Eau de New York
Bond No. 9 (2004)

Extreme neroli. Super strong, super citrus, super sweet. It's certainly pleasant, but a bit overwhelming actually.

Nuclear Neroli. This is so clean that it's painfully clean. It makes me imagine some type of overly-scented, super-powered soap that you might find in school bathrooms in a Warsaw Pact country during the 1950s.

And it's so strong and projects like crazy. If you dig this scent you'll dig the performance.

Not for me.

Concentrated, longer-lasting 4711.

Laurice Rahmé and her Bond No. 9 are controversial entities in the world of niche fragrance. She was groomed through L'Oréal, Annick Goutal, and Creed before developing the acumen (and capital) to kick off her own house in 2003, opening the eponymous boutique at No. 9 Bond Street in the NoHo district of Manhattan. I've never actually been there in my numerous trips to NYC when I lived on the east coast, but I also was dormant in my perfume hobby then. The Bond No. 9 brand itself tries to instill local pride and kitsch charisma into its image, with garish bottles adorned in all kinds of NYC iconography like old subway tokens and the like. The outward appearance of accessibility this gives is a sham, and the boutique is infamous for having secret codes used over the announcement system to make employees aware of how to vet customers, with one such code being used in a racist way, landing Laurice Rahmé in temporary legal trouble. Other things like innumerable limited edition prestige flankers which vary too little from main lines, to a general opinion among hobbyists that Bond No. 9 really just flaunts a cult-like style over substance, constantly has them in the doghouse with the very perfumistas they attempt to serve by name. The launch fragrance itself, Eau de New York (2004), is a mostly-neroli fragrance that seeks to be a complex scent which outclasses predecessors like Eau de Guerlain (1974), Castile by Penhaligon's (1998), and Mugler Cologne (2001) by taking the eau de cologne formula and upgrading it even higher, going up to an eau de parfum instead of eau de toilette like the others.

Vera Venore, who's only other notable credit is a Marc Jacobs scent, is the listed perfumer behind Eau de New York, but I'm sure Laurice Rahmé had her hand in this too, since creative director is one of her many titles at Bond No. 9, and this kind of "a better version of a basic scent" tends to be a bandwagon theme which runs rampant through the most expensive and ostentatious of niche houses (eg. Roja Dove), remaking drugstore or designer staples with 10x the price tag. With that said, I do like Eau de New York, but with the caveat in mind that it's just a really strong and modernized "Kölnisch Wasser" at the end of the day, which will likely seem superfluous to many. Eau de New York opens with the expectant neroli, submerging it in a three-way citrus punch of grapefruit, bergamot, and sweet mandarin. Petitgrain enters the mix just a tad to keep this opening out of syrupy oriental territory, until a white floral bouquet turns up. Cyclamen, jasmine hedione, white lily, and verbena act like flying buttresses which brace the neroli head note, with an undetectable basil note listed among them. All I get is neroli, citrus, and flowers on the oakmoss, vetiver, and white musk base of the scent, which is also joined by a synthetic norlimbanol note, perishing any thoughts of Bond No. 9 being a naturalist artisinal house. The neroli is "frozen in time" much like it is with the aforementioned Castile, but with a much rounder, softer, and voluptuous perfume base, neutralizing some of the soapy clean charm Castile has in the process, and adulterating the neroli head note in the way Eau de Guerlain does with it's musky aromatic base as well. Very little oakmoss is present at skin scent level with Eau de New York, and the stuff becomes a simple neroli and musk perfume by the end of the long wear.

I enjoy Eau de New York, as I am a lover of both neroli scents and petitgrain scents. The unisex appeal on this one is pretty legitimate, and performance is outstanding, with sillage enough nearly to offend (if neroli wasn't so pleasant), plus all-day staying power. The real kicker here is the price in comparison to what it is: you can get every other Neroli scent named above for under $100USD, while retail on this is $300USD and anything over $100USD is a steal. Now don't get me wrong, there are several niche fragrances with quality and style almost magical to my nose, and they do very sorely tempt the cash right out of my wallet, but paying such a stiff price for what is at it's most fundamental an augmented eau de cologne seems a little nuts, but that speaks nothing of all the other subsequent Bond No. 9 releases, among which there are undoubtedly hidden gems. In conclusion, if you want a more floral and musky eau de cologne with perfume strength and some modern synthetic elements grafted on, by all means pick this up if you don't mind the price. You might see Eau de New York in my wardrobe some day, but there are so many more distinctive and original scents over the $100 price mark which would get my money first, that it may very well be a long time. All told, a very nice and well-blended scent, with lots of generalist appeal for use anywhere, anytime, by anyone, assuming they like neroli and musk, plus a lot of niche marketing fluff.

This is the greatest neroli (orange blossom) fragrance ever made in my opinion, hands down, and basically smells like you're smelling an orange tree and the grassy wet field in which it stands during the rain. It's the strongest neroli fragrance ever made, being way stronger than 4711 Eau de Cologne, Ferrari Bright Neroli, Tom Ford Neroli Portofino, Tom Ford Neroli Portofino Forte, and Acqua di Parma Colonia Essenza. I just feel like I'm in bliss when smelling this, especially as neroli is one of my favourite aromas in the world. This has a very green neroli and petitgrain scent to it that smells like a way more natural version of Mugler Cologne or Creed's Original Vetiver. I can smell the neroli but also the plant upon which it resides, including all the leaves and twigs, and also the grass in which it lives. The whole thing smells 'wet' as well as if it had just rained; it has the petrichor scent to it. It's a wonderful green scent that I'm a gigantic fan of. The neroli itself is extremely natural smelling and of the soapy kind. It's very, very pleasant. On drydown about 6 hours later, I detect the strong scent of white flowers - particularly jasmine and lily of the valley. The entire fragrance is totally unisex in my opinion but some would say is slightly feminine on the late drydown due to the white flowers - but I love white flowers so it doesn't bother me. This is also a beast in terms of performance, with strong projection for over 7 hours and around 10 hours of longevity in total on my skin. However the projection although strong is of the light and airy kind and non-cloying although it lasts for a very long time (very similar to Mugler Cologne) and not strong in the sense of a thick, cloying fragrance or even something like Mancera Lemon Line. This is one that if you wear, people will think you smell good but won't be overpowered by your scent. Overall this is the greatest neroli fragrance ever made in my opinion, and one of the best fragrances period; definitely in my top 5.

5/5

it can be a deceiving scent, for sure. Some say its an 'EDC', even tho' its actually an EDP. Some say the longevity is off the charts, but I happen to think its not the longevity thats as powerful as its scent trail. Its a blatant citrus scent, but its not like L'Eau D'Issey, where its screaming and shouting in your face, all day long (btw, I happen to like Miyake's flagship scent and all its synthetic glory). It calms down, and while it does last all day, you'll get slight whiffs of it, instead of a mind-numbing, bang-on, citrus shouter. I like to layer Dunhill Icon, Boucheron Pour Homme, and Mancera's Wave Musk with this...and it makes all of those citrus juices, pop even more than they normally do. by themselves.