Sailing Day Maison Margiela 2017

I love this fragrance and I love its name. the name reflects the fragrance. I am back in summer with all its various sea smells combining and vying for my time. It is a unique smell; its fresh yet strong and it lasts. And the fact that I couldn't tell if it was for men or women is better because I am female but I love this fragrance no matter what.

This is a true story: recently I brought Sailing Day into work for a perfume show-and-tell along with some 10-ml sample vials, and by the end of the day, I'd given away more than 30 milliliters of this one to my coworkers. It's just that good.

Replica Sailing Day, to me, captures the *idea* of an aquatic/oceanic scent and much less the actual scents of the ocean. For this reason, I'd consider it a bad "replica", but it is still great on its own merits. If you're looking for actual oceanic/salty/briny vibes, check out Issey Miyake's Le Sel D'Issey EDT (which I also adore). With that out of the way, this perfume is absolutely delightful. It's bubbly, smooth, well-rounded, and fresh. Some people find it sort of chemicalish - so keep that in mind - but I am not one of those people. It is also quite linear, which isn't a problem to me but is something to keep in mind. To me this is a gorgeous scent with decent lasting power, 100% unisex and overall quite versatile. Right now it's in my top 10 of fragrances I currently own. Give it a try, and if you like it, look around for a decent price on discounters! (I will say that even on discounters I do think Sailing Day is a bit overpriced for what it is.)

It's marine, sure, but also aggressively sour. I feel like I'm drinking pickling liquid mixed with a glass of Sprite that stayed on the counter for too long and went flat.

The cloud is large, but relatively airy. The source of the smell becomes apparent when you're about an arm's length away from it. But get any closer – and it's pungent. Heavy and acidic, but also very straightforward and weirdly flaccid. Unlikeable.

Granted, I've never been to the ocean. Just at the shores of rivers, estuaries and local sea – and none of them smelled like this. So maybe this is the kind of perfume you need to have some kind of nostalgic connection to to enjoy it? But aquatic notes in Kenzo Homme Eau de Toilette Intense were very similar to these – heavy, marine and sour; and it was fun! Then again, there were layers to it. It was changing, shifting and moving.

Here? It's a whole day (~7 hours, give or take) of the same monotone droning of acrid synthetics. About ~3 hours in the aquatics on top weakened for a moment and I was able to discern a very pretty coriander note, but it soon faded into the background again and paved way for the tart aquatics at the base. Hooray. That again. I mean, it is technically true to its name, but I'm also very much not a fan of the experience.

I'm starting to think that I'm just not Maison Margiela's target audience. Nothing I try from them strikes me as a particularly happy kind of memory I'd like to be stuck for a whole day in.

I’ve never been much into aquatics as a woman but I have loved them on men in the past. I was given a sample of this perfume and was happy to try it just to see what it smelled like on my arm.

I am happily surprised to say that I absolutely love this scent and would wear it religiously in the summer. It is salty and fresh, definitely to be worn in the spring and summer months or early in the fall. It’s amazing on me and I look forward to my husband trying it, as well.

Longevity is good at 6 hours. Sillage is a good arm’s-length away, not much more.

I think Replica is a little pricey, but I would definitely splurge on this one. I also have another two favorites from that house. Very well-made perfume.

This scent is perfect for Ryan Gosling in Barbie. It's clean and aldehydic whiteout being outdated. The marine notes are evident from beginning to end, and create the beachy atmosphere of Sailing Day. I got this as a sample in the discovery set and found it too masculine for my taste. I was still able to layer it with other scents in the set like Bubble Bath and Beach Walk to add a slight edge.

This is a great safe scent for a man looking to smell clean but without too many additional preferences. For a more complex profile, I would probably reach for one of Tommy Bahama's colognes, but Replica's Sailing Day will suffice for an easy everyday scent.