Blue Moon Ginger Dash Kilian 2023

Time after time, Kilian reminds you of just how piss-poor they are at making anything mildly interesting for the spring-summer seasons - it feels like everything has become a blatant cash-grab. The most recent blue bottle release Kologne Shield of Protection falls into this category all the same, and the blue bottle Kilians that have received praise in the past all lack something, whether it be performance, uniqueness, quality etc.

Initial spray impressions: absolutely abysmal - a lot of synthetic sludge. Definitely getting ambroxan/fresh shower gel vibes that we've seen before with scents like Vodka on the Rocks. As it dries, the calone and the lemon become a little more blatant, but the main accords here remain fresh-synthetic-ozonic and not citrusy. When I first tried to smell it up-close, I could barely smell it because the air surrounding me is all synthetics which is definitely the Kilian DNA on fresher fragrances.

The fact that this scent is inspired by blue lagoon (the beachside party drink from the 90s) aligns pretty well with the scent profile, because this is the equivalent of a cheap designer fragrance from ~30 years ago. This being a 50ml for €210 retail niche fragrance is just another deuce on top of the s**t sundae that niche perfumery has become.