Apex
Roja Dove (2022)

Apex pretty much sits in the same realm as Italian Cypress, Floris 1962, Polo Green, and Z14. However, the blueprint has been revamped, and reconstructed in such a way that makes it modern and appealing to wider audiences while seamlessly maintaining its old fashion dna. The main notes to me are cypress, galbanum, saffron, cloves, moss, leather and resins. Sure there's nothing new to be discovered here, but at the very least worth sampling if you are a fan of 80s throwback fragrances. With that being said, Apex has nothing to do with Sauvage Elixir. Why this comparison even exists and parroted is beyond me. For starters, there is no Lavender, nor cloying sweets notes in Apex. Apex is mostly dry, woody, coniferous and smoky. I personally love it, but to those that dislike this genre will find any excuse to belittle the scent profile. Unfortunately, this seems to be a common trait within our beloved fragrance community.

When I was 10 or 11 my mother took me and my brothers to Dawlish to a caravan park. We went to a entertainment night, where the headline act was Cannon & Ball (sorry non-UK non-Gen X and older readers) any way there was very well known acts on that show and the Headliners came on and it was comedy and etc and then it closed out with a song. Bobby Balll came back on stage and started to 'rap' (it was the mid 80s) and Tommy Cannon came out and said " Woah woah woha what yer doin? Kids nowadays don't want the rapping, they want the Durty Dancin" (again it was the mid-80s) and they proceeded to sing ' 'I've had the time of my life'. Now you might not know what this has got to do with this fragrance, but if as I suspected this is an attempt to appeal to a younger demographic by Roja Dove and not the dowagers, aged moneyed spinsters and tacky nouveau riche; then sheesh!


In this there is a very similar signature of early to mid 80s powerhouse fragrances , in the opening I could not stand a very prominent citrus, I don't know if it was the pineapple or the lemon, but it did not sit well with me; and this being a Roja it could've been both and other citrus notes as well. I really could not wait for that to disappear. If that had stuck around I would be writing something completely different.

I am surprised how much I like this, its much better than the criticism suggests, and I'm not really a Roja Dove fan (although I do like and respect what he's doing insomuch of recreating a classic style of fragrance) I can see he was trying for a 'younger' demographic but like Cannon & Ball missed the target. Not a bad shot though.

Madame Secretary, I cede my time to Varanis Ridari, as there is no point in gilding the lily that is his review of this metaphor-in-a-bottle. Basenotes would not be Basenotes without VR, and the sheer mendacity of this offering has brought forth possibly the most eloquent and vitriolic review that I have read to date. I truly believe that there was blood on his keyboard following this review. Pure fragrant poetry!

Apex does have a similar style to Sauvage Elixir, but instead of having the sweet freshness of Sauvage that makes Elixir a nice mix of modern and mature, Apex leans harder into mature. The sweet, freshness of Sauvage is replaced with crisp, bitter, smokey greens. Fougere fans should give this a shot. Could be a winner. For me, I'm not a fan and I'll take Sauvage Elixir anyday.

Performance is great. There's plenty of projection and all day longevity.

For starters, let's ignore that every "opinions are my own" sponsored YouTube clown from here to Kingdom Come has almost nothing but praise for this thing, even if chances are likelier than lightning striking twice that they were given their bottles in exchange for their vote of confidence. The fact you cannot get a straight opinion about this stuff online anywhere is extremely saddening, and telling of the true power "influencers" hold over public perception of a product in our dying Corporate Ghoul-led consumerist hell-hole of a world, even beyond what any traditional advertisements can achieve, rendering any kind of public opinion on it moot, since the sycophants of these charlatans drown out any dissent. Once the dust settles and it's just you, the sample or bottle of Apex by Roja Dove (2022), and your thoughts, it's very difficult to form any sort of unbiased opinion with the echoes of brain-dead banshees shouting "latest banger" still ringing in your ears. Finally, when you realize this is a scent aimed at a very peculiar demographic of early Gen-Z millionaire trust fund playboys just barely old enough to drink, plus likely one more moving violation away from being locked up for drifting their Mercedes AMG into oncoming traffic, requiring daddy to bribe the judge -again- just to keep their license, and you just want to chuck the bottle at their windshield instead of spray it to test. It only gets worse from here.

Welcome to detached affluence in a bottle, version 8.271 or something. This time around, Millennial older brother and Gen-X dad who were targeted by Elysium Parfum Cologne by Roja Dove (2017) and then the rest of the expanded Parfum Cologne range respectively, they're left conspicuously out of the equation here with Apex. Instead, we get some musings about being an apex predator, and getting one of 12 different "spirit animal" cards that will likely sit well with Native Americans knowing that stuffy old British former-colonizers are still appropriating their culture without a care in the world to what it actually means, just to use as a gimmick to sell overpriced "men's cologne". All of this must be an attempt to find the inner apex predator (also read: inner sociopath) that is inside of every corporate neo-aristocrat spawn looking to justify why he is better than you. Give me a break. The smell of Apex is pretty much a mish-mash of Creed Aventus (2010) top notes over something a bit sweeter and more aromatic. The herbal quotient is joined by hedione and then everything plunges into the usual kitchen sink that is the Roja Dove base. Elemi, tobacco, sandalwood, leather, oakmoss, amber, labdanum, musk, and claimed real ambergris (likely ambroxan) fill out a bottom end that wants to be a 1980's powerhouse without the challenge of an actual 1980's powerhouse. The young guys this reaches for won't understand it, but they also might not care if Apex strokes their alpha male complexes the right way. Projection goes for 3 hours, overall wear for 8.

Ultimately, we have a fragrance that tries to covertly sneak the stuff dad and older brother loves about men's fragrance, into something the little Logan Paul wannabe younger brother will wear, maybe coaxing him to let his blue sauces go and someday reach for a bottle of Ralph Lauren Polo (1978), or some high-end luxury proxy Roja will have cooked up by then. Let me tell you, when you're doling out goodies to all the confidence hustlers online, so they can have their flocks drink the Kool-Aid and run out to blow $300+ on something that smells like you spilled several different random fragrances from the Macy's counter onto your shirt at once, you've really got your audience all figured out. Bottom line here is I can sort of respect the sneakiness of trying to put some older-style notes in the base of what is otherwise a modern build men's fragrance; but when your fragrance retails for this much, needs social engineering on a grand scale just to be relevant, and has such a toxic image to go along with it, I just cannot abide. If you want to layer Montblanc Explorer with some Givenchy Gentleman (1974), you can do that a lot cheaper than buying this, and probably smell better in the process. Something like Apex coming out from an indie brand at nearly the same price point but with a more genuine interest in doing something weird could have been cool, especially with a novel artistic flourish here or there. This however, is just trite ego-stroking hubris in a bottle sold to the usual spin-clappers that think owning a Tesla is being progressive. Thumbs down

These bottles come packaged with one of twelve different "apex predator" collector cards. Trade with your friends and collect them all. Which one will be YOUR apex spirit animal?

Yeah, I'm not kidding ... this release has reached a new low for what was once a respectable brand.