Top Notes 
Heart Notes 
Base Notes 
12/06/2023
ScentNebula
18 Reviews
ScentNebula
3
Nivea deodorant and antiseptic cream, redeemed by a beautiful ozonic drydown
This smells exactly like Nivea “Cool Kick” men’s deodorant. Powdery, astringent, metallic, blue. Not really sweet at all after the opening fruitiness evaporates.
Aqua starts out with candied, rather sweet citrus, then an aromatic note develops. For the briefest of moments I catch something floral that reminds me of my grandparents, presumably the lavender, but it’s gone before I can even identify it and then the aromatic note makes itself known as a very antiseptic coriander. I like the smell of real coriander, but this coriander just reminds me of Savlon antiseptic cream. At the same time a distinct salt note enters the mix, imparting a dusty quality.
After about 30 minutes we enter the base notes where the fragrance takes on a darker and mellower quality, and this is where I start to really like it.
About 3.5 hours after application, it finally enters my favorite phase, the late drydown, where you’re left with a scent I can only describe as pure ozone. Slightly sweet, fresh, heated plastic and humid air. And occasional wafts of bleach for some reason? Disclaimer: I’m pretty sure this is just what ambroxan smells like to me. I can’t smell “woody notes” or actually any of the listed base notes at all. Draw your own conclusions.
Projection and longevity seem poor, but I suspect this fragrance suffers from “ambroxan nose blindness syndrome”, where you can’t smell it up close and/or develop olfactory fatigue almost instantly. For this reason I’m reluctant to overspray, but IMO this one shouldn’t be super strong anyway: if I smelled someone wearing this I wouldn’t assume they were wearing perfume, I’d assume I was just smelling their deodorant or some other body product.
I don’t really picture myself wearing Aqua because I find synthetics quite grating, and I wear fragrances to be enthralled by them, not just to smell clean - if I want to smell like deodorant I'll just wear deodorant! But I might wear it now and then just to bathe in my favorite forbidden scent, ozone.
Aqua starts out with candied, rather sweet citrus, then an aromatic note develops. For the briefest of moments I catch something floral that reminds me of my grandparents, presumably the lavender, but it’s gone before I can even identify it and then the aromatic note makes itself known as a very antiseptic coriander. I like the smell of real coriander, but this coriander just reminds me of Savlon antiseptic cream. At the same time a distinct salt note enters the mix, imparting a dusty quality.
After about 30 minutes we enter the base notes where the fragrance takes on a darker and mellower quality, and this is where I start to really like it.
About 3.5 hours after application, it finally enters my favorite phase, the late drydown, where you’re left with a scent I can only describe as pure ozone. Slightly sweet, fresh, heated plastic and humid air. And occasional wafts of bleach for some reason? Disclaimer: I’m pretty sure this is just what ambroxan smells like to me. I can’t smell “woody notes” or actually any of the listed base notes at all. Draw your own conclusions.
Projection and longevity seem poor, but I suspect this fragrance suffers from “ambroxan nose blindness syndrome”, where you can’t smell it up close and/or develop olfactory fatigue almost instantly. For this reason I’m reluctant to overspray, but IMO this one shouldn’t be super strong anyway: if I smelled someone wearing this I wouldn’t assume they were wearing perfume, I’d assume I was just smelling their deodorant or some other body product.
I don’t really picture myself wearing Aqua because I find synthetics quite grating, and I wear fragrances to be enthralled by them, not just to smell clean - if I want to smell like deodorant I'll just wear deodorant! But I might wear it now and then just to bathe in my favorite forbidden scent, ozone.
