Kölnisch Wasser (1714)
by Farina Gegenüber

The definition of what everybody should smell like in summer!

Fresh, sweet, smooth and citrus-laden, refreshing to apply and never over the top, no matter how many times you reapply, which is a good thing bearing in mind how long it lasts.

I prefer this to 4711, which has a bitter and chemical edge to its scent.

31st August, 2010.

Having received a sample of vintage Gegenueber from my dear friend The Good Life, I was finally able to try this wonderful scent and gravitating piece of history. The ingredients are of the highest quality, which makes or breaks a traditional cologne. I venture to guess that as most things go the ingredients in the vintage version are undoubtedly superior to the modern rendition. The opening is by far one of the smoothest citruses I have ever smelled back up by a light floral element with perhaps a drop of musk and rosemary to balance the composition. Gegenueber is what today's best colognes (i.e. Acqua di Colonia, Villoresi Acqua Colonia, Eau de Cologne Imperiale, etc) would smell like if they used pure ultra-expensive ingredients. Farina is truly the cologne of the 18th and 19th Century European aristocracy.

3rd December, 2009.

Nothing less than the reference Eau de Cologne - and so much better than 4711.

19th November, 2009.

Farina Gegenüber has a long proud history. Johann Maria Farina was the first person to market his hesperidic light fragrant water as Eau de Cologne and fortuituous circumstances (a new philosophy of scent rejecting older animalic styles, the French presence in the Rhineland), sound marketing and last but not least the quality of his product made Farina Gegenüber synonymous with Eau de Cologne for 200 years. After a persistent decline in the 20th century leading to co-ownership by a mass market producer of beauty products in the 1980s, the company was bought back by Johann Maria Farina and his brother in the 1990s and reestablished as a niche house. Farina is a trained pharmacist and perfumer and believes in the necessity of adapting the original formula to present expectations, besides having to conform to regulations and being unable to employ natural musk for reasons of scarcity. The formulation has apparently undergone a number of changes - an older bottle listed hydroxycitronellal, a popular synthetic providing a greenish lindenblossom note, and other synthetics, which have disapperead in the most recent INCI declaration. As a whole, however, the fragrance is still far removed from a natural, more short-lived Eau de Cologne, though it still far superior to the ghastly cocktail of low-end materials that goes by the name of 4711. I enjoy the bergamot opening, but don't find what the ionones add in power and persistence to be particularly pleasant - it is simply too reminiscent of the standard building blocks of mass market perfumery. My four stars, then, are given for the vintage Farina from ca. 1955 I own, which is a completey different creature - a light bergamot and citrus with delicate, whispering undertones of florals, woods and musk that fades within the hour. I'd welcome it if Farina decided to return to the original formulation to produce something as beautiful as Lorenzo Villoresi's Acqua di Colonia.

N..B.: There are still thousands of red and blue "Farina Gegenüber" bottles in circulation which were thrown on the market by 4711, containing an inferior version (if that is imaginable) of that firm's disgustingly low-grade product, in order to compromise the Farina name - the last chapter of the Eau de Cologne wars of the 19th and 20th century. You will never find authentic Farina Gegenüber dem Jülichsplatz 1709 bottles for 2 Euros. Many other pseudo-Farinas can be found on ebay as collector's items - the company has fought over 2000 court cases to protect its name.

15th September, 2009.

You can order it directly from their website:

www.farina.eu

13rd August, 2009.

this is the reference for old style cologne,pre chemical era, pre designer, pre niche, I wash my hands and my face with it, it's a refreshing bath and smells very good ,even if for half an hour. After that you can apply a real scent, i bought 8 bottles for 2 euros each before a marketing genius rises the price to 150 euros boasting famous customers like Napoleon or Luis XIV. After all how many citrus last longer ? REAPPLY is the way to go.

28th October, 2008.