Apex Roja Parfums 2022 Eau de Parfum

So here it is, the new fragrance from Roja Parfums. As is customary with this house, the expectations for the scent, its longevity and quality, as well as the design of the bottle, seem almost immeasurably high. Such expectations can only lead to disappointment, especially since the bar has been set very high by the manufacturer itself due to its boastful marketing and ultimately the price tag.

I must admit that I am a fan of Roja fragrances. Not because of the bottle design (too much bling bling), not because of the marketing (“the FINEST fragrances of the world”) or the innovative power of the scents. No, it is actually the ingredients that radiate a truly high level of naturalness that convince me here. Nothing scratches, nothing clashes, and there is no gym-filling sledgehammer synthetic (a shout-out to Mancera and Montale) with longevity beyond the 24-hour mark. These are simply fragrances that come with a high feel-good factor for me, which I enjoy wearing without having to envelop those around me.

Many comparisons have been drawn here, with Chanel Antaeus, Roja Scandal and Danger, Nishane Hacivat, and even Dior Sauvage Elixir. Except for perhaps a tiny bit of the latter, I really cannot relate to any of these comparisons. However, I have only smelled Sauvage Elixir once, so I could be wrong here, as I do not have a good scent memory. It is also rumored that Apex smells like a mix of “x and y.” Well, I have never mixed two of my perfumes together, but I claim that the mixture will yield something different than the sum of its individual parts.

As usual, Roja provides us with a whole list of notes. (Marketing) notes or accords are not the same as ingredients, but rather consist of multiple components. Therefore, I do not know how a person should perceive all these individual notes side by side. Nevertheless, for me, two of the notes are quite present throughout the entire scent journey, namely cypress and oakmoss. I guess that is why many testers immediately trigger the red “grandpa alert” lamp. Oops, a fragrance not exclusively for teens and twenty-somethings, but for OLDER people, how dare Roja??

However, I would disagree here as well. Yes, the fragrance is not for teenagers and students. They should not really be buying a perfume for 300+€, right? I would say the fragrance is excellent for people from the “young professional” age, all the way up to retirement. It is indeed an ideal office scent. Yes, many fragrances with a chypre structure and oakmoss in the base can sometimes come across as a bit old-fashioned. A rather dominant cypress can also make a fragrance seem a bit dull and musty. However, this is not the case with Roja Apex. Rather, this fragrance manages to complement the more classically green components with an incredibly sparkling, almost soda-like freshness. And the result is pleasing! It’s a kind of Tom Ford Italian Cypress with an added freshness kick. By “soda,” I do not mean Ahoi-Brause. More like the feeling when you hold your nose over the surface of a freshly prepared lemon-grapefruit lemonade, with the volatile citrus components rising into your nose along with the fizz of the carbonation. This freshness in Apex, however, does not feel forced but is excellently woven into the green base. Furthermore, this fresh component surprisingly lasts almost as long as the base. It only recedes towards the end of the scent journey, after about 8 hours.

My conclusion for this fragrance is therefore positive. Has Roja reinvented the wheel? No. Has he ever done that? No. Has Roja managed again to create an improved version of a fragrance that I already like very much (Tom Ford Italian Cypress)? Absolutely, yes!

Longevity: 10h+

Significant projection: 4h+