Thankfully, Bvlgari had a different sales associate today 🙃

Back to Bvlgari for the third day in a row. Couple of reasons: I wanted a third round with Gyan - 17 hours after spraying, a proper scrub in the shower and eight hours of sleep, the scent on my arm this morning was really lovely. Like a deep floral incense - not at all sweet, but extremely classy. Secondly, I wanted to try Kobraa. They never had it, but they did pull out Empyr and Yasep, so I tried those instead. The only catch is that I’d already sprayed Orom on my opposing arm to Gyan (I needed another day with that gorgeous, resinous, oudy vanilla), so I could only try them on paper, but I gave them a good dousing.

Empyr: Somewhere between a masculine, gingery aftershave lotion and the fizzy sherbet we used to dip those lollipops into as children, but woody and aquatic rather than sweet and fruity. The algae-adjacent, mineralic saltiness really rubs me the wrong way, but that’s personal. I can imagine plenty of men really enjoying this - it has a clean, freshly-showered, seize-the-day vibe. 4/10

Yasep: A semi-sweet, orange-flavoured ointment/wine gum on a woody, herbal backdrop. Not a big fan of amyris - it comes across as a piney sandalwood to me: gentlemanly, but in an old-fashioned, musty-balm sort of way. Easy to wear, albeit quite plain and designer-like. There’s a nice woody, airy sweetness running through it. It’s ok. 6/10

Orom is as fantastic as I remember and I'm very happy to be spending the day with this again. After surviving a shower and sleep, the oud was easily present on my arm the following morning - it's in there for sure, but buried deep below the resinous vanilla during most of the wear. Easily a 9+.

My thoughts about Gyan are unchanged - it needs more oomph! But really, it's how it will smell in 10 hours that I'm most looking forward to - I need to get to the bottom of whatever made my arm smell so good this morning. If that mysterious scent arrived earlier in the wear, I'd be toying with an 8.5.

That's me done with Le Gemme... for now.