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Dolce & Gabbana released it so-called Anthology series of fragrances a few years ago and I have already reviewed two of these colognes on this site already (La Force, Le Fou). In all honesty, this line of scents has been quite disappointing. Not that they are horrible fragrances by any means, it just seems that they are all sort of bland and/or weak in their longevity and projection. In this post, I want to take a closer look at Le Bateleur 1 from D&G.
What does La Bateleur 1 Smell Like?
Notes include: coriander, juniper berries, cardamom, cedar, vetiver, and birch
My Full Wear Review
Upon the first spray, I noticed an aquatic quality to this and definitely the juniper berries. That’s what the opening is mostly consisting of in my opinion, water and juniper. It’s nice and has an earthy and woodsy fragrance to it sitting underneath that main accord.
This is a woodsy aquatic, versus the usual fruity or oceanic type of scent. That’s good, if you’re looking for a change of pace.
After a while, it does seem to shift a bit more into the woodsy feeling than being strictly an aquatic with berries. Cedar and birch are the woody notes early on. Then, the dry down will be more about cedar and vetiver.
The final dry down is a cold and fresh woody fragrance. Still quite aquatic, but no
Sillage, Longevity, and Versatility
Sillage wise, it’s below average. The opening act isn’t too bad and it reaches a moderate status during that part. However, for most of the wear, I forgot that I was even still wearing La Bateleur.
If I pressed my nose close to the skin, I could detect it. But, outside of that, not really.
Longevity wise, it isn’t that great. Maybe 4 hours on my skin. It’s quite subpar with how it performs. If it had more of a boost in this department, I would be more enthusiastic about adding this one to the collection.
It is a fresh smell that is slightly masculine but could pull off a unisex application. It’s not heavy and animalistic, just a clean woodsy and sometimes hard to pin down scent.
That’s the strength of this scent. You can pretty much wear it whenever and it wouldn’t be that bad of a choice. I would skip nightlife or if you’d want to draw complements. It doesn’t really stand out.
Overall Impressions
Like the rest of the Anthology series (save for L’Imperatrice 3), I feel that this cologne isn’t really anything that special. I definitely like it but not as much as Le Fou 21 or any of the plethora of great fragrance options that I have.
It seems to me that all of the fragrances in this series have plenty of positive qualities, however, none are complete. It’s like they are all missing one ingredient are quality that would tie them together and make them good performers.
Do I recommend it? Not really. It’s a nice scent but I couldn’t justify buying a whole bottle for myself. Give the sample size a try and see if it works for you. It’s not one that even smells terrible, it’s just completely forgettable.
Update: This one came out in 2009, was never popular, and isn’t really around much anymore. Getting a bottle now, would probably be too expensive to even be worth it. So, unless you do get a sub-30 dollar bottle, don’t even worry about this.
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Best Men’s Colognes started back in 2013, as a way to share my learning experiences with different fragrances, as I dove head first into the hobby. Since then, I have written hundreds of reviews and other pages about perfumes and colognes.