I made the mistake of going to the mall during my lunch hour to sniff around and see whether I still felt “meh” about Byredo and Louis Vuitton. Neiman didn’t have shit, so I guess I still feel meh about Byredo, but I was actually very impressed by LV’s Stellar Times once I got it on skin. I’m definitely going to grab a full bottle before next spring.
After my LV visit, I remembered there was a Balenciaga nearby, and I had never taken the time to smell the new fragrance line since it launched last year. Overall, I was pretty impressed, especially for the price. Nothing felt groundbreaking, but everything was very well blended, and the collection covered most of the mass-appealing scent profiles.
Honestly, that’s all I really expect from a “private line.” I’m not necessarily looking for groundbreaking works of art. They just need to smell high quality, polished, and inoffensive.
Once I smelled "100%", I knew I had to get it on skin because I’m very much in a floral era this summer. The opening gave me unisex Delina vibes, but the dry-down... the dry-down is what made me walk back into the store after work and bite the retail bullet.
I’ve heard comparisons to Wild Vetiver, but it surpasses that for me. What it actually reminds me of is a more masculine version of Pantheon Roma A once it dries down, and A is currently one of the top 10 fragrances in my collection.
The only issue is that A definitely leans feminine, so it isn’t something I usually wear unless I’m working from home, going out on the weekend, or heading out at night. Balenciaga 100%, on the other hand, opens unisex and stays unisex through the dry-down, which makes me feel much more comfortable throwing it in the summer office rotation.
If you have similar tastes and want a more unisex floral, I highly recommend getting your nose on it.
9.4/10
*
I also want to add that Balenciaga was, by far, my best designer retail shopping experience to date, and I’ve shopped across plenty of states and countries. I’ve almost always had a great time in niche boutiques, but for whatever reason, nearly every designer-store experience I’ve had, aside from YSL in Milan, has been flat-out bad.
I mean, I’d like to think I’m an attractive, well-dressed, definitely great-smelling man with a senior-level office job, but 99% of the time, the experience has still been shit. 🤣
