Aqua Allegoria Anisia Bella

I recently poached Anisia Bella and Jasminora, two discontinued AAs, off ebay for bargains. Jasminora I had already smelled and therefore knew I loved (I'll review that one too) but, unexpectedly, I think I like Anisia Bella even more. I do have to qualify that statement with the caution that *none* of the discontinued Aqua Allegorias are worth shelling out a fortune in my opinion, especially when buying blind. That said, if they're going at a reasonable price (and some of them really are) I think it's great to buy them due to how fascinating they often are and for the sake of sustainability (buying excess stock of perfume and actually using it up). Anisia Bella is totally as you'd expect for a star anise-tinged Allegoria, spicy but also citric and utterly pacifist, with no harshness or acidity but rather a soft, undulating aura characteristic of this line. It has as much ferocity as a little girl in a sun dress with braids (called Anise). I used some star anise in a curry not long ago, and out of curiosity after frying the whole spices in oil I ate one of the seeds present in the pod. It was aromatic and anisic as you'd expect, but not overly harsh or pungent. Anisia Bella is gentler still, and is buoyed far into the sky by abundant, hyper-naturally fresh herbs and citruses, but with a central note of softly milled anise. It has only the FAINTEST whiff of anything mentholated, and is actually subtly woody on my skin and has a total absence of sweetness (thank God). It makes me assume (I'm probably wrong) that this must be what star anise smells like when fresh and not yet dried, i.e. with green stems and pods and misted with morning dew. It is unexpectedly matutinal, and smells like a personification of the warmth of a sunrise on a wet meadow. What a shining masterpiece of a cologne this is... I hope Guerlain one day returns to spice and aromatics in the Aqua Allegoria line, if only for a limited edition.

Bright, bit spicy, bit floral, anise. Unique. Light black velvet sultry vibes. Licorice taste. Very interesting and unique. I enjoy it but not sure I'd regularly wear it. Testing from Pleasure Scenter Guerlain Sampler #3, next to Cologne du 68, which is a bit more transparent, less floral and feminine. Scent: 7 / Sillage: 7 / Longevity: 6

Pretty. Licorice accord and green notes. Fresh. Perfect for spring and summer. I like the licorice in this, it makes it rather unique and makes it stand out from other Aqua Allegoria offerings.

Lovely, crispy, it feels like a summer day in a reccently cutted grass field

My bottle of Guerlain Aqua Allegoria ANISIA BELLA was MIA for some time and just resurfaced while I was searching for something else. O Happy Day! This unique fragrance opens with a marked anise/licorice note but shortly thereafter transforms into an herbaceous melange with a dominant bitter green character not unlike Bond no 9 CENTRAL PARK, which was also produced in 2004. There must have been something in the air... I like this composition a lot, but I also like CENTRAL PARK. Both are slightly masculine, or at least not sweet and flowery. I find this herbaceous green quality quite refreshing, especially in the heat. Because ANISIA BELLA has a strong anise opening, this one is best for licorice/fennel/anise fans, I think. The staying power is good, as is usually the case with the AA edts.

This is like all the AA range. Very natural, light and unique. This perfume is reminiscent of a day in early spring after a rain shower. It has that fresh, new, damp, woodland vibe to it. I can feel the dampness in the air when wearing this and that grassy, leafy smell! I love this for the unusual combination of notes and you really have to love licorice and star anise to appreciate this perfume. the AA collection are wonderful layering scents, or perfect for those days when you feel 'off' and your regular 'wardrobe' simply wont do because you want something that is easy to stomach and won't induce a headache. This perfume is perfect for that, it's a real 'pick me up'.

I expected this to be a light anise scent, and so it is. It starts out with a lot of airy-aquatic notes and a tame anise, so the fragrance delivers exactly what the name promises. The anise is subtly modified by green herbal notes, including basil, but mainly sticks to the anise lite theme. There’s just a hint of clean white musk in the base. Longevity is not bad for a light EdT, about 3-4 hours with sillage, then a few more hours as a skin scent. I would characterize this as a delicate aquatic fragrance, lightly flavored with anise and green herbs, probably a good one for summer spritzing on hot days.

I go through three distinct stages with Anisia Bella: Stage one, lasts a few minutes: Oh! I like this so much! Why didn't I get a full bottle before it was discontinued? Stage two, maybe a half-hour: Ugh, so syrupy. And so strong! Maybe if I stick my arms under my jacket I can ride it out. Should have worn half as much. Stage three, twelve hours: (Huffing my arm) ok, here we go, very nice. When the cedar kicks in (which cuts the sweetness), and projection ebbs to within arm's length, I enjoy this very much. But the syrupy blast phase lasts so long that I have no regrets about not buying a full bottle.

Anisia Bella is a lovely rendition of an herbal garden on sunny afternoon. It smells nice and natural. The anise note is lovely, pleasant and fresh combined with basil and bergamot. The scent stays linear but towards the dry down, the cedar note becomes more noticeable on my skin. The scent is totally unisex but you have to be in love with anise to wear this. I feel that it is most suitable for summertime and it is great in hot weather and natural settings. My overall score is 7.5/10.

It smells like a garden in Autumn, the only way I can describe it, the licorice opening is a little pungent. It is incredibly masculine, there isn't much feminine about this one. It smells like a muddy patch in a herbacious border, basil, licorice and minty tea. Do i like it or not, couldn't answer to be honest, what I would say is it's deeply interesting. As it develops I get small shades of the orange coming through. Unusual......

I recently got a decant of this and it's so interesting. it's very green while also very obviously licorice, with the star anise and basil notes pulling at each other. there was a moment when it came close to smelling of cleaning products, but mostly it's just very zippy. I bet it would make an excellent candle, too!

Wore this perfume twice...nothing special! I may pull it back out of my perfume collection and try to give it 1 more try before giving it to someone who will appreciate this weird spring grass smelling Guerlain travesty.

I ordered around 50 different decants of discontinued fragrances from one website. In this order, my main focus was on Guerlain. Among the fragrances I chose was the discontinued Aqua Allegoria Anisia Bella by Guerlain. I simply wanted to try it and understand what it was like. When I applied it to my skin, it surprised me a lot. It made a strong impression. The fragrance seems to play and shimmer on the skin. It feels both cool and warm at the same time. It is unusual: natural, slightly medicinal, green, herbal, and fresh. At the same time, there is something both alluring and slightly repelling about it. It’s also difficult for me to break it down into individual notes. For me, this is a very unusual scent - I had never encountered anything quite like it before. It was an interesting olfactory journey that I truly enjoyed. However, I also understand that I wouldn’t want to own this fragrance in my collection.

The initial spray of this borders on repugnant to me, with a weird citrusy, soapy, but also mildewy and hotly pungent aroma that is the furthest thing from the cool anise perfume I expected. Slowly the anise starts to emerge from the murky base, not completely supplanting it, just adding another note into this unappealing stew. As time passes though the murk steadily recedes and I start to think maybe I could like this perfume, at least at this stage. But then poof... it is gone. So on my skin it lasts 2-3 hours. About 15 minutes of that is nice. Quelle déception. I guess I understand why it was discontinued.

A very soft and muted EDT with a hint of star anise that dries down to licorice. No, it's not like Herba Fresca or Teazzurra. I was very excited to receive this Aqua Allegoria version since I have so many of them, and wanted to experience this version, but the result was sort of a "meh." it's neither here nor there. It's more like a Claude Gallien d'Après Nature simple EDT based on star anise. Don't buy this thinking you're going to get a splash of tea and spice. It fades very quickly after application.

Green, soft, fragrant, with a warm spicy element. It's a perfect after-bath splash, or before going outside. You can wear it anywhere or spray it in your linen closet. The anise element is invigorating. The citrus element comes out after the dry down, leaving a refreshing scent. Go ahead, you deserve it!

I am all for spices in cuisines and star anise is one of my favourites However, this smells way too artificial for me and for some reason it reminds me of the smell of condoms 😭 Very unpleasant and plastic-y I thought maybe it just needs some time to develop so I tried letting it sit on my wrist for an hour or so but it was too unbearable eventually I had to scrub it off with alcohol :( I am not sure if it is because the bottle was too old but yeah I definitely would not want to try this again lol Was an experience though!

Green, spicy, creamy and at the same time a bit powdery. It's not a heavy fragrance. I had it on a paper and sniffed it once a while (it lasted two days on that paper!) but something in my mind didn't seem to be able to imagine a female wearing this. Eventually, I got it. It would be very nice on a male! I told it to a friend of mine and let her sniff it, and she agreed completely. She even said she would think it would be very sexy on a man! So guyss... Give it a try for us :D

The perfumer having been let out of the closet, so to speak, allows perfume hobbyists and enthusiasts to focus on particular perfumers. Cellier, Roudnitska, Robert, Chant. It allows us to recognize the history of the ephemeral and unspoken, give credit, and explore artists whose work has meaning for us. I think the precedent here is cinema, and its move from the focus on the studio and producer to the director. ‘Art film’ of the 1950s-1960s (Kurasowa, Truffault) could be likened to early niche perfumery (Laporte, Lutens.) 1970s-1980s and onward is where mainstream American film highlighted the star director (Scorsese, Spielberg.) I suppose the comparisons here would be Ellena and Kurkdjian. (Sorry, very broad strokes here. I’ve never studied film.) Whether the perfume/film analogy holds, and for better or worse, the perfumer as auteur is our current paradigm. It’s fascinating to focus on the remaining work of the great, dead noses, but how about those still with us? I’m a great fan of Aurélien Guichard. He is prolific, his work has ongoing themes, his play with history and innovation is wonderfully smart, and his perfumes are beautiful. I find the connections between his contemporary work (Chinatown, Love in Paris) and his reconstructions/reorchestrations (Baghari, Azzaro Couture) utterly fascinating, and his mastery of genres admirable. (Chinatown is a fruity chypre, Future a green floral and Andy Warhol silver Factory a transparent woody insence.) So, Anisia Bella (2004.) Creating an Aqua Allegoria must have been an interesting challenge to a perfumer whose future work would show a thorough grasp of classical perfumery in all its complexity. You know, the Aqua Allegorias---the Guerlain perfume training bra, the realm of the almost metaphysical ‘Is it a scent or a perfume?’ question. Guichard’s solution is witty and smells great. The AA’s are light and easy if you like them, simplistic and possibly trite if you don’t. AB uses simplicity to its advantage. It is light but substantial, and complex enough to hold interest over time. Simple and facile, but not unsophisticated. Creating a two-tiered perfume is like the Goldylocks solution to the linear vs top/heart/base debate. AB keeps anise from start to finish, but starts with a cold, sugared citrus violet and transitions to a tea-like cedar. With herbs, perfumery tends to follow cuisine’s lead. Herbs are an enhancement, an embellishment. Fruit, flowers, woods are the lead. AB subverts the order and the flower serves the herb. Anise is the lead performer and ostensibly follows the ‘simple smell’ idea of the AAs. More often than not, though, he complexity of the floral and woody notes catches me when I’m not paying attention and gives me a wink. See the Aqua Allegoria bottle, soulless through repitition, as the Trojan Horse to the beautiful set of ideas contained in Anisia Bella.

Sniffed it, went ACK in real life. few more sniffs, okay this is actually kinda nice? Deliciously liquoricey and kinda sticks in the back of your throat and tongue, kinda wish it was sweeter but this perfume knows what it wants and it DOESN'T want to open up sweet, it wants to slap you in the face and knock you over and then sweetly pick you up and kiss the boo boos it inflicted on you pretending it didn't do it. But you know this is all part of the sick and twisted game this perfume plays, and it's upfront about it the entire time. It's a little bit like a BDSM scene in a way where you roleplay in some dark cabin in the woods. I won't elaborate further, you know what I mean. And then it gets bored of being fake nice in a pretend scene and drops you on the floor to go do something else leaving you to huff the damp mossy wooden floors of the cave you're in but it never leaves your side, it's always there and waiting to kick you and play games with you. It kinda forgets to check in after the scene like an absentminded dom. It just leaves you be to go read a book by the bright ozonic lights on its desk. But aside from that, it was a lovely scene if you knew what you were getting into. I understand why this was discontinued, but this is a perfume that wants to be experienced, thought about, to occupy your thoughts in it's overwhelming anise opening and leave you a little bit dazed and confused in the mossy woods it leaves you. Perhaps too wild for the kind of experience that most designer perfumes like to give you, too strong for some of the other dainty but flavorful other dancing girls of Aqua Allegoria that flash an ankle and a shoulder but go no further. You can't help but admire it's bravery, even if you don't personally like it. A shame, really, this could easily have been the star of any smaller perfume lines.