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Acqua Colonia Pink Pepper & Grapefruit
Tobacco leaf in a cologne is a genuine oddity, and it is the reason 4711 Acqua Colonia Pink Pepper and Grapefruit Eau de Cologne 50ml does not smell like everything else on the shelf.
The leaf is dry, slightly sweet and faintly hay like rather than smoky, and it sits in the middle of the composition where you would normally expect a flower. Around it, bitter orange adds a sharp marmalade like edge, geranium a green and lightly bitter texture, and lavender a clean herbal calm. The effect is a cologne with a savoury middle, which is far more interesting than it sounds.
The opening is conventional and good, with lemon, orange, mandarin orange and bergamot stacked together for brightness, with pink pepper prickling over the top of them, five materials deep before the tobacco leaf even arrives. It does what a cologne opening should do and it does not outstay its welcome.
Underneath, musk and white musk together give a soft clean warmth, tonka bean adds a powdery sweetness, amber a low resinous glow and petitgrain a last green bitterness. The base is where the tobacco leaf finally softens into something closer to skin.
Being cologne strength it is a light thing, so use it freely in the morning and again later if you want it into the evening. The fifty millilitre bottle suits that use and travels easily. Cecile Hua is the perfumer. It leans masculine but is worn by anyone who likes a dry scent, and it is best in cool weather and daytime. The company behind it is an eau de cologne specialist which traces itself to October 1792 and a wedding present to the merchant Wilhelm Muelhens, said to have been the recipe for an aqua mirabilis.
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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