Amazing (1999)
by Bill Blass

The first whiff is nail polish remover w/ an underlining of green floral. I only put this on originally because it came in a gift sampler pack and I had run out of my signature scent. Well after the dry down it was quite nice. I was not in love w/ it, but received more than a handful of compliments. It's cool and light w/ impressive sillage. I agree w/ Sherrie in that it does not feel particularly "amazing" as the name suggests. It suited my chemistry, but did not capture my heart at all.

Realizing that this is discontinued, I only write this on the off chance that a woman might find this at a nice discount at a TJ Maxx or something. Don't pass it up.

I got a sample, thought it was men's, and tried it. I figured it was just too feminine and put it aside for long time. Now I'm reviewing everything I have to "give back" to Basenotes, which has helped me terribly. So, upon realizing that this is a women's fragrances I can re-analyze it properly.

This is light, floral, feminine, flirtatious. It conjures the imagery of a summer fling; it's irreverent and careless, but not without the potential to be more serious.

I don't know why all the Bill Blass fragrances are being discontinued. They are relatively quite nice fragrances and get many compliments.

Amazing for women is a rather "stringent" tea rose fragrance with a slight "acidic" tone. It is rather nice on the dry down, but upon spraying my initial impression is that of waxy Crayola Crayons. Yes, it smells like Crayons at first. I think they discontinued the line because all the shower gel bottles were cracking. I bought several bottles of EDT, shower gel, and spray deodorant as I knew they were going to be discontinued. I had to transfer the shower gel into some containers I bought at The Container Store, so everything's fine now (no leaking shower gel bottles on my shelf). I wear this as a unisex fragrance as it is somewhere in the category of Declaration by Cartier, or Insense Ultramarine by Givenchy. It's a winner in my opinion. Thanks!

Ugh. The first ten seconds are terrible. When the fragrance settles done, almost all I get are aldehydes. I’m not sure exactly what notes are combined with the aldehydes—possibly rose plus a little citrus and the obligatory jasmine, but the main impact comes from the aldehydes. This is the first time I’ve encountered nearly naked aldehydes. Hmmm… Interesting. It’s very feminine, quite transparent, and highly unnatural. I don’t want to say “synthetic” because it doesn’t have that annoying lilt to it that’s in so many fragrances now days—at least not at first. As I keep smelling them, I’m starting to be annoyed and I have a funny synthetic taste in the back of my throat. These aldehydes are okay for an occasional sniff, but constant smelling of them is not okay. There’s a subtle fruit note in there, some green notes, and some more florals—all are quite transparent. The drydown is the typical sandalwood, musk and amber—also very subtle, but I think the aldehydes have disappeared.

Well, this was a new experience for me. The first fragrance I’ve smelled that seems to be composed almost entirely of aldehydes. I can’t say I like it, but I can’t say I dislike it, either. It is rather nice to get a sniff of this sort of thing once in a while, but prolonged exposure to it is not pleasant.

I bought Amazing by Bill Blass a couple of years ago. I think I paid $20 for the edt and body powder in a gift set. I actually bought it on impulse because I fell in love with the bottle. But I also like the fragrance - a soft green floral, one of my favorite fragrance families. It's not very long lasting. A spritz of it is nice after a shower. Now that I've talked myself into it, I'll wear some today. :-) So why don't I wear this more often? I guess because it's just not all that "Amazing", merely a pleasant & innocuous green floral. Which is fine.

(Half a thumbs-up on the fragrance, and a full thumbs-up on bottle design)