Colonia Sandalo Acqua di Parma 2016 Eau de Cologne Concentrée

Colonia Sandalo (Eau de Cologne Concentrée) by Acqua di Parma

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7.9 / 10 209 Ratings

Colonia Sandalo (Eau de Cologne Concentrée) is a popular perfume by Acqua di Parma for men and was released in 2016. The scent is woody-spicy. It was last marketed by LVMH.
Pronunciation

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Main accords

Woody

Spicy

Fresh

Citrus

Green

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Petitgrain

Bergamot

Orange

Lemon

Heart Notes

Cardamom

Lavender

Base Notes

Indian sandalwood

Tonka bean

Amber

Ratings

Scent

7.9209 Ratings

Longevity

7.7181 Ratings

Sillage

7.2181 Ratings

Bottle

8.1187 Ratings

Value for money

7.270 Ratings

Submitted by Michael, last update on 16.12.2023.

Reviews

11 in-depth fragrance descriptions

02/01/2019

9
Bottle 6
Sillage 7
Longevity 8.5
Scent

DonJuanDeCat
657 Reviews

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DonJuanDeCat

Top Review 16

Not another sandal movie! :D

Hello folks and have a nice evening :)
Yeah yeah yeah, I know I know sandalo doesn't mean "sandal," it's sandalwood. But still Sandalo sounds like a sandal to me at first, and somehow I have to think of those old sandal movies. You know, these movies, in which the heroes with more or less heavy armor and quite muscle-bound swords and axes swing and their sweaty feet (ugh!!)) have only put in sandals, which is usually their biggest weakness, as soon as they hit the big toenail against something, which hurts hellishly and then you are only cursing and would like to brutally slaughter everyone around you with rage, which on the other hand is also very fitting, since one is in any case constantly confronted with enemies, like the Romans... or if one is a Roman oneself, with an enemy of the Romans,... Gauls for example, or something similar:D

Anyway, sandalwood is a fragrance that has an oriental scent and is supposed to bring the Orient into your home. It should smell soft and balsamic, but also seductive. It is said to have an aphrodisiac effect because its composition is said to resemble male hormones. Pah! ...that's so not true! I've used who knows how many scents with sandalwood (both with and without how wildly near women to wag their hands to move my aphrodisiac scent cloud in their direction!), never has a woman turned over after me or even threw herself at my neck *seeeeeeufz*
because of this (It's like this Axe-Deo-advertisement from back then, you can spray as much as you want, the women don't rip your clothes off...!!).

Be that as it may, now I come to Sandalo from Acqua di Parma, a brand I generally like (Fico di Amalfi, for example, is one of my favourite fragrances, is definitely worth a test! :) And Sandalo is also a quite successful scent, which I liked very much.

The fragrance:

Sandalo begins with citric notes, above all bergamot and orange, which smell fresh and good and also have a slightly classic touch, which is probably due to the lavender, which was or is often part of many classic fragrances.
At the same time, however, the fragrance also smells modern, so that although it smells a little more mature and is therefore intended more for adults than younger guys, it does not necessarily smell old-fashioned. Naturally, the fragrance quickly becomes gently balsamic and woody. The sandalwood is nice to smell, but still comes across weakly, but this still changes towards the base. A nice sweetness is also present, which seems to come from a mix of amber and tonka bean.
The background is slightly resinous, or at least that's how I feel about it, and I like that because I personally like resinous scented scents. The cardamom has a spicy, but also a slightly green scent. Cardamom is always such a thing with me, because I sometimes find this scent disturbing, but probably in the past this was due to the combination with other scents, which had rather overlaid the cardamom with their devilish scent, such as coriander for example :D
Because here I find the cardamom quite nice and very suitable for the rest of the fragrance.
Soo... with time, the citric notes of oranges become the strongest citric scents. However, the citric scents fade away towards the end, so that one smells best lavender and wonderful sandalwood at the end, with a beautiful, ambry sweetness and resinous notes. I find Sandalo generally very successful.

The Sillage and the shelf life:

The charisma is okay, but it could have been a little stronger. The scent you emit is good, but I had the feeling that the Sillage went down a bit quickly. Well, at normal distance it smells good for a while, only it's not a firecracker, but it doesn't have to be. I can't decide between six or seven points here and give you six points for now,... just imagine this as 6.5 points :D
The shelf life is also quite okay. The fragrance lasts at least eight hours, which I think is quite good.

The bottle:

The bottle is cylindrical and slightly wider in height. It is dark brown and has a shiny light brown label with name and logo on the front. The lid is just as brown as the bottle, also cylindrical and wider in height just like the bottle. It lies very well in the hand and is generally a very beautiful bottle.

There! Sandalo I had overlooked for some reason, I don't know why. Otherwise, I would have remembered testing that scent. Because he smells really wonderful. It's classic with modern accents, so it's not really old-fashioned, even if it shouldn't stand so much on younger ones, I think at least.

It is a great everyday scent, which is less suitable for going out or better said for the evening, but for me it is a wonderful companion during the day, no matter if job, leisure time, a meeting with someone for a cup of coffee (or sniffing for scents, where you get dragged from shop to shop, even if you should be olfacially saturated long ago... :D) or so and such things. Best used in spring, autumn and winter.

So, that's it. I wish everyone a nice evening and a nice weekend. Tomorrow I'll probably be in a smaller village again, let's see if I can write tomorrow or the days here, oh you see it anyway :)

02/06/2019

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 7
Longevity 7.5
Scent

Leimbacher
421 Reviews

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Leimbacher

Very helpful Review 12

Batten cracker

Acqua di Parma has been spreading its wings and flying to new shores for some time now, fusing them with its classic citric scent DNA. In "Colonia Sandalo" creamy sandalwood meets sweaty citrus feet - sounds funny, but is so. At least in my butt between the eyes.

This fresh Sandler starts AdP-typically - citric, bright, tingling. Especially the Petitgrain is famous. For me this is the best part of the fragrance, the Italians can do it, almost no matter what comes next. Here follows an unusual combination, especially with the summery start: the fragrance becomes a spicy sandalero. Still very Italian, but definitely daring. Sandalwood is creamy, cardamom is spicy-creamy, tonka can be creamy - and yet the composition initially appears to be very rough. At first sight. Because I like him more every minute. Although he doesn't move or change much.

Italiano vero, a real Roman, you could almost say. Russel Crowe aka Maximus would stand that. Not for guys. A mature, sunny, juicy all-rounder, who can get on your nerves quickly or not at all, but who scores with me with his casual summery interpretation of otherwise much heavier fragrances. A must-test for every city trip to a city on your boot. Whether Turin or Palermo, whether cloudy or boiling hot - the fragrance is there. The Collosseum becomes a hairdresser's.

Bottle: also in brown beautiful, the AdC's
Sillage: oldschool also works (to some extent) discreetly
Shelf life: 7 hours Retro bliss

Conclusion: a gladiator on leisure. The beard has to be trimmed at least once in a while... A wonderful timeless barbershop fighter.

01/04/2019

9
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 9.5
Scent

CD1810
17 Reviews

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CD1810

Top Review 11

Bleu de Chanel for adults or: The Masculin Pluirel by Acqua di Parma

Two headings and two focal points in my perception of this fragrance from the Ingredient Collection of Acqua di Parma:

First of all: Colonia Sandalo always fits, at any time, at any opportunity. So is Masculin Pluriel, my signature scent of Francis Kurkdjian. Not to be misunderstood: Sandalo and Pluriel are two completely different fragrances. But I find that both have very similar, namely very high qualities.

Second of all: Colonia Sandalo reminds me very much of Bleu de Chanel (EdP, but especially perfume) because of the great dominance of sandalwood. Only that Colonia Sandalo is much rounder, softer and more noble than the current milking cow from Chanel (which, by the way, I really appreciate in the perfume version). Much less spiciness and shower gel, just pure woody sandal freshness.

First comes the Colonia Ur-DNA with the known citric notes. I always find it astonishing how Acqua di Parma manages to get this start with so many and so different scents. The sandalwood, which I can smell after about 10 minutes, is clearly dominant. Here however every artificiality is avoided by little cardamom and with me much lavender. The Colonia reference remains clearly recognizable with me. After about half an hour to an hour Colonia Sandalo becomes softer and rounder due to tonka bean, but not sweet.
Colonia Sandalo is concise, present, but not loud and therefore a woody-fresh evergreen without synthetics - a Bleu de Chanel for adults.
Name comparisons in the area of footwear do not seem to me to be targeting!

04/23/2021

10
Pricing 10
Bottle 8
Sillage 8
Longevity 10
Scent

Michl379

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Michl379

Very helpful Review 15

Eau de Cologne Concentree vs. Eau de Parfum

Rarely have I seen or smelled such a perfect scent, especially since I didn't expect anything from it, also owed to the fact that the yellow and blue AdPs are quite nice, but nothing more. The concept of playing with the lemon at the beginning to attract the nose is old, also well known with candidates like Eau Sauvage (not to be confused with the horrible Sauvage and its even more horrible offshoot) or even Pour Monsieur, although AdP still pushes the game that way. Nothing wrong with the lemon at the beginning, when it's joined by lovely other scents in the heart and base. I find that if you can manage that, then for me the lemon at the beginning is always quite seen, although it is even nicer if it still remains a bit present in the background until the end, which in my opinion is the case here. Very few manage that these days. Both versions of the Sandalo really have their justification in my opinion. It is all the sadder that Vintage is being discontinued. The dying of the good fragrances does not stop. (Here also a cross reference to the Acqua Amara, already gone, although only 2014 came out) On the other hand, one must then nowadays with umpteen offshoots of a Stronger with you zumüllen let, which no one seriously needs. Strictly speaking, it wouldn't even have needed the origin variant of this crap. If Armani has done anything right in the gourmand realm in recent years, it's the 2021 code. It almost made it into my collection as it's really good, but only almost. Neckbreaker was then in the end effect the vanilla.
But back to the Sandalo.
Both Sandalos together is the wood and citrus construct, which is implemented for my taste in the Vintage rather a little better, and is limited to the important and essential, and exactly thereby better. The new version is somewhat complemented by creamy-sweet notes, which is more in line with today's zeitgeist, and it could also appeal to the buyer group of under 30 years, although an AdP fragrance, no matter which, is not made for the bubi-ish clientele. I've only been aware of the fragrance for a short time, yet I find the Vintage so perfect that I immediately looked to see which major online retailer was selling it at what I assumed was the best price. When I saw that Vintage is no longer available at all from the big 3 online retailers, I saw the disaster approaching and immediately asked at the 2 premium stores in Würzburg. Yes unfortunately, the Vintage was discontinued, is no longer distributed in Germany, and only remaining stocks can be picked up online. A small ray of hope remains, the inquiry with AdP directly is written, with some luck it remains in Italy at the market, and can be ordered evt. from there. I really play with the thought to put me still 2 180s in the cupboard. Especially because of the price. Vintage you get a 180 for around 80 euros, and for the EdP 100s you pay easily 140-220 euros, which now raises the question, is the old junk, and therefore discontinued, and the new EdP really worth its price all the more. If it were the other way around, it would be even more coherent for me, since I find the Vintage as mentioned worlds better, so good that I would give it (if that were possible) a 12.0. Nevertheless, in direct comparison, the new EdP is somewhat beaten off, (with a good 8.5) nevertheless, I would prefer it to 95% of everything you get these days, no matter what price category.
What is somewhat confusing, is also the designation of the type of fragrance of the two, and what is written on it really contrary to what one then may or should expect, (also under the further consideration of the color scheme), so with durability and sillage.
When I tested the new black EdP, and then looked here in the rating, I was of the opinion that with H+S as stated here, yes, that fits. Should then he brown, so weaker in color, and also with Cologne Concentree as designation stated really be stronger? I thought no, since it is the Vintage, surely many (older and conservative) AdP lovers (who are more attached to the light AdPs) rated it worlds stronger, because they just also tend to rate the very light AdPs more with 7, although actually only a 6 in H+S is already more than what it is then. While my package was on its way, I was thinking several times, oh God, did I make a really shitty blind purchase? The expectations were high, but not too high. And were they disappointed? No, not really. The way this is in here with 7.5 to 8 on average, yeah that's right. Anyone seriously talking about a cologne here is wrong. If either candidate is an EdP, it's definitely the cologne. Just had an experience again the other day just before this, an absolutely beautiful new release, also a cologne, also rated 7.5/7.5, then turned out to be window dressing. It was / is the new Azzaro Cologne Intense. So from the scent truly perfect. Who can be content with a little less H+S, or often times nachsprüht, which is still well served with this cologne. From a fragrance point of view, an absolute 10. This raises the question for me, why do so many excellent fragrances too often have to be so weak. And why on earth do so many 2000s and 2010s junk gourmands have to be so unbearably annoyingly loud. Sorry, I don't know.
I have thus found for me once again an indisputably perfect fragrance. Whether I should now find this good, I also do not know, especially since the mega Vintage will unfortunately soon die out. The EdP can not hold a candle to the Vintage in any form, both not from the fragrance and not from the presence. But if he should be dead at some point then completely, then in any case prefer the black, still better than much of what you have to endure mithin.

09/22/2018

8
Bottle 8
Sillage 8
Longevity 7
Scent

Taurus
309 Reviews

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Taurus

Helpful Review 12

Sandalwood or sandal?

Of course I am aware that sandalo translated from Italian means sandalwood. However, the signatories of Acqua di Parma should also be aware of how that sniffs as a natural original.

But one thing at a time: in the first few nanoseconds, the typical AdP cosmos with bergamot paired with a few of its citric relatives comes towards you. As soon as sandalwood and cardamom in particular march forward quickly and roll down everything else. Even lavender has little chance of success. After all, sandalwood is the main character here. Nevertheless, I suspect that we are dealing with a double who only pretends to be - and unfortunately not completely convincing or authentic. His sidekick cardamom also plays a strange game.

Together I really find them a bit too penetrating or obtrusive, strenuous and tiring. They give the rest no chance to develop and help the scent more to a shoe polish attitude than to the apparently desired sandalwood atmosphere. And there is just fast the association to old sandals (only just without leather).

This olfactory quickly annoying sinus tone remains and remains... to a long drydown without amber and tonka bean flashing through.

As a small footnote (how fitting) it should be mentioned that a colleague, who herself is not stingy with the use of her perfumes, still asked what would smell so strange here. When I let her sniff my wrist, she slightly pulled her face and said that it seemed cheap.

Well, I don't think it's that dramatic, but as a lover of sandalwood I actually expected more. One could now unken that Acqua di Parma should rather stay with his last and that Colonia Sandalo rather becomes the Clonia Scandalo, but I don't want to give so much malice to the whole thing along the way. It's just not my thing!

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