Best Sailing Day by Maison Martin Margiela Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

A marine poem composed wave after wave…

Entre ciel et Mer (“Between sky and sea”) tells a story of Etesian winds, azure skies and flying over seascapes at top speed…

Icy, soaring and powerful, the first whiff feels as though it had been sculpted out of the Meltem – the north wind that blows over the Aegean Sea, with notes of crumpled, water-splashed leaves and the fruity-aromatic nuances of a lavender, pear and white thyme accord.

The scent’s convincing seawater effect is achieved through a molecular distillation of algae from the Pacific, with iodic and animalic notes of white lichen and ambergris.

The dry, almost mineral facets are balanced out with cedar, moss and sandalwood from New Caledonia.

A strikingly good interpretation of the marine theme.

Perfumer: Bertrand Duchaufour

Visual artist: landscape artist/photographer Martin Hill.

The same way in which Martin goes to a sight and rearranges what nature left there into an installation, the perfumer rearranged some molecules and materials to put the beauty of a natural material into focus.

Also Martin aims to let his structures be absorbed back into natural chaos. Perfume evaporates into the environment in a similar fashion, beautiful but transient.

In Vanilla Shot all of the focus is on vanilla (natural, dark and balsamic). The concept of the perfume is inspired by a photo of a piece of Martin Hill's land art shot at dreamy dusk (below). The twigs used in the structure balanced over the lake are reminiscent of vanilla beans. The installation transcends two planes - liquid and ether and in the perfume vanilla spans the sweet and bitter corners of the scented universe. Vanilla Shot is not an ordinary sweet gourmand. In this perfume all nuances of natural vanilla get proper attention: balsamic, fruity, spicy, sweet and even leathery.

Opening with sparkling notes of lime and mandarin tempered with pink pepper and a green accord, delicate cherry blossom with soft almond aromas enhanced with powdery violets and creamy vanilla. Elusive elegance, realising the power of subtlety, radiating an inner confidence - to be worn with an innate love of understated good taste.

September 1757, Casino Venier, Venice

A powdery floral fragrance based on authentic 18th century cosmetic formulas.

A coquettish floral capturing the decadence of 18th century Venice, its rococo interiors and clandestine affairs: a powdery blend of black violet, blush rose, and chamomile nestled on an impossibly soft base of dusty iris and subtle, animalic amber. 

This fragrance is a tribute to the beauty of Madagascan vanilla — one of the finest vanillas in the world. Mafonja means “intense” (as in power or strength) in Malagasy.

It opens with a breath of fleur de sel, evoking salt-kissed skin. A soft heat follows, as cinnamon, pink pepper (Mauritius), and nutmeg wrap the senses in warmth. Ylang-ylang (Comoros) lends a creamy, luminous floral note. As the scent deepens, a darker story unfolds: resinous myrrh (Somalia) and olibanum (Somalia) melt into dark amber.

Réserve en Afrique eaux de parfum feature responsibly sourced naturals, and are free from parabens, phthalates, UV filters and colorants. Their natural alcohol base is derived from beetroots, and they are a PETA-listed vegan & cruelty-free brand.

L'espérance est violente.

Mirabeau, what a pretty word, peculiarly Parisian, suspended above the Seine. It composes a memory, joins another bank, and returns by following its trail of sandalwood, pink bay and cedar. In the heart of the City of Light, on the way to the twilight of the day, there is a bridge, a poem and a perfume.

A discreet and symbolic bridge, of the master-builder spirit which transcends borders, becoming better by coming together. Those solid foundations of cedar, sandalwood and orcanox span love and musk.

A poem as slow as it is violent, expressing the brutal and desirable hope of the one who would like to believe, of the one who wants to love. Vanilla, I write your name on the water, with muffled traces of incense and violet green.

A perfume to save us, fish us silently out of the water, bringing us above the Seine, our spirits on the water of our essences, bergamot and pink berry mingled with fig in a glass bottle, fiercely reuniting bodies in unison with souls, coming back to her by following her wake.

Perfumer: Fanny Bal

The transporting scent of gin at a coastal golden hour, a glittering seashore and soft focus horizon. Minimalist fresh fragrant juniper is dosed with olibanum to revitalising effect. While the sparkling spicy tones of pink pepper and mandarin are clean and fresh.

Grigia is named for the grey amber — ambergris* — expelled from the sperm whale and used to impart a marine, almost-fecal physicality to perfume. This Grigia suggests a different kind of sperm — human ejaculate — with its bleachy niff and suggestion of release. Combined with an underlay of burnt hair and plastic, Grigia is a voodoo doll of a fragrance that puts a curse on your enemies while protecting you from harm.

* this perfume contains natural ambergris from Irish coastline

Balmy sunlight trips across foamy turquoise waves, sending rippling haloes onto the coral below. On the lagoon floor, anemone and seaweed sway in unison, limbs pumping to the rhythm of the current. Hovering among the coral branches, a group of seahorses gazes shyly on. The pulsating beat calls to them and two pair off, their tails entwined in a delicate waltz. Soon their passion is spent, but the memory of the dance lives on. For the pouch of the male seahorse tenderly cradles a precious clutch of eggs.

Zoologist Seahorse invites you to wade through a vibrant coral garden. This unisex scent turns expectation on its head. With such surprising couplets as tuberose and seaweed, sage and neroli, and fennel and vetiver, this delightful melody will sweep you away on a wave of joy and abandon.

Perfumer: Julien Rasquinet