City of Stars Louis Vuitton 2022

tested while passing by the Louis Vuitton boutique in Lyon, I was looking to expand my summer perfume collection.

the summer theme is well respected, initially it smells of coconut, monoi and sunscreen, which reminds me a lot of Tom Ford's Soleil Blanc.

then the perfume evolves and after about 2 hours completely changes the subject, becoming grassy and green, reminding me of Christian Clive 1872.

honorable hold of around 5 hours with modest/medium sillage.

nothing transcendent, nevertheless this perfume has the merit of having a dual personality and of costing less than the 2 which the creator seems to have been inspired by

Out of this new LV unisex collection this one leans the most feminine. This smells sexy and luxurious. This smells sweet and creamy with the citrus notes complimenting it. The type of scent you want to smell like when you're on a luxurious summer vacation. I think of a fancy 5 star hotel with a cozy warm white comforter and crisp white sheets. I'm thinking of buying a full bottle when I finish my sample.

I absolutely can’t get enough of City of Stars. It’s probably *one* of the best citrus fragrances I’ve ever come across. I love how well balanced the citrus notes are with the tiare and create this beautiful, slightly tropical, dreamy and clean scent. The tiare flower here is one of the freshest I’ve come across cause tiare is a white floral at the end of the day. It can definitely come off indolic at times, but I’ve most smelled very sweet, almost banana/coconut like ones. I don’t really get any of those nuances in CoS. It’s dries down so beautifully too and just stunning when you catch whiffs of it in the wind!

Most definitely a warm weather scent, but I’d be happy to rock this to the gym or something year round because of how clean it smells. Sure, it does lowkey give cleaning product in the opening, but that goes away quickly enough with maintaining its citrus focus. The performance is quite good for the type of scent that it is and it’s unisex leaning ever so slightly feminine to me. LV fragrances are quite expensive, but I think this is worth every penny it costs and I’m ecstatic to have discovered it this year. I can’t wait to go and refill my bottle!

This is so underrated compared to some other LV offerings. Its like a hybrid between Creed VIW and TF Soleil blanc. The same citrusy lime as found in VIW mixed with the creamy tropical / coconut sunscreen scent of Soleil blanc. I'm actually surprised there is no coconut listed in the notes for this because something in here definitely gives those vibes.

Great for a warm, breezy summer night. Unisex leaning slightly feminine, but as a man I find this quite easy to pull off in the right situations. Performance is not bad, definitely better than VIW and Soleil blanc.

Overall 8.5/10

It's a lively, fresh summer day in a scent. Unlike other "suntan" scents, this doesn't smell exactly like a suntan lotion but rather is an idealized version of what suntan lotion should smell like -- the Platonic suntan lotion, perhaps. So, there is no coconut note but, yet, City of Starts certainly captures coconut, specifically, a fresh, fruity, rounded, ozone-y coconut. There is no pina colada to this coconut but rather a sense of what coconut should be. The drydown brings some more floral notes forward but the fundamental sense that I've an excellent sunscreen on never leaves. While I was initially concerned that some of the powdery flower drydown would skew it too feminine for me, it ends up being squarely unisex. And like all Jacques Cavallier citrus-forward scents (perhaps all his scents), there is a musky quality laying underneath that gives it some depth.

Otherwise, on a practical level, I found the longevity of this acceptable -- not overwhelming, but fine. The sillage is also fine. It's too citrus-forward to be a beast but I happily can carry a small decant in my pocket to freshen up. But I get 4-5 hours without doing so.

This, to me, is a perfect summer scent, day and night worthy, but I can also wear it in the fall or spring when I want to be reminded of an endless summer with memories of being by the beach or at a pool.