Aegean Salt & Citrus

The citrus is bright and zesty, like lemon trees swaying near a whitewashed villa. The salt note isn’t just beachy from this flyover country American's perspective. It’s mineral-rich, bracing, like the sea air clinging to your skin which for me is very reminiscent of the time I spent boating around the Dalmation Islands in the Adriatic Sea. That being said, I feel compelled to suggest it may not resonate with most Americans since it's also reminiscent of some of our popular laundry detergents and softeners - all of which seem to be owned by a division of Unilever or Johnson and Johnson these days. I had an afterthought I wanted to share. This would be an AWESOME olfactory experience to wear this fragrance while binge watching the The Durrells in Corfu (PBS). Go a step further to immerse yourself into the show and prepare some Bianco white fish stew with Tsigareli and of course the obligatory dolmades beforehand. Yet another afterthought written two hours later to share. The dry down reminds me of European laundromats back in the early 2000s when I was younger, poorer, and more adventurous when traveling overseas. It's a dead ringer for that lingering laundromat dryer redolence and brought back memories of doing my laundry in the UK, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, and come to think of it - the more southern European countries.

It's a sunny day on a Greek beach. You're on holidays and you go out in the balcony to bathe in the morning sun. Below your balcony there are grapefruit and lemon trees all over the garden. You feel the sea breeze hitting your face and life can not get any better. Now take that entire statement and put it in a bottle. That's this perfume for you. This perfume manages to open with a sunny, bright citrus that is somehow not sharp or sour, it is rather sweet. It's like a candied lemon peel rather than a spritz of lemon juice. Citrus notes are still present, don't get me wrong, they are just tamed down and the sea salt note; that's where the magic happens. The fragrance has a really airy feeling to it, it makes me want to keep sniffing it as it just smells so damn good. It has now become my number one summer fragrance and it will be a perfume that's always present on my shelf. This has to be the greatest summer fragrance I have ever smelled. I don't own many perfumes but have smelled a lot, this is simple excellency that takes the good old formula of summer staple freshies and creates an entirely new feeling with a simple but careful blend of high quality ingredients. Best of all? It lasts almost 8 hours on me and considering the type of fragrance this is, it's a great performer.

Does salt have a smell? have never had the good fortune to go to Greece, but it the sea salt does indeed smell like this, it's a wonder people aren't just lolling around the beach all day, huffing the miraculous salt air. To me this smells much more like a citrus cologne--lemon, grapefruit--but it lasts longer. I didn't know anything about Theodorous Kalatonis until my perfume pal sent me some vials, and now I'm a fan. I can't imagine anyone not liking this aptly named fragrance (with the caveat that I have never smelled Aegean salt). I admit that I was initially cautious, because I thought it might smell somewhat briny--the smell of the sea to me isn't just salt but also something kind of fishy and vegetal--but this is as good a name as any, since most people have a less literal understanding of what ocean water smells like than I do. This smells exactly like what I would want to smell like if I were on a transatlantic voyage by sea, lounging in a chaise longue, possibly reading Homer. That said, the TK fragrance doesn't evoke Homer's wine-dark sea--I imagine it more of a clear cerulean Mallarmé blue, with jade-green pockets.

Wow, so bright and effervescent! It took me a while to connect the dots, but then it hit me and I said "YES, BINGO." This is an exact dupe of.....wait for it.....7-up or Sprite! Same fizziness, except this doesn't make me burp! This reminds me of MFK's Aqua Universalis, but without the lily of the valley and orange blossom notes. Aegean Salt & Citrus is also a lot cheaper than Aqua Universalis. And making it even more of a great bang for the buck niche perfume is that it lasts 1/2 the day on my skin. That's amazing, considering what kind of perfume this is! So Theodoros must have put a high content of high quality fragrance oils into his marvel here. Needless to say, I had to get a bottle immediately. It's one of my top two perfumes for summer, along with Terre Hermes Eau Tres Fraiche. Well done Mr. Kalotinis.....well done indeed!

This is so amazing! Crisp air, blue sky, everything pure, citric notes. And actually: for me, this is not really a beach scent but one reminding me crisp air of snowy sunny mountains! Everything pure and perfect -- this is what I feel when sniffing this. Since I have already tried MFK's Aqua Celestia sample before, it immediately reminds me this but ASC is probably much cheaper. Edit: after having bought a full bottle of this it turned out that on skin it will turn into the scent of some seaweed or at least something that I have smelt at beach and few hours later the skin smells like sand in the beach :) Not bad, even impressing and rather interesting, but on shirt this didn't happen and I prefer it there.