Eau D'Hadrien

Water from Hadria, or Hadrian Water, a town of northern Italy. Or, perhaps, a reference to the Roman emperor, Hadrian, or to someone "dark haired", apparently. How ever you choose to translate this, and derive the creative vision from the meaning, there is no doubt you will find blistering Italian sunshine heating up a lemon and herb garden. At this point in the perfume's life, which for this bottle is getting on a bit, the top notes of lemon have gone a bit bitter and astringent to give a determined bergamot and lemon verbena accord; not the intention of Annick Goutal or Francis Camail, but it is certainly striking as was the original lemon top. The sheer force with which this old perfume still tries to assert those top notes certainly gives you the impression this was a lemon bomb in its prime. It dries down quite quickly to a heart of cypress and grapefruit. They too have lost some of their bright and sour notes but instead now have the effect of dried green herbs and freshly ground anise roasting in the sun. The woody and aromatic oily note of the cypress turned more anisic, and the sulfuric tendencies of grapefruit highlighting the more dried zest facet... I think. So, while it may not be the same perfume it was nearly 30 years ago, it's a testament to just how good it is that even well-aged it is still great.

Couldn’t find an ideal citrusy scent for myself until I came across this one. It’s lemony zesty but unlike many other citrusy fragrances this lemon zest is also somehow quite thick. Must be cypress and aldehydes. And I’m very-very picky about aldehydes. Most of the time I can’t stand ‘em unless they are blended in to the extent I can’t tell these are aldehydes. Seems to be the case. Have been comparing this side by side to Nicolai’s Cedrat. As much as I like and respect the house of Nicolai the latter frag has a sweet lozengy feel - not quite to my taste. In fact I believe Eau D’Hadrien deserves the name Cedrat much more - all bitter zest without a hint of sweetness. Dry and classy. And that’s what I love about it. I wouldn’t complain about longevity either - I apply this over a body lotion and get solid 4-5 hours on my skin which is not that bad for a citrusy frag. Can’t believe how fast it’s becoming my favourite. And it really brings back Summer during the cold dark month of November.

I was really surprised by this fragrance. While I love citrus scents, like orange sanguine by atelier cologne or neroli botanical by EP, for some reason I thought this would be too masculine. I was wrong. I think this is unisex or even slightly feminine (on my skin at least). It has like an almost crystallized, lemon candy, bright sweetness to it that was unexpected for me - I didn’t think it would be sweet and this is what lends to its slight femininity on my skin. Like its sweeter than orange sanguine for example. And it’s a happy, sunshine-laden, bright citrus, with a little fizziness (is that the aldehydes? Cypress? I’m still kinda new to fragrances). That’s it! I just realized, it reminds me of those Italian lemonade sodas (but definitely wayyy less sweet)! There’s a teeny bit of greenness on me, but really just a hint. Which is interesting cause another reviewer said that on them, it’s all green.

My bottle is an older version of the aftershave for men. Right away you know as an aftershave it will not have even the strength of the EDT/EDP, however, what it did have is one of the best citrus moments of my life. Lemon, citron, even a little orange, simply stunning realistic citrus. Was it gone in less than thirty minutes, yes, but who cares it was beautiful. Sometime after I got this bottle I quit shaving and grew a beard . . . that was well over a decade ago. I kept this bottle in a dark cabinet (air conditioned all the time). I recently went back to just sample the citrus (having rediscovered my love for fragrances) and to my disappointment they were gone. A citrus that magical probably just doesn't age well regardless the way it was stored but wow, when it was fresh, what a stunner.

This is decidedly NOT a flat, cheap-smelling, sweet citrus scent as I had feared (in spite of it's repute and cost.) I was concerned it might be a cloying "Lemon Pledge" or uretic "bathroom cleaner" smell, but thankfully it is NOT. There is a hint of too-sweet Lemon Pledge that is fleeting and infrequent, moving away from that quality so rapidly that it's actually nice, like a quick taste of candy. Then poof, that sticky sweet is gone. I believe these transformative powers are due to skillful use of aldehydes, making this fragrance sparkle. I find it unusual and valuable for such a metamorphosing citrus to sustain the level of longevity this perfume possesses. Sweet, sour, bitter, aromatic, at times ozonic, fruity, flowery, woody. Every citrus facet laid beautifully on a bed of cypress.