Review: Bang by Marc Jacobs (2010)

Some fragrances impress you with the coherence of the entire package in which they arrive: the name, the colour of the juice, the bottle, the poster… they all interlock into a convincing whole. Sadly, Bang, the new masculine from Marc Jacobs, isn’t one such scent, which is a shame, because it actually smells rather good, albeit for a few, brief minutes. In a mainstream market where Chanel think it’s acceptable to release Bleu, it is gratifying to find a male eau de toilette that doesn’t seem intent on being indistinguishable from every other citrus clone. Its peppery opening deserves praise, as do its woody mid-notes, with their scalpel-thin sprinklings of cedar. But just as you start getting really excited, the whole lot fades away into the pale distance and is entirely gone within a couple of hours. So even though the flacon, the name and the advertising campaign are all noteworthy in their own way, they seem designed for an entirely different scent, because no matter how pleasant it may be, this fragrance certainly isn’t powerful enough to be named after bangs of any sort… unless, of course, you’re talking about the quick, ‘wham bam, thank you, maam’ variety.