Review revised in April 2025 to reflect performance downgrades and a better overview of the tea fragrance market.
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An anecdote of the Maison Francis Kurkdjian experience. Imagine you overnight hit it out the park (Baccarat Rouge). Sure - you're not going to retire "just because", but all of a sudden, risk-seeking behavior is increasingly trending towards absolute risk adversity. BR540 was Francis Kurkdjian's lottery ticket and he won. Grand Soir was his high-growth equity portfolio and he won. Now, when the only thing you need to do is buy risk-free assets to maintain what you have, you get product like this - like
Aqua Media Cologne Forte. I hope everybody has become accustomed to the idea that whatever Francis Kurkdjian releases will be "nice" or "okay" and nothing more. No more lottery tickets, no more high-growth equity.
When you first spray on Aqua Media, the lively matcha base note shines. Much like the citruses in some of our favorite fragrances, the experience is short-lived. Up-close, the scent smells of fresh citruses with a mild green verbena note.
From the perspective of synthetic tonalities, the scent's DNA is good - Francis Kurkdjian's fresher fragrances don't smell like the synthetic sludge you get from Kilian (see:
Blue Moon Ginger Dash,
Vodka on the Rocks). But the problem ties back to the main criticism highlighted in the first paragraph - the DNA is transferred scent-to-scent which is why you can instantly tell it's MFK.
We've smelled this before, just without the verbena & matcha. The difference between this and
Aqua Celestia Cologne Forte is the 20-25% of notes swapped from fruitiness to green. The difference between this and any of his white floral product (see:
Gentle Fluidity (Silver),
724 Eau de Parfum ) is similarly, 30-35% of notes swapped from clean to green.
Performance on the scent is predictably weak, mildly below the competitors in this genre with around a 5-6 hour longevity. This is targeting a spring-summer use case where it will mostly be on an intimate-to-moderate sillage, with upside potential for hotter weather.
For anybody trying this with the thought that
Aqua Media Cologne Forte could mirror any of the well-recognized tea scents in the market today, there is some reason for excitement. After spending years with
Wūlóng Chá Extrait de Parfum, I would argue the on-skin blending on that scent is not the smoothest and this flaw was later ironed out with
Wūlóng Chá X, a product that I'd place on-par with Aqua Media. For Le Labo and certain underground product like
Aesthetic Turbulence, the questions remain outstanding. However, ultimately Aqua Media serves as a competitor in a lane where the discrepancies between products are minimal and therefore, there is nothing to make this stand out. Perhaps you were expecting a risk-seeking product from somebody that has been in the risk-free business for 5+ years now...?
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ScentToolbox
Pastfutures
Janetbeary
AustinL
Nqobie0303
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Ch03np
