Reviews of Eau d'Hadrien (1981)
by Annick Goutal

The lemon top is too vivid and cutting for my tolerance. I prefer Goutal's Mandragore, which is slightly sweeter, deeper, and more interesting.

L'Eau d'Hadrien is guilty by association, a tragic victim of the contextual nature of scent perception. That overpowering, bitter cedrat and lemon oil scent has become so typical of "natural oil"-embellished household cleaners, detergents, furniture polishes and what have you, that the first whiff alone is enough to remind me of duties around the house I am little enamored of. Just what I need in a luxury fragrance. If we should ever be able to afford a cleaning lady, she'll be getting this for Christmas.

I bought a bottle of Hadrien Absolu blind. Not a good decision for me! As with nearly every Goutal I have sampled, it starts off with an incredibly harsh, bitter blast of topnotes. In this case, a very bitter citrus and wood smell. As it dries down it does soften, but the bitterness remains, and to that, arrives a musty, almost mildew-like smell. It lasts fairly well for a citrus scent, like 4-5 hours...it is an EDP after all. It projects way too much for my tastes, given what it is that it is projecting! Just for the record, I'm not commenting on the quality of the components or the composition here, just stating my experience and opinion. This is simply not my style of scent. If you like sharp, raw, and even bitter citrus scents, then check out Goutal's works. For a sweeter (and to my nose even more natural) take on the same raw sort of scent, try some of i Profumi di Firenze's fragrances, especially Costa Mediterranea.

A great Citrus for 10 minutes...Then, on my skin, wet cardboard...not impressed.

Eau d’Hadrien is an incredibly short lived, reasonably nice, but nothing special citrus fragrance. I just can’t really think of a reason to own this on a market that is flooded with more interesting, and longer lasting citrus fragrances.