Bvlgari Ominia Crystalline

Omnia got its first flanker in 2005, with Omnia Crystalline. Like other flanker scents — Calvin Klein Euphoria Blossom, Prada Tendre, among others — it was designed for the Asian market, where lighter, fresher fragrances are the thing. And it did very well, apparently “reaching number one in Japan and South Korea”.

Omnia Crystalline is also by Alberto Morillas, and is a fresh musky woody fragrance with notes of bamboo, nashi pear, lotus flower, and balsa wood. On first smell, it would seem to have little in common with its parent scent: it is notably more aquatic, paler (in keeping with its name) and blander.

Omnia Crystalline is fresh and light, as you’d expect, and it is blander than the original, but it isn’t without personality. The pear, happily, is subdued in the opening, and not at all sweet: it doesn’t smell like a fruity floral or like something geared towards teenagers. Once the fruitiness fades, Omnia Crystalline is mostly musky woods, with very subtle green notes and something that smells rather like white tea. And while its overall character remains fresh and clean and crisp, the wood notes smell darker and deeper than you’d expect from balsa wood alone; according to PerfumeWorld, both Omnia and Omnia Crystalline also have guaiac wood.

Bvlgari Omnia Crystalline is an Eau de Toilette. The lasting power is excellent (easily 6 hours or more), but we should note that as with the original Omnia, we’ve seen numerous reports about its poor staying power. It can be found in 25, 40 and 65 ml. Bargain shoppers can find Omnia Crystalline at discount

Bvlgari Omnia Amethyste

Omnia Amethyste opens on peppery-earthy citrus, with, as promised, a fair amount of greenery. It moves on to a lightly powdery blend of floral notes with vanillic undertones. The rose is subtle, the iris is recognizable mostly in the peppery-earthy part of the opening. Morillas has said that nature print technology was used to capture the smell of iris blossoms for Omnia Amethyste, and that may account for the fact that the florals in the heart notes smell like such a blur.

It is a summery fragrance, and like the other Omnias, more sheer than not. The dry down is light musky woods, and after a few hours most of the floral notes are gone and then it isn’t altogether different from Crystalline, although some could call it cleaner, paler, less deep. Traces of scent linger on for at least 6-8 hours. Morillas describes Amethyste as “a fresh, precious and sophisticated fragrance that brings to mind a nicely manicured garden”.

Blvgari Omnia Amethyste is an Eau de Toilette, and is available in 25, 40 and 65 ml. It is available at discount, but not as widely as Omnia Crystalline.

Bvlgari Omnia

Omnia has a light, peppery-citrus top note over sheer woods and spices. The chocolate and almond are subdued, but do give this a gourmand feel for a short time. It dries down to a very pretty, very soft sandalwood with dusty spices. The saffron and cardamom are the most apparent, but every so often one can smell a bit of ginger or clove.

Despite the abundance of what are usually heavy spice notes, it stays sheer and transparent throughout, and it is only lightly sweet. It wears well in almost any but the very hottest weather.

The bottle is glass inside a plastic over-casing representing two interlocking rings. CPC Packaging selected this as one of the best fragrance bottles of 2003.

Bvlgari Omnia is available at department stores and at many of the online discounters.

As is true of the other numbered Chanels, the first hit of No. 22 is aldehydes. After twenty minutes, when the shrieking coloratura of the aldehydes fades, a gorgeous duet of white flowers and gentle incense emerges. After an hour and a half or so, just the incense, grounded slightly by vetiver, burns along quietly. One can’t really smell the vanilla in the dry down at all, and the jasmine, ylang ylang, and tuberose are blended so that none of them stands out from the others. The whole show lasts about four hours.

Overall, the scent is warmer and more interesting than its raft of white flowers might lead one to believe, probably because of its incense rather than the more usual vanilla, amber, or sandalwood. I sure was one terrific smelling teen. No. 22 is warm enough to save for cool weather, and could be a day or night fragrance, although it might be too pretty for work.

As is true of many perfumes, No. 5 contains more than one type of aldehyde. Aldehydes provide sparkle and can boost the dispersion of some notes. When you get a strong hit of aldehydes right away from a fragrance, chances are that you’re smelling an “aliphatic” aldehyde. Although some people think of a dose of aliphatic aldehydes as “perfume-y” and old fashioned, when Beaux made it the signature of No. 5 (and No. 22), it was revolutionary.

Osmoz describes No. 5 as having top notes of aldehydes, bergamot, lemon, and neroli; a heart of jasmine, lily of the valley, rose, and orris; and a base of vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, and amber.

No. 5 has a clean bottle and a rim of black around the box’s edges, and No. 5’s advertising campaigns over the years have been genius, featuring everyone from Catherine Deneuve, Ali McGraw, Claudia Schiffer, Jean Shrimpton, and Carole Bouquet to, most recently, Nicole Kidman.

Chanel No. 5 is ladylike but personal and could go just about anywhere, any time of the day or night. It’s not an astonishingly beautiful fragrance, but it’s easy and lovely. Is it worth all the hype?

The Eau de Parfum is $80 for 50 ml at Chanel and is available at department stores in Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum, and Parfum.