Recently - more precisely, on March 20 at 22:59 - spring has arrived here in Vienna. Time to look around at what is currently trending in fashion and to find a suitable new fragrance to start the still young season.
I wish for something fresh, light, citrusy. Perhaps grapefruit. It makes one feel so uplifted. Apparently, grapefruit scent is said to make us appear younger. I can imagine that well. In aromatherapy, the euphoric effect of grapefruit when encountered olfactorily has long been well known. Perhaps that’s why I love this bright, cheerful scent. Therefore, Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune and Aqua Allegoria Pera Granita, both by Guerlain, are among my perfumes and are often used by me.
Somehow, I then stumbled upon 4711 Pink Pepper & Grapefruit. Due to its freshness, this Eau de Cologne apparently enjoys great popularity, as I gather from several reviews online. Coincidentally, Müller has a special offer for a set consisting of the Eau de Cologne and a shower gel in the same scent. This combo pack seems very appealing to me. So off to Müller …
Before I decide to buy, I make sure to try the perfume using a tester. I don’t know it yet.
There they all are, the currently popular 4711 Eau de Colognes. The packaging of all the scents is very appealing. The Pink Pepper & Grapefruit, for example, comes in a pretty, pale green box adorned with branches of pink pepper. The glass bottle, reminiscent of cut crystal glass, appeals to me less. This type of cut crystal simply seems too old-fashioned to me. Like something from the 50s, when this cut was in vogue.
Aside from the set with the shower gel, the EdC is available as a spray in a 170-ml bottle. The price for the latter ranges from a modest € 20.99 to a less budget-friendly € 47.95 online.
I begin my test. I imagine Pink Pepper & Grapefruit to be refreshing. Urban, perhaps a bit cheeky, trendy, young, and citrusy. An ideal scent for warm days. But unfortunately, I do not find that here. This cologne only seems fresh to me at the moment of spraying. The anticipated citrus fireworks are limited from the very beginning. Unfortunately. Instead, the pepper with its spicy aroma is immediately very present.
I don’t mind the combination of spicy and fruity. But it simply doesn’t work for me. The scent quickly develops a somewhat harsh, dull quality - I can’t describe it any other way. As I said, I do not find the desired cheerful brightness and zesty freshness of grapefruit here, or it is too little.
The scent also does not change. I stand around for a while, sniffing my wrist repeatedly. The only thing that happens is that the scent noticeably becomes weaker and weaker very quickly. I have hardly ever encountered a perfume whose scent fades so fast. Okay, it is an Eau de Cologne. But I know many scents from this category with good longevity - not least the classic from 4711.
Pink Pepper & Grapefruit could at best pass as a body mist in my eyes. It certainly does not convince me. The thought of buying it drifts further and further away. I had a completely different idea of this scent. I also do not know any grapefruit scent that comes across as so dark.
But since I am already standing in front of the shelf with the 4711 Acqua Colonias, I also try the Eau de Cologne Blood Orange & Basil as well as Mandarin & Cardamom. Both seem very interesting to me in their composition. But they ultimately disappoint as well.
It is as someone has aptly written in a review: You get what it says on the label. And I add: But nothing more … Perhaps 4711 has taken inspiration from the Guerlain Aqua Allegoria series, which also features fragrances that combine fruity notes with spices - for example, Mandarin Basilic, which is even in my collection.
But what a difference! Also in price, of course. In bottle design anyway. But above all in scent.
There are many things that Germans excel at. Poetry and thinking, inventing useful things, composing, writing literature, painting, constructing technical or physical precision instruments, and much more. However, the creation of subtle fragrances does not seem to be their greatest strength - compared to the French, for example.
And so the fragrance experience with 4711 is quite one-dimensional, almost crude. You get what it says on the label. Nothing more. This means that I miss the refinement, the play with aromas, with top, heart, and base notes, the allure of a scent that reveals new facets over time.
Pink pepper and grapefruit - what delightful nuances and contrasts could that have offered? Yet the scent remains the same from beginning to end. And the end comes, as mentioned, so quickly that it is hard to believe.
Of the three 4711s I tested, the “Pink Pepper” lasts the least long, and by a wide margin. For a price that is not even that low for an Eau de Cologne, one could have expected more.
“Pink Pepper” is considered a unisex scent. I have little experience with such perfumes. I usually prefer feminine scent notes. Perhaps that’s why the fragrance turned out so harsh. I would have preferred more citrus and less harshness.
I’m sorry if I do not perceive this perfume as the wonderfully refreshing scent for hot summer days, unlike others. There are better ones - like the Pamplelune by Guerlain, which, although it is also not a wonder of longevity, does not give you the feeling of needing to reapply every 2 minutes, as is the case with “Pink Pepper.”
The scent is more spicy than fresh. But even the bitter note lacks refinement and subtlety in my opinion. More could have been made from this combination. Perhaps a bit of bergamot at the start, lemongrass, verbena, and cedar, maybe even mint, would have worked better for summer freshness.
I have no problem with the brand 4711. The classic Eau de Cologne with plenty of bergamot still offers a pleasant refreshment and is still quite wearable today, I think. However, the Acqua Colonias that I tested yesterday seem a bit plain and uninspired to me. You have to like that - or not.
Conclusion: In my opinion, these scents are for those who are rather undemanding and possibly have little experience compared to more interesting fragrances of this type. They cannot compete in any way with the conceptually similar Guerlain fragrances from the Aqua Allegoria series, in my opinion.
As always, it applies here too: Trying is better than studying …
Grapefruit
Pink pepper
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