Baldessarini Ultimate
Baldessarini (2015)

First Impression - I sprayed this pretty heavily before going out for a motorcycle ride. I didn't read the notes. I would have bet good money that the dominant note in here was rose - and I don't like rose at all. But the rose I was getting was somehow interesting and not completely off-putting. There was a very nice pepper note on top, and the incense note kept me interested. I will do another review when I can analyze this more, but if you really hate rose, try a tester before you go for a full bottle.

Edit: I have worn this for about a year since my first review, and I am very impressed. This is a powerful, fully masculine scent, much more so than the listed floral mid-notes would suggest. In the same ballpark as Bentley Intense and Absolute, but not as narrowly focused, making this more versatile. This is not casual at all, having a sort of Sean Connery - Bond feel, but if you are over 40 and have lost some of your need to please others, you can rock this. I almost sold this, but as with Roger & Gallet Open (another underrated masculine gem), I am very glad that I gave this a few more tries, because I never want to be without a bottle of either in my collection.

A grown up Hugo Boss Energise, with better materials and blending.
A 'pink' hued men's release, which feels classy and can dress up or down.
A great daily driver for work, as it's not real sweet so it shouldn't cloy.

7.5/10

A bit of a peppery oddball, which opens rather sour and bracing but evolves into a nicely done woody patchouli. Thankfully the base doesn't turn into the typical synthetic amberwood bloat, though I assume similar ingredients are at play--just in sane proportions that don't induce seasickness like so many modern masculines at the designer level.

There is an interesting sour accord in here that felt immediately familiar--possibly a combination of citrus notes and vetiveryl acetate--as this reminded me of Escentric Molecules - Escentric 03, which is of course also created by Geza Schoen. They're not identical: Escentric 03 leans harder into vetiver instead of peppery patchouli, and Escentric feels more ethereal, slightly less woody, but similarly sour--but that accord is so distinct (very "Geza") that I don't need to own both.

I'm also picking up a slight similarity to Dior Homme 2020 in the way DH leans hard into an extremely sour / musk note. Personally, I find DH 2020 screechy and unwearable due to the intensely sour opening (probably some kind of note sensitivity on my part). Whatever note that is in DH also reminds me of the sour opening here, but Ultimate is blended much more deftly. Ultimate uses its combination of sour and piquant notes in much subtler fashion, piquing my interest with its rough edges, rather than bludgeoning the senses the way DH 2020 does. It's nice to see something I find unpleasant in another context handled to such interesting effect here.

All in all a solid masculine designer fragrance, well worth sampling. I'll pass on the full bottle and stick with Escentric 03, but I'm glad I tried it.

Does this really separate the men from the boys as the box suggests? That's debatable, but the quality of this release is impressive, given its affordability–not to mention tacky name and marketing.

A handsome, heavy glass bottle, a juice color that's actually evocative of the scent, and an pepper/amber/olibanum/iso-e haze that is impossible for me to resist. No cloying sweetness either, thank goodness.

In the same genre as Azzaro Wanted by Night but this is way better.

It's more natural, does not have this artificial sweetness to it nor the cloying incense (not listed in its notes but it's there). Plus, it actually has tobacco in it or a very close impression thereof and that suits this type of scent. I didn't get tobacco from Wanted by Night.

At first without looking, I thought Baldessarini Ultimate's ingredients were: pepper, tobacco, vetiver, geranium, patchouli, ambroxan. Not correct, but that was the vibe it gave me.

The green part of it is very convincing and natural, and the incensey part is toned down so it doesn't cloy. The resinous side of it can be mistake for a hint of ambroxan. Of the heart notes I can only detect jasmine, real not hedione. Lovely scent.

Ultimate opens with a stunning, tasty, pink pepper along with a mandarin and bergamot one-two punch that jolts the olfactory with a palpitating rush that one feels when there is something wickedly beautiful in the making. Thankfully, it is just that… The sweeping floral heart, particularly, the dusty freesia shapes the whole accord by rounding the citric waxiness of magnolia and the pissy dryness of jasmine, into a garland of airy delight till a leathery, earthy base enters and put its full weight down. The smooth leather note, with a thin suede finish, is augmented by the resinous exchange of labdanum and amber, that gives the accord a softly refine animalic timber, balanced out with an incense, possibly masked as ISO E Super (merely an assumption), that strips the tone out of the earthy, woody green patchouli while retaining the spicy bits. All this consequential action in the base gives Ultimate its divinely masculine gravitas. Citric, floral, spicy and beautifully refreshing in a male genre overfilled with cavities. Ultimate is revelatory and a dare release for a designer house that let Geza Schoen do his thing. Sexy, manly, classy, elegant and worthy!