Gucci Rush Review

Apocryphal or otherwise, the story goes that Gucci’s Rush is inspired by that group of alkyl nitrites best known, at least when I was growing up, as ‘poppers’. As anyone who has ever taken a honking sniff from a bottle of Liquid Gold will attest, there’s very little in the experience to eulogise: from the synapse searing scent of jet fuel that fills your nostrils and clings to the back of your throat to the brief spell of vertigo that lands you with a banging headache, it’s a singularly unpleasant high.

Thankfully, Rush no more resembles the smell of poppers than Opium its namesake. Instead, the perfume opens with a chord of aldehydes (both real, i.e. aliphatic and so-called, i.e. C14 / gamma undecalactone) whose diffusive and sparkling milky peach scent constitutes the central theme. The lactonic side is developed with a white floral accord that’s dominated by jasmine, and leads down to a musky vanillic base where some tame patchouli adds contrast and a Chypre-like quality.  

Nose: Michel Almairac

House: Gucci

Release date: 1999
Notes (per Fragrantica): peach, gardenia, freesia, Turkish rose, coriander, vanilla, patchouli, vetiver