Colonia Acqua di Parma 1916 Eau de Cologne

Colonia - as simple and precise as your name, so is your content.
Upon spraying, a friendly, balanced, and noble top note greets with the promised citrus scents - no trace of sharp acidity or the dreaded toilet associations, but rather: light, fruity, and pleasantly refreshing.
A small downside that one pays for this unobtrusiveness is that this beautiful top note quickly clears the stage for the main actors. Perhaps this is even intentional: you get the fresh feeling without immediately drawing the whole company’s attention to it.

Now to the main feature: I perceive Colonia as a balanced clean scent. Not like clean laundry but slightly soapy - unobtrusive yet unmistakable - by no means does it seem like an attempt to cover up a foul smell, but rather a confident expression of "I’ve washed my hands thoroughly."
The woody notes round off the fragrance very nicely. They make it unobtrusive, rounded, and subtly masculine (though not entirely unsuitable for women).

I notice that once the top note has faded, there is no more scent progression. The Eau de Cologne remains constant for several hours. I find the longevity sufficient for its intended purpose (refreshing).
Before leaving the house, I wouldn’t reach for Colonia to perfume myself. I prefer to leave that task to a full-bodied perfume and can enjoy its complexity and scent progression. I also see Colonia's "primetime" more in the evening. In the morning, it’s better to hop in the shower to get clean ;-)

For me, a host can hardly provide his guests with a more appropriate "freshener" than Colonia. Even at the risk that, late in the evening, everyone might smell similarly restrained, it’s still better than the alternative: "individual human scents."