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07/21/2020
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Neukölln 2: Farina Schlitzohr
The story of this "third Farina" or "Parisian Farina" (in addition to the Echt Kölnisch Wasser from 4711 and the competing product from Farina Gegenüber) is quite strange. As is well known, the forefather of the genuine Cologne Aqua Mirabilis was the Italian Giovanni Maria Farina alias Johannes or Johannis Maria Farina, who moved to Cologne, where his product was sold from about 1720 onwards and finally became known as "Eau de Cologne".
However, Farina also had a great-great-grand-nephew named Jean Marie Farina, who ended up in Paris. Since Jean Marie is the French translation of Johannes Maria and in earlier times first names were linguistically freely convertible currency (in Germany people also spoke of King Charles of England and King Philip of Spain, and did not say Charles and Felipe), the rascal was able to found his own fragrance house in Paris in 1806 and claim without lying that he was distributing Giovanni Maria Farina's genuine Eau de Cologne.
In 1862, Roger and Gallet founded their soap and perfume company and at some point bought the shop from Jean Marie "rascal" Farina (probably from his heirs by then), thus acquiring the rights to the "real" Farina-Cologne. At Roger & Gallet, they're still there today, at least formally. In 1975, the traditional company was taken over by Sanofi (!), and subsequently sold by Sanofi to Gucci, and then by Gucci to L'Oréal.
But that does not prevent the present managers of R&G from following the old Jean Marie's example of slyness: Although they mention on their own website that the whole company was only founded in 1862, it also says that the cologne reviewed here was "the founding product" of the company in 1727. Well, especially in the perfume sector one should anyway only believe those advertising texts that one has invented oneself.
The product reviewed here is mentioned on the R&G website (see above), but is not offered in the online shop. However, it is available in some online perfume shops, such as Notino and Parfumsclub, where the usual price is about 25 euros per 100 ml spray bottle, some other suppliers are more expensive. Parfumsclub also offers, no wonder with the Spanish origin of the house, a 200 ml and a 500 ml splash bottle.
I like Farina Extra-Vielle (something like "Farina Uralt") better than Apicius, but worse than Yatagan. I take the prelude as very lemony, and at the same time remarkably greenish and (a bit too) sweet. Something like the richly sugared rim of a cocktail glass, on which a rich, fat, green lime slice is sitting.
As a result, occasionally sour clouds and clouds of a certain sharpness can be felt, but on the whole, for about three hours (if you count the very, very close phase), a rather continuous colognic freshness with a strong herbaceous to herbaceous-woody impact dominates. I almost think I'm sniffing something like basil, and if Farina wasn't even in the name, one could consider whether the scent might be more in the brown colognes of the "Colonialwaren" series or at least in the green-spicy-fougère border-crossing colognes like Lehmann's "New York". But he may remain with some justification in the classic class, even if he does not come there (with me) straight far above in the charts.
It should be added that the fragrance with neroli, lemon, bergamot and rosemary contains almost the entire classic Farina range. Lavender is missing and is actually not to be smelled, just like carnation and rose, which are additionally indicated on the side of "Notino" in the fragrance pyramid. Neroli is substituted by petitgrain in some colognes; both are indicated here, but from my point of view there is no booster effect, the whole orange direction is rather underexposed in my opinion
All in all, the overall picture doesn't really convince me; I don't find the fragrance development really round and harmonious and the scent a bit boring rather than classic. I would prefer 4711 here as a more exciting, striking and coherent composition. But as you can see on Yatagan (and Sven1209), this is once again very subjective.
Finally, since farina is the Italian term for flour, the question remains whether Hans Maria Mehl in the federal identity card might not still be an asset today to make a really big profit.
However, Farina also had a great-great-grand-nephew named Jean Marie Farina, who ended up in Paris. Since Jean Marie is the French translation of Johannes Maria and in earlier times first names were linguistically freely convertible currency (in Germany people also spoke of King Charles of England and King Philip of Spain, and did not say Charles and Felipe), the rascal was able to found his own fragrance house in Paris in 1806 and claim without lying that he was distributing Giovanni Maria Farina's genuine Eau de Cologne.
In 1862, Roger and Gallet founded their soap and perfume company and at some point bought the shop from Jean Marie "rascal" Farina (probably from his heirs by then), thus acquiring the rights to the "real" Farina-Cologne. At Roger & Gallet, they're still there today, at least formally. In 1975, the traditional company was taken over by Sanofi (!), and subsequently sold by Sanofi to Gucci, and then by Gucci to L'Oréal.
But that does not prevent the present managers of R&G from following the old Jean Marie's example of slyness: Although they mention on their own website that the whole company was only founded in 1862, it also says that the cologne reviewed here was "the founding product" of the company in 1727. Well, especially in the perfume sector one should anyway only believe those advertising texts that one has invented oneself.
The product reviewed here is mentioned on the R&G website (see above), but is not offered in the online shop. However, it is available in some online perfume shops, such as Notino and Parfumsclub, where the usual price is about 25 euros per 100 ml spray bottle, some other suppliers are more expensive. Parfumsclub also offers, no wonder with the Spanish origin of the house, a 200 ml and a 500 ml splash bottle.
I like Farina Extra-Vielle (something like "Farina Uralt") better than Apicius, but worse than Yatagan. I take the prelude as very lemony, and at the same time remarkably greenish and (a bit too) sweet. Something like the richly sugared rim of a cocktail glass, on which a rich, fat, green lime slice is sitting.
As a result, occasionally sour clouds and clouds of a certain sharpness can be felt, but on the whole, for about three hours (if you count the very, very close phase), a rather continuous colognic freshness with a strong herbaceous to herbaceous-woody impact dominates. I almost think I'm sniffing something like basil, and if Farina wasn't even in the name, one could consider whether the scent might be more in the brown colognes of the "Colonialwaren" series or at least in the green-spicy-fougère border-crossing colognes like Lehmann's "New York". But he may remain with some justification in the classic class, even if he does not come there (with me) straight far above in the charts.
It should be added that the fragrance with neroli, lemon, bergamot and rosemary contains almost the entire classic Farina range. Lavender is missing and is actually not to be smelled, just like carnation and rose, which are additionally indicated on the side of "Notino" in the fragrance pyramid. Neroli is substituted by petitgrain in some colognes; both are indicated here, but from my point of view there is no booster effect, the whole orange direction is rather underexposed in my opinion
All in all, the overall picture doesn't really convince me; I don't find the fragrance development really round and harmonious and the scent a bit boring rather than classic. I would prefer 4711 here as a more exciting, striking and coherent composition. But as you can see on Yatagan (and Sven1209), this is once again very subjective.
Finally, since farina is the Italian term for flour, the question remains whether Hans Maria Mehl in the federal identity card might not still be an asset today to make a really big profit.
21 Comments
Jazzy76
