Original
4711 Original Eau de Cologne is the bottle most people have in mind when they use the words eau de cologne at all, and it has smelled like this for longer than almost anything else on a shop shelf.
The formula is seven materials and it is built the way colognes were built before perfumery got complicated. Lemon gives the first hit, which is sour and almost abrasive for a second or two. Bergamot takes the hard edge off it with something rounder and faintly tea like, and orange follows with a soft sweetness that keeps the opening from being merely acidic. Lavender is what separates this from a simple citrus water. It brings a soapy, slightly medicinal calm that has signalled cleanliness for generations, and rosemary runs green and camphorous underneath, the smell of needles crushed between finger and thumb. The last two materials come off the same bitter orange tree: neroli from the blossom, honeyed and white flowered, and petitgrain from the leaves and twigs, bitter and stemmy. That pair is what gives the finish its dry, faintly herbal character instead of letting it evaporate into nothing.
Being an eau de cologne, the concentration is low on purpose. It is designed to be used in quantity and often, on the neck, the wrists, the back of the hands, even a handkerchief, and to be topped up whenever you want to. Two hours of real presence is the honest figure, less in heat. It is unisex and always has been, it crosses generations without embarrassment, and it works equally well in a sickroom, in an office and on a hot afternoon.
The house dates its own beginnings to October 1792 and a wedding present, when the merchant Wilhelm Muelhens is said to have been handed a recipe for aqua mirabilis. The number came later and from somewhere quite different.
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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