Illuminum Tahitian Yuzu

Tahitian Yuzu promised me something clean and fresh with a bit of the tropics. I certainly wasn’t let down.

Tahitian Yuzu

Tahitian Yuzu

In Bottle: Clear, clean and crisp. The yuzu is present, as are the florals and the sweet pineapple at the start.

Applied: Tahitian Yuzu is a pretty simple composition. It comes in with a sweet, tropical feel. The pineapple lends a lot to the tropics in this scent and makes me wish it was still summer and I had spent more time at the beach. The blackcurrant helps carry the pineapple into the floral midstage where Tahitian Yuzu takes on a slight hit of citrus and delves into the jasmine. It is primarily jasmine to my nose, with very small dashes of violets that mingle rather safely with the white musk at the bottom of the fragrance. Tahitian Yuzu doesn’t develop too much further from its midstage, its base is marked with a soft floral layered over clean musk. Smells simple, very wearable, if you were looking to smell fresh out of a shower and wanted something less soapy and more fruity than Cashmere Musk then Tahitian Yuzu would be a great candidate.

Extra: I frequently wondered when I was first really getting into perfumes just what on earth a yuzu was and why it was any different than a grapefruit. It took years to finally differentiate the two in my mind. To me, the yuzu is a bit stronger, a little more tart, and with a hint of smoothness that reminds me of a ripe orange. It’s difficult to describe how yuzu smells more complex to me than grapefruit because it took me years just to get to the point where I can even tell the difference–and even now, I’m pretty sloppy about it.

Design: All of Illuminum’s branding looks similar. Bottled in frosted glass, rectangular or square in appearance. Looks good lined up in a row, but not really my cup of tea in terms of design.

Fragrance Family: Clean Floral

Notes: Pineapple, blackcurrant, yuzu, jasmine, violet, white musk.

I like Tahitian Yuzu. I like that it’s clean and crisp and easy to wear and that little bite of the tropics at the start was a nice hook. But then, I didn’t think I would have much trouble with Illuminum’s offerings. Many of their scents were simple, clean and echoed a lot of Boadi’s work on the Boadicea the Victorious line. If you want to snag a bottle of Tahitian Yuzu, it is available in 50ml or 100ml and you can get one at Luckyscent or Illuminum’s website.

Reviewed in This Post: Tahitian Yuzu, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.


Versace Bright Crystal

Bright Crystal’s one of those designer fragrances geared toward younger consumers. It hits that purchaser’s sweet spot that’s totally into easy to wear, light and floral, and most importantly young and approachable.

Bright Crystal

In Bottle: Rather strong presence of sharp green grapefruit and tart pomegranate. The florals try hard to make an appearance in the opening but the top of this scent is rather two-dimensional.

Applied: The big fruity opening nets you in if you like fruity fragrances and the light floral heart will keep you around. This opens as a sharp yuzu/grapefruit with a strong flare of pomegranate before it digs into the mid-stage where a mixture of sheer clean florals awaits. The magnolia in this is particularly well done, it’s lush and pretty but not overpowering. There’s just enough of it to make you smell clean and flowery. That mixed with the cleaned-up girly lotus and the always girly and cleaned up peony and you get a mixture of some of the easiest to love florals in perfumery. The dry down is a cool green amber, kind of reminds me of sap, and a rather nice gentle waft of woods and clean musk.

Extra: I think the word of the day here is “clean”. Bright Crystal is highly approachable, highly likable, and will not make people clear a circle around you. It’s really easy to love, and I do like it quite a bit. It’s not the most interesting composition in the world, but you have to hand it to Versace if you’re looking for a youthful and clean scent.

Design: All right, I’m not a fan of the bottle. The color is pleasing, the shape of the bottle itself is simple and easy to like. But that giant, jewel-shaped cap is a bit too much for me. It does make the bottle stand out rather well, but it’s a tad too flashy in my opinion.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Pomegranate, yuzu, iced accord, magnolia, lotus, peony, plant amber, musk, mahogany.

Bright Crystal is a good choice for office wear or elevator wear. It’s just one of those fragrances that I have to lump into inoffensive and not much else. It’s one of the better inoffensive and not much else perfumes out there though.

Reviewed in This Post: Bright Crystal, 2010, Eau de Toilette.


BPAL Aizen-Myoo

Aizen-Myoo is like a flowery grapefruit scent that’s nice and pleasant if you need a spring or summer scent. It has a clean, green feel to it that makes it highly appropriate for inoffensive wear at the office or at school. It’s just a lovely, light, citrus fragrance that does not overdo it on the citrus side. Aizen Myoo

In Bottle: Grapefruit, something slightly sweet and a bouquet of beautiful white flowers. I love the way Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab uses white florals. It’s fantastic in many cases and really gives the fragrance that clean, airy feel without being too heavy.

Applied: Very strong initial grapefruit scent. This is actually yuzu I should be smelling in which a real yuzu has a slightly less astringent scent to it. It smells greener, not as sharp, in other words. But for simplicity’s sake, Aizen-Myoo opens with powerful grapefruits. The black tea comes up after the grapefruit calms down a bit, adding in that nice, dense, tea scent to the fragrance. The cherry blossoms round off the fragrance, making things pleasant and light. The citrus notes in this are front and center. Most of what I get is grapefruit but there’s a sweetness in there lent from the kaki as well. The cherry blossom and kaki do good work preventing the citrus from becoming too much.

Extra: Mikan is referring to the satsuma fruit, a citrus that bears an outer resemblance to a mandarin or orange. It is seedless and edible. Kaki is referring to a type of persimmon.

Design: Aizen-Myoo is bottled in the same way as other general catalog scents from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

Fragrance Family: Citrus

Notes: Yuzu, kaki, mikan, cherry blossom, black tea.

Aizen-Myoo is just a pleasant exercise in simple but nice. The black tea note in this fragrance is one of the more prominent of BPAL’s offerings.

Reviewed in This Post: Aizen-Myoo, 2009, 5ml Bottle.