The Spanish Colognes  

Myrurgia's 1916 has a synthetic feeling I don't like, albeit the fact that for an Eau it is (on average) longer lasting than most.

Count me among the big fans of Alvarez Gomez, Agua de Colonia Concentrada. Totally inexpensive and yet full-blooded! It has cojones. Great lemony, herbal notes! And the liquid soap is a fantastic shower product. This is an everyday frag that delivers.
I'd like to check out more Spanish fragrances.

Well , you forget the Loewe house and the Puig house.
The Loewe has given to the world fragances as importants as solo loewe , esencia de loewe ..
and the Puig house, having started their own line of Edc, now,is responsible of the creation of many scents for Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne and nina ricci, as well as recently, prada.

I own and wear Adolpho Dominguez and Adolpho Dominquez Agua Fresca. Top quality frags definitely in the same league as their French, British, Italian, German and American counterparts. I am on the hunt for Adolpho Dominguez Vetiver Hombre.

Oh, I recall many years ago my mother wearing Flor de Blason and also Maja! Good prices...

My mom had these, together with Maderas de Oriente and Embrujo de Sevilla.

We had other stuff, too, from Gal: Heno de Pravia cologne and soap, too.

Si! Vetiver de Puig = muy bueno

There's probably a number of Azahars (=orange blossom). If you mean the one by Dominguez, it's a rather synthetic, feminine orange plus white musk thing. The other Dominguez' are not classic EdCs, though Agua Fresca is in the fresh aromatic lavender style, the closest to a barbershop cologne being Vetiver Hombre, IMHO the best of the brand and one of the best mainstream fragrances around. The ingredient quality is par for the mass market course, the design above average. I find Myrurgia 1916 to be pleasant, long lasting, with a stong herbal component, despite the name it is not an old formulation, though. I really have to get my hands on some Alvaro Gomez. They do sell online.

Is Floid allowed a mention? It is, I think, the only Spanish cologne I've tried, but great stuff and inexpensive.

Floid :-) it epitomizes "barbershop"

The Spanish Fragrance Industry is alive and well

Spanish colognes include some undeniable masterpieces, like almost everything by Loewe

I am astonished none of you have a clue about Spanish perfumery! My Goodness!!!
Spanish perfumery history is full of surprises and well-known names; The House of Dana was a perfumery established in 1932 in Barcelona, Spain by lawyer Javier Serra .It was later headquartered in Paris. In 1940, it relocated to America during the German occupation of France during World War II.
One of the notable creations of the House of Dana was Tabu. Francisco Rabaneda born in San Sebastian, better known as Paco Rabanne; Manuel Pertegaz one of the greatest Spanish couturiers with international name, he launched 3 fragrances: Diagonal, Muy Pertegaz and Sport; Cristobal Balenciaga with Ho Hang,pour Homme,etc; Antomio Puig: Quorum,Agua Brava, Brumel, Sybaris, Vétiver; Myrurgia (Steve Monegall i Prat): Heno de Pravia ,Vorago ; GAL: Imperial Toledo,Lavanda Inglesa de Gal, Magno ; Parera (Albert Parera i Casanovas): Varon Dandy, Giovanna de Milano, Tanamar, Andros, Cocaina en Flor,Cocaine Blosson (woooo! Great name and wonderful bottle made in 1933!!) etc. Another international couturier Adolfo Dominguez: Vetiver,Agua Fresca; Loewe, Esencia, Solo, Pour Homme; Massimo Dutti: Dutti Hombre,Absolut: Nenuco (baby’s lemon cologne, forget about Guerlains Eau de Cologne Impériale, Nenuco is this is the real stuff and sold in 1 litter bottles) and to finish my list,, sorry guys but FLORIS is also Spanish and I can’t believe is not mentioned here in Basenotes. Founded in 1730 by Spanish born in Menorca Juan Famenias FLORIS who emigrated to London and decided to settle down in the West End opening a Barbershop a comb factory until he decided to create the first fragrance from Floris through his memories of the Mediterranean aromas and created an empire of artisan’s perfumes who has been and remain as a landmark of luxury .

Thank you Descartes for the detailed exposition. But I can't help but wonder...what were you reading from the replies that would give you that idea about the knowledge of all the other contributors to this thread?

And Floris? No, not mentioned in this thread prior to your mention, but definitely mentioned often on Basenotes as indicated here for example:http://www.basenotes.net/search.php?searchid=451336

Not a fan at all of the Spanish fragrances. IMO not in the same league as the French ones.

Okay, so perhaps Floid isn't the only Spanish one I've tried - I had no idea (or, more likely, was ignorant to the fact that) all those had come from Spain. Loewe! I love Loewe!! Floris though - I always think of that as a British house, in the same way I think of Creed as a French house.

To me, Floris positions itself as a British house, not as a Spanish house.

Good observation. Just as something as English-sounding as Heeley is a French company. Ditto for Maison Worth.

I think Spanish perfumery and perfumers are on the top of the top. Also I think often we focus on the companies and not the perfumers and their work globally as artist as it happens in art or music where you judge the not one work but globally the work of the artist.
More to my list:
Alberto Morillas born in 1950 in Sevilla, of Andalousian heritage.
Art Scents created by Alberto Morillas
• ALBERTO ABSOLU • COEUR DE LUXURE • KURI NO HANA • ENCENS SHINTO • ROSE D'ARABIE • FLEUR DE SEL • BOIS DE PATCHOULY• SPERIDA • Bulgari Omnia • Cartier Le Baiser Du Dragon• Bulgari White Tea• Giorgio Armani Sensi• Yves Saint Laurent M7 (with Jacques Cavallier)• Carolina Herrera Chic (with Jacques Cavallier)• Cologne Thierry Mugler• Flower by Kenzo• Bvlgari BLV / both for women and men • S-Perfume Jet-Scent 1.0.5• Givenchy Pi • Truth Calvin Klein (with Jacques Cavallier and Thierry Wasser)• Carolina Herrera 212 / both for women and men
• Calvin Klein cK One (with Harry Fremont) Alberto also has his own high-end candle series Mizensir. All available at Colette in Paris.
Agata Ruiz de la Prada (eccentric Spanish couturier,explosive and colourful): Beso,Agua,Gotas de Color,Ohlala and Corazón.; IDESA Perfumes : David Bisbal Esencia Pura, Pedro del Hierro Women.Other current brands owned and licenses held by IDESA: Algel Schlesser,Armand Basi, Mandarina Duck and Women’s Secret. Salvador DalÃ* ( 26 Fragances) CUSTO Barcelona: Custo Barcelona and Custo Man. ZARA( 14 fragances)
Another Spanish cult soap unknown for foreigners is called Jabón Lagarto (Lizard’s soap) The company was found in 1864 and the soap was created 144 years ago. Has the scent of steamed old laundries, a little bit like the Sabon de Marseille and people after the Spanish Civil war used both body and hand laundering ,easily available in Spanish supermarkets. Alvarez Gomez: Agua de Colonia Concentrada ( http://www.alvarezgomez.com)

Some Spanish brands here http://www.basenotes.net/company/es


Floris was founded by a Menorcan, who came to London and set up. The company is still run by his descendants, and has been in Britain since 1730, but with a Spanish Origin.


James heeley is a Brit who is based in paris. ulrich lang is a German based in New York. Laurice Rahme is a Parisien selling New York to New Yorkers.

Just an aside. Can we keep sweeping generalisations and personal attacks off the thread please. thank you

Grant has phrased this very gently, and well. Agreed. Stay focused on discussion of scents, please.

I had a Hierbas de Ibiza Colonia, the cologne was really good but the longevity was minimal, I don't think I got even an hour of that refreshing citrus that Hierbas de Ibiza have, so I finished my bottle really fast.
Now I'll have to try the other houses/brands mentioned here.

Pollux was merely explicating the perception of Spain held by many Americans and Northern Europeans, not endorsing it. No need for ad hominem attacks. Nationalism is misplaced in perfume anyway. The mainstream industry today is globalized and perfume history is amazingly transnational. Florentine perfumery came to France, Farina brought Italian craft to Cologne. It may be useful to an extent to speak of both climatically/botanically and socio-culturally induced distinctions between a Mediterranean style, classical French perfumery, the English barbershop tradition and of course Middle East and Indian perfumery traditions, but even these are more characterized by region, class and period than by nation-state.
Spanish perfumery, in economic terms, today is primarily Puig and an array of small producers. Its relative insignificance beyond Spain and perhaps the hispanophone world may have a lot to do with the relative economic isolation of the Franco period and, prior to that, the absence of a strong, confident and wealthy middle class that drove perfume industry development in France. But then, German perfumery has remained a local phenomenon as well, despite the significant contributions of German chemists and aromachemical producers.
btw.: If Floris is a Spanish house, then Loewe and Claus Porto are German houses . There is, of course, nothing Spanish about Floris other than the name. And they were selling Italo-German Farina cologne, like everyone else, long before making their own scents.

Another Spanish Perfumer from Barcelona: Ramon Molvizar colognes and perfumes are among the most valuable and highly sought after fragrances in the world. The bottles are the state of art in luxury and designed in 22 Carat Gold, Platinum and Swarovski glass. http://www.ramonmolvizar.com/

All posts must be in English according to the site rules. In addition to some blatantly flaming posts that have been deleted this thread is getting too political and personal. It has wandered off the original subject so I am locking the thread.