This Is Not A Blue Bottle 1.3
Fragrance notes
Character
Julien Rasquinet’s 2017 creation opens with a blood orange that is less juicy and more tart, almost metallic against the skin. That citrus bite quickly softens into a rose that is dark, jammy, and pressed against saffron’s dusty, warm spice. The heart feels like a rose preserved in leather and patchouli leaf, not a romantic bouquet but a botanical specimen tucked into an old tooled leather pouch. The drydown turns animalic and earthy, the leather unpolished, the patchouli soil-dusted and dry. The overall character is a single vivid image: a weathered leather journal left out in a spring rain, its pages stained with crushed rose petals and a single bitter orange peel. This is unmistakably niche in its refusal to sweeten the leather or brighten the rose. The saffron adds a savory warmth that stops just short of gourmand. With a longevity of 3.59 out of 5 and sillage at 3.39, it sits close to the skin and fades to a whisper after four or five hours, which is a genuine weakness for anyone wanting a bold statement. Who should wear it? The person who prefers their florals dressed in leather jackets and who finds comfort in earthy, slightly metallic textures. Skip it if you want a crowd-pleasing, airy rose or a big, projecting leather bomb. Absolutely wear this in spring and fall, its top-scoring seasons, and save it for daytime moments when you want to smell interesting without screaming for attention. One rhetorical question: does a fragrance this quietly complex even need to shout?
Smells similar
Built from the same materials — ranked by how unusual the shared notes are, not by how many.
