Agua de Perfume Oro
Pineapple and cocoa in the same formula is not a combination anybody would predict, and it is what makes Alvarez Gómez Agua de Perfume Oro Eau de Parfum the strangest and most ambitious thing in the house's range. The opening is herbal and cold. Artemisia is bitter and slightly medicinal, spearmint is cool and sweet rather than toothpaste sharp, and pineapple cuts across both of them with a tart tropical brightness that has no business working as well as it does. It is an arresting first minute.
Then it warms up quickly. Cocoa is the turn, dry and dusty rather than chocolatey, closer to unsweetened powder than to a dessert, and lavender beside it keeps a clean herbal thread running through. Benzoin adds a balsamic sweetness that smooths the join. The base is where it finally relaxes: tonka bean with its almond and hay warmth, vanilla soft and rounded, and ambergris underneath lending the mineral, faintly salty quality that makes a scent feel expensive and keeps the sweetness from becoming a syrup.
Nine materials and a proper progression from cold to warm, which is more ambition than a cologne house usually shows. At eau de parfum strength it has weight and it lasts; a couple of sprays will see out an evening and leave something on a scarf the next morning.
Cold weather suits it, and so do evenings and occasions where you would rather not smell like everybody else. It leans masculine, though the mint and pineapple keep it from being heavy, and it rewards anyone bored of the usual sweet choices.
The maker is a Spanish family perfumery whose roots are in a Madrid shop of 1899, started by three young men from Leon then working in aromas. Its famous cologne was first produced by hand in the cellar of that shop in 1912, and the business has passed down to a fourth generation of the family.
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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