This smells like a generic ambery blue designer perfume. Perhaps once you spend this sort of money your brain isn't capable of being objective any more, but I just had a sample and I doubt I'll even use that up. If I'm being generous I'd say it stands up to Uncut Gem, but I prefer Uncut Gem, it's more interesting.
It’s a great versatile fragrance all year round for many occasions. It has a great balance of freshness and woodiness. It lasts a great deal through out the day and projects fairly well. And the dry down smells like slightly musky woods drenched in ginger but not overly.
Okay so to date I've tried no LV fragrances. This is my first one and I have to say, it's really quite nice. I mean 'quite' and 'nice' ??? I'm not exactly professing my undying love from a rooftop or anything but I'm wearing it today and it's hugely enjoyable. My initial notes said 'Dylan Blue except not for twats' but maybe this is? For twats I mean. I mean LV stuff is generally, sorry. Clearly I can’t afford it but I probably wouldn’t want it if I could. I only make that comparison because of the obvious masculine 'blue' smell to this perfume ( I actually don't think it smells like that as such, but interesting that some have listed Dylan blue here and BdC also listed here which I'd say it shares much more in common with) , but it has a certain elegance which means I'm reluctant to bash it as a mere shower gel, or deodorant smelling nicety. Also reminds me a bit of that grossly underrated Davidoff (I literally can’t remember the name of) I want to say Adventure? Adventurer? (If only there was a hugely popular and easy to access online database to check….yeah I’m writing a review right now and can’t be bothered opening another tab) It was good….that’ all you need to know. So what's clever and more refined about this then? Well the opening brightness is really lovely, then you have this nagging 90's aquatic floral smell at the back, which in 2022 is a telling olfactory metaphor for the fact...the 90's were fucking ages ago. Me using it as a perpetual frame of reference is the equivalent of a boomer banging on about how good the 60's were but anyway. The ginger and twist of effervescent citrus are welcome as the saltiness of this fragrance really starts to chime in, and I guess that's what makes this 'niche' or 'higher end', or more 'refined' or whatever I said to justify this massively mediocre crowd pleaser being an expensive Louis Vuitton. Which is fine. It’s tough to make something widely ubiquitous, fresh, and all that jazz, with a certain, transparency and subtlety of floral and musky notes, but manage to elevate it slightly. I think that’s what Cavalier has achieved here. Look I'm not one of these arseholes who says citrus fragrances 'SHOULD' be cheap. I mean why? They are literally one of the hardest things to do and excel at. Name me a good citrus by a self trained Indy perfumer, go on? No you can't do it can you? Because there aren’t any. I enjoyed this. It's a good wear but I'm never gona be in love with it. It is what it is.
Beautifully fresh citrus with lots of light aromatics. The freshness of ginger is really nice, and helps with the fresh aquatic feel.
There is gentle balsamic warmth and structure in the base with amber and labdanum.
After many hours, the dry down offers more spice alongside the aromatics and aquatic notes while the ginger and citrus still providing a noticible uplift
A great every day scent, perfect for all occasions. Inoffensive yet noticeable.