Salvatore Ferragamo Acqua Essenziale Blu had been on my list for a while. Alberto Morillas made it, and he knows how to make fresh scents. It was compared to Bleu de Chanel, It was supposed to be fresh, and it “Acqua “ and “Blu” in the name. What could go wrong? Well, everything.
The Italian house’s popular scent starts out with muted and fake citruses that I can’t even tell what they are supposed to be. There is no zest, nor a sparkle in site. Just a dead carcass of a chemical mess without any life. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of synthetics as well, but these citruses are just executed so poorly that one cannot help but to be disappointed.
The train wreck continues with a lavender that feels soulless. Sweet and scratchy, lacing the beautiful calming quality of the beautiful ingredient, and just leaving you with something that smells like it would be in an off-brand body spray.
In the base, tonka and ambroxan compose the final episode of this dramatic saga. The tonka is sweet, way too sweet. The ambroxan is overdosed and nauseating, which drives the final nail in the coffin that catapults the scent into a territory that no scent should ever go, smelling like a $3 body wash from Wal-Mart. There is a slight touch of cedar in it, which is nice, but not nearly nice enough to redeem the scent.
Acqua Essentiale Blu suffers from poor craftsmanship, and I expect better from Morillas. He is one of my favorite perfumers and this is a tarnishing spot upon his resume. Just about all of his scents are synthetic, so I know that he can work with the materials better than this. Maybe this scent wasn’t meant for me, and it was made to appeal to younger men. I am getting close to 4 and I still wear “youthful” scents, but this one belongs in a middle school locker room and not on the shelves of a luxury perfume store.
There are two good things about the fragrance. The blue gradient bottle is stunning and I enjoy looking at the design. The other thing is that it’s super cheap, so I was not out of much money by blind buying it.
For people who love sweet scents and want something fresher, this may be your jam. It does last a long time, much to my detriment, but others may enjoy that. It lasts around 8-9 hours on me with decent protection, which is pretty spectacular for a borderline fresh scent.
If you are looking for a replacement for Bleu de Chanel, then look elsewhere. This is nothing like it. I was hoping for a fresher version of Bleu de Chanel with the incense. Of course, I didn’t expect it to reach the echelons of a Chanel, but I think that it could maybe scratch the itch. It was so confused that it aimed for the ocean and ended up landing on the asphalt of New York City.
I know this was somewhat of a rant, but this fragrance has been hyped to death. I don’t particularly enjoy sweet scents, so my view may be biased. I can usually still pull something redeeming out of a scent that I don’t enjoy and Acqua Essenziale Blu had nothing to offer.
What are your thoughts on the scent? Did you like it? Am I off base and missing something?
