Like a human raccoon, I was attracted to Atelier Des Ors' Riviera line of perfumes because of their beautiful blue bottles — with gold flakes in the bottom: sparkly! Since I'm always in the market for a fresh citrus cologne, I sampled two from the collection with notes that appealed to me (in descriptions, anyway).
Pomelo Riviera: bergamot, grapefruit, orange, jasmine, salty notes, rose, cedar
Pomelo Riviera starts with an old-fashioned mosquito repellent scent: a sickly sweet mash-up of faux bergamot and grapefruit (both salty). There's a distinctive naphthalene aroma in the opening, too, that grows in strength into mid-development (so don't wear this around endangered insects)! From there we go to pale, soapy orange blossom and dehydrated rose petals salvaged from a dusty bowl of old potpourri.
I found Pomelo Riviera unpleasant to wear — inexpensive and stale smelling, with a strong chemical impression.
Riviera Lazuli: bergamot, lemon, cypress, clary sage, cedar, guaiac wood, immortelle, fir balsam, incense
Riviera Lazuli begins with bergamot and an overheated-metal, lemon-like scent (imagine a super-hot hairdryer blowing freshly shampooed hair). Rubbing alcohol makes a quick appearance before it disappears (just like in my supermarket in these days of COVID-19). What comes next is a diluted (and disagreeable) "wood" accord that leads to a generic/department store men's fragrance note of talc-y imitation citrus.
My raccoon cravings would have been amply met with empty bottles of these two products (leave in the gold flakes, please). I find both so awful smelling, it's hard to believe! Atelier Des Ors writes of "precious essences and the most exclusive and fascinating raw materials...to give back an element of mystery and imagination to fragrance." I'm soooo tired of being told how great things are, of non-stop attempted gaslighting by everyone, that this meager (and admittedly unnecessary) response to predictable perfume-marketing BS felt necessary for my sanity.
The perfume world is filled with sensational citrus perfumes, and these are not among them.
Atelier Des Ors Pomelo Riviera and Riviera Lazuli Eaux de Parfum are available in 100 ml ($225).
Whoa, I’m shocked. I really liked Pomelo Riviera and on me it smells nothing like you describe.
Oh well, guess I can thank my skin biome for doing a good job
Ah, and if you don’t mind – I highly recommend trying Les Brumes from Ormaie, great citrus!
L, I’ll keep watch for that one, thanks.
I really like Les Brumes — and I love the bottle with its wooden cap. Ormaie in general captures my attention.
It’s a nicely designed bottle
Lucas, ha! At least I won’t have to worry about you catching West Nile virus this summer!
I haven’t smelled these but have a FB of Lune Feline from this house and also get a “strong chemical impression” from it. I am holding on to my bottle for sentimental reasons as it was a gift from a loved one, but I rarely wear it
Yasmina…the quality seems low on the ones I’ve tried, so am moving on to other lines.
Gaslighting is the perfect description of what so many of these lines do these days, promising only the most amazing quality ingredients then delivering the usual fractured swill. I’m guessing these bottles are mostly meant as decorations on one’s perfume tray rather than something you would actually wear. The gold flakes remind me of goldschlager, catnip for the Instagram ‘bottle porn’ crowd. Wish more lines would put less focus on the bling and more focus on the perfume.
Plume, I know…when I see an outrageous bottle I should warily approach…and save my $$
There is just one from this line that I like, the incense one the name of which I am forgetting right now. But I find the bottle super annoying; too flashy for my tastes, but also really unbalanced and top heavy. So many important things to complain about!
Amy: exactly! HA! We’re all “allowed’ our complaints and hissy fits (GUILTY!) even in nightmare times.
Kevin, if there’s a French Connection UK store anywhere near you, pop your head in and try their ‘Fragrance’ (note: it’s the clear bottle, not the frosted, opaque bottle, which is a different scent altogether). I know the name is exciting, eh? Well, it was originally called ‘bathroom’ when it was launched in the early 2000s, so there’s that!
The brand keeps it quiet these days but it was composed for them by Jo Malone just as her namesake brand took off in the US and frankly, it’s better than any of the citrus scents bearing her name now. At $49 – cheaper when on sale – for 115ml, it’s hard to beat. It’s simple and delicious; grapefruit, jasmine, vetiver, with decent longevity. I’ve kept at least one bottle in my collection since it launched and don’t want to imagine summer without it. Safe blind buy, especially when they have the smaller 30mL bottles in stock.
sayitisntso: just checked their US website and it seems they offer it…the unisex one? I’m tempted to just order since this will be a long summer spent at home.
Yes, the unisex one. Clear tall bottle, black square cap, called French Connection Fragrance, (*not* the Eau de FCUK, which is in the frosted bottle).
Personally, I think the bottles a bit gaudy. Never tried anything from the house though. Am also annoyed by the constant superlativism in perfume blurb and the way that prices have gone up to match.
@ka_rina: admit that I’ve never seen these bottles in person
AdO is one of my favorite houses, but I will agree with you fully on the Pomelo Drive, which I also found unwearable, and to a lesser extent, the Riviera Lazuli, which I would wear if given. The best by far of the Riviera collection trio, though, is Riviera Drive. A nice citrus on the order of Acqua di Parma Bergamotto di Calabria but with remarkably poor longevity. Choeur des Anges and Lune Feline are my top two recommendations to try from this house, with Lune Feline in my personal top five fragrances.
Also I will agree that AdO scents are ridiculously overpriced, but the bottles are truly beautiful–and concerning the fragrances I recommended, certainly worthy of their contents.
My reaction to Pomelo Riviera is very different. Wonderful green note, reminiscent of the plant ‘cow parsley’ – commonly found by the roadside on country walks – crushed between fingers. Some type of aldehyde seems to have been used to achieve this natural fresh-air note. This impression – which may just be a personal illusion, for the fragrance is officially a citrus – impelled me to buy a bottle.