Sometimes, simple is the best choice. There's just occasions where you don't have to bring out the big guns, steal the spotlight with potent, nose-piercing, complex compositions. Just something that gets the job done, keeping you under the radar. Sure, a very rare occasion for anyone invested into perfumery; we all like to stick out. But for those few who prefer a softer, uncomplicated fragrance most days of the week, something like Eau d'Orange Verte could be worth a sniff.
The scent itself starts with a realistic, bright and zesty orange, slightly sour-sweet, and it progressively turns juicier. It barely lasts in its full uplifting power, soon being accompanied by a touch of cool, fresh mint that pairs nicely with the tame acidity of the orange. That's largely stage 1. The second and final stage sees the scent add a dry, fresh woodiness lacking in overall presence as it is quite soft. Add in the remaining citric aroma on top, as well as a bit of damp moss, and the woods stay slightly more distant. It's overall a pleasant scent, just nothing to phone home about. It's decently blended and of good quality, with the orange being very realistic. The only thing that could potentially ruin this for someone is if that someone is especially sensitive to the scent of moss, which is very tame here to be honest. Me personally, the more moss, the better.
You'll quickly arrive to the conclusion that this is a VERY soft fragrance in terms of performance; just about as quickly as the scent itself fades away. On my skin, it pretty much didn't surpass two hours, and during this time, the only projection I got was in the first 30 minutes, where even there it was pretty subdued. Being an Eau de Cologne, it isn't really all that surprising. At the time of this writing, Eau d'Orange Verte is the weakest performing fragrance I've tested, and it will probably stay like that for a while.
But it's definitely one of the most versatile ones too. I mean, extremely simple and easy-going scent profile + supremely short-lived performance? Apart from colder days or contexts where you'd actually want to stick out a bit, there's no place where you couldn't wear Eau d'Orange Verte.
But now, is it really worth it if performance is so weak? After all, performance is what everyone wants nowadays. Phrases like "Beast mode", "Nuclear Projection", and "Extreme Longevity" top the charts in the vocabulary of most fragrance influencers. And this subconsciously makes people think that bad performance = bad fragrance. And sure, it most cases, there's some truth to that. But Eau d'Orange Verte is not aiming for the same demographic. This fragrance, whether intentionally made so weak or not, is for the few people who either enjoy the simplicity of the scent so much that are willing to trade off performance and overspray if anything, or people who simply want something soft and unobtrusive. Yes, there's people who genuinely prefer a 2 hour fragrance instead of a room-filling, attention-grabbing scent. Now, the pricing seems to vary a little, but generally you can find Eau d'Orange Verte for like €80-€100. If performance is what you're after, then this is terrible value, unless you're willing to literally bathe in it. But if you value simplicity and discreet, maybe you could justify the spending.
