Eau de Quinine Crown Perfumery 1890

The opening of "Eau de Quinine" by Crown Perfumery is for me the epitome, the personification of a bad mood :) That bergamot can smell so dull and grumpy, coriander can bring you down so much, and herbs can come across as endlessly dull is truly remarkable. Fortunately, improvement is soon in sight, thanks to petitgrain, which quickly brightens the citrusy mood of the bergamot, but not in a friendly-fresh way, rather in a biting, herbaceous, and almost malicious dark orange, very interesting time and again :-)

The spices provide a peppery zest, nothing bright-silvery but rather a dark, slightly sharp, somewhat biting, and later herbal-dull, definitely bitter brew that doesn't want to play! The transition from gin and tonic to medicinal herbal brew is so bizarre that calling it old-fashioned would be a grotesque understatement - and only after hours does this grim humor dissolve into a truly astonishing powdery note that I find so absurd as a punchline that I want to burst out laughing every time. Brilliant, very distinctive, and simply fantastic in its eccentricity!

Even though I sometimes have the impression that the birth year of the ideal wearer of this fragrance must at least be from the time of its creation, it definitely has to be one of those grim, taciturn old-timers that are rarely found today in the age of chatter - for me, it is a wonderful, serious, almost robust-unfriendly scent that certainly won't prompt the question "hmmm, what smells so good here?" but rather will ensure that one is left in peace with the appropriate expression and can then grin mischievously to oneself - a fragrant character that I really like! :-)