Acqua Colonia Lychee & White Mint
Anyone who thinks fruity scents are necessarily sweet should spend ten minutes with 4711 Acqua Colonia Lychee and White Mint Eau de Cologne 50ml, which uses fruit to make something closer to a salad than a dessert.
Mango is the sweetest thing in it, and even that is handled lightly, as a soft tropical warmth rather than as a syrup of any kind. Beside it, lemon brings sourness, green pepper a sharp vegetal snap, tomato leaf a bitter green furriness and mate a dry, hay like bitterness. Papaya in the heart adds a mild, musky, barely sweet fruitiness, and it is tempered by lily of the valley, which is watery and green, by geranium, which is green and biting, and by lavender, which is clean and herbal.
The base is conventional by comparison, and all the better for it, with cedarwood dry, vetiver earthy, amber warm, musk soft and petitgrain bitter and green at the very end. Fifty millilitres suits a scent this unusual, since it is the sort of thing you may want for particular moods rather than every day. As a cologne it is light and quick, so apply it generously and again in the afternoon if you want it with you into the evening.
It is unisex, it is at its best in heat, and it works well after a shower on a hot morning. Natalie Gracia-Cetto is the perfumer behind it, and the balance she struck between the bitter green materials and the fruit is what makes it worth trying rather than merely cheap.
The house itself dates its beginnings to October 1792 and the gift of an aqua mirabilis recipe to the merchant Wilhelm Muelhens, and it has been associated with eau de cologne ever since.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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