Eau de Soleil Blanc Tom Ford 2017

Creamy-fresh, tropical fragrances have never ranked highly on my book. I get why people like them, apart from being heavily influenced by social media influencers, but I personally never found this genre to my liking. Most compositions I tried either leaned too heavily on the sunscreen-like direction, or they turned too sweet and fruity. Eau de Soleil Blanc is a case of the former, although not entirely.

I say that because the structure here is primarily floral. Creamy tuberose aided by neroli and citruses to give it a zesty lift at the start, make it a little refreshing rather than completely creamy-sweet-floral. The ylang-ylang further aids with a bit of its banana-reminiscent aroma, but it's less prominent here. What doesn't shy away is the creamy, coconut-like sunscreen accord, which soon pushes through and stays present throughout most of the wear.

Meanwhile, the tonka bean creates an alliance with the pistachio and benzoin to assist the composition with this vanillic accent, but it's also gently nutty and even buttery, although it's hard to pinpoint the creamy and buttery attributes here, as they all blend together into one. It's sweet, but not too sweet for a summer evening, which is the designated context in which people want to wear these type of fragrances. It does have a faint tropical-ish vibe, but it just falls rather stale in the end, and it lacks that particular lift of a tropical scent. Then again, this is a more floral-creamy composition, so it's not going to be all papaya, tangy passion fruit, and Aperol Spritz, and I also feel it leans more on the feminine side.

Eau de Soleil Blanc did cling to my skin like a proper sunscreen and lasted around 9-10 hours. Unfortunately, it didn't do as well in terms of performance, but it offered moderate pushing power for the first ~2 hours, never anything too crazy, after which it would very rapidly settle closer to my skin.

Versatility and likeability are essential in the designer realm, and this particular genre of fragrances in which Eau de Soleil Blanc falls into is anything but daring, bold, or innovative. So, apart from leaning a little more feminine, this is an easy grab for largely any occasion, but as stated, summer and summer evenings in particular are the targeted context.

But would you be willing to pay close to €180 for a 100ml bottle of just another iteration of the creamy-fresh, sunscreen genre, with a more floral backbone? There's smaller bottle sizes available too, but even then, the overall end result that you're getting is just not worth it, in my opinion. It ends up stale, safe, without much that makes it stand out among its peers (apart from the Tom Ford name). I'd much rather simply pick a more regular freshie, even something as the very affordable Missoni Wave, than spend so much more for a floral-creamy, vanillic nothingburger such as Eau de Soleil Blanc. But, that's just me.

Overall Rating: 5.1/10

A hot and bright summer day that's finally started to mellow out in the late afternoon as golden hour approaches. Heavy, sun-kissed limbs from a day spent outdoors, walking along the beach or playing in the pool, and the promise of nothing left to do that evening but relax.

Pure insanity to me that the first time I smelled this, I didn't like it-- I guess it pays to keep your samples around, because smelling this now is heaven. It's all creamy, sunscreeny, soft coconut and subdued white florals goodness. Instantly makes you wish you were at the beach, or at the very least, planning a trip there. The easiest summertime reach you could ask for.

There are certain afternoons when time feels like it slows down, as if the earth itself is drunk on the languid sweetness of the sun. Tom Ford’s Eau de Soleil Blanc captures that very feeling in a bottle.

It opens like a thin mist of coolness — a gentle spray of neroli and bitter orange, light and glimmering, just like the air shimmering above hot sand. The first notes don't shout. They move softly, like the whisper of a palm leaf in the breeze.

As the perfume settles, the world seems to thicken with a sleepy kind of richness. The soft sweetness of coconut and the creaminess of pistachio seep into the skin, mingling with the golden dust of bergamot and ylang-ylang. It’s the scent of sun-warmed skin, of fine grains of salt left behind by the retreating sea, and of sunblock lazily sprayed from a white canister, melting into your pores. Somewhere nearby, someone laughs over the rim of a cold Caipirinha, lime and sugar swirling in lazy circles at the bottom of a glass.

By the time the heart notes emerge — jasmine, tuberose, and orange blossom — the boundaries between yourself and the afternoon have blurred. You are neither wholly awake nor asleep. You are simply being, suspended in the hazy warmth.

The drydown is soft, almost imperceptible — a delicate tracing of amber, benzoin, and a hint of tonka bean — like the memory of the sun pressed gently into your skin after it has slipped below the horizon.

In the end, Eau de Soleil Blanc is not so much a fragrance as it is a state of mind: a slow, radiant surrender to a summer that seems, for a few fleeting hours, as if it will never end.

I haven't tried Soleil Blanc yet, so I'll review the Eau on its own merits.

To me this doesn't smell all that coconutty as some reviewers around the web say, instead of I find orange blossom to be much more prominent here. This is a creamy white floral that recalls expensive sunscreen lotion, but has some layers that make it more sophisticated than that. It has a vanilla base that warms it up and keeps the floral and citrus notes from going too screechy, but there is also something cooling about this. The cardamom and pink pepper are quite dry and almost woodsy leaning, which works beautifully with the creaminess of the other notes. It's all so smooth and soft. Cardamom is really noticeable to me, I guess my nose perceives this scent a little different than the majority.

But I definitely think it fits the marketing, it's a light, summery fragrance and absolutely smells like the color white to me.

The only thing I was a bit disappointed about is that the pistachio note is so subdued, I can only smell it for a moment in the opening. Nevertheless, this is a gorgeous summer dream.

The night is hot, your skin in damp, you and your Spouse are swaying to the music in the tropics at a resort in Spain. The sun has gone down & you've had a few drinks. THIS is the vibe that it gives. This is a fragrance that really needs heat and for you to be near water to shine. It is beautiful and lingers on the skin for about 4 hours. It is a bit brighter and fresher than the EDP (which I still love even more) Which also is what makes this easier to wear on a daily basis.