Ultraviolet Man (2001)
by Paco Rabanne

I've never worn Ultraviolet myself, but a good friend of mine has been wearing it for years. It's a very strange fragrance, and it's unique in the best way. It's such a unique fragrance that I'm not even sure what the notes are - the best I can describe it is "sweet and musky, with a salty ambergris drydown." While the drydown is ambergris heavy, it doesn't smell like the drydown of a modern Creed fragrance. Rather, the ambergris is salty and slightly bitter, with a powdery facet to it and very, very diffusive. Ultraviolet has this amazing quality where it just surrounds the wearer, creating an aura of sweet musk without overpowering. I agree with the people who say it's very synthetic, but I can't say that's a bad thing. It might not smell natural, but I've never found it to be cloying, cheap or annoying.

While I can't really describe the way it smells, I can say that I love it, as many others do too.

8.75/10

Decent at most. It smells rather unique, which is a pleasant surprise considering the copious amounts of recent designer releases that seem to revolve around the same few themes. However, I hardly found this pleasurable to wear. It is hard to break this scent down. I can only repeat what has been said many times about this. It smells synthetic. Yes I know that most of the best, natural smelling fragrances are probably made up of synthetics, but Ultraviolet actually smells synthetic.

A routine mall testing experience, that begins with the application via a bottle based on a staple gun. The reason this has slipped under the critical radar is that it is simply unworthy of criticism, good or bad. In essence, this is a fragrance with a twiddly synthetic opening, followed by an amber by numbers drydown.

I'm seeing purple hype! Sweet and synthetic? Yes, also eminently forgettable. We're getting silly with this one. Not fun-silly like Quasar or Nostalgia, just silly.

As mentioned in the book "Perfumes: The Guide":
Violet and sugar. Sounds about right, seems like there's some vanilla in the base as well. Pointless but nice, short-lived as well. Might be good for a date on a summer evening. The bottle was kinda cool. Staple gun, I guess. Meh.

very distinctive and nice perfume. draws compliments and you can't stop smelling it.
it is really a nice job and very durable.