Isola Blu
Roja Dove (2023)

Isola Blu by Roja Dove (2023) is fabled to be a slight tweak and reformulation of Oligarch Parfum by Roja Dove (2022), renamed to avoid association with Russian oligarchs in wake of the Ukraine invasion. Can't say I've ever smelled Oligarch, and Roja Parfums barely comes across my desk due to its grotesque pricing; there just simply is no point to review something I'd have to make myself homeless in order to buy, knowing much of my viewership is in a social class comparable to myself. The kind of people that snicker behind closed doors about the nobility of materials and price being no object in order to have what they've gas-lit themselves into believing is the finest perfume on planet Earth, due to expense of formula and complexity of composition alone, are not likely to be the kind of people wanting a feet-on-the-ground review of Roja Dove fragrances by a mere mortal like myself anyway. I mean, if people like me don't even deserve a living wage, why would our opinions matter?

That said, this does smell pretty good, even if the sheer glut of materials makes this a bit of a confusing chimera at times. Dove is sort of like a 1980's reverb-soaked noise-gated Hugh Padgham-produced distortion of roaring-twenties opulence anyway, as if you took Guerlain or Caron and pushed them through the maximalism of Estée Lauder and Tom Ford, the latter of whom shares Roja's love of revisionist history perfume design as well. Too many materials for me to prattle off and identify here, the gist of Isola Blu is to be a marine-topped neroli and blood orange scent on a base of green aromatics and woods. In essence, we have Jean-Claude Ellena through a 500 watt Onkyo component system straight out of a vintage Circuit City. The most prominent notes will be the citruses, the champaca, the rose, blackcurrant buds, juniper, and the herbs before we reach the patchouli and cedar powered by good ol' Iso E Super. Must be the finest Iso E money can buy; triple-distilled over quartz like the top-end vodka Oligarchs drink.

Performance is bonkers, as you might expect by my above description, and all sense of transparency like you'd find in something such as the oft-compared Terre d'Hermès (2006) is lost. If you always wanted a fruity take on Terre d'Hermès and don't mind paying an exponential fee for the experience, Isola Blu might be your next purchase; but obviously for most of us, this is a deal-breaker. $485 for just 50ml of juice is also only a little above Tom Ford's usual ridiculousness too, so these days it looks like ol' Roger and ol' Tom are gridlocked in a competition for who can fleece the rich faster with less to offer, although at least you get a really heavy pretty bottle blinged-out in brass and gemstones from Dove. I'm trying to be as fair as I possibly can be considering the value proposition offered here, but there is only so much insulting of my intelligence I can take, so I'll compromise and instead of flunking this out, I'll give Roja's re-named Robertet-made wonder-sauce a solid Neutral.

Beautiful citrus with a very nice orange blossom note. With the large amount of notes in this gem, you would think it's a catastrophe waiting to happen. But, it's the total opposite. Great for early spring until early fall. A bottle of this will probably be purchased if the price is right.

This is supposedly a reformulation of "Oligarch", which itself was rebranded to avoid awkward connotations with Russian millionaires. I never did sample "Oligarch", but "Isola Blu" is a winner. It has a lovely series of limey/bergamot-filled opening notes, which deepen patchouli/amber/musk flavours. Longevity is fine.

This is also ungodly expensive -- and may represent poor value for money, as nice as it is. Burlington 1819 is a better citrus scent, and it costs half as much, as you at least get 100mL of that scent in a bottle, compared with only 50mL for this.