Ocean Rain for Men (1990)
by Mario Valentino

Read the name, look at the packaging, and you’d expect a standard issue calone-drenched aquatic along the lines of Acqua di Gio. You’d also be wrong.

It takes a mere fraction of a second for Ocean Rain to reveal itself as the work of Edmond Roudnitska, and incidentally as a much less conventional fragrance. The citrus, cantaloupe, and fleshy, indolic jasmine introduction echoes the unmistakably weird opening accords of Le Parfum de Thérèse and Diorella, but what follows is quite different. Where Diorella and Thérèse set their fruity floral accord over a mossy, woody chypre-based foundation, Ocean Rain grows more brisk, green, and cool, yet paradoxically more dense and spicy, as it goes.

While there’s little actual resemblance between the two, the concept behind Ocean Rain is akin to that of Jean-Claude Elléna’s later Globe for Rochas: an unapologetically floral accord juxtaposed with a fruity, green fougère structure that’s loosely related to Cool Water and Green Irish Tweed. The Diorella top notes distinguish Ocean Rain immediately, and an abundance of herbs and conifer lead it in a colder, greener, and to some extent more aquatic direction than Globe, which smells warmer, sweeter, and more obviously fruity by comparison. I suspect that the subtle aquatic effect in Ocean Rain depends upon both hedione and calone, though used here alongside the signature Roudnitska melon, calone does not register as a distinct note. In fact, Ocean Rain could stand as a case study in how to use calone without winding up with something that smells like shampoo.

Ocean Rain offers moderate sillage and projection, and lingers for several hours on the skin, with a pleasantly sweet ambery fougère drydown that’s rendered distinctive by some subtle but noticeable incense. I see Ocean Rain as Diorella and Thérèse’s forgotten brother. I suspect it would garner praise from fragrance lovers were it introduced today – in fact, with a less misleading name and sufficient advertising, it might even sell in the contemporary market.

An excellent green floral-ambery scent that was made by Edmond Roudnitska, a perfumer of the century who created such classics as Eau Sauvage and Eau D'Hermes. Too bad it's out of production and is almost impossible to find nowadays...