Nautica Blue Cologne Review: Are They Good?


Some colognes come with a cost that surpasses its popularity and then there are others with a memorable fragrance at a moderate price. Nautica Blue is the latter and in this Nautica Blue cologne review, I’ll let you know if they’re any good.

Nautica Blue is a well-loved collection of fragrances that all have different variations of fresh accords. One is earthier, another has fresh floral notes, and the last one is green and powdery.

Keep reading to learn more about the differences between the colognes in this collection to determine which of the three would be the best fit for you.

Nautica Blue Cologne Review

All About Nautica: Company Overview

Founded in 1983, Nautica is an American lifestyle brand that sells apparel, accessories, home goods, and fragrances. The company’s primary founder was David Chu, a New York-based fashion designer. A year after starting the company, Chu sold it to another New York-based company, State-O-Maine.

In 2003, the company changed owners again when it was purchased by VF Corporation.

Authentic Brands Group has owned Nautica since the spring of 2018. They also own and manage many other brands you’re familiar with like, Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers, Reebok, and Forever21.

Since their purchase of Nautica, what was once a luxury brand is now marketed and sold as an upper mid-priced product line.

It has remained a global brand for decades and there are still close to 300 international store locations. Over 70 stores exist in the United States. Nautica shops can also be found within larger stores, like Macy’s. They currently have 1,400 Nautica shops within other shops.

Nautica Product Lines

As primary founder, David Chu wanted to “bring the inspiration of the sea to everyday style across the world.” And this vision continues to be fulfilled by the company to this present day. The very name of the company demands this level of consistency.

Nauticus is Latin for sailor. Nautica is Italian for boating, or sailing. And the nautical theme is anything of or pertaining to sailors or navigation. Generally, it describes maritime or seafaring activities.

All of Nautica’s products hearken back to this primary intention. In addition to their sailboat logo, the company incorporates this theme through their color and pattern choice, as well as the materials and processes used to make their products. Conservation and sustainability efforts have increased over the years.

Nautica sells clothing, outerwear, shoes, accessories, and sleepwear for men, women, and children. Even though they were downgraded from a luxury to mid-range brand, their products are still made with high quality fabrics and materials.

For instance, a lot of their women’s apparel is made from beech wood fibers. This raw material is a renewable resource. The resulting fiber is called TENCEL modal. It’s a highly flexible fiber that’s made from the wood’s pulp, creating extremely soft textiles. TENCEL modal is even softer than cotton, but ironically, it’s also more durable.

Viscose is another pulp-based fiber used to create Nautica textiles for men and women. This process involves taking a sustainable approach to recovering and reusing wood resources to make LENZING EcoVero fibers. During the process water is used sparing and is purified before it’s returned to nature. LENZING also releases fewer emissions into the air.

Some of Nautica’s textiles are manufactured with nylon and poly fibers that’ve been made from recycled water bottles. They engage in more sustainability practices than what can be described here.

Over time, they expanded their product offerings to include jewelry, home bedding and decor, and fragrances.

Nautica Fragrance History

The company’s first fragrance, Nautica for Men was released in 1992. It was followed by White Sail for Men and Nautica Woman, both in 1997.

Since then, all of their fragrance releases have reinforced their core maritime vision. Fragrances are given names like, Nautica Voyage, Nautica Oceans, and Nautica White Sail.

Many of their fragrances are either clear or some variation of blue. To some extent, each one has a fresh, aquatic fragrance.

Top 4 Nautica Blue Colognes for Men

Nautica Blue is a small collection of scents slowly released by Nautica over the course of twelve years.

They’re largely fresh scents with varying accords that can cause you to gravitate to one or more over the other.

Let’s take a look at the nuances between each one.

1. Nautica Blue Eau de Toilette Spray

Nautica Blue is an eau de toilette cologne for men first released in 2005. In keeping with the theme of this brand, it’s a fresh aquatic fragrance with fruit and floral notes.

This bottle is 100 mL (3.4 fl oz), and it’s shaped like a windsail. This elegant bottle shape is made of clear glass, showcasing the turquoise blue color of this cologne. Its cap is shaped like a silver knob. It’s stately yet free, like a peaceful yet overwhelming experience of sailing the seas.

Nautica blue is a great fragrance that isn’t overpowering. That’s the nature of an eau de toilette, since there’s less fragrance oils, but the light, fresh, airiness of this fragrance is reflective of this aquatic theme as well.

Here are the fragrance notes:

  • Top notes: pineapple, bergamot, peach
  • Middle notes: jasmine, waterlily
  • Base notes: sandalwood, cedar, musk

Top accords are a sweet introduction to this fragrance, and it’s an interesting combination. The sweetness of peach and pineapple are balanced by the more stringent accords of bergamot.

White floral notes are a wonderful option for lighter scents. They’re strong enough to add an extra layer of complexity to the fragrance without being too strong, like a rose scent would be.

Even though this is a light scent, it dries down with woody notes, the musk notes are powdery and sweet, which can link us back to the top notes.

This light scent is best worn in warmer climates during the spring and summer. It won’t project well in the fall or winter. It will last during the day but will fade before nightfall.

Somehow Nautica fragrances offer high quality scents at a moderate price. Some customers rely on these scents in place of more expensive fragrances that they’d like to wear but can’t presently afford.

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2. Nautica Blue Ambition Eau de Toilette Spray

Nautica Nautica Blue Ambition Men EDT Spray 3.3 oz
  • Launched by the designer house of nautica
  • Mid-notes pine, seaweed, clearwood
  • It is long lasting fragrance
  • Keeps you all day fresh
  • It is recommended for daytime wear.

The next release in this collection was Blue Ambition, in 2014.

It’s a heavier version of Nautica Blue with a lot of peculiar scent notes that you may not typically encounter in more popular fragrances. Even though it’s not as light scent-wise, this is still an eau de toilette, so you can expect it to be noticeable during the day and only in spring or summer.

  • Top notes: bergamot, mandarin
  • Middle notes: pine tree, seaweed, clearwood
  • Base notes: oakmoss, cashmeran wood, white amber

This version of Nautica Blue opens up solely with citrus notes. And bergamot and mandarin are almost polar citrus opposites because mandarin is so sweet while bergamot is more tart than sweet.

Unlike the original version, Blue Ambition doesn’t have any floral notes. And these middle notes are almost the exact opposite of Nautica Blue. Pine tree fragrance is somewhat sweet but also refreshing and sharp.

Seaweed can smell like rotting eggs and clearwood, connected to patchouli but less intense. So this combination is fresh, balsamic, yet pungent.

As it dries down, white amber is warm and earthy, like a sea breeze. It links to the earthy woodiness of oakmoss. Cashmeran wood further connects the fragrance with its hints of vanilla, spices, and balsam, adding more warmth to the fragrance.

As you can see, Nautica Blue Ambition is truly a more ambitious version of Nautica Blue. I get a sense of sailing on a warmer day when I think about this fragrance. On warm days you can smell the somewhat less desired scents, like seaweed.

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3. Nautica Blue Sail Eau de Toilette Spray

Nautica Blue Sail Eau de Toilette Spray for Men, 3.3 Ounce, Multi
  • An aromatic aquatic fragrance for adventurous men
  • Crisp, clean, watery, powdery & invigorating
  • Top notes of cool green leaf & fresh-cut apple
  • Heart notes of deep aquatic & sail cloth
  • Base notes of dewy moss, musk & woody amber

Blue Sail is the last installment of the Nautica Blue collection. It was released in 2017. This might be the freshest version of the fragrance, and it has the fewest fragrance notes.

  • Top notes: green apple, green leaves
  • Middle notes: water
  • Base notes: amber, musk, moss

As can be expected, this scent only projects on warm days and won’t last long – just half the day.
The earthiness of fresh green leaves is unmatchable, and these are countered with tart and fresh sweetness of green apple.

Fresh, tart, sweetness transitions into the unmistakable freshness of aquatic notes. Only water can smell like water.

As it dries down, sweet, balsamic amber, powdery musk, and earthy moss carry the fragrance into early evening. But you’d have to reapply the scent if you want to bring its freshness with you to a beach party or as you sail the seas at night.

This version of the collection is best for those who like to have a hint of fragrance on them without others really knowing unless they’re up close.

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4. Nautica Blue 4-Piece Gift Set

Nautica Blue 4-Piece Gift Set with 1.7-Ounce Eau de Toilette, 2.5-Ounce Hair and Body Wash, 6-Ounce Body Spray, and Toiletry Bag, Total Retail Value $49.00
  • Energy and freshness to seize today, to show your best self everyday
  • A fresh and bold aquatic fragrance with notes of ozone, water violet and sandalwood
  • Risk taking. Thrill seeking. Adventure loving.

Since it’s the holiday season, it’s hard not to mention the possibility of gift sets for men. Fragrances can be great gift ideas for Christmas, Hanukkah, Father’s Day and birthdays. And this set includes three Nautica Blue items that the man in your life might love.

What’s included:

  • 50 mL (1.7 fl oz) Nautica Blue eau de toilette spray
  • 75 mL (2.5 fl oz) hair and body wash gel
  • 170 g (6 fl oz) deodorant body spray

That’s three different ways to sport this fragrance. As discussed in this post, using a shower gel or deodorant spray that’s the same fragrance as your personal fragrance can enhance it. This might be through projection or longevity.

You can make adjustments to your preference. For instance, if you wash with the body gel, and then spray on the eau de toilette, then you can strengthen the scent of this fragrance because eau de toilettes have less fragrance oil than an eau de parfum.

So by using both, you can experience more projection, but the length of time can vary.

Alternatively, you might opt to use the body spray alone if you want to only faintly smell the fragrance throughout the day.

So this gift set offers a lot of different options for wearing this fragrance.

What’s even better is that all of these items are placed inside a sturdy dopp case that’s great for traveling, or simply storing these items in your bathroom.

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Customer Opinions about Nautica Blue Cologne

Most customers love the fresh, aromatic qualities of Nautica Blue colognes. These fragrances are a versatile collection of scents that are loved by young and old men alike.

What Customers Love about Nautica Blue Colognes

  • This is a collection of nice, subtle scents that aren’t overpowering.
  • Although the scent only lasts four to five hours, it’s long enough for work during the day, or for special events.
  • These are noticeable and masculine scents, but they won’t cause people to notice your presence before seeing you.
  • Considering the affordable cost of these colognes, customers feel as though they’re getting enough value even when the scents only last for half a day.
  • These are great everyday scents; they can even be worn in work environments because they’re so subtle.
  • Nautica fragrances are timeless and crisp; they smell like fresh air.

Things Customers Dislike about Nautica Blue Colognes

Some customers wish that the scent would last longer. But eau de toilettes only have 5 to 15% of fragrance oils in them, so it’s expected for them to have a lighter scent.

In some cases, customers are disappointed with the size of the cologne bottle.

Final Thoughts

Nautica Blue is an affordable collection of eau de toilette colognes that customers have loved for more than a decade.

If you’re giving this cologne to someone, I would suggest this 4-piece gift set. Your gift recipient can control the intensity based on which one(s) they choose to use on a given day.

Otherwise, you can review the fragrance notes and then try one of the three Nautica Blue colognes for yourself. Only you know what you might really like. But remember, you have to try it on your skin in order to know how it’ll really smell when you wear it.

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Grace

Hello and welcome to Fragrance Advice! My name is Grace Young, and I’ve been drawn to fragrances since I was a little girl. There's just something about scent that brings me so much joy! 

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