HUGO BOSS
ALIVE PARFUM

2023

PERFUMER
Honorine Blanc
Marie Salamagne

apple
plum

jasmine sambac

woody notes
vanilla

‘Boss Alive eau de parfum, a captivating fragrance with an invitation to live life to its fullest. Leave a trail of positive energy with this empowering scent, featuring apple and plum, a heart of jasmine sambac and a base fusing woody notes with vanilla.’ – Hugo Boss

A couple of caveats here. First off, despite the name Parfum, the Boss site lists it as an EDP. The notes above are from the Boss site; the ones from Fragrantica and Parfumo seem to be incorrect.

Also, Boss is among my least favorite brands when it comes to fragrances. The Scent line has some nice ones (Private Accord in particular), but Alive, much like the Bottled line, is nearly unwearable to me with most of their releases.

Alive Parfum is what you’d expect given its predecessors. Whatever the notes or descriptions may say on paper, it ends up a cloyingly sweet, fruity mess.

I get a mix of those cheap cherry lollipops and the apple sweetness from the original Boss Bottled. This has absolutely no relation to jasmine for me (and definitely not the leather that Fragrantica/Parfumo list).

Now, I wouldn’t go as far to say that it’s unwearable, but it’s about as generic and nondescript a ‘smelling like Sephora’ scent as one can try to create. If that makes me a niche snob, than I’m a niche snob, but I’m not here for Boss Alive Parfum.