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Intersport
Very helpful Review
12
Peninsula Hinterland Juniper
Acqua di Scandola made me curious because of the advertised immortelle combined with a 'very special' seaweed extract - that to Parfum d'Empire, good conditions. What ultimately came my way was first a surprise, a welcome meander into Parfum d'Empire's releases. It's often moments like these that keep labels, publishers - indeed, anything that publishes regularly - going, pulsing, and interested - even if, at first glance, they might seem like slips.
In this way, Acqua di Scandola is reminiscent of another, older fragrance, Garrigue (1988) from Jean François Laporte's house Maitre Parfumeur. Laporte, who like Corticchiato could point to an academic-chemical background, and who alone launched a considerable portfolio with this brand in the late 80's, succeeded with Garrigue a perfume difficult to classify in his own program. A kind of 'herbalist version' of the aquatic fragrances of the late 80s. At the same time, Garrigue was imbued with season-long residues of all manner of shower gel odeurs from Garrigue campsites - these consistently herbalist resythetised. Juniper plays a central function in Garrigue, as it does in Acqua di Scandola. Whether it is also a slip or a swerve remains to be seen: Coriolan, Jean Paul Guerlain's wonderful but nearly 2500 years too late Mediterranean-herbaceous late work is also close, if altogether drier than on Scandola. This, already at the time of its release untimely perfume - incidentally one of the last witnesses of Guerlain's extraordinary flacon art, until it was thanks to rationing the Gar ausgemacht - also relies on a central juniper, in Mediterranean and North African, hinterland framing.
For me, Acqua di Scandola tends more towards a juniper-centric perfume than a clearly defined aquatic, and thus re-enters familiar d'Empire territory: in its herbaceousness, it appears as a deeper-blue, calmer and reduced version of Guy Laroche's Horizon (1993), which also combines all manner of scrub and greenery with distinctly more artificial high-time aquatics. The immortelles remain metre-deep underwater and only flash through sporadically late on, the algae appear unspectacular despite the use of a special extract and appear enhanced after hours but without kitsch, mossy stuff likewise comes to minimal prominence in the later development. Even if this sounds rather common, Scandola becomes a warm herbal aqua in drydown, perhaps the most beautiful phase. Volume, unlike other recent d'Empire releases, is decidedly present and clear. Solid, sophisticated content, almost classic!
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