Pomelo Jo Loves... 2011 Eau de Toilette

a photorealistic smell of peeling a ripe pomelo, sinking your fingers into the pith and pulling the chunks apart. it's exactly what i was hoping for and exactly what i was looking for.
the leathery notes are faint and perfectly balanced here, adding that hint of bitterness and therefore authenticity to the actual pomelo-peeling.
it's settles into creamy citrus with aromatic woods, the patchouli is not overwhelming and for some reason in leans slightly into freesia-like notes in the drydown.

It's probably sacrilege to say I prefer this to Terre d'Hermes but there you have it. I could never get over a sort of coriander seed note in Terre d'Hermes, which this fragrance thankfully omits.

This opens, for me, as a photorealistic juicy pomelo/grapefruit mix. I find it wonderfully refreshing and it's a lovely pick me up. As expected, the citrus opening doesn't hang around for too long. Soon the grassy vetiver becomes more prominent and this point in the mid is where I find that this fragrance has the greatest overlap with Terre d'Hermes. By the dry down, the citrus is basically undetectable and the vetiver has partially given way to a suedey soapy scent.

The dry down does have something a bit rough about it and lacks any sort of musky fluffiness. I personally quite enjoy this, especially in the summer, but I can see how it could be polarising. For example, my significant other find this too 'old fashioned', which I chalk up to its classical/vintage soapier dry down. I think this is a lovely fragrance that's perfectly unisex and great in warm weather.

Overall, definitely worth sampling if you like soapy citrus fragrances or light grassier vetiver fragrances. The price for this is admittedly a bit steep for what it is, but not way over average.

EDIT: My partner pointed out a similarity in the dry down between this and locker room style Axe body spray and now I can't un-see it! In particular, the sillage has a slight synthetic ozonic feel that detracts from the naturalistic beauty of the citrus

I had a sample of this fragrance in a discovery set for summer scents. After the first spray, I was completely blown away - such an authentic, juicy, wonderful grapefruit scent! I was really excited to wear the fragrance, but I had to realize that the fresh top note lasted only about 15 minutes. After that, it transforms into a rather well-groomed, slightly spicy, slightly floral, but overall quite generic scent. Very disappointing, especially since the initial joy was really very high.