French designer brand Azzaro has been one of the major names in mainstream fragrance for decades. While they might not enjoy the same level of popularity like bigshot brands such as Chanel or Dior, fragrances like Pour Homme, Acteur, Chrome, Visit, and Azzaro 9 are widely considered to be landmarks.
Azzaro Wild Mint is the new kid on the block, having been launched in 2019 in the “Pour Homme Sensual Blends” line alongside Naughty Leather, Hot Pepper, Ginger Lover, and Amber Fever. But how does Wild Mint stack up against the classics from the brand?
Azzaro Wild Mint is a fresh, clean, refreshing, and sweet blend orientated around the notes of mint and patchouli. While it might not reinvent the wheel, Wild Mint is nevertheless an appealing scent. It offers great performance and value for money, too.
Want to know more? Let’s take a closer look in my Azzaro Wild Mint review.
Fragrance Notes
Notes: mint, patchouli, calypsone (no top, middle, or base)
Scent Description
Overview
If you don’t enjoy mint, I would advise you to stay away from this fragrance. However, if you have the notion that mint fragrances all smell like toothpaste, and don’t like them for that reason, then I might suggest that you try Wild Mint.
Wild Mint, as the name implies, is all about mint.
This is not a complex fragrance in the least. I cannot wax lyrical about it like I can about other, more artistic scents like Beach Hut Man or Bois d’Armenie. This ain’t it. And I don’t believe that Azzaro released it with the intention of creating a staggering feat of perfumery. And you know what? That’s okay!
As much as I love perfumery and consider it an art, I dislike the prejudice of “serious” fragrance connoisseurs against “fun” or “lowbrow” scents like Wild Mint, Moschino’s Toy Boy, and others. They take themselves entirely too seriously. Personally, I love it when a brand releases a “fun” scent or a fragrance in a weird or avant-garde bottle. Why not? Why should everything be staid, static, and “classic”?
Wild Mint is, simply put, a fun, sweet, playful fragrance to wear in hot weather. People will enjoy it on you, and you will get compliments. It will not blow your mind, but it won’t break your bank either.
And by the way, this has nothing of the DNA from the original Azzaro Pour Homme from 1978. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Even though it’s nominally a flanker…yeah, it doesn’t smell anything like it. Just a disclaimer.
Scent Breakdown
The mint here is pretty well rendered, a nice compromise between “toothpastey” mint and the more rough, camphorous elements that you get in higher quality mint fragrances. It’s kind of like the best of both worlds here – you get the fresh, clean, cool feeling of a more toothpastey mint, but also some green depth of the more realistic stuff.
That mint is combined with a rich, somewhat bubblegummy sweetness that most fans of Azzaro fragrances will recognize. Having owned Wanted By Night myself in the past, I can definitely recognize that signature Azzaro sweetness that has become the brand’s calling card in Wild Mint.
Some dislike that sweetness, and that’s fair. Here, though, I think it’s been employed to great effect. The way that the mint combines with the sweetness, especially in the top, reminds me almost exactly of the smell of muddling mint, sugar, and ice together to make a mojito. Mojitos are my favorite cocktail, so any time I smell a reproduction of them in a fragrance, it always makes me crack a smile.
As time goes on, the coolness and freshness of the opening subsides, and the fragrance becomes warm, sweet, and almost cozy. Though I do think this fragrance would work best for spring and summer, I could see you getting away with it in cooler weather too due to the warm base.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention perhaps the second star of the show here, calypsone. What is calypsone, you might ask?
Calypsone is a relatively new aroma chemical produced by fragrance/cosmetics conglomerate Givaudan which is recently being used more and more in designer fragrances. It’s said to have a fresh, breezy, ozonic feel, with a scent like ripe watermelon, and is often used to evoke a “tropical” vibe.
It is definitely out in full force in Wild Mint. Right from jump, I detect a fruity, tropical, almost coconutty note, which lasts for a decent amount of time into the drydown. It lends this fragrance a fun, fresh appeal, and elevates it from what might have been a pretty dull mint fragrance.
Overall, that’s what you get with Wild Mint: green mint, warm sweetness, and tropical vibes. It gives me an irresistible urge to mix myself a nice mojito and kick my feet up on the beach. While it is pretty synthetic, and definitely isn’t all that unique, I enjoy the fragrance even so.
If I were to describe Wild Mint in a few words, they would be: fresh, clean, sweet, tropical, fruity, cool, and refreshing.
Presentation
Packaging
The packaging of Wild Mint is pretty standard-issue as far as designer fragrances go. For that reason, I don’t have a photo of the box for reference.
You get a basic black cardboard box with green trimmings, matching the color scheme of the bottle. The name of the house and the fragrance are written in white, while the Azzaro “A” logo is rendered in green to match the trimming.
Overall, the box is just fine. Gets the job done, and the design is nice, but there aren’t any additional bells and whistles.
Bottle
In terms of shape, the bottle is identical to the original Azzaro Pour Homme bottle from 1978. You get that same rectangular, faceted glass construction, with the Azzaro “A” and “Azzaro” in raised glass, surmounted by a thick, black plastic cap. Remove the cap, and you’ve got a pyramidal kind of thing going on with the glass, holding up the black atomizer.
The difference with Wild Mint, of course, lies in the color scheme. While the original bottle was an orange/gold tinted glass, in Wild Mint you’ve got a lovely black-to-green ombré effect, which I think looks really nice, personally. It really pops when you set it on your fragrance shelf alongside other bottles.
Personally, I really like the bottle. I love the retro look and feel, and for some reason the Azzaro Pour Homme et. al bottles have always reminded me of the movie Alien and 70s sci-fi movies, which is a plus in my book. It feels very well constructed, though the cap is pretty basic plastic. The atomizer is really good, shooting out a nice amount of juice with each pump.
Overall, the presentation of Azzaro Wild Mint is quite good.
Performance
The performance of Wild Mint is good, if not outstanding.
Longevity
The longevity of Wild Mint is pretty standard as far as designer fragrances go.
Four to five sprays on skin and fabric give around six to seven hours of solid longevity, and more on fabric.
This is definitely not a beast mode fragrance, though I am surprised by how much “presence” it does have considering that most fragrances of this type are fairly short lived.
The synthetic fixatives used in the scent give it more legs than it might have had had they not been employed, however – that calypsone really puts in work. I can detect Wild Mint on my skin pretty much for an entire workday which is more than enough performance for me from a warm weather fragrance.
Projection & Sillage
The projection and sillage of Wild Mint are similarly good, though not anything crazy.
Four to five sprays on skin and fabric give me around an hour of moderate to soft projection and arm’s length sillage for the first thirty minutes, gradually tapering to a skin scent.
When you first spray the fragrance on, it actually projects quite strongly. However, pretty soon it dies down and gets a lot quieter. Nevertheless, you can still pick up on Wild Mint for a good while after it’s been applied, even if it is little more than a skin scent for most of its life. However, I do get little puffs of scent here and there when I move, quietly reminding me that it’s still there.
Again, this isn’t a beast mode scent by any means, but neither is it a wallflower.
Value For Money
The value for money is probably the best part of Azzaro Wild Mint.
Azzaro Wild Mint retails for $53.46 for a 3.4oz (100ml) bottle. That’s $0.53/ml.
Even for retail, that’s a pretty good price. However, I have regularly seen Wild Mint on sale on discount fragrance websites like FragranceX, FragranceNet, and Notino for significantly less. I bought my bottle for around $20, which is a great price in my opinion.
The fragrance was quite popular and hyped up by Youtubers when it was first released, so it might be sold out from time to time on the discounters. However, if you can find a bottle on a discount website, it’ll be a steal. There are a number of bottles on sale on Ebay, too.
No matter where you buy it, I think Azzaro Wild Mint has great value for money. While it’s not the most unique or well-composed scent in the world, I think it’s a very solid option for summer wear for lovers of mint, and offers good presentation and performance to boot.
Who Would Like It
I can hardly perceive a human being who wouldn’t like this scent, unless they have a fragrance allergy or a serious aversion to mint.
It is very pleasant, mass appealing, and likable. There is not a single note here that would prove a real challenge to most noses. For that reason, I would recommend Wild Mint to almost anyone, male or female, any age, if they like mint and want something fresh, clean, sweet, and playful to wear.
When To Wear It
The obvious answer is to wear it in the spring and summer. This is definitely a fragrance made for warm weather, and living in the tropics as I do, I can confirm that it smells lovely in hot, humid weather.
However, as I stated before, you could easily pull this off in fall and winter if you really wanted to. Though the tropical vibe of the scent definitely pulls it in a warm weather direction, you could absolutely get away with it in the cold, too.
As for occasions, this thing is extremely versatile. Work, date night, casual hangouts, clubbing, you name it. You would be hard-pressed to imagine a situation in which Wild Mint would be considered out of place.
Similar Fragrances
There are quite a few fragrances that are similar to Azzaro Wild Mint.
The one that immediately comes to mind is Thierry Mugler’s Kryptomint, a discontinued scent from the A*Men line. They absolutely do smell similar, though I personally prefer Kryptomint, with its chocolatey edge and the A*Men DNA in the base. Wild Mint doesn’t have that chocolate vibe, and Kryptomint doesn’t have the tropical vibe of Wild Mint.
Next would be Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male In The Navy. They both share a similar mint note, and both have a fresh, breezy, aquatic vibe. However, Le Male In The Navy leans a bit more into that aquatic nature and ends up smelling a bit more along the lines of something like Paco Rabanne’s Invictus or Versace Eros.
Finally, it reminds me of Hugo Boss’ Hugo Iced, another mint fragrance. However, Hugo Iced adds in tea, vetiver, and citrus, and is a bit “cleaner” and less sweet than Wild Mint.
One last thing – for those who say that Wild Mint smells like Amouage’s Beach Hut Man or Viktor&Rolf’s Antidote – I don’t know what you’re smoking, but I want some. They are galaxies apart, in my opinion.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Fresh, sweet, tropical mint scent
- Decent performance and presentation
- Good value for money
Cons
- Not everyone cares for mint
- Pretty synthetic
- Not the strongest performer
The Final Word
Overall, Azzaro Wild Mint is a solid fragrance.
Does it blow my mind? No. Does it have amazing performance? No. Is it a work of olfactory art? No. And that’s okay!
Not every fragrance needs to be a heart-wrenching work of beauty. Sometimes, you just want something casual to throw on when you go to the beach or out to meet some friends for drinks. Even us fusty fragrance lovers need to relax and unwind from time to time, and this is one of the fragrances that will allow you to do exactly that.
I give Azzaro Wild Mint:
★★★☆☆ 3 ½ stars out of 5
