A tried and tested simple recipe for making an appealing summer fragrance, which has been used frequently in recent times, is to mix a citrus note with a green culinary herb such as basil or thyme or with another spice such as cardamom. Citrus always conveys the feeling of freshness, and the herb provides a beautiful (and also fresh) antipole. In the somewhat more complex variant, a third component, more in the base note range, such as musk or wood, provides greater depth, durability or suppleness.
This is how a large part of the successful and thoroughly successful Acqua-Colonia series from 4711 works - namely the varieties "Lime & Nutmeg", "Mandarin & Cardamom", "Lemon & Ginger" and "Blood Orange & Basil". Many Acqua-di-Parma fragrances and, at Hermès, Concentré d'Orange Vert and some of its brothers work on the same basic principle.
As simple as the recipe is (you can of course modify it further at any time, for example by replacing the citrus fruit with berries, by adding floral tones to the heart note, or by using more than one base note, such as wood AND vanilla, instead of one), it works so well. Assuming a certain ability, almost nothing can go wrong, apart from the often low durability. In other words, I like such scents.
But you can't buy them all after all. I got myself two in quick succession: First, the Concentré d'Orange Vert I mentioned earlier, which has been on my wish list for at least two years, and this fragrance here, which I bought spontaneously after a short trial. I haven't regretted it.
The bergamot and petitgrain, which do not appear separately here, but strike together as an integrated hesperidic special unit, ensure a wonderfully bright, radiant, clear and cool freshness with a green-tart, lime-like touch, which is perhaps responsible for the fact that this fragrance is the only one of over 40 of the "Aqua Allegoria" series to be listed here not as a women's fragrance but as unisex (is it too; I feel it to be more masculine if at all).
The ginger (warming in winter, but still with a fresh, summery note, see Ginger Ale) rounds off the thing in the sense of a point on the i. But he - and even more the cardamom, which I can only guess at best - know about their role and let the citric free rein in principle.
The white musk, on the other hand, is used so finely, probably in small doses, perhaps also treated in a special way for production purposes or chemically bound, that it does not soften the hesperidic leitmotif in matt white, underlay it with cream or the like, but only gives it something like the final touch (and perhaps increased durability)
The basic theme sketched above has been masterfully executed here, the result is a radiant, fresh summer and good mood fragrance, which is enormously valuable and, despite its simplicity, not trivial, but elegant.
Bergamote Calabria appears powerful at the beginning, then quickly loses intensity and you think you hardly feel a scent residue on your own body, you want to complain about the low durability, until then it becomes clear that the scent has not distorted, but only withdrawn. It remains present in the room for several hours anyway; on the body for at least six to eight hours as a kind of aura, which is reactivated in the case of physical exertion, such as sport, and then begins to radiate again
The bottle has the rather unusual but, in my opinion, practical size of 75 ml. I find the form beautiful and practical; I also like the honeycomb motif. However, the honeycomb grid top could be more valuable.
Nachsatz 1: The direct comparison to the (almost) homonymous Acqua-di-Parma fragrance would certainly be attractive.
Addendum to the Aqua-Allegoria series: This series by Guerlain, although not yet old, now comprises over 40 fragrances, mainly of the type of feminine light summer water with floral and/or fruity orientation. "I also tested "Mandarine Basilic", "Herba Fresca" and "Teazzurra", which fit into my baggage scheme (and don't seem too feminine either), I like them very much, even if not quite as good as this one. But what I would like to get off my chest is that I don't like this restless, even inflationary edition policy. Do the Guerlain people want their customers to test 45 fragrances? Plus the other guerlains that aren't on the show? Plus maybe some from other companies? Don't we have a job and a family? In my opinion, the fragrance companies are also there to make a certain pre-selection and accentuation and to present "their selection" to us as a suggestion for consumption. Then you can also say: "Guerlain convinces me". If in just a few years dozens, even hundreds of fragrances are launched on the market, every outline is lost, then they can also offer 1000 fragrances to mix themselves. I find it annoying.
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