L'Eau de Corse Oriza L. Legrand 2017

L'eau de corse opens a little bit harsh, a bit like Vinaigre de toilette (that is not in this database, which is a shame for I like it very much). I was in a swimming pool cabin, back in my clothes, when I sprayed it for the first time and one of my neighbourg said “it smells strong, pouah!”. It really did. Luckily I think the first notes are a bit masculine, so nobody could think it as me (I hope? No? Don't look at me this way!!). But in the dry down you have a more subtile, powdery and luxury scent that I like a lot.
This eau de cologne smells litterally like orange zest, lemon leaves and a hint of grandeur beneath all that. I tried it in a very very hot spring day, and it was perfect for the temperature, accompagniing me through the day with a delicate citrus scent.

L'Eau de Corse is a very good bitter orange eau de cologne - it is bright, sparkling, and of course, heartbreakingly realistic in those first few minutes, when the air fills with the electric scent of orange peel freshly pierced by fingernails. It is sustained, too, far longer than you might expect.

My only criticism is that it seems to be kept aloft by a musk material that feels almost candied, giving off whiffs of a half-sucked orange Chupa Chup. However, this is subtle and I can't say for sure that it exists anywhere other than in my imagination. I tend to be overly critical of eaux de cologne, because once the citrus notes burn off, all the scaffolding is laid bare and I have no mercy for shoddy or lazy finishes in something made essentially to lift your mood, no matter how briefly (it's what sinks Citron Noir by Hermes for me, for example).

L'Eau de Corse feels and smells natural for far longer than many eau de cologne examples I have tested, so if a little candied musk / licked lollypop is required to keep the whole thing from falling apart, then so be it. A solid B+, completely unisex, and something I'd consider buying (a) if I lived in a warmer climate and (b) could time my purchase for when Oriza L. Legrand does their annual early summer sale where they lob in a free 50ml bottle of perfume for every 100ml bottle you buy.

Uncommented Fragrances No. 166

If you, like me, are interested in darker colognes (which I have called black colognes), you will find here a compilation of all the fragrances that I categorize in this group:
https://www.parfumo.de/Benutzer/Yatagan/Sammlung/1919

Please note: For me, this group only includes fragrances that carry the distinct basic character of colognes (neroli, citrus notes, light flowers, nothing more) and not just any EdCs of various colors.

A fragrance that perfectly belongs to this class is L'Eau de Corse from the still underappreciated brand Oriza L. Legrand, which is reissuing its long-lost traditional fragrances from the 1910s and 1920s, thereby creating a portfolio of high-quality new classics. L'Eau de Corse may not belong to this category, as Parfumo does not list a hundred-year-old original for L'Eau de Corse, but only the current fragrance. However, it would be credible if a predecessor of this scent existed, as L'Eau de Corse operates within the narrow confines of traditional colognes (instead of neroli blossoms, here we have bitter orange peel, then bitter orange, which might be a synonym for neroli, as I suspect the blossoms rather than the fruit), but then adds darker accents by incorporating the almost fleshy cistus (the base for labdanum resin) and the distinctive myrtle (which I particularly love). A certain closeness to the orange-toned Eaux de Portugal from various brands is unmistakable (from Penhaligon's, Geo F. Trumper, D.R. Harris, 4711).

The result is not an explicitly dark cologne (like "Cologne Intense" by Houbigant), but a noticeably darker fragrance that stands out distinctly from the usual colognes ("Real Cologne Water" and Co.). Anyone who can warm up to colognes and additionally appreciates a warmer accent for winter might find what they are looking for here.