Agua Fresca Citrus Cedro Eau de Toilette

Cumin is a material most houses avoid, and its presence is what makes Adolfo Domínguez Agua Fresca Citrus Cedro Eau de Toilette worth a sniff before you dismiss it as another citrus scent.

Ramon Monegal composed it, in 2018. Mint opens it cold and sharp, grapefruit brings a bitter juiciness, and lemon verbena adds a softer greenness that is rounder and leafier than citrus peel. For about ten minutes it is simply bracing.

Then the middle turns it. Pink pepper crackles over the top, ginger adds a dry warmth with a slight bite, and cumin arrives underneath them with its distinctly savoury, faintly sweaty warmth. Used heavily cumin can ruin a fragrance; used at this level it gives the composition a skin like quality that makes it smell like a person rather than a product, and that is the whole argument for this bottle. Cedarwood, musk and amber finish it, dry and soft and warm in that order, and the cedarwood in particular picks up the name and runs with it. The base is restrained and lets the spice stay in the foreground.

Four hours is a fair expectation at eau de toilette strength, with moderate projection for the first of them. It reads unisex with a faint masculine tilt, is best in spring and autumn, and belongs to daytime. Anybody who has found citrus fragrance boring should try it, and anybody who dislikes spice should not.

Spanish fashion is the origin of this house, which was founded in 1976 on a tailoring business that the family had been running in Ourense since 1950. Its founder put his name to the first Spanish designer perfume in 1990, and Puig now produces the range under licence.