Time Machine: if you could send back Acqua di Gio to Jacques Guerlain...

I have seen nearly no improvements in fragrances as a result of reformulation using sythetics. There is only 3% genetic variance between Chimps and us. Both are hominids but, the end result is substantial. Synthetics are ok of and by themselves as new additions to the fragrance world but, as substitutes? Give me natural. No matter how much you tell me sugar substitues is good for me, it does not replace good old sugar. Catch my drift? I think if sythetics were time traveled back to Monsieur Guerlain it may have just hastened the demise of good fragrance. Viva la natural!

I honestly think that Acqua di Gio is a good, not excellent or 5-star status, but a good scent, regardless of natural-ity/ness. I'd like to think that Jacques Guerlain would be impressed with the uniqueness, but he would probably be equally likely to be offended by such young and unpowdery notes (sorry all you guerlain lovers ). The problem with AdG is that everyone with a foot is wearing it, making it unique as blue jeans.

You try to create AdG with natural ingredients, it would probably be better, but I think it's shelf life would be shorter and notes would fade out at different rates making different bottles smell differently. It would probably be much better, but it would be much hard for Georgio Armani to market or appeal to a market such a variable fragrance.

Hard to imagine the creator of so many timeless classics would be impressed with ADG. In theory perhaps the range of synthetics not available to him, but in total? Of course this is all moot. I'd prefer to use my time machine to bring a few bottles of Djedi back to the present!

supracuhz: Don't ge me wrong. Use of synthetics in new fragrances is just fine. I only object to reformulations of existing classic scents because it is cheaper but, forever altering the original formula.

shermanirving: Here, here! Now that is a good use of a time machine. Get me some vintage Mitsouko when you go. LOL

JG would probably say upon sniffing ADG, "Interesting, who is this Giorgio Armani who made this Eau de Cologne? Is he a perfumer?*"

*: Remember that when Jacques Guerlain was alive, fashion designers haven't started making perfumes.

Interesting! Excellent point. I think this really highlights the role of the designer in the creation process. Armani has hit some very long balls, if not home runs, in fragrance. Just by his former personal scent (Bois d'Encens), we can see the depth of his taste, and by the popularity of his fragrances, his ability to perceive what others will appreciate. I often point out to people that my best computer programs were created to meet another person's vision. I know that it's an error to credit designers with the work of the perfumer, but I really feel that designers provide the focal point for the perfumer's magic.

Back to Stereotomy's question, I think that the aquatic notes would have been duly noted, and would have influenced the course of perfumery. I think Guerlain would have seen their utility, and used them in very interesting ways.

Chemically, I'm not sure what people would have thought. Many modern organics are close enough, structurally, to naturals, that a natural source might have been mistakenly sought. But other synthetics are clearly man-made in structure, and, if not already known, might have been the root of numerous conspiracy theories.

Can you imagine it - in 1946 America, the scientist walks through multiple locking doors in the secret government laboratory. In the final room - he presses a button, and an enclosure containing the mystery of the ages rises out of the floor. Recovered from the Nazi laboratories, originally owned by Jacques Guerlain, a secret greater than even the power of the atom.....

Acqua di Gio




or. maybe. NOT.

Either of these:

1. He would say... "Puaj! Is this a perfume??? Who is this Giorgio Armani???"

2. He would say "This is by far the most original scent I ever smell!!! How could I have not think of this?"

2. He would feel something is wrong and would try to improve it. I can imagine him working hours at end trying to make top notes concording with the notes identified as "guerlinade".

Before anyone goes back in time, please find out the exact day Lanvin came up with the idea to compose Arpege Pour Homme and smack the person responsible.

I fully expect a gusto-filled jap slap because of the olfactory discomfort that scent has caused me.

Yes - some messing with history is definitely in order! While we're at it, let's visit the perfumers behind the early Hugo Boss scents, when anemic formulations became all the rage. We'll whisper in their ears that they need to increase all concentrations by a factor of 10!

Of course, with our luck, the butterfly effect will thereby result in IFRA suicidally banning all fragrance in 1999, and the Berlin wall still standing.

No, to kill off anemic "Sporty/Blue" etc perfumes, you need to go back farther, to whichever lab it was in the 1960s that invented Calone.

Without Calone, the 1990s anemic perfumes would not have been possible, mwahahahaha.

Here you go - http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3647479.pdf

Connecticut. Pfizer Laboratories. Late '60's. My only question is whether we send a bomb, Arnold Schwartzenegger, or the StarGate team.

He'd probably steal the idea and make millions.

Or, fellow Basenoters please forgive me for the cruelty of this remark, anything from ranging from vandalism to suicide to mass destruction of ADG bottles or libels against the ADG creators might arise....

Now this is a tough decision. We can't destroy Pfizer. They invented Viagra 3 decades later! (Not that I need it now, but someday when I'm old and horny, I might need it. And for that I'm willing to forgive Pfizer for inventing Calone...)

4711 IMO is one of the most synthetic smelling historical fragrances...not a Guerlain but around. I do not think that the "synthetic thing" started without seeds way back when some of the camphory or floral vanillic effects of even a Habit Rouge anticipate that.

But I know what you mean. And I think I would send the Hugo Boss line back even before AdG...

My own review of AdG is a real basher...frankly too personal. I think with these "centerless scents" as I call them though they are "light" you have to use them lightly...

I think there is a whole history of "synthetic like" effects in the history of perfumery that some would argue also include "powdery."

Guerlain? He might add a bit of spice or vetiver...

I do see the vast amount of generic fresh scents spawned by AdG's success and the overtaking of the industry with this new genre. However, say if AdG had a different name and was made by say Creed or a niche perfumer and was uncommon, would people still hate on it? I would definately seek out AdG if that were the case, but unfortunately its not and Acqua di Joe (I just heard that said 3 days ago) is rediculously popular.

It may be synthetic but how many people have noses that can tell. How many people have had negative reactions when they have worn AdG? I dont know much about Guerlain but if it were presented to him he would find it very intreguing, smelling like something he could not possibly recreate himself. But he wouldn't try to get ideas from it because he would think that few would like it (and that would be true of that era).

JG wouldn't know what to do with it. AdG is essentially a modern American creation - very "clean clean clean" and wan in the modern American metrosexual guy kind of way - as opposed to what I consider the Great American Frag: Old Spice or god forbid, even "Stetson" :P
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My feelings for AdG would be pretty much the same no matter who made it and how common it is.

Number of Water-family fragrances in my collection: 0. Plans to acquire any Water/Aquatic frags in the near future: None.

So why do I have a bottle of AdG in my wardrobe? A gift from my mom a long time ago. Number of times I've worn it even before I got on to this perfume obsession in mid-2008: The bottle is still 98% full. Obviously, even my then-ignorant nose knew better than to keep spraying that stuff on myself.

I'm not what you'd call an ADG kind of guy, but I have previously owned it. It's just not me, but I didn't find it horrible by any means.

I can see younger guys liking it as a casual, inoffensive scent. I guess if I was initiated into this hobby via fragrance malls and SA's, my initial exposures would have been to scents such as this.

Each generation has "their" niche I suppose. Mine happens to be very substantial old-school frags. I continue to TRY and keep an open mind when trying new releases. I haven't found many however that fit my criteria. ADG was one of many that fell short.

Wasn't Guerlain (the house) a pioneer in the use of synthetics in fragrance? Heliotropan in Apres L'Ondee comes to mind. The peach note in Mitsouko is another.

No one has figured out how to do a natural heliotrope note to date, to my knowledge.

Ditto with peach.

As to modern fragrances like Acqua di Gio, they would probably make him wonder how did we get here? What else has happened? I think he would probably go on a smell-a-thon.

What would be more interesting to me is if he were given a month to smell anything and everything and contemplate it, how would he reflect on what has happened? How would he reflect on the House of Guerlain and its recent creations?

The slow pitch rises and heads straight for the plate. Brielle has time to twirl the bat over her shoulder - judging the barely-moving ball. It's gonna be in the strike zone. The crowd stands up almost by reflex. The center-fielder's jaw drops as she points directly over his head....

Another point: among Jacques Guerlain's creations was Djedi, which was so far ahead of its time.

Timeless brilliance!

He'd probably lose his sense of smell.

The first recorded use of synthetics was Houbigant's Fougere Royale, in the 1880s; the first use of synthetic coumarin. I believe it's coumarin - but even if I'm wrong on that, I'm dead sure I got the house, perfume, and date right.

Not sure about the nature of heliotropin synthesis. As for the other Guerlain classics that use synths, Mitsouko uses C-14 aldehyde, Shalimar uses ethylvanillin.

JG may figure out a use of Calone, but I notice that even today, Guerlain doesn't have anything in the Water family. There is nothing I know in their lineup that's widely available that has anything similar to AdG. The AdG is just too American-squeaky-inoffensive-clean, something I don't expect Guerlain to ever do (and I hope they never do).

I feel that Acqua di Gio is a wonderful scent that I Love to wear and my Wife Loves when this is my choice.....I do not understand all of the hate for this scent.....I do understand the hatred for all of the clones who want to be like Acqua.....What's sad about this is the bottum line....... money.....Acqua has done so well that so many have tried to capture some of that Gio money.....which has not really happened.....What has happened is we've been flooded with clone after clone now for many years.....One of the greatest compliments is when someone tries to be like You.....this Gio cloning has been a compliment to one of the best selling fragrances of all time......No......I will never understand the dislike for this fragrance here at basenotes......With thread after thread of what scents get You the most female compliments? And other threads like this.....Let me give You a bit of info.....Women Love this scent.....and as long as the girls Love this scent.....guys will make the purchase and spray spray spray.....And You want to know what else? This fragrance flat smells good!!!!! And before I forget....Gio is my 4th of July Sotd.....and I recieved a compliment from my Wife!!!!!
Gary

Jacques Guerlain would be intrigued by calone/calone-like materials and wouldn't hesitate to use it in some way or other. Maybe Guerlain hasn't used it in its compositions because it doesn't consider the note 'classic french' - or maybe they consider the note too 'American' (discovered by Pfizer). I would love for them to create a modern composition incorporating it; one can only take so much of vanilla and tonka bean.

Its the barren and crass use of calone that makes it a much maligned note - when integrated beautifully as in Silver Mountain Water or Vetiver Extraordinaire (florazone) it gives a composition that extra edge.

Still doesn't explain why even when I was ignorant of perfumes, I took an instant disliking to the AdG. At the time, I didn't even know there were hundreds of other male perfumes that smell similar.

I have many other scents that 1) I happen to like very much and 2) never fails to get a compliment from the ladies and 3) You don't smell on every other guy. That's why Dior Homme is my "hot date scent", not "AdG". I've yet to smell Dior Homme on anyone else, though it obviously sells pretty well.

As for Calone: The problem I have with Calone (and I have a sample vial of the pure stuff) is that it smells almost like nothing. That and Iso E Super. In which case I ask in French, "Pourquoi pas rien?"

Feces has a very distinct natural smell to it. Just because an ingredient is natural, does not imply olfactory superiority, it merely helps to facilitate snobbery. I enjoy synthetic notes just as I enjoy synthetic things like televisions.

Can we make it clear that us BNers who hate Calone-based frags hate it for other reasons, it is not for the fact it's a synth. Otherwise, we would not be BNers in the first place, would we?

My fave quoted above (Dior Homme) I know for a fact uses a synthetic as part of its prominent iris accord.

If someone invented a natural smelling extract that smells like Calone, and put it in the AdG, do you think I will like it any better? No, I will still dislike it with the same question as before, "If you want to smell like nothing, then pourquoi pas rien?"

I think the reason that AdG takes heat here is not simply that it spawned a generation of imitators, but that it spawned a generation of imitators of a very apologetic fragrance. People here love diversity and unapologetic fragrances. Acqua di Gio has sinned against both of those. The number of imitators has scaled quadratically in both sameness and subtlety, and Acqua di Gio bears the burden of criticism for them all. Perhaps unfairly. Yes, I'll admit that.

You're right - women love it. My wife loves it. Her friends love it. And yes, when I'm looking for a cool, quenching, and subtle fragrance on a hot day, even I love it. But it also appeals to people who don't really care for fragrance, and I think that just bothers people who do care for fragrance.

You've given me something to think about.

Perry ellis red 360 is very similar to Adg without the sour on red 360 which make the smell longevity pretty good than Adg. For those who love Adg, try Perry Ellis red 360 and give it a time to see yourself how bad you will love this scents.

Thankfully the love of synthetics does not facilitate snobbery. Just materialism!