Pegasus
Parfums de Marly (2011)

Upon the initial whiff, it reminded me of Le Male. However, I'm not particularly fond of Le Male, so this fragrance didn't resonate with me. Nevertheless, I found the sweetness of this scent to be smoother compared to Le Male, which made it more tolerable for me.

As someone who is not a fan of Parfums De Marly, I see this fragrance as another imitation of a popular scent. I do understand the hype around it, given the popularity of Le Male's DNA. Although I haven't personally experienced Craze by Armaf, I have heard that it is a good alternative to this scent.

Bitter almondy bubble gummy, in the vein of FCUK him. Core note remains through out, just, softens up. Definitely evolves more than the fcuk..

Smell of youth and for the young.

Lavender and almond with a vein of a floral vanilla. Another nicely done fragrance by PDM that is not entirely original, nor quite a clone. It reminds me at once of JPG LeMale, but much smoother and perhaps a touch more sophisticated. There's something identifiable that's trademark PDM and I get the same tone in Sedley and Greenley but prefer Pegasus the least. By no means is Pegasus a bad scent, just a bit too designer styled for my tastes. A pleasing fragrance none-the-less that offers excellent performance for any occasions.

I really like this one.
Light but strong and long lasting.
I'm a bit late for the house of PDM.... but I'm enjoying the two that I now own. However I do find this a little overpriced as a house in general, but this is still worth checking out.
Very Mass appealing and will be liked by people around you.

Overall scent 9-10
Performance 8.7
Sillage 7.5

If you like sweet powdery, this could be for you.

Almondy, "icy-anisic", poetic and oneiric (almondy-honeyed jasmine, musky lavender and heliotropic musks), a sort of Ted Lapidus Black Soul's aromatic twin with a stronger floral presence, less vanillin and more "icy muskiness" (a sort of Mugler Angel's male couterpart). Bergamot and woods anchor the structure to a classic format (despite the formula is modern). The general atmosphere is mentholated/spicy-anisic and honeyed-heliotropic.
A sort of "dark-angel type of fragrance" for the frostiest love-declarations in the night of the frosty eastern suburbias. Unfortunately at the end of the trip an annoying synth (somewhat pencil-shavings in vibe) cedary feel takes to develop in a kind of woody way which actually renders the aroma far less interesting to my nose.

Parfums de Marly Pegasus (2011) is part of the second generation which consisted of only two additional masculine releases, the other being Shagya (2011). The brand didn't even bother with feminine or unisex releases until three years into its existence, showing that they knew who was likely to pay their lofty asking prices. Parfums de Marly Pegasus more or less shoots straight for the style of popular upscale men's semi-orientals, a genre well worn-in by Parfums de Marly itself during the first of operation with launch releases like Ispazon (2010) and Darly (2010), but Pegasus does something entirely unlike those by dispensing with the fougère tones and ambery bases they contained. Instead of those, Pegasus builds up with almost a gourmand feel in similar fashion to L'Instant de Guerlain pour Homme (2004), with some powdery touches that compete with Reflection Man (2007) by fellow luxury niche purveyors Amouage. Pegasus isn't a direct copy of either, it's just in the same olfactive ballpark as them. Pegasus also shows the house moving away from its brief flirtation with eau de toilette concentrations, debuting as an eau de parfum in a silver version of the lacquered bottle used for Parfums de Marly Godolphin (2010). Going forward, most fragrances from this house would also be in similarly opaque bottles until the arrival of Sedley (2019) near decade's end. There isn't anything groundbreaking about Pegasus outside maybe an interesting use of almond in the heart, and lacking innovation is a sentiment echoed about many Parfums de Marly scents through the hobbyist community, but this is a very well-crafted and unique entry within its genre.

Pegasus was made as the answer to niche luxury buyers looking for something without a potentially cloying base of amber or leather, which is what underpinned the four launch scents and something commonly found among competitors like Tom Ford Private Blend or Serge Lutens, showing off the first use of an ambroxan base from the house (albeit low-key). What makes Pegasus rather unique is this ambroxan is built up with oriental tones and a high-quality synthetic sandalwood compound (likely based in javanol), so it doesn't really feel like some of the later ambroxan-heavy compositions Parfums de Marly would release after the house caught some hype from YouTube reviewers. The opening of bergamot, heliotrope, and caraway seed is particularly anachronistic in the way it introduces a powdery vibe not really much seen in masculine perfumery since the 1970's, and like Parfums de Marly Lipizzan, might have some appeal for vintage masculine fans into that sort of thing. Unlike Lipizzan, Pegasus does not remain in "vintage mode" much past the opening and part of the heart, since an old-school French lavender/lavandin combo reminiscent of Caron Pour Un Homme (1934) is married to an almond accord that presages and likely inspired the creation of Guerlain L'Homme Ideal (2014). There is a bit of clean hedione here as well, then the base of sandalwood, vanilla, ambroxan, and a touch of incense appears. Wear time is over 10 hours, with consistent sillage and moderate projection for the first half. Beyond the 5 hour mark you will only catch whiffs of the lavender playing with the almond and woods, which lends a very pleasant office-friendly character to the scent. You may be tempted to apply heavier to circumvent this, but a metallic harshness surfaces if you do, so I'd just suffice with it as is, and I have a feeling this may have something to do with powdery tones of the top mixing with the ambroxan in higher doses.

Parfums de Marly Pegasus straddles the line between office fragrance and cozy romantic evening scent, especially with the way the lavender, heliotrope, almond, and vanilla greet you like a welcoming hug but also lend a bit of a sharp edge with the woody ambrox tones in the base. There isn't anything really sexy about Pegasus, and it is definitely not a "banger" like some of the later Parfums de Marly scents that feel over-engineered in the marketing research and development area, but this scent adds further evidence to my claim that the first few years before the niche brand found its true... um... niche, were some of its best because the accountants at the top of the company were just letting the perfumers "mess around in the kitchen" rather than attempting to go for a killshot in every release. Later on the house would schism into 2 assortments for the Western and Middle Eastern markets, giving the former a handful of upscale designer clones that draw contempt from hardcore niche fans, and a more interesting spread of orientals and ouds to the latter market until Layton (2016) came along and cemented the brand globally in the way Aventus (2010) did for Creed. At least here with Pegasus, we see a luxury masculine perfume less concerned with results and just being comfortable existing in its own skin, even if that doesn't exactly ameliorate the ridiculous price. Still, if you're looking for a high-quality semi-oriental you can use for work or a night out and don't mind shopping in discounters for a good value (where this is about half-price), Parfums de Marly Pegasus is maybe just the horse that'll fly for ya. Thumbs up.