Aqua Quorum by Antonio Puig, 1994

I bought this blind a few years ago and never regretted it! To me it's not an aquatic per se but more a 'fresh aromatic fougere' which can be used all year around actually but does best during warmer summer days as it's very refreshing! It belongs to the same genre as eg. Cool water, Eternity and Polo Sport and it has a little of all these frags combined and costs like 1/3 of the price of the others. It's is compared mainly to Polo Sport, but AQ has no seaweed note. It starts heavy and sharp and a little 'alcoholic' with lavender and flowers surrounded by grapefruit. The base of amber, leather and oakmoss do give a very masculine and spicy edge to this very fresh fragrance like the drydown of Cool Water has as well. This is far better than most aquatics thrown at the market last 15 years, especially looking at the price! It lasts for like 8 hours even and has above average sillage. It's versatile and 100% masculine! The only drawback I can think of is that it's not that original as it seems it has copied and combined some of the best accords of Cool water, Eternity and Polo Sport together to create AQ but I don't care. Note that this frag is nothing similar to it's green brother Quorum! Thumbs way up! Rated: 8/10

This smells almost exactly like Polo Sport, one of the few sport fragrances I actually like. This is a fresh aromatic fougere - a sport fragrance - and not really an aquatic scent. Though Aqua Quorum doesn't smell like Cool Water to me, it's clearly in the same family of fresh fougeres that Cool Water spawned. This is a total Nineties scent all the way. There's nothing even remotely unique or daring about Aqua Quorum, but it does smell pretty good nonetheless. Big sharp lavender blast with citrus in the opening, drying down to a smell that is mossy, spicy and aromatic, while still retaining the opening's freshness. I like how the lavender, which is usually a fleeting note, sustains its smell for many hours. Also, thankfully, Aqua Quorum's freshness doesn't smell synthetic, and I believe the natural herbal and wood notes are what give this fragrance its zing. This smells nothing like Quorum. Aqua Quorum is a good purchase if you don't own any sport fragrances and are looking to add a good one to your collection without breaking the bank. It's good value for your money because it's strong, reliable, well made, lasts a long time (longer than Polo Sport), and smells good, even if its scent is generic. I like this fragrance. MY RATING: 7/10

Nice. This takes one step on the very long journey from Cool Water to Green Irish Tweed. It improves greatly on Cool Water, though - AQ is a soft, rather well-blended fragrance in the early 1990s aquatic mode, which is much less horrible than the current run of aquatics. The lavender/freesia/grapefruit notes (which I get from the pyramid, not from any evidence in the frag itself) come together to suggest a violet leaf accord, a distant cousin of Creed's GIT. Aqua Quorum's violet leaf/marine note is milky and soapy rather than cutting and bracing. A imaginative person might detect a faint echo of the original Quorum here, though the scents are not much alike. The fragrance is not unduly strong, and its duration is likewise moderate. Drydown is very nice, but not surprising. I'd be comfortable paying $30 or $40 a bottle for this, but it's easy to find for under $20, which is a bargain. Don't expect to stand out, but do expect to smell quite nice. If you have room for only one Quroum in your life, pick the original, but if you're looking for a fun, cheap aquatic that knows what it's doing then you can't go wrong here. The bottle, which is bright yellow and blue, is amazing, like something imported from the Art Deco retro future.

This is my favourite from the Quorum Collection and I am on my umpteenth bottle to date. I always look forward to wearing it and it is often the default choice for me. The deep blue bottle and its bright yellow top by the way is very attractive and sporty IMO. Apart from the shape of the bottle it has virtually nothing in common with the original Quorum. In summary, it is best seen as a close aquatic alternative to the more ubiquitous likes of Cool Water and Acqua di Gio (if you like those, then you will probably like Aqua Quorum too). Most of what can be said about Cool Water and its aquatic brethren also applies to Aqua Quorum. It’s a pleasantly cool, crisp, fruity and bright tonic at the beginning – especially straight from the fridge :-)) – that makes you feel fresh and alive much like classic colognes, and reminds me of a superior drugstore scent (meant as a compliment). There is nothing sultry or dark in this one as it dries down to an energetically fruity, slightly mossy and perhaps less synthetic scent than Cool Water. Aqua Quorum IMO is a very safe & versatile fragrance that makes an ideal hot weather, casual, sport/beach, and work/office fragrance. Its sheer clear-headedness makes it ideal for all ages, especially where undue sensuality might be seen undesirable or inappropriate, e.g. as a Fathers’ Day present or as a gift for a young teenager or elderly relative. Sillage and longevity are above average on me. As a final clincher, Aqua Quorum can usually be found at embarrassingly cheap prices. Recommended.