A*Men Ultra Zest 
Thierry Mugler (2015)

Pretty much an orange creamsicle. It's quite nice, but would I pay discontinuation-rate prices. Just layer Orange Sanguine with Vanille Insensee. There are plenty of other sweet orange fragrances to fix your need.

Nice opening but a lazy performer!

It was a bit surprising to see a flanker of the rather heavy, sweet and intense A*Men promising an ultra-zesty version. Imagine YSL Opium announcing that they will release a flanker called Opium Eau d'Orange Verte. Still, the top notes of Ultra Zest do the name some justice: an orangey-and-mandarin citrus opening, with touches of ginger and a minty freshness rounding it off. Not a revolutionary set of top notes, but well made in the TM tradition.

The drydown looses the freshness of the opening notes after a while and replaces it with a sweeter mix of a spicy cinnamon with a soft patchouli. In the base the trademark TM vanilla kicks in and ensures that we end up in the well-known A*Men comfort zone of sweet warmth.

I get moderate sillage, good projection and six hours of longevity, with the last couple of hours being very close to my skin.

As initially mentioned, the conceptual inconsistency between the original and this spring flanker are not easy to reconcile. TM resolved this conundrum by splitting it into two distinct phases: the zesty start - a bit enhanced with some A*Men intensity that unfortunately results in some attenuation of the zesty component that belies its name - and a second phase more like the original A*Men in character.

Overall, it is neither fish nor flesh, but still, if it was not for the disappointing performance it might just have made a positive score. 2.75/5.