Burlington 1819 is a fresh, invigorating scent for the modern gentleman. Opening with an incredibly sharp, juicy medley of grapefruit, lime, mandarin and bitter orange - it’s then offset by a delicate mint and ginger. Fortunately, the mint in here isn’t dominating and it actually quite subtle, while the ginger powers ahead and takes the lead. There’s a hint of soft oakmoss and dry tobacco, but unfortunately I don’t pick up any rum. The ginger intensifies as this settles on the skin alongside the citrus and a salty ambergris, which makes up the majority of the scent profile. The addition of cumin here is a strange one, in the air it can sometimes give the impression of body odour in the background, as though you’re sweating through the scent. I don’t get this all the time fortunately, but it’s not ideal. I think this is fantastic citrus scent which is very well made, but for the warmer months I would instead choose Oceania or Elysium.
I think it’s suffered from some weird expectations. People are likely to enthuse over a new Roja. Especially an affordable one like this. First batch was limited to 100 bottles and so it sold out quickly. It all adds to the hype. And then a load of people sold their bottles and the hype bubble was burst. So what’s going on? Well nothing really. I think this is a very nice fragrance. Citrus and mint with a woody sweet mossy base. Decent longevity. It wears a little close but that’s fine. It smells nice. It’s a bit out of type for Roja. We are used to the big Chypres and animalics, the ouds, leathers and other more challenging scents. So it’s a little unexpected but that doesn’t change the fact it smells great. For me - I’ve got lots in this space already so not certain I need it in my life but if you’ve got a gap for a nice citrus and mint fragrance this will do just lovely.
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I have to mention straight away that I’m not a fan of citrus based perfumes. I don’t like those on my skin and I don’t like to smell those on anyone. I find those boring, extremely uncharming and all of those has been done a million times. 🍊🍋 Roja Parfums Burlington 1819 IS THE ONE AND ONLY citrus scent which I love and even like. 🍊🍋 Burlington opens up with an amazingly natural smell of fresh Grapefruit and Lime with a hint of Mint and it never gets synthetic. That smell of citruses is so realistic, so bright, uplifting and delightfully different than those million others and it lasts long time. I can even say that citruses are delicious here. In Burlington all used different citruses are blending with a delicated smokiness and beautiful mossy woody base. Tobacco is not dirty nor too dry but it's easily noticeable. I like how the fresh nature of the fragrance, thanks to both citrus and spices, is combined with warm notes like Vanilla and Benzoin which is a note reminiscent of it. Those together with Labdanum and woody notes create a more interesting fragrance with depth, power and numerous unique tones. On my skin this scent is more simple, let's say more feminine as well, and as I test all of my scents nowadays on my husband’s skin as well I can say that the performance on his skin is deeper, darker and stronger and a bit more interesting than on my skin. What seems to be hidden on my skin is Ginger and Rum and overall the beautiful complex drydown with dark nuances is somewhat lighter on my skin - amazing anyway. Airy Saffron is barely detectable. I enjoy this scent a lot in both kind of ways how it performs but I have to admit that if it’s admirable on my skin, it’s totally unique experience on warmer skin. Most of citrus dominated scents try to imitate Lemon or Citron (in the bad way) and I think it’s lack of imagination since there is many different citrus to use - most common ones being Bergamot, Sweet Orange, Orange Bigarade (Bitter Orange), Mandarin, Clementine, Yuzu, Lime, Lemon, Citron, Verbena and Grapefruit. Roja has chosen the best ones imo into this scent while Yuzu being my favorite as a note in perfumes from other olfactive families. If you love citrus scents this is something which you really need in your collection. This is just simply AMAZING, so special. Thank you for reading, I hope you liked my review. I would appreciate if you follow my IG: @ninamariah_perfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗