Not bad at all, actually. There's a briefly generic quality to Seahorse that is immediately apparent at first spray, which screams 2000s DRUGSTORE AQUATIC at the top of its lungs, and I'm nonplussed during that stage. My brain immediately goes to, "What the fuck, another one of these overpriced designer frags put out by a niche label!" The salty ozonic "fresh" chems are all there and accounted for, smelling marine-like and sour with just a hint of nondescript sweetness to tame the wild surf. I might as well just go to Burlington and grab any blue bottle issued between 2001 and 2012, and save myself money. If you're into fragrances, you've smelled this before. Many, many, many times before. Even though it smells okay, you don't want to spend more than twenty bucks for it. It's sneaker juice incarnate. You're at Orange Julius flirting with a random girl before going to see a movie. You're twenty-two years old again.
Five minutes into the drydown, all the bad nostalgia disappears, and my nose perks up. There's something else going on here; something different in the ensuing accords, something very good. Fennel, clary sage, and neroli, with powdery-clean notes, and then, two hours later, a mineralic-green effect that dances with all the common designer chems of the opening, lending Seahorse extra dimension, extra life. The base is a quiet amber, and longevity sucks (five hours), but honestly? Not bad, not bad at all.