The One Royal Night by D&G

Royal Night is part of The One ‘Night’ series from Dolce & Gabbana. It was released in 2015. I was interested in trying this one out, seeing how it compared to the originals and Luminous Night. The wood notes sounded intriguing and like this could have some more power behind it. How does it actually smell? When should it be worn? Is it actually worth a try?

What does The One Royal Night Smell Like?

Notes include: basil, cardamom, pear wood, nutmeg, amber, cedar, sandalwood, labdanum

Click here to try: The One Royal Night

My Full Review

Here’s how D&G describes it: Steeped in mystery, sophistication and masculinity, The One Royal Night takes us on an olfactory journey to the Middle East, echoing its scents and sensations. Part of the Oriental Woody scent family, it explores the multi-faceted world of spices and brings the richness of Amber to life in a refined novel way.

The opening of The One Royal Night is really strong with the cardamom note. Basil and nutmeg also provide a spicy blast from the outset. You can tell that this shares plenty of the overlap with The One EDP or EDT, with how it starts.

But, noticeably absent is the grapefruit and the tobacco. This doesn’t have that same sweet warm and instead goes for something that is fresher and strong with woods.

Dolce describes the pear wood note as having a leathery facet. I do pick up something like that underneath the main accord along with some resinous and a bit scratchy base note.

The opening spice is short-lived. Basil gets out of the way quickly and nutmeg isn’t far behind. But, that sticks around for more than an hour. Royal Night really is the cardamom show for most of its existence, before the amber and woods start to take their share.

At this stage, it’s more about cardamom and cedar with what I guess is that pear wood note, taking a back seat. Less of a punchy spice and more of a clean and somewhat sharp wood.

Finally, the dry down is well, really dry. But, it has a certain sweetness to it that is kind of thick. The cardamom, amber, and sandalwood are the standouts. The rest of the composition is just the other woods.

So, it goes from major cardamom fragrance to a really woody cologne with amber and cardamom.

Sillage, Longevity, and Versatility

Sillage wise, the opening has some pop to it. But, it’s never all that loud with the scent trail or projecting that far off of the skin.

Sure, that initial basil and nutmeg punch does give it a strong start. However, I don’t think this has that much more power than the EDP version of The One. Maybe slightly stronger, just not much.

The latter stage is particularly soft. Woods and amber. Pretty light. Present, but not overwhelming.

The longevity seems to be right around that 5.5-7 hour range. Maybe I could squeeze a few more hours with more sprays, if I had a full bottle. But, with the sample sprayer this is about what I got.

Those last few hours are basically skin scent level projection.

Seasonally, break this one out in the autumn and winter months. Better as a nighttime wear, in more formal than casual situations. Not really one to wear to work during the day.

Better for older guys than teenagers. Royal Night does have a level of attractiveness to it, being a The One scent, but not the same type of date night vibe as the EDP. Still, wouldn’t be out of place in that context, however.

Overall Impressions of Royal Night

Overall, do I like Royal Night? I like it, don’t love it. I don’t think that it smells as good as The One EDP and doesn’t even surpass Luminous Night…but that’s a closer contest.

I think other people like this one for its woody depth and that amber/labdanum combination during the latter stages.

For me, I like that spicy opening. Amped up cardamom and basil from the original, that’s not held back by grapefruit or tobacco? I like it. Again, not to the same extent I like that original formulation, but it’s got an interesting aroma.

The dry down is just another amber and woods combination. That’s nice, smells fine, just kind of boring to me. The sandalwood is a good one, but nothing that I get too excited about.

The performance is decent, pretty standard fare for The One line, especially with the eau de parfums.

If the cardamom and woody aspects of the EDP edition appealed to you. Then, Royal Night might be the scent for you. Outside of that, it’s worth giving a try, but probably not one that a lot of people will want to blind buy.

Best Men's Colognes

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.