Acqua Classica
Borsari 1870 (1880)

Technicolor, true to life citrus and one of my favorites of the genre. Fresh squeezed lemons, bitter limes, juicy oranges, accented with green ivy, lush geranium, and spiced ginger.

This one has legs, lasting at least a few hours longer than the usual citrus-centered fragrance, and the dry down is a cozy cedar and oakmoss.

Shockingly under the radar for a fragrance with a 100 year history. Be advised that it currently comes in a square, hefty glass bottle with a gold cap. Choice citrus!

I get bitter citrus atop a complex herbal/grassy/woody base. All done in a very high quality manner. The big citrus blast disperses within 20 minutes yet remains sufficiently to nicely balance the short endgame. At this time the projection and strength quickly drops a tremendous amount, to a weak level. It becomes a skin scent very quickly, I think showing its era/age. It must be considered as the very old concoction that it started as and, to some large degree, remains today. Do not expect power or endurance after dry down here.

OK, its very weak once settled, yet very inoffensive and very appealing. Terre D'Hermes' modern orange and cedar appears to have been inspired by classic Italian scents like this one. Allowing for its ancient nature, a bargain priced historic product very worthy of a try. However, not very practical if scent projection is expected.

Acqua Classica Borsari is the epitome of the historical "eau de cologne", a crisp-hesperidic (huge bergamot and neroli) supremely lemony opening, a grassy (enhancing gradually its strenght) presence in a while jumping up (supported by well calibrated sharp floral twists, in particular geranium and jasmine) and a final piece of woody-musky refined (somewhat astringent) dry down. Leather? Not on my skin. Just a natural cologney smelling giving "la" and inspiration to a huge following amount of yet modern naif neo-classics.

For years this was my go to summer citrus scent. It felt eminently sophisticated and masculine and has been around at this writing for 135 years, which attests to its success over the past century plus.

There is a burst of Sicilian Lemon at the opening and it is truly bracing and joyous. My nose tended not to pick up any dry down for many years and it is only now that I can perceive it. It is a dry, slightly bitter, oud-like dry down, which I now find most unpleasant.

My nasal development over years of scent exposure makes this no longer a scent I love or even like, but this is due to the changes in me, not the scent, one of the most deservedly successful and popular summer and citrus scents of all time.

Every man should try this and make up his own mind.

It's a very fresh and simple cologne with strong juicy citrus opening, more orange than lime to me, and spiced with ginger. It's strange that not many people mention the strong presence of ginger, which gives the cologne some chill feeling mixed with its spicy aspect. Later it becomes herbal, mixed with a fainted floral notes(might be Geranium) and then a smoky woody/mossy base (it becaome more smoky on my hair than on skin).

This is not a complicated one, but its simplity somehow makes people feel friendly. I saw some peole compare it with some cologne from Acqua di Parma which I also tested before, the biggest difference between the two is, Acqua di Parma makes me feel tense, it refused to "melt" on my skin, as if i was rejected, while Borsari is totally easy-going.

One of my favorites "Colonias", the opening is the most natural citric scent I have ever experienced, it feels like you are actually smelling lemons and oranges, more lemon than orange IMO. after a few minutes I get a "grassy" note reminiscent of "Heno de Pravia" but with a hint of spicyness making it less dry than HdP. The drydown is excellent, I get mostly woods but do not get the leather note some people mentions here.
Sillage and logevity are better than average, but nothing extraordinary.
A first class fragrance, made with high quality raw materials, blended to its perfection and sold aat a very affordable price.