Amazing for Men
Bill Blass (2000)

Personally, I am a little biased with Amazing. Firstly, it's not amazing, by any means, it's barely even mediocre; and to most people here on Basenotes, it will probably be flat out bad. There are a couple things I must highlight. One.. I think due to the type of sage used in this fragrance, and the abundance of it, that it turns in time. I have owned 2 or 3 bottles of Amazing, and they have all smelled different. When I first got it it was really fruity, with emphasis on cranberry, tangerine, and lime, it reminded me of I am King, or Adidas Dare. I breezed through the bottle.. I LOVED it, it was one of my favorites around 2002, my senior year in high school. I can't remember for sure, but I finished my bottle around that time. Fast forward to 2006, I was working at Macy's/Burdines and this was still on the shelves. I think it was around that time that they were weeding it out, and it was being marked down. I bought another bottle then, but I didn't like it as much.. I wound up selling it to someone (regrettably for really cheap, with a lot of others like Escada Madnetism.. OH MY GOD - this is floating way off the topic of review, but if you wanna know this story, just message me lol) I digress. So second bottle of Amazing, I lost interest. Bought it again around 2010 or so, I think I found it on the shelves at Marshall's or TJM for under 10 bucks. Again.. loved it.. got the citrusy notes, the top notes lasted very long. Used it pretty quickly. Recently bought another bottle (within the past year). Current bottle.. I feel this one is turned, but I think it has something to do with the sage. Again, the sage has always been the highlight note, but in the past, the top notes lasted a lot longer.

Let's call a spade a spade. Amazing is all about the sage here. Overall this fragrance gives off an herbal/shaving cream sort of vibe. There's some fruity notes, but depending on your bottle, possible reformulation, and how it was stored, will determine your outcome. I don't think anybody will find this fragrance amazing, but some might like it more than others.

It's always harder to make a review when I am biased, and nostalgia plays a part. Simply put.. I would not go searching for this one. With the high markups now due to being discontinued about 15 years ago, unless you're just a completest, and wanna have everything, this fragrance is passable. One that is similar is Tommy T, also discontinued. Lacoste L.12.12 Green is in the same realm too. Sean John I am King, Adidias Dare, Izod. Fragrantica has a comparison to L.12.12 Blanc as well, and I can see that too, with some of the top notes being similar.

Like this one, although it wouldn't be the first scent that I'd grab on the go.

Amazing by Bill Blass has a strong citrus-musk quality, aided along by the ginger and sage notes in the heart. It's a decent fragrance that incorporates tangerine well, if that's a note you like.

Has a "young" wearer vibe to it, so as a 40-something guy I'd be rather picky as to when and where I'd put it on.

Amazing fails to amaze. In fact, it hardly makes an impression at all. Far from cringe-worthy, it remains anonymous, aloof, and is gone before anybody has a chance to notice it. Five minutes after applying, Amazing, like a high school senior with a full-ride scholarship in the second week of June, leaves the faintest impression of itself and little to no evidence it had, in fact, actually been there. The worst part is, while it may stray towards the pedestrian and banal end of the fragrance spectrum, it's not a terrible scent. As for the name, it's a complete misnomer. "Below-standard" or "Opposite of Amazing" would have been more accurate. However the name came to be (Bill Blass had a particularly dark sense of humor? An exercise in post-modern marketing? A knowing wink to the irony-laden hipsters and cynical bastards who would pay for something "amazing" in name precisely because they knew it wasn't?), the scent elicits nothing but ambivalence and antipathy. And that, to me, is its greatest crime and most-telling indictment.

Amazing is anything but. The name is pretentious by definition, the longevity is mediocre and the fragrance is dull and uninspired. If you have some of the Jordan fragrances such as Jordan by Michael or the Perry Ellis bottles that come in similar columnar packages, then you don't need this redundant offering. Mr. Blass is the one from this house that is worth a sniff.

I didn't know for the longest time what this actually smelled like. I finally concluded that the top is some kind of tropical fruit liqueur, maybe mango? Kiwi? It starts to turn a little less tropical, perhaps into orange or tangerine, and then just briefly it seems like the fruit is going rotten as it transitions into a fruity, boozy leather base and then resolves itself. Even though it doesn't feel unmasculine to me, I thought that the top was more typical of women's perfume...then later the base becomes more "standardly" masculine. I thought I'd keep it around for variety and to figure it out, but I eventually gave up. Really fun bottle, though!

Cheap, aromatic fougere like Coty's Avatar. Typical musky drydown. Not much to it.