Mainstream Monday: Sniffing a Popular Perfume
It is so weird to me that Bvlgari keeps launching Omnia flankers while basically omitting the original Omnia from their lineup. For those that don’t know, the original Omnia is one of my favorite designer perfumes. It’s still available if you venture into the realm of online retailers or big box stores. But, it kills me that this soft, spicy woodsy tea scent isn’t readily available BUT all of its flankers are. I feel like there needs to be a new perfume-related word created to describe this phenomenon. These Omnias are a flanker in that they share a common bottle and similar name, but can you be a flanker when your original is gone and forgotten? What are you now?
Anyway, I try these “flankers” or whatever they are because I like Bvlgari’s style. I like that they make sheer, pretty perfumes that are good for “daily” wear or when you want to smell good but you don’t want to stand out as too complicated. I don’t own any of the many jewel toned infinity-bottle shaped Omnias, but when I sampled them, they’ve been nice. They’re nice but they haven’t moved me enough to buy bottle because when it comes to boring “smell goods”, I have that base already covered. Anyway, when I sniff a new Omnia, I try not to compare it to the original because it will only break my heart. But, I do see vague traces of the Original in these – modern woods.
Omnia Crystalline has an opening that is familiar, but I like it. It’s like citrus and tea but underneath is something vaguely familiar of that tea-modern woods accord that I loved so much in Omnia. Are they they same? Absolutely not! Omnia Crystalline is soaped and scrubbed up. The pear is borderline shampoo-y and there’s aquatic florals that smell like a bar of soap in a humid shower. Most of the wear is a musky, modern woods that is super abstract…and linear. It’s clean and fresh woods. I swear I get some powdery iris (even though it’s not a note listed). It eventually goes from musky, clean woods to nothing at all. It’s one that doesn’t really unfold. It’s just there until it isn’t anymore.
Omnia Crystalline is a perfectly adequate perfume. I think it smells good and I enjoy wearing it. It’s a nice alternative to perfumes that market themselves as comfortable as cotton or linen. It is a comfortable fragrance and it does remind me of a clean white t-shirt and a pair of really flattering jeans. It’s laidback yet radiant. But, I still want my old Omnia. I don’t want 40 different abstract fruity things named after it.
Notes listed include bamboo, Nashi pear, lotus blossom, cassia, tea, musk, moss and balsa wood. Launched in 2005. PERFUMER – Alberto Morillas
Give Omnia Crystalline a try if you like bamboo scents or perfumes that inoffensive/”office friendly”. Or perfumes like Narciso Rodriguez Essence, By Kilian Bamboo Harmony, AERIN Iris Meadow, Jo Malone London Iris & Lady Moore, Prada Infusion d’Iris, TokyoMilk And Soul No.1 and/or Jesus del Pozo Escencia de Duende.
Projection and longevity are below average. However, the concentration is EDT, so I guess it’s average for that.
Omnia Crystalline is available in a few sizes with the 1.6 oz retailing for $66 at Sephora and Nordstrom. It can sometimes be found at discounters like Perfume.com for real cheap.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Clean, abstract woods. It’s nice. It’s not one I’m going to go out of my way and buy but if I found it for a great price and if I were in one of my impulsive moods, I’d totally buy a bottle. But, I don’t know if that says much about the fragrance as it does what a tool I can be.
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*Sample obtained by me. Product pic from Sephora. Pam Grier photo from fanpix.net. Post contains affiliate links. Thanks!