Flores

Flores Eau de Parfum was the name chosen for one of the fragrances launched by Aqua dos Açores in 2019. The creative concept speaks of the endless meadows of flowers that surround the volcanic lakes in the Azores region and the perfume that hangs in the air with the spring breezes. The fragrance of Flores Eau de Parfum is produced in Italy and carries notes of tarragon, neroli, and aquatic accord at the start. In the heart, notes of gardenia, jasmine, tuberose, ylang-ylang, pittosporum, and orange blossom, resting on a base of white musk, and Kahili ginger. * * Aqua dos Açores guarantees that the composition has natural essences of the following ingredients: neroli, pittosporum, conteira (Kahili ginger), ylang-ylang, tuberose, jasmine, and bergamot. Before commenting on skin performance, it is worth clarifying a few points. Japanese pittosporum, as it is better known, is a medium-height shrub with evergreen foliage and white flowers with a light scent, similar to orange blossoms. The conteira, also known as Kahili ginger, wild ginger, or yellow ginger, is a herbaceous plant, widely used as ornamentals, as its bouquets are vertical (like corn cobs), with yellow flowers and red pistils. In some regions of the world, such as the Azores and New Zealand, it is considered an invasive species. On the skin, Flores Eau de Parfum behaves like a floral-musky fragrance of great beauty and complexity. It's that kind of fragrance that even if you don't know the ingredients list, you're still able to identify some of its notes because it's one of those rare cases where they all manage to show themselves during evolution. At the start, the freshness of the neroli and all the herbal and aniseed tarragon content reach the nostrils without mercy. Right off the bat, you know it's a pungent floral, but you're not quite sure – in the first few minutes – which type of bouquet will reveal itself (white, yellow, lilac, or rose). Then, all the gracefulness of ylang-ylang presents itself, bringing the other flowers in a row, as if it were a mother taking her children hand in hand to somewhere. Behold, the presence list begins to be sung and each note is identified by shouting: “present”, as it is called. Ylang-Ylang, not so fruity, but woodier and denser; Jasmine, sweet and with green facets; Gardenia, refined and luminous, brings a whiter tone; Pitospore, creamy and intense, echoes with the orange blossom; Finally, the tuberose, opulent, sensual and with a waxy aspect. Flores Eau de Parfum is much more than a white floral, just because it brings together the royal family of this olfactory profile. And this is much more evident when drying speeds up and reveals the citrus freshness of the ginger, with a large soapy content of the white musk. Here, the beautiful and fragrant bouquet of flowers turns into a large soap, with a beautiful package and an addictive fragrance, capable of exhaling from a distance and with a durability that lasts up to ten hours on the body. Flores Eau de Parfum may look like many other floral fragrances already launched, but not with that kind of raw material clarity and, above all, quality. For those who, like me, smell fragrances all the time, on a daily basis, it is a joy to find such a rich composition. I'm obsessed!

The scent is complex and structured with heart notes of gardenia and orange blossom. The essences are of high quality and the perfume is persistent but not intrusive. It fully met my expectations.

I was charmed when I saw this brand, I love the Azores, and it indeed has some specific scents - the sea, fig and vines, the scent of ginger lilies blooming, tea bushes, grass. Sulfur thermal baths (maybe not in a perfume), clay, fir trees. This is completely unlike it, none of those notes, a white floral note which is presumably the gardenia, and orange blossom a bit too rotten, and a lot of iso e super and another synthetic which I seriously do not like (and is also present in Un Jardin sur La Lagune). The Azores deserved much better.