Annick Goutal Eau de Sud

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Eau de Sud is a true, well done, citrus centered fragrance with a beautiful and interesting dry down. It was released in 1995 and is–unjustly–underrated. But if you do happen to be looking for a competent fresh citrus, look past the Light Blues and Versences and get yourself a bit of this stuff.  Eau de Sud

In Bottle: Herbal and grapefruity with fresh green notes. It’s a (refreshing and much needed) far cry from the citrus explosion of other perfumes based in this category.

Applied: Opens with a beautiful bouquet of herbal grapefruit greenness. The grapefruit used in this fragrance is a tart one, similar to Guerlain’s Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune. The mid-stage is punctuated with an odd but entirely pleasant saltiness as the grapefruit lingers back behind a pleasant mix of spicy peppermint, basil, thyme and lemon verbena. Eau de Sud’s relatively masculine composition might turn away a few more scent gender conscious ladies but it is a lovely fragrance that I think anyone can use because before it is masculine, it is fresh and classic smelling. You get the classic scent of this on the dry down where the fragrance takes a woodsy and herbal turn before falling off completely.

Extra: Eau de Sud’s more popular older sister, Eau d’Hadrien is a lighter more citrus-based fragrance.

Design: Eau de Sud is bottled in Annick Goutal’s iconic ribbed glass bottle with the lovely gold metal cap and an adorable gold ribbon that carries the fragrance’s name tag. It should be noted, if you happen to be interested in this kind of thing, that all of Annick Goutal’s ribbed glass bottles have removable sprayers. Though I would advise that you keep the sprayer on so long as there’s juice in the bottle as Annick Goutals are known to fade a bit quicker than other fragrances.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Aromatic

Notes: Bergamot, tangerine, grapefruit, key lime, verbena, peppermint, basil, patchouli, oakmoss, jasmine, vetiver.

You can get Annick Goutal fragrances in three different types of bottles. Not all of them are available in all bottle types but there is the square variety, the ribbed variety (shown above), and the butterfly bottle variety.

Reviewed in This Post: Eau de Sud, 2000, Eau de Toilette.

Hugo Boss Hugo

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Hugo is your run of the mill fresh aquatic that doesn’t bring much to the table and doesn’t leave with much either. The tide of aquatics has petered out in the latest years as the incoming flood of fruity florals starts dominating the scenes. Some of these are works of olfactory art in their own respect while others are forgettable. And some even regrettable. Unfortunately for Hugo, it was one of the less notable aquatics of its time. Hugo

In Bottle: Green and blue aquatic. Fresh, sharp, and a little bit spicy. The herbal notes up front are paired with pine and citrus.

Applied: The green flare, just a touch sweet before it settles into its spicy woodsiness where the pine is predominant on me. I smell kind of like one of those pine-shaped air fresheners you use for your car. Not unpleasant, I just have a strange association with anything pine scented. Well, perhaps not strange, just persistent. The scent stays with pine as it introduces a few spicy herbal notes into the mix. Hugo takes a turn for the interesting near the complete dry down stage as it leaves its fresh pine-scented herb garden and veers toward a darker, murkier, funnier funky note that’s reminiscent of the blast of aquatics upon application. It’s fleeting though, a one or two second moment that could just be me. Hugo dries down to a benign woodsy, spicy, fresh accord that doesn’t make any presumptions and doesn’t even want to think about standing out.

Extra: Hugo Boss fragrances have largely been a miss for me. The only one I can say I actually like is Deep Red. Even then, I don’t particularly like it that much. I can say nice things about it though. But this fragrance, it’s the generic men’s scent with the all too familiar aquatic citrus opening, the woodsy spicy middle, and the miasma of leftover freshness at the base.

Design: I could give or take with this design. It’s clean and simple and functional. Holding it is easy. Spraying it is easy. Kind of looks like a water bottle which is a bit cheesy but overall, not bad.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Woodsy

Notes: Grapefruit, green apple, pine needles, thyme, spearmint, basil, cedar, rum, jasmine, sage, geranium, clove, lavender, cedarwood, moss, fir balsam, sandalwood, vetiver, suede.

Yeah, I definitely cannot get past the predominant evergreen scent in this. Too much pine, maybe, or maybe I’m just not the kind of person who likes that in a scent.

Reviewed in This Post: Hugo, 2000, Eau de Toilette.

Eau de Guerlain

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While known for its deep and rich fragrances back in the day, Guerlain also carries a series of light scents featuring sheer and airy notes mean to go on light and wear like pleasant rain. Eau de Guerlain is one of these such scents. Eau de Guerlain

In Bottle: Beautiful bright lemon, bergamot and herbal scent. So light you would swear this is a modern Guerlain and not one from the 1970s. 1974, to be exact.

Applied: Beautiful lemon opener. Eau de Guerlain does not suffer from the chemical lemon that I experienced in Covet or Versense. This is a nice, background lemon that comes in, does its thing and leaves without fanfare or a fight. Only, it imbues its freshness in the rest of the scent and hangs about as the basil throws in a dash of greenness and herbal. The mid-stage of Eau de Guerlain is a lovely jasmine and rose deal headed by the fresh green basil. Dry down starts with a lovely spicy sandalwood and musk. Eau de Guerlain is a bit of a stretch considering this house was Jicky central. It’s a bit removed from what I’m used to when it comes to pre-1990s Guerlains but it is lovely, fresh, very wearable. One of the nicest, complex, fresh fragrances ever.

Extra: If you’re looking for a spicy fresh scent and have some money to drop, Eau de Guerlain is a very worthwhile fragrance. It’s deceptively simple at first but has a very beautiful mid and dry down stage that you just can’t find with today’s spicy, woodsy sports scents.

Design: The tester I used was presented in a Guerlain bee bottle. I just don’t get tired of looking at these and want to own one very badly. The Aqua Allegorias do a throwback to this style of bottle and I absolutely love the distinctive look of them. The glass has raised details in it making it fun to both look at and hold.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Aromatic

Notes: : Lemon, verbena, bergamot, neroli, carnation, sandalwood, tonka bean.

The more I sniff this on the tester strip, the more interesting it seems to get. Certainly more interesting than Light Blue Pour Homme. There’s just something that makes Eau de Guerlain unique that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Reviewed in This Post: Eau de Guerlain, 2008, Eau de Toilette.