Acqua di Cuba
by Santa Maria Novella

When I first tried Acqua di Cuba, I was glad I had only purchased a small sample. It smelled like someone had sprayed me with some weird mixture of Red Hots and Fart Spray that people used to sell at my hometown festival. This was one fragrance that took me almost the whole sample to actually appreciate. I was not crazy about the spiciness of the fragrance - I had never smelled a fragrance like this before. And the spiciness is fairly strong in the topnotes, almost too strong for me. But I found the middle and dry-down notes to be milder and more pleasant. Some have said it smells like cigars, however, I don't get this. I mostly just get a cinnamon-like spice. It has good sillage and longevity. Lasts on me for a few hours.

8th October, 2011.

SMN's Acqua di Cuba is the one fragrance that, so far, has got the best of me. Overpowering, acrid, metallic, stomach-turning - even sprayed from a distance as to only lightly mist the skin. It's a smell that pushes all the wrong olfactory buttons for me, and literally makes me nauseous. This is a shame because I'm no stranger to (smoking) tobaccos, can appreciate a fine cigar, and enjoy the smell of English pipe tobacco redolent with Latakia. A tobacconist smells heavenly to me - a full humidor, exquisite.

I can't imagine smelling like this all day. It would put me off my feed. Maybe SMN can market it as a dieting aid.

15th July, 2011.

A slightly spicy-honeyed tobacco. Rich, deep and masterfully crafted but at the same time very far from the typical heavyness of this kind of fragrances. The cigar note is pleasantly aromatic emphasizing the sweet/honeyed aspect, vanilla adds some extra sweetness without turning the scent into a cloying drydown. While I can't list Acqua di Cuba among my favourite from this house I can still recommend it to any sweet/tobacco lovers.

6th July, 2011. (Last Edited: 5th August, 2011.)

Absolutely love this fragrance. Never thought I would like it as much as I do. It does go on strong (which I like) and softens over time. I am not exactly a "nose", but the deep dry down reminds me of my favorite fragrance Penhaligon's Hammam Bouquet.

10th September, 2010.

Love it, love it, love it. Seems almost too intense at first, but it fades on me quicker than I would like, a few hours... Smells not at all like a Cuban cigar and a lot like... you're standing next to a man holding an unlit Tuscan cigar with a rum drink in his hand, with a woman wearing something with a lot of vanilla standing across the street. There's a discrete, barely there sweetness, which I have not noticed when I smell this on men, but which is distinctly present when I wear it. Perhaps it's a quality of the leather scent? I don't know, but I like it...mmm...going to go put some on now.

2nd April, 2010.

A 'game of two halves' here. The opening is a really authentic scent of a just made cigar and is dry and strong -- I was smitten. About an hour later though, it turns rather acrid and sour and I have to admit smells like pee. I was lucky I had it on a card. A real shame.

18th August, 2009.