Essenza Uomo

I'm surprised to be the first to review this fragrance. My wife and I discovered Acqua dell Elba while visiting Siena in May 2023, and we sampled their entire men's and women's lines. This was both of our favorites on me, followed closely by Blu Uomo and Classica (both superb). On her, we both preferred Arcipelago Donna and Blu Donna (both also superb). Essenza Uomo and Arcipelago Donna became our daily fragrances for the rest of our visit to Italy. To my untrained nose, Essenza Uomo starts with notes of bitter citrus, authentic marine air (here, seaweed), sage, and something floral (perhaps rose). No one note dominates for me; they all blend together surprisingly well (as a novice, I would never have expected to enjoy those notes in combination). Over time, I'm able to pick out additional floral notes and a woody base. Longevity has been at least 6 hours on me in both high heat and milder temps. Thus far, I've found that I generally dislike wearing fragrances with prominent floral notes, but I very much enjoy this one. And the olfactory memories of our trip together continue to be a lovely bonus.

Essenza Uomo is a great, fresh summer time scent. I'd place it in between Chanel Bleu and Dylan Blue, being less formal than the Chanel and more formal than Dylan Blue. Yet, it's not just another blue fragrance but also has more freshness than Bleu and Blue. It maintains the freshness even in the dry down, without having pronounced woody notes at that point. Essenza Uomo opens as a powerful fragrance. No problem smelling it after applying it and it projected a good arms length. This was in stark contrast to the other Acqua dell'Elba fragrances I have tested to this point (Classica, Blu and Arcipelago). Alas, my high hopes were dashed in about 3 and a half hours when nothing of Essenza remained. I had to put my nose to my skin to get a hint of it at all. While the scent is nice, I don't need yet another freshie with mediocre performance.

Aromatic sage and citrus opening Refreshing with a slighty stinky component, that reminds me of rotting algae