Maison Margiela – Flying

Flying is a scent that was originally released in 2016 by this iconic Parisian perfumery. Flying, along with two other perfumes, were re-released in 2024 by the company, packaged in a gradient black-clear bottle.

‘Evoking the freedom of flying beyond the clouds; imagine the dizzying sensation of weightlessness. REPLICA Flying, a fragrance that defies gravity.

Maison margiela paris

The quote above is what interested me in the perfume, but the notes were even more confusing. I’m unsure what flying is supposed to smell like, and there was a lot of contradictory opinions throughout different forums, most notably on Fragrantica. Despite this, I ordered a sample of the perfume to determine what was going on, and whether it was worth purchasing a full bottle. For perfume samples, I’d highly recommend this site if you’re in the UK, as their shipping times are good and the prices are relatively reasonable for what you get.

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My Review

This perfume is relatively pricey at £115-£140 per 100ml bottle, but is within the normal range for Maison Margiela scents. I do own one full-sized bottle from them, and I can say that it is an experience to open the packaging, and it looks beautiful on my shelf. Their designs are simple but effective, but I do not know how well the black-lacquered bottle with the silver label will fit in with that aesthetic.

The sillage of this perfume is notably weak, with around 15 minutes of a strong orange blossom and neroli scent which turns into an almondy-floral as the perfume reaches it’s middle stages. When it dries down seems to be the most contentious stage for this perfume, however, as the white musk takes centre stage. This might also be when the ozonic notes start to come through, and when smelling the dried down perfume it does come close to the feeling of standing atop a hill in the mid-spring, when flowers are just starting to bloom.

The dried-down scent is very subtle, almost non-existent if you’re not smelling where it was applied: as I said, the sillage is weak, especially considering the price of the perfume. I think this might, in some ways, work in the perfume’s favour, however. Flying, to me, does not seem like a scent that should be overpowering, sort of like the initial rush you get when at the airport compared to the relative calm of being on the plane itself.

This smell definitely reminds me of that. I do like the initial notes, but they are definitely stronger than I was expecting them to be. With such a light dry-down, which I expected, I did not account for the frankly overpowering opening notes. They weren’t bad by any means, just a bit of a surprise. After about 12 hours of wear, the scent is almost indetectable, which works for me as someone who showers at night and doesn’t want to waste any time smelling good!

I do think that a lot of the reviews on Fragrantica are quite harsh, likening the perfume to ‘the fanciest urinal cake I’ve ever smelled’, but that’s the beauty of perfumery, I suppose, as I don’t smell what they are describing at all. I think that the initial notes of orange blossom and petit grain can be quite overpowering, and might be the reason behind these reviews. The initial smell is almost overpoweringly citrusy, and if you aren’t expecting that, the reviews make sense. Even knowing it was a citrus scent, I was sort of surprised.

I think this isn’t helped by the sheer quantity of citrus in the perfume, but the smell does mellow down quite quickly, so if you’re either really into citrus scents or don’t mind dealing with them for a bit, the dry-down is actually very nice, if subtle. This is not a perfume for someone who wants to stand out, but might be nice during the spring/summer. I think the musk, almond blossom and ozonic notes stand out the most to me over a longer time period.

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Ratings

Conclusion

So, should you buy this perfume?

It depends. It depends on how much sillage you enjoy, and whether you like citrusy-floral scents. I can see the vision behind this, and it does remind me of standing in the wind on the top of a hill. I like this scent. Do I think it is the best offering from Maison Margiela? No. But, I like it nonetheless.