Le Gemme : Gyan
Bulgari (2016)

Slightly smokey, dry floral that leans fem to me, but has a sweet, seductiveness to it.

A little too heavy for warm weather. It's a serious fragrance as well, so doesn't feel right in casual/playful situations.

Very good projection and all-day longevity.

In this case, the beautiful bottle does a great job foreshadowing the fragrance. What I mean by that opening statement is that this fragrance is a masterfully blended, top quality expression of fragrance elements often associated with the colors on the bottle: (1) "black" scents, as embodied by the rich, dark frankincense components; (2) "gold" scents as typified by the middle-eastern combination of spice, jasmine and the aforementioned incense; & (3) "blue" elements embodied in some traces of marine elements and the universality of the fragrance's situational appropriateness.

I cannot imagine a setting where a mature person would not feel comfortable wearing Gyan. (While not something I personally care about, this scent seems to have the mass appeal required to illicit compliments. I received a quite unexpected one while wearing Gyan today).

Projection is moderate. Longevity is average on my skin: about 6 hours in cool, dry conditions, but longer when the temperature or humidity are higher. The scent progresses from a dark and rich incense opening to a middle where the slightly sweet jasmine floral elements become more noticeable and finally resolves into a pleasant subtlety marine/aquatic smell joined by the other elements that is different than, but still reminiscent of, Bleu de Chanel EDP. This final phase, which emerges at about the 90 minute mark on me, lingers for a while and becomes a skin scent after the first few hours.

Thumbs up, particularly at the discounter prices at which it occasionally can be found as of this writing.

Bottom line: Excellent (4/5).

This is awesome, plain and simple. It's a frankincense perfume through and through that's supported by patchouli and jasmine flower. The blending is ridiculous. It's a tad jasmine sambac for the first hour where it turns into patchouli and olibanum that dries down to potting soil and what smells like amber which ends up being incredibly smoky, balmy and woody that lasts for a long time. The dry down smells like resin, wood, a wee bit indolic that's cleverly hidden. There is nothing feminine about this, trust me. Guys, do not be afraid of this due to jasmine that personally I love. It's a blend as a whole that creates an intoxicating accord that's beyond, intoxicating. Gyan is noir, very dark, soapy clean, mysterious, very mysterious. Unusual even but totally intoxicating. The sillage is complex. This is a sillage perfume where you smell all the goodies. Up close it's so hard to dissect, it's a blob. From afar it's awesome.

It's a sheer perfume, wispy like. You cannot smell this while wearing. Expect unsolicited compliments hours after applying. It's very deceiving in it's delivery. I will not say overly strong but Gyan does have a considerable sillage where 2 spritzes provides more than ample performance for a solid 12 hours. There's a nod in the opening to Chanel's CoCo Noir minus the fruity notes and after development it seems like a deconstructed Chanel Bleu I kid you not. As a whole to me, this smells strongly of new, fine clothing or a very nice department store. Not linear in the least. It's a very complex scent that develops beautifully which for some strange reason ends on a Middle Eastern accord that I swear to you smells exactly like oud and amber. I can't figure out how these 3 notes create this but this entire concoction is without a doubt, Arabian. I firmly believe that there's secretly an unlisted synthetic agarwood accord because upon first spraying this smells exactly like bandages and the dry down is far too creamy and ambery for only frankincense, patchouli and jasmine.

The perfume behaves how Baccarat Rouge 540 does. It's almost non-existent on your skin but after many hours and body heat, it wafts this stunning and smoky, somewhat sweet and woody ambery patchouli goodness that smells purple and green but very dark. It's stellar.

I am a hardcore lover of all 3 of these notes and these in unison here are blended to perfection. My only complaint is that this is not a heavy scent which I think was intentionally done or else this would've been a nuke. It's a niche scent, barely. It's not worth $325 that's for sure. Not that this doesn't smell absolutely amazing, more for the fact that it still feels designer in a sense. This is worth about $150. Super cool perfume for Men, one of the best I've experienced in years.

Gyan just oozes ‘I'm sophisticated, back the fuck up'.

When worn, Gyan is a sexy cloud of resinous smoky patchouli with a sweet jasmine sambac radiating from the center. The patchouli is not that "hippie smelling" patchouli; this is a rich and refined patchouli.

Gyan is a smooth non-cloying fragrance (unless you really over do it) that can be worn anywhere - Black tie events, office, out with friends, or on a date with that special someone. Gyan gets a lot of unsolicited compliments and smells fantastic.

Gyan projects around 2 meters (6ft) and leaves a nice smoky sweet jasmine trail of fragrance in your wake.

As far as I am concerned, this is a year-round fragrance. Hot or cold weather, you will always smell great.

Gender-wise Gyan would smell great on men and women 25+. Younger people that prefer fresh scents will probably not appreciate this as much.

Gyan as well as the rest of the Le Gemme collection can only be purchased at a Bvlgari boutique online or in one of their brick and mortar locations.

Gyan is a solid 10/10

A Marine Floriental? The oriental notes are dark and interesting, but this fragrance maintains sheerness through the use of some marine notes. The drydown on skin would probably bring out the incense and patchouli, which I imagine is really nice, though I didn't try it on mine. I think that if this were a mainstream release, it would be a best seller. And indeed the Bvlgari SA tells me this is the best selling men's fragrance of the line. It's got something in it for everyone, and it has a lot more going on in it than the stated notes. I feel that this is Bvlgari's answer to Bleu de Chanel: something clearly masculine and strong with a bit of an aquatic cleanness. I like it. My husband would love it. But for over $300, I think he could do better for less.

A dark resinous (slightly incensey) masculine fragrance of indescribable beauty. Bvlgari Gyan (from Le Gemme new precious line) is the veritable essence of metropolitan "black" velvety luxuriousness. The subtle fresh cardamomish fruity/floral spiciness, combined with a more traditional patch-centered chypre musky accord and with a tad of frankincense, provides a quite classic "under-twist" (a glorious sophisticated-classic background in part a la Aramis JHL, Estee Lauder Youth Dew, Cartier Panthere, Armani Onde Mystere, Gianni Versace, Fendi by Fendi or classics Van Cleef&Arpels) in the body of an extraordinary modern glistening light oriental. I detect a tad of aromatic-fougere (woodsy-musky) classic tradition as well (Ungaro III jumping remotely on mind with its aromatic darkly floral soul). The floral presence is soapy-spicy a la Dior Addict but far more dark, humid, piquant and precious. Super lush and glamour, perfect for a gala night in the top down town lounge club. A velvety spicy-floral indonesian patchouli is the main protagonist of this moonlight-dream. One of the most sophisticated perfumes ever tested on skin. A modern masterwork for Bvlgari straight from the Jacques Cavallier's olfactory wisdom.
PS:a darkly modern piece of bold and decadent olfactory class ideally combining (all in one) a classically spicy-chypre background a la Aramis JHL or (just in part) YsL Opium Pour Homme with an aromatic fougere 80's/90's saturnine floral soul (a la Ungaro III or John Varvados) and a more modern glamour-chic dark aura (elusive and enigmatic) a la Costume National Scent Intense or Donna Karan Black Cashmere. Excellent.