Emrego

It could have been much better...I like to keep track (though very hard given their pace of fragrance releases) Zara perfumes as every now and then they do release notable bang for buck stuff. I have been waiting a photorealistic marine scent from them, and there it was. When I say marine, I do not mean perfumey pleasant aquatics, but more in the vein of PR Acqua di Sale, Heeley Sel Marin and my overall favorites in the category, Reminiscense Rem and CsP Aqua Motu. These are all anti-perfumes that captures all the beauty of the sea, seawater, seaweed and that iodine infused breeze. Coastal Salty Forest has the same accord, but somehow perfumers chose to combine cypress with pine, and there for me it went wrong at the top note. The pine note is all about alpha-terpineol, that smells a bit like those pine scented urinal cakes. It needs more to mask this facets and here in all its salty marine transparency that dirty terpenic pine note is sticking out loud.

Once you get through the opening, the rest is indeed a good alternative to the pioneers of this genre of fragrances.

Wonderoud, Wonderwood, Blue Santal are all brothers, with Floriental being their sister, each different enough to have in the collection. Blue Santal is carrying the same Javanol/Pashminol X Cashmeran = creamy diffusive sandalwood accord a la Molecule 04, topped with CdG signature black pepper and incense notes. The main difference happens on the very top, you get yet again the same cypress pine terpenic effect as in Wonderwood (lacking in Wonderoud) but dosed up with juniper berry, perhaps Atlas cedar with its strong, stinging, peppery, balsamic fir needle smell.

Nobody does peppery sandalwood incense better than CdG, and Blue Santal is no exception. Top fragrance at a reasonable price for what you get.

Might feel "not-so-special" at retail price, but as a blend I think it's very nice and the "coolness" and watery effect is successfully achieved by calone-citrus-iris-mint for the bigger part of the evaporation, no nose-raping woody ambers but instead a mellow fruity-floral-woody unisex drydown.Delivers the marketing promise (coolness, jeans & white tee, anytime/anywhere, laid back).

Top:
At the very first spray the Calone/Cascalone/Scentenal hit my face with that marine and egg whitey olfactory mass, but the next second your nose adjusts and in few minutes this scent turns into what I can only call as a "potential future summer cheapie" that smells quite nice with undistinguishable citric top notes. I liked the fact that it doesn't abuse you with nuclear woody ambers and I'm a strong believer the last decades amber-wood overdose trend will die out soon and men's fragrances will do a flashback to millennial era.

Mid:
So here the transformation goes in the direction of iris, though not listed in the notes but you'll notice this carrot seed, musty iris rhizome effect that provides a peculiar coolness which fits the marketing story of this perfume especially when combined with the obvious menthol freshness. I surely get a slight non-gourmandy, more-fruity/floral sweetness which I can only assume violet/pear notes (ionones and esters) in combination with muguet/cyclamen type transparent fresh and watery sweet florals (hello 2000s) and also popular in laundry detergents forever. I think I get the vetiver here too but really not distinct.

Base:
After 20 hours on test strip the scent is more floral-sweet (clean fresh laundry muguet/cyclamen and violets), honeyed orange blossom, even lavender, almost feminine/unisex, right out of 90s-00s, will feel familiar to those perfume heads since 90s. The effect of woods must be there but honestly I can't "pick out" individually the sandalwood or vetiver again but it doesn't mean they don't play an important role in the effect overall.

Smells great but so does Zara - Amalfi Sunray so hard to justify the retail price (around 90 eur / 100ml). It’s a classic yet modern orange blossom on a musky woody base.

Update: Tried one more time carefully and would like to open up my initial review. It really smells great. I still can't justify the retail price but on discount it could be in my radar at one point. This time I could decode parts of it.

Opening: A very uplifting neroli, high on limonene (grapefruit note?), and low on indolic aspects of the orange blossom. In the background the velvety woody musk of Cashmeran is noticeable reminding me of Comme des Garçons - Wonderoud, Molecule 05 etc. I think the effect of what I can only guess as Javanol next to Cashmeran makes me think of CdG - Wonderoud. But the neroli - grapefruit - orange blossom is at the driver's seat that sets it apart.

Mid: Orange blossom prominent, the musky and rich effect comes up, probably here the musks are most noticeable, like the human skin type Muscenone (skin note?) or hot iron type Habanolide (which is used in countless of fragrances but first comes to mind 212 Men, Bvlgari PH, Kenzo Power etc.). All these musks create a "fuller" effect that you don't see much in orange blossom type fragrances. It's like Neroli Portofino top, Bal d'Afrique on steroids in mid, mixed with some Wonderoud, Molecule 05 or Genetic Bliss at the base.

If prices fall towards 50 eur / 100ml, this becomes a very good choice provided that you like white musk-lemon-orange blossom-sandalwood.

Honestly I think this release is failing to carry the AdG legacy...It seemed to fell victim to market trends (naturally), and with that lost its carefully formulated citric and herbal notes, beyond overdose on Cascalone or Calone to the point it is no longer a marine effect but bordering on egg whites and nothing to balance it out. Drydown fresh sourness completely replaced by modern amber-somethings. Mont Blanc Legend/Intense have this same effect, as well as numerous men's fragrances on the market, I think Polo Blue EdP, YsL Y EdP might have the same, what I can only speculate to be a combination of Clary Sage-Cashmeran-Amber Xtreme or Amberwood F type of combinations.

I would choose original AdG or Essenza (if found) anyday over this, just personal opinion.