevity: lasts longer than it leans - 8 hours

Conclusion: a floral-piercing hairspray scent without too high expectations. Violets without really good bits. Price-performance ratio is of course outrageous. Somewhere between deodorant vibes and Drakkar. Nevertheless, it exudes a trashy-sympathetic 80s aura between aerobics and village disco. Green and bold.

10/25/2011

8Scent 7.5Longevity

Apicius
1328 Reviews

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Apicius

Top Review 26

Cheaply Trimmed to Look Elegant

Somewhere I once heard that Americans sell cheap gummy bears in candy stores at the same price as the finest pralines. After all, it’s all “candy” - and if it’s colorful, it can be appealing.

Riverside Drive is like such a gummy bear. The outrageous prices of Bond No. 9 are best forgotten; otherwise, it’s no fun at all. Riverside Drive connects to the everyday scent experiences we know from cheap deodorants by Axe and Co. This synthetic scent has long since crept into our noses. It is, of course, miles away from what we know and appreciate in high-priced perfumes. It would be like comparing apples to oranges if one were to bring up solid Guerlain fragrances or experimental scents from Comme des Garcons.

One cannot completely dismiss this synthetic scent direction - it is indeed sexy when worn by the right men or boys. And exactly those right boys and men have ensured that we find these fragrances sexy. Who says a scent should be beautiful? It just has to work!

Good fragrances of this type can be found in the mid-price range, such as those from Hugo Boss. I think of Boss Bottled Night or the somewhat lesser-known Boss in Motion Edition White. And whether the respective scent is fresher or heavier, somewhat woody or even oriental - that doesn’t matter much in this style. It is this slightly alcoholic, perhaps attributable to musk or amber variants, synthetic quality that gives off the allure of cheapness.

Even with Riverside Drive, the published fragrance notes are not that important. Whether the slight fruitiness really comes from pineapple, or the cool, floral note actually derives from lily of the valley, I don’t want to know too precisely. Because to find that out, one would have to sniff the scent intensely, and that would be downright unbearable. On the skin, a lot of what I call “scratchiness” develops, as we typically find in the cheaper to mid-priced perfumes from the big chains.

Riverside Drive only works in projection, and there is plenty of it. This perfume has enough sillage to inform an entire office day of the presence of colleague Müller or Schmitz. And the further away one perceives Riverside Drive from the sprayed spot, the more attractive or, depending on one’s mindset, bearable the scent becomes. Because only at a distance does Riverside Drive come together. I like the masculine synthetic quality, which in this case is also accompanied by a certain herbaceousness (basil) and freshness. Add to that a hint of soapiness - and memories of barber shop scents come flooding back. Indeed, Riverside Drive is more like the misbegotten grandson of the barber from days gone by.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the mentioned Boss fragrances on hand for a comparison test, but I can already say that Riverside Drive can hold its own against the best in its field - despite the unpleasant scratchiness with too close contact. For me, the case is not yet closed - a direct comparison with one of the Boss fragrances still needs to happen soon.

Of course, one wonders who is supposed to wear this absurdly expensive New York scent? Perhaps the stock market speculator who slips into sneakers and a hoodie after the Wall Street closing to look cool? Occasionally, a handful of gummy bears isn’t so bad...