Etruscan Water

This is a piece of artistry that sits amongst the very best of the Chypre genre, possibly perfumery in general! I've read many reviews that state it's citrus, earthy, mossy, spicy, aromatic.....the list goes on and on. It's crazy but they are all correct! This is a powerful potion that opens with a bang, be in no doubt about that. For me, pretty much all of the above descriptions just hit me within the first few minutes, quite breath taking! ******************************************** In the spirit of openness and honesty, I will state that much to my surprise and delight, I've recently discovered a Chypre I prefer overall! Not quite as long lasting or projecting, still very good though. 8+ is probably more than enough for a strong scent! This product is an even darker, deeper and more opulent alternative to Etruscan water, although not as fresh. Suited more to the cooler months. I'm talking about Chypre Fulminare from Naughton & Wilson, bloody glorious. It's quickly become one of my all time favourites and very worthy of your consideration. To my astonishment, their whole range is just stunning. I'm not a fanboy or shill, just a guy who loves high quality traditional perfumery with a modern touch. The brand has been a very fortunate discovery. ******************************************** Back to Etruscan water; I thought I may have over sprayed a little to start, 6-7 sprays was a bit of a worry for a few minutes. It settles quickly though and the initial smack smooths out just enough but never loses it's impact. Four hours in and I'm still projecting to the room. 6-8 hours and others are easily catching the scent from over arms length. luckily, no one minds as it's such a gorgeous blend of Moss, greenery, powdery, salty citrus and musk....and so much more. In fact, I keep detecting a nuance of smoke. I'm not sure from where, possibly vetiver! Honestly, it's a chameleon. Every 15-30 minutes I notice that it's constantly evolving and note swapping or another note just seems to make itself known. What never changes though is a beautiful aromatic but somehow earthy freshness on my skin. This really is top level perfumery. It's a fragrance that I'd personally wear any time to any occasion, just not every time. The only possible caveat would perhaps be a very chilly day, I'd opt for something warmer and even more animalistic. 😆. I'm a fan of traditional perfumery and enjoy scents before over regulation and paired back offerings! Wonderful as it is, most days I'll choose to wear a fougere/barbershop scent as that is my favourite genre and suits my particular style but I love a chypre and this will definitely be a consideration more often than not. Anyway, Etruscan water will shine any time you opt to wear it just by the sheer quality of its craft, ingredients and blending. It's unisex to me, not for the younger crowd and certainly not for guys and gals just taking their very first steps into this world. You'll either scare yourself or spend the rest of your days trying to find other scents of equal brilliance as you've started near the pinnacle. It'll last easily until the next day, never truly leaving until you shower! On clothing its a permanent addition. Yes it's a little pricey. But, if you seek out high quality and artisanal mastery it's good value. A little goes a long way! Probably best to sample if you can. Although, if you enjoy strong, niche perfumery that's reminiscent of both the modern and traditional Chypre genre then you can't really go wrong....in my opinion! This scent is one for collectors and chypre fans alike. Personally, not one for everyday as I wouldn't want to become accustomed to it's distinctive character. Be mindful to limit your sprays depending on your environment. Do this and it's actually quite versatile. It's a wonderful option to have in your rotation.

Those of you who have read several of my reviews will likely have read this before: I’m a sucker for green perfumes. I’ve got a bias and I know it, so I try hard to keep it in check, but sometimes I just succumb to the bias because, well, why not; I like what I like, and that’s what perfume is for, after all. However, it was not a foregone conclusion that I was going to like Francesca Bianchi’s green perfume, Etruscan Water. As I make my way through the brand’s discovery set I notice recurring themes and styles: one of them, sex. Another, tending to reuse materials and having a sort-of devil-may-care attitude towards blending them; seeming to shove stuff into the formula and letting the materials lay very roughly and unevenly over each other. The theme and style are working for Etruscan Water. The stylistic morass is no more apparent than it is at the beginning of the perfume, where everything - rough hewn, vivid and saturated, languidly laying over each other - catapults at you. Aldehydic galbanum, bergamot, tangerine, grapefruit, basil, immortelle, caraway, petitgrain, jasmine, orris butter, vetiver, musks, tree moss, labdanum... the kitchen sink, basically. Weirdly, it works! The aldehydes, hesperidics, galbanum, and petitgrain hover just above the surface; bracing, sunlit energy. Basil, immortelle, and caraway just underneath; more sun-scorched, parched-landscape goodness in the form of bright anisic notes. Jasmine and orris butter sit large in the background; indolic florals providing dry but powdery silky skin texture. Vetiver, labdanum, and enough musks and tree moss to make a whole other perfume, create the stage all of this sits on; salty, sweaty, oily, dirty, sea-kissed skin, and the woods of trees lining the coast and your sea-worn wood deck furniture. The image this is creating in my mind... just wow. It makes me feel lewd to the point I’m looking around to see if anyone is raising their eyebrows at me, but it’s also that kind of beach so who cares. The hesperidics and green characters are the first to dry down, where the perfume goes very convincingly towards an anisic-immortelle-flecked chypre. Perhaps things have calmed down at the beach, the sun is going down, and the bronze-red glow of salty-sea-soaked and sunburnt skin against cooling shrubs and woods becomes more apparent. Green chypre this is not; it switches character quickly to a deep, woody, animalic, sticky, labdanum-tree moss-musk chypre. Mind you, since this is an extrait, I say quickly but that’s two to three hours after application, and maybe longer in more humid conditions. The perfume finishes in this chypre vein many, many hours later. I want to wear this to a humid beach somewhere in the Mediterranean, where the sun is brutal and the energy is sultry and lively, where nature is allowed to thrive and it isn’t some well-manicured beach with tourist resorts and perfect-condition chairs and chaises; somewhere where real people and real nature let themselves free (maybe even free from clothing). It might very well be oppressively loud, huge, and lascivious in that humid heat but I don’t care. I would not be there to be coy, sit in the dark of foliage, and observe; neither is Etruscan Water. This is going in my full bottle collection, for sure.

I just received mine today, and, as is my custom, I macerate it: do my spritzes, then, sit it down for a month (or, thereabouts). But, obviously, in spraying it, one is given something wherewith to come to some initial thoughts & opinions. I didn't know that it had arrived already, and, I was headed out, so, I had already put on Francesca's Libertine Neroli, which, in a very short time, I've come to really enjoy. However, being such a strong scent, when I was trying to smell the Etruscan Water, I kept getting hints of neroli, which I suspected was the Libertine Neroli. Mind you, I've been amply made aware of Francesca Bianchi's famous use of animalics, in her FREEFALL collection. Being somewhat still new to the fragrance game, I wasn't sure if I had already experienced animalics, from some of the other fragrances I own, or, if what they were referring to was something I had yet to come in contact with. So, anyway, I left the house, went about my errands, and, when I returned, I was able to catch a less-contaminated whiff of the EW in the air. NOW, I have a MUCH better idea of animalics, too. When I was stationed in Okinawa, upon arrival, one of the very first things you'll notice is that the Japanese people, because of their diet, have a MUCH different body odor than we're used to here, in the U.S. Hate to say it, but, it was actually kinda rough on the nose. Over time, you do become accustomed to it, but, I don't think that I'll ever "like" the smell. The animalics, in Etruscan Water, that I now am picking up, underneath what is a fantastic scent, are along those lines, in my opinion...not that it smells like the Japanese body odor, but, that it's a B.O. that, at best, is gonna take me some getting used to. In her FREEFALL line, I believe that Etruscan Water is one of the least strong, in terms of the animalics, so, unless macerating does something incredible with that aspect of the fragrance, I probably will be sticking to her fragrances not in the FREEFALL line. However, having said that, "challenging" is part of why you go with Francesca Bianchi, so, she has definitely fulfilled her end of our bargain. Update: So, my impatience won out. I didn't like the way that I was left feeling, after my initial questions about this one, and, it kept bugging me. Because, I purchased it to be a warmer weather option for me, and, today was unseasonably warm, I used that for an excuse to wear it, see if my opinion changed any. And,... ...Thank goodness, I did, too! I am so glad to report that I get none of that B. O. that my nose was finding objectionable, and, all of that scent that I found to be fantastic underneath. I'm four hours in, been out & about, walked the neighborhood, then, went to pay a bill, and, I'm still smelling a great fragrance, and, once again, Francesca Bianchi has given me a winner, imo 💎🏆👍🏿

Etruscan water It starts with a blast of a sort of bitter dense earthy mist cloud. Not as unpleasant dust that makes you sneeze but a sort of pungent mist as a if you opened a lid of a cooking pot and a thick vapor cloud escapes. The weird thing is that this chord gives me the feeling of something that is smokey and yet green. Very perplexing, I think its the combination of Bitter citrus vetiver and moss. The earthiness and denseness from moss and vetiver together with a sort of bright but bitter citrus. It gives me the sensation of vapor or water when its hot, and of thickness and condensation when its cold. This start alone is worth having this perfume I have not experienced a perfume that starts even vaguely like this. It then morphs into a aura of something vintage as if you are wearing an old classic citrus focused parfum that has dulled with time. It makes me think that this is a reissue/time machine to 60/70's because it does smell focused and modern despite this vintage vibe. I refer to this as a classy freshness. Not shower-gel or spicy freshness of mint. The freshness reminds me of a salty breeze without a distinct ocean smell. This freshness settles down into a a salty skin vibe. This also blows my mind, how can it evoke "watery-sensation" without that classic designer fake water vibe or a specific "watery-note" freshness. There is also an ambery theme that is brooding and amps up as the top fades. This salty ambery base is nuanced with something that reminds me of cumin. ( I think its the caraway that is listed here in the notes) This caraway reminds me of its use in Pasha Cartier maybe this gives it that vintage character and illusion of smoke. I have read someone below refer to it as ashy, I sense it as faded smoke, reminds me of a stone oven that stands outside it doesn't reek of smoke or ash but has a smokey stone smell. This fragrance seems linear and yet there are layers, and it reacts to temperature. I do wear it in colder seasons but it shines when its hotter, and sometimes even better when I have worked up a sweat on top of it. So, I really like this one, after one wear i knew i would need to get the full bottle, I usually only need 1 or 2 sprays for about 6 hours enjoyment, after that it is skin scent, that salty skin feeling. She really made a unique piece of art and a very imagination tickling fragrance: which reminds me of locations I have been which have a connotation with sea, forts, moss on stones, abandoned structures. Where once campfires have been build or still are shown in burn marks and wind blown charcoal pieces scattered over salt eaten lime stone floors.

The one thing I love the most about Francesca Bianchi perfumes is that each and every one of them is telling a story. And that is why I consider the house one of the best niche perfumers, because they don't care if not all scents are easy to wear or 100% people pleasers, but they are unique and of the highest quality. This is the third piece in my collection by the house and it's also a masterpiece, just like The Black Knight and Libertine Neroli. This one is not super aggressive, even the opening is a bit more laid-back than other pieces in their catalog, despite the strong and sharp citruses in the opening. As it starts drying down about an hour after applying, the sun-dried fruity notes are coming forward - those are not the fresh, sweet fruitbasket-like accords, it's darker and has more depth to it with a lot of amber. It takes me to a place in my head picturing myself as if I were brought up in sunny Italy, where I could spend the summer days in the backyard of grandparents, not necessarily on the beach but definitely near the seashore. Where there is a scorching sun and heat all day, the smell of raisins, sun-dried fruits and tomatoes mixed with open-air grill and red wine, also a nice lotion and sunscreen lingering around. It's like spraying the Mediterranian childhood on your skin (even though I wasn't anywhere near any seashore growing up :D). It's not that much of a projection monster, although it has very good performance in terms of longevity, it just sits closer to the skin rather than being beast mode. There is a very beautiful green backbone to it with the signature Francesca Bianchi powdery iris notes, those who wrote before me that it's a dense, aromatic chypre are totally right. It's like green herbal/floral notes soaked in some ambery patchouli. The other thing that comes to my mind when smelling this fragrance is that it smells obscenely rich, someone with all the money in the world, it's such a high-class scent. It's very elegant, for me it's hard to imagine wearing this just casually, but it's not seasonal, you can wear it all-year round, just be careful with how much you spray on because of the extrait concentration. However, I don't recommend blind buying this one, as it could be challenging for some. Hats down to Francesca, this is master perfumery again.