There comes a moment for perfume brands to examine when it feels right to design to a younger generation of perfume lovers. The last two years have seen many of the original niche houses making different choices about when to make their play for the new demographic. For Acqua di Parma they have decided to go back to the beginning to try and capture the future with Colonia Pura.
Acqua di Parma has become a successful niche brand by using the seed of the original Colonia created almost a one hundred years ago. As the brand became a player in the 21st century they gave that Colonia architecture to some of the greatest perfumers working to develop their versions. It has been a mostly successful collection overall. Starting in 2014 perfumer Francois Demachy became the creative force behind the new versions of Colonia. During this time, he has been focused mainly on adding in a particular note or accord and adapting the existing formula so it fits. With Colonia Pura M. Demachy is re-imagining Colonia for today.
Francois Demachy
Colonia Pura opens on the classic citrus except orange and petitgrain are given a lighter feeling. This allows a sea breeze accord to lift them up in an expansive way. M. Demachy is seemingly trying for a transparent version of Colonia; the early moments are the bellwether for this. The floral heart is completely different. Remarkably M. Demachy can take the usually very deep power of narcissus absolute and turn it into something less substantial. The technique used is to have jasmine provide an underpinning which like the ozonic notes in the top provide a similar expansiveness. As patchouli and cedar begin to form the base accord I expect this to get a little more grounded but M. Demachy unleashes a suite of white musks to again lift and expand over the final hours.
Colonia Pura has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.
There is a television show called “This Old House” where a team of workers completely re-do an old classic home of around a hundred years old. As I wore Colonia Pura this felt like M. Demachy was making a perfume version, “This Old Colonia”. Where he takes the venerable old mansion that is Colonia and spruces it up so a new fragrance fan can be lured to Colonia Pura.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Acqua di Parma.
–Mark Behnke
