Reviews of Baldessarini Ultimate by Baldessarini

First Impression - I sprayed this pretty heavily before going out for a motorcycle ride. I didn't read the notes. I would have bet good money that the dominant note in here was rose - and I don't like rose at all. But the rose I was getting was somehow interesting and not completely off-putting. There was a very nice pepper note on top, and the incense note kept me interested. I will do another review when I can analyze this more, but if you really hate rose, try a tester before you go for a full bottle.

Edit: I have worn this for about a year since my first review, and I am very impressed. This is a powerful, fully masculine scent, much more so than the listed floral mid-notes would suggest. In the same ballpark as Bentley Intense and Absolute, but not as narrowly focused, making this more versatile. This is not casual at all, having a sort of Sean Connery - Bond feel, but if you are over 40 and have lost some of your need to please others, you can rock this. I almost sold this, but as with Roger & Gallet Open (another underrated masculine gem), I am very glad that I gave this a few more tries, because I never want to be without a bottle of either in my collection.

A grown up Hugo Boss Energise, with better materials and blending.
A 'pink' hued men's release, which feels classy and can dress up or down.
A great daily driver for work, as it's not real sweet so it shouldn't cloy.

7.5/10

A bit of a peppery oddball, which opens rather sour and bracing but evolves into a nicely done woody patchouli. Thankfully the base doesn't turn into the typical synthetic amberwood bloat, though I assume similar ingredients are at play--just in sane proportions that don't induce seasickness like so many modern masculines at the designer level.

There is an interesting sour accord in here that felt immediately familiar--possibly a combination of citrus notes and vetiveryl acetate--as this reminded me of Escentric Molecules - Escentric 03, which is of course also created by Geza Schoen. They're not identical: Escentric 03 leans harder into vetiver instead of peppery patchouli, and Escentric feels more ethereal, slightly less woody, but similarly sour--but that accord is so distinct (very "Geza") that I don't need to own both.

I'm also picking up a slight similarity to Dior Homme 2020 in the way DH leans hard into an extremely sour / musk note. Personally, I find DH 2020 screechy and unwearable due to the intensely sour opening (probably some kind of note sensitivity on my part). Whatever note that is in DH also reminds me of the sour opening here, but Ultimate is blended much more deftly. Ultimate uses its combination of sour and piquant notes in much subtler fashion, piquing my interest with its rough edges, rather than bludgeoning the senses the way DH 2020 does. It's nice to see something I find unpleasant in another context handled to such interesting effect here.

All in all a solid masculine designer fragrance, well worth sampling. I'll pass on the full bottle and stick with Escentric 03, but I'm glad I tried it.

Does this really separate the men from the boys as the box suggests? That's debatable, but the quality of this release is impressive, given its affordability–not to mention tacky name and marketing.

A handsome, heavy glass bottle, a juice color that's actually evocative of the scent, and an pepper/amber/olibanum/iso-e haze that is impossible for me to resist. No cloying sweetness either, thank goodness.

In the same genre as Azzaro Wanted by Night but this is way better.

It's more natural, does not have this artificial sweetness to it nor the cloying incense (not listed in its notes but it's there). Plus, it actually has tobacco in it or a very close impression thereof and that suits this type of scent. I didn't get tobacco from Wanted by Night.

At first without looking, I thought Baldessarini Ultimate's ingredients were: pepper, tobacco, vetiver, geranium, patchouli, ambroxan. Not correct, but that was the vibe it gave me.

The green part of it is very convincing and natural, and the incensey part is toned down so it doesn't cloy. The resinous side of it can be mistake for a hint of ambroxan. Of the heart notes I can only detect jasmine, real not hedione. Lovely scent.

Ultimate opens with a stunning, tasty, pink pepper along with a mandarin and bergamot one-two punch that jolts the olfactory with a palpitating rush that one feels when there is something wickedly beautiful in the making. Thankfully, it is just that… The sweeping floral heart, particularly, the dusty freesia shapes the whole accord by rounding the citric waxiness of magnolia and the pissy dryness of jasmine, into a garland of airy delight till a leathery, earthy base enters and put its full weight down. The smooth leather note, with a thin suede finish, is augmented by the resinous exchange of labdanum and amber, that gives the accord a softly refine animalic timber, balanced out with an incense, possibly masked as ISO E Super (merely an assumption), that strips the tone out of the earthy, woody green patchouli while retaining the spicy bits. All this consequential action in the base gives Ultimate its divinely masculine gravitas. Citric, floral, spicy and beautifully refreshing in a male genre overfilled with cavities. Ultimate is revelatory and a dare release for a designer house that let Geza Schoen do his thing. Sexy, manly, classy, elegant and worthy!

Sea, salt, pepper, breeze
Good with just a hint of bad
Firstest world problems

Thus, we speak well of
Puredistance BDSR
Its woood-grained panels

Particularly
Impressive to this here rube
Due to their texture

Their sniff-space veneer
Be they as they may beneath
A bit p'ly-wooody

Yet compl[ie]mented
By Corrrinthian leather
Deerly Bullloved

And easily tracked
By animalic dropppings
Of a manly yet

Also womanly
Grrrather Remi-Ni-scent type
Yet mostly bizness

Not so much pleasure
Although we might conduct our
Bizness on a yaaacht

In some brisk fresh way
The whole afffair thus being
Busy yet relaxed

Like morning cofffee
Sausage and eggs up on deck
With Wall Street Journal

And satelllite phone
Which is one hell of a note
Y'all'd do well to sniff.

I just picked up a bottle of the aftershave and wow.....very nice! Spicey but not over powering. I bought it based on online ratings, without ever having tried it and can recommend it to everyone looking for something new and for every day.

This is good.
Masculine, smoky sexy, incense and patchouli.

Could be stronger to achieve that wild effect but as it is it is just right if you are not daring.

Could be a niche offering...was not surprised to see Geza was responsible for this.

Buy this before the prices go to astronomic.

Ultimate has a promising opening. Instantly I am brought to JCE creations, specifically Declaration, but with a little more of a citrus kick. However, this quickly dies down, and becomes more of a Strictly Private like smell, which is another overrated Baldessarini. The dry down here doesn't smell right to me either. Kind of sour.

I still think Ambre is the best of the line, and the most reviewed for a reason, It's simply good.

Ultimate on the other hand.. not so much. Although the composition seems fair, it doesn't cater to my personal interest. I give this a very low neutral rating, almost negative.

Just so impressed with Baldessarini Ultimate. A great mixture of pleasing notes. To me, it is the perfect blend of a new/modern and refined/mature scent that can be worn by many different ages and in different situations. Perfect for work, casual and even formal. Not the best for clubs or dates, but is still nice to sniff up-close if it goes like that. Projection is average, nothing beastly, which is good for work environments.

Wearing this again lately and just want to update that longevity is better than I remember, lasting 8-9 hours. Also, it gives me a TdH vibe without some of the dirtiness. Clean, musky orange with a nice, soft woody drydown.

Lots of fun going on with this one, really surprising: Oldschool 90s vibes and post-powerscents references, perfectly in tune with modern 'niche' style, transparent woods, airy smokes & incenses, dark florals, light herbs and fancy aromachems. Its fruity yet dusty, mineral florals strongly remind of scents like Paestum Rose, there`s a strong herbal aspect that feels borrowed right out of Sander's Scent 79. There`s a well-mannered weirdness, a peach-ey rose, a smoky cinnamon, a modern iso-e and woody amber and the slightest bit of soapy barbershop. It doesn't smell that much of high-end ingredients - BUT it smells of good ideas, integrity, creativity. It smells of perfumer's composing fun & freedom.
Ultimate lasts more than half a day if applied generously. Yet it makes more of a skin-scent, a wearer`s perfume and a classy, unconventional allrounder. Nice, hefty bottle. Good value. Name is shit, though.

It didn't take much effort to accomplish that, but finally here's the first decent offering from Baldessarini since their early Baldessarini Eau de Cologne. Ultimate doesn't really scream quality, but it's very (thus, surprisingly) nice, surely more than enough for the brand and the market positioning, no snobbery intended. It's modern, almost slightly “avantgarde”, and could very easily fit in contemporary fashion lines like Comme des Garçons. Actually it smells like something they could have made, and that would have even been better than some of their offerings.

Anyway basically Ultimate is a sharp, quite fresh, intentionally (I guess) heavily synthetic sort of metallic-crisp woody-peppery fragrance with some nondescript yet fairly pleasant “juicy-floral” feel and some peculiar, sharp herbal-metallic nuances. It's like a mix of Comme des Garçons 2 Man, Rochas Aquaman or Lanvin Oxygene, and any fresh citrus fragrance. It's a contemporary “ transparent woody-peppery” scent with fresh herbal-citrus and slightly fruity tones. And some sort of watery-aquatic feel – not ozonic, I really mean “watery”. It then evolves on basically the same path, just becoming a bit warmer with amber, olibanum (Iso E Super, basically) and leather (sort of, an unperceivable thin whiff of suede) unfolding their velvet touch over the initial tangy pepper-green head notes. And so remains for some hours, aseptically warm yet breezy and pleasantly classy, quite “youthful” and even sort of hipster-ish despite the marketing claim you read on the box (“Separates the men from the boys” – seriously?).

So, that's it. A totally decent, even interestingly multifaceted modern designer with a “niche-avantgarde” feel (so again, basically something à la Comme des Garçons). Which is a very positive sign from Baldessarini – they could have kept going on with that Del Mar and Private Affairs cheap garbage, while they decided to do this. It isn't a masterpiece, but it's still on a whole different level if compared to any other offering by this brand, except as I said, the first Baldessarini cologne. It has some sense, it has a definite personality, and the quality seems very respectable. Nothing you can't skip safely, but it's very fine. Surely worthy a sniff for me.

6,5-7/10

Very good, I have to admit, really but really good scent.
On the trail of Serge Noire, in style and character. In designer world there is a serious lack of scents like this.

Baldessarini Ultimate is very formal and requires a bit of a dress code as well. For the office, formal meeting etc. Dating? Not at first, at least not until a person gets to know you a bit more because it's too formal albeit the fact it's modern as well. You don't want to smell on a date in fashion that you also might be holding data statistics and market analysis in your hands.

Further on, this is a true spicy oriental fragrance with accent on "spice". Very bright, smart, decent, mature, corporate, modern with a twist of classic!
This scent justifies the Baldessarini motto : "separates the men from the boys"


Originality: 7/10
Scent: 8/10
Longevity: 8/10
Projection: 7/10
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30/40=75%