Essenza di Zegna (2003)
by Ermenegildo Zegna

This is no aquatic. But, I do agree that it bears a strong resemblance to Aqua de Gio, which I dislike. Confusing? No, and here are the reasons why. Aqua de Gio is what happens when you get a quality fragrance like Essenza and then strip it down and add cheap ingredients while tampering with the settings of what was a fine-tuned piece. Where Gio goes awry with high-pitched, cloying notes, Essenza grows into a complex citrus-wood fragrance. The middle notes is where this frag excels. The herbal notes balance out the lemony top notes and the wood base notes. It has at least four layers whereby the fragrance changes as you wear it. Is it original? Not really. But, it is a quality scent for work and summer. It has quality ingredients and will only get you compliments at work. If you want a super original, come and look at me fragrance, get M7 or Angel. But if you want to be taken seriously at your place of work, get Essenza.

9th May, 2011.

I absolutely love this stuff! I don’t get any kind of aquatic vibe from this at all. It’s really very green and fresh with a hint of fruity sweet & sour thrown into the mix.

It’s perfect for daily office use and is extremely unlikely to offend even the most sensitive nose. In my opinion it’s also a versatile scent that can be used for almost any occasion and at any time of the year.

As far as the sillage and longevity go, it does stay fairly close to the skin but I use the EDT with the shower gel and after shave balm; so it pretty much lasts the whole day on me.

FYI; before I purchased this, I first tried it on paper. It was quite a pungent sharp green with almost no hint of the fruity sweet/sour notes. Then when I tried it on my skin, I got a totally different vibe from it. I guess this one has a lot to do with body chemistry, so a friendly word of warning: try before you buy.

17th April, 2011.

Masterpeace!

I feel really relaxed and peaceful when I wear this. Like a summer's day in Andalusia. Maybe this isn't an aquatic scent, but it got that cucumber note that normally makes me nauseous. Love it here, though! The scent remains interesting during it's life span...around 8 hours. Never dull. Extremely comfortable to wear as someone mentioned.

31st March, 2011. (Last Edited: 2nd April, 2011.)

this is a great cologne. perhaps the best from this house. i initially thought this was more expensive than z since z is the diffusion line but i guess it doesn't work that way with cologne. also luckily i saw a bottle on sale and paid $30 for mine. well worth it. essenza is the perfect match to their super 120's grey wool suits. highly recommended.

20th August, 2010.

Let me start by saying that THIS IS NOT AN AQUATIC FRAGRANCE. To call it one would be an insult to this superb scent.

I look at Essencia di Zegna as a modern take on the traditional Italian styled eau de cologne, but with much better longevity than the old school Italian colognes. What starts off as a bright citrus scent becomes a dark and very dry woody fragrance. As the citrus in the opening fades, you can smell pepper notes emerging, and evenutally the vetiver becomes dominant. The vetiver is what gives this scent its dryness, darkness and austerity. The fragrance has an over all dark, tea-like smell, kind of like brewed Earl Grey tea.

No, this is not the most unique scent in the world, because lord knows the whole woody fresh masculine thing has been done countless times before. But few if any do it anywhere nearly as well as Essencia di Zegna. Where most fragrances of this type end up smelling metallic, harsh, boring, poorly balanced or synthetic, Essencia di Zegna manages to smell completely natural, extremely comfortable to wear, and perfectly balanced. With this fragrance, Zegna nailed this tired genre, and produced what I consider to be the perfect woody citrus scent.

MY RATING: 9/10

7th August, 2010.

One of the better aquatics citrus aquatics available. Overall, the fragrance isn't as synthetic as many others and the opening is rather unique. Many summer colognes have lemon/orange/bergamot in their topnotes but Essenza is different (I guess thats the mandarin speaking).

Drydown adds a sweet/slightly powdery wood base. Nice impression overall, even though its not very exciting, I give it a positive because unlike many other summer colognes, it doesn't reek of calone and is more unique.

23rd March, 2010.