Aqua Motu / Motu by Comptoir Sud Pacifique, 1992

An extremely synthetic and -- to me -- unrealistic beach scent, this fragrance uses an iodiney salt water accord similar to those I've smelled in many other marine fragrances which aim for realistic beach smells. For some reason, however, this one is far less effective on me than others in the same family have been. At first I can indeed smell what I suspect was the intended olfactory gestalt ("Oh, hey! It's briney salt water!"), but after a second or two, that marine accord then falls apart on me completely, fragmenting into a constellation of unrelated and not always pleasant scents: celery, hot vinyl car seats, modeling clay, the smoke from melting plastic. The overall effect is rather sickening, and while I'm not usually bothered by synthetic aquatic accords -- the much-maligned Calone, for example, causes me no trouble at all -- this particular one leaves me feeling nauseated and headachey. Fragrances that I've found far more successful at pulling off a realistic marine salt water effect include CB I Hate Perfume's Mr. Hulot's Holilday, and Profumum's Aqua di Sale. Of course, both of those fragrances do cost a whole lot more. I guess when it comes to convincing marine accords, sometimes you get what you pay for.

Like many of the CSP fragrances, Aqua Motu presents me with a strange chemical background to its accords: Not that I dislike these vibrations they just take some development of acceptance and a little unconditional love. That chemical note aside, I think Aqua Motu is one of the better aquatics because it does so well at giving that feeling of sea and salt and kelp and iodine; of course, the naturally short life of those notes makes it quite difficult for the fragrance to hold them over a long-enough period of time. I wish CSP had gone more of a wood / grass route after the opening than the lily of the valley route. The lily of the valley is not the best choice for taking over after the initial cucumber, orange, salt. The lily of the valley sometimes (but not always) dominates everything else on my skin and gives too much of a floral nature to the fragrance in the heart notes (this also happens to me with Beth Terrys Mare, but Aqua Motus floral impact isnt as potent as Mares). I enjoy the wood and oakmoss notes that appear here and there throughout the fragrance I think that they balance the salty, minty, marine notes quite well. The drydown is appropriately woody but not spectacular. As with several of the CSP fragrances, longevity is almost okay but could be better. I often have problems feeling comfortable wearing aquatics, and although Aqua Motu is not very much like Erolfa or Bulgari Aqua, I find it as easy to wear and thats a huge plus.

I must preface this by saying I am going through extreme discomfort writing this review. This is the fourth time I have worn this, and every single time I have gotten nauseous. This is the first time that I've ever experienced this phenomenon, and I'm trying my best to be "subjectively objective", but damn this makes me want to vomit.
Aqua Motu might not be considered "niche", but I definately think this occupies an extremely succinct and certain "niche" in lifestyle and desired outward projection. This is not your everyday aquatic, in fact, this is not your any day aquatic. There is no inherent ocean, there is no inherent lake, there is no inherent retention pond... this is BEACH... This is the smell of tourists toting cheap plastic chairs down to the sand, as far away from the water as they can get while still feeling as if they're on vacation. This is a family of four smiling in a picture, with their kids wrapped up in swimmies and inner tubes, sunburnt faces reflecting the concrete and pvc piping of a landlocked waterpark. Is it sweet? yes, very much synthetically so... Is it salty? yes, but more inspired by the smell of sweatglands pushing moisture through a layer of 50 spf sunblock than the smell of still-drying brine on the skin of a tanned woman in the islands. There is absolutely no way that I can relate to the note pyramid, as either 1) this is such a "beautifully crafted?" fragrance that I cannot detect any of the individual notes, or 2) the synthetics used are of such poor quality that they don't resemble anything close to the natural elements. I can't give this a thumbs down due solely due to the nausea induced when I wear this, but I can't honestly give a thumbs up when all I really want to do is wash this off and replace it with the soothing Bulgari Aqua (IMHO the one aquatic that really feels like the ocean). My deepest apologies to all that enjoy this, but I have to put my thumb at 90 degrees.