Boadicea the Victorious — Hanuman
Essence
Hanuman is Boadicea’s most famous and infamous release - a 2016 EDP for the Chinese Year of the Monkey that has, by wearer response, established itself as the niche-luxury “elevated” version of Byredo’s Bal d’Afrique. It is the fragrance that built Boadicea’s reputation (deserved or not) as the house that takes popular DNAs and renders them more polished, more natural, longer-lasting and considerably more expensive. The composition centers on a bright citrus-and-blackcurrant opening, a white-floral neroli/orange-blossom/osmanthus heart, and a vetiver-cedar-musk base - the same architecture as Bal d’Afrique, but executed with a creamier touch and substantially better performance.
Scent Profile
The opening is the moment Hanuman shows its hand: a bright, slightly tart citrus chord - lemon and bergamot dominant, blackcurrant adding a juicy purple-fruit lift, orange blossom contributing a soft floral lubrication. Compared directly to Bal d’Afrique, the Hanuman opening is creamier and richer; Bal d’Afrique reads thinner, more alcohol-forward, sharper. The blackcurrant here is restrained - it adds a tart facet rather than a jammy cassis explosion. There is none of the harshness some wearers find in the Bal d’Afrique top. By the half-hour mark, the heart unfolds. Osmanthus is the structurally pivotal note - its peachy-apricot-tea facet bridges the citrus opening and the floral middle.
Performance
Projection is strong in the opening (within a metre for the first hour), moderate-strong in the heart, moderate in the drydown. Sillage is generous throughout - one wearer specifically noted “projection is like a forest fire.” Longevity is the standout claim relative to Bal d’Afrique: 10 hours on skin reliably (versus Bal d’Afrique’s 4 - 6), with skin trace into the next morning; on clothing it persists through multiple wears. The fragrance handles warm and hot weather best, where the citrus stays vibrant and the vetiver-musk base prevents the cloying; cold weather makes it work but the citrus loses some of its juiciness. Application strategy: 2 - 4 sprays for spring/summer; one to two for office or warm weather.
Wearing Context
Spring and summer, late spring through early fall; daytime particularly suited but works into evening; smart-casual through smart-formal. Excellent for offices (despite the projection - the smell is universally pleasant), outdoor events, weddings, brunches, daytime dates. Hanuman is the Boadicea most likely to draw compliments - the citrus-neroli-musk profile is universally accessible. Falls flat in cold winter (genre-inappropriate), in heavy formal evening contexts (too bright), and in athletic/casual contexts where the price-to-occasion ratio is wrong.
Comparisons & DNA
The defining comparison is Byredo Bal d’Afrique (2009) - every review of Hanuman positions it against Bal d’Afrique, and wearer consensus is that Hanuman is “Bal d’Afrique made better”: creamier, longer-lasting, more polished, more natural ingredients. Byredo Bal d’Afrique Absolu de Parfum (2025, composed by Jerome Epinette) was released as a higher-concentration take on the original - wearers comparisons place it closer to Hanuman than the original Bal d’Afrique, but per recent wearer-driven discussion coverage, still not quite at Hanuman’s level. Initio Musk Therapy Extrait is the other major competitor in this niche space - sweeter and more musk-forward than Hanuman, less citrus. Sospiro Contralto is repeatedly named in side-by-side comparisons; one wearer found them “almost identical” with Contralto more potent and Hanuman more refined.
Reception
Wearer response is positive on smell, polarized on value. Multiple senior wearers have placed Hanuman at the top of the Bal d’Afrique subgenre - one wrote “Hanuman joins a very limited group of subgenre-leading products as to my nose, it is the supreme take of this profile in the market today.” Common praise: gorgeous citrus-floral-musk composition, beast-mode performance for the genre, universal compliment-getter, “absolutely love it” register. Common criticisms: it is widely acknowledged as derivative - “yes it’s Bal d’Afrique type, yes it’s overpriced, yes it’s not unique” is a near-direct wearers quote - and the GBP 950 price for a Byredo “upgrade” is a frequent point of revolt. Some reviewers find it “too feminine,” some find it “boring,” and some find the basic-citrus profile insufficient for the asking price.
Versions & Reformulation
Single composition, EDP, no known reformulations since 2016. The Pure Parfum and EDP labelling that appears on some retailer listings reflects Boadicea’s labelling inconsistency rather than separate juices.
Acquisition Notes
It sits in the ultra-luxury range. 100 ml retails around GBP 950 directly via Boadicea’s official site; US grey-market pricing on FragranceNet, Maxaroma and ScentRabbit runs notably lower (often $500 - $700 range).
Notable Facts & Lore
- Hanuman is the most-watched Boadicea on video reviews - multiple major fragrance influencers including The Fragrance Beast, Jeremy Fragrance, and Big Beard Business have produced Bal d’Afrique vs Hanuman comparison videos, and the consensus across these influencer reviews tracks wearer consensus: Hanuman is a creamier, longer-lasting Bal d’Afrique upgrade.
- The fragrance is part of Boadicea’s Chinese New Year zodiac series (Year of the Monkey 2016) - the same series that later produced Dragon (2024).
- Boadicea’s published copy explicitly references both the Chinese Year of the Monkey and the Hindu monkey-god Hanuman, an unusual conflation that draws occasional cultural-pedantry pushback in wearer response.
- Boadicea has not named a perfumer for Hanuman; the leading theory in wearer accounts, given the Chanel-adjacent compositional polish, is Christian Provenzano, but this is unconfirmed.