Pure Cédrat (2002)
by Azzaro

I like this, but not as a serious fragrance. Cedrat is french for Citron, itself another french word for lemon. But there is barely anything lemon about this. So why call it that? Go figure.

What the fragrance is , much to my surprise is a very casual, wear during the summer frag, with hints, and I mean hints of lemon peel. And by casual I mean it is not 'gotta run to the store real quick to get some milk' casual. DO you need to spray some smell good for that? I do.

Disappointing in that with two applications and two people involved neither of us could detect any citrus at all, despite packaging claiming bergamot, citron, grapefruit and tangerine as ingredients.

All we got was a light reedy scent - similar to Caswell-Massey's gifts of sea bubble bath. And it was gone within half an hour.

Undistinguished and forgettable.

Notes (from the box): Citron, Bergamot, Grapefruit, Tangerine, Cedar, Light musks.

Well this was a surprise. I picked it up from Marshalls for around $15 and found it to be a well contructed and refreshing offering. Pure Cedrat opens with a citron note of the acidic kind (italian or greek) softened by a juicy tangerines ...but the bright tart acidic trail is extended into the middle notes thanks in due to a grapefruit note which keeps the pumped up citrus act going. Shortly thereafter light underpinnings of a woody note emerge before giving way to a light and tart musk+ambergris drydown with faint remnants of the initial high PH citrus explosion.

Pure Cedrat smells good and I don't detect any obviously synthetic 'lemon pledge' like notes which can drive EDC enthusiasts up the wall. It can also be found online for very reasonable prices. Buy and spray away!

Rating: 8.00/10.00

Having completely disliked the other two offerings in the line, I fully expected to wrinkle my nose in loathsome disdain at this one as well. However, something far worse happened; I liked it, then felt dirty once I realized why; It reeks of Aqua de Gio!! These two aren't even kissing cousins; they're actually more a kin to incestual siblings. Granted the dry down of Cedrat is a bit less industrial metallic than Aqua, however, they're so close I actually had to show my girl friend the bottle to prove I wasn't wearing Aqua. Don't get me wrong, I like them both (how could you possibly like one and not the other) however, along with Drakkar or any other scent that has defined a decade; to wear them is to invites others to think of someone other than you.

Perhaps never have I experienced a scent that has a drydown so incredibly different from the topnotes. The top is all warm yellow citrus, lovely, sparkly, and bright. Within about 20 minutes, the drydown takes over leaving almost nothing of the citris top (citrus notes are notoriously volatile). Too bad, as I would LOVE to have this scent last for longer, especially for spring/summer months. It's a nice scent, but I think the drydown is a bit too masculine for my taste. Granted, it's a men's scent, so I'd imagine for a guy it's just right.

Beautiful topnotes, fleeting, followed by very different and mild drydown. A basic musk comes in after the gloriously lemony/bergamot-y top.

My current everyday choice: the citron lasts beyond the few minutes of initial pungent sharpness, and the cedar presence reminds me of happy classrooms from the past (others might denigrate it as a pencil-sharpener smell, but I enjoyed pencils, books, and slide rules).