Aqua Vitae Cologne Forte
Maison Francis Kurkdjian (2021)

This fragrance reminds me of Chanel's Allure Homme Edition Blanche with its lemony, probably bergamot, citrus note and a smooth, light sandalwood base. The difference lies in the addition of floral notes in the mid and base. There is about a 60-70% resemblance to Edition Blanche, so I suggest going with the Chanel instead.

While MFK's citrus fragrances are pleasant and enjoyable, I'm not sure they justify the $300 price tag. If you're going to spend that much, you might as well go for their richer and denser fragrances.

If a designer brand released something like this for $110-130 for a 100ml bottle, it would get a double thumbs up from me. It's all about the context of the pricing.

After a brief and not terribly bracing citrus opening, Aqua Vitae Cologne Forte settles into ylang-sweetened orange blossoms over white musk. MFK says there’s Indian sandalwood; my nose is unsure and unimpressed.

This would make a nice hotel hand soap, but I can’t imagine buying a bottle when I have an assortment of eaux de cologne that cost less and smell better.

I appreciate this more as a concept than I do in practice. Citrus colognes are generally based on a very traditional recipe and they don't last very long, so I think it's fun to see Kurkdjian taking on the challenge of making a citrus scent with massive longevity. He pulls it off by adding extremely long-lasting basenotes (vanilla, pink pepper, fabric softener musk, soap, and a touch of caramelized patchouli, to my nose) and pairing that up with a particularly nuclear orange blossom, which takes over after the citrus topnotes themselves fade.

As a feat of chemistry, this very much works - It's been well over 24 hours and Cologne Forte is still going strong on my skin. My issue is with this is instead very subjective: it contains many combinations of smells that I just don't like. My favorite thing about citrus colognes is their sharp, juicy, realistic freshness, and this sacrifices that in favor of creamy warmth and sweet, candied artificiality. There's also a combination of artificial orange flavor and vanilla that smells like an orange dreamsicle, which I just don't like. As well, the pink pepper in the base makes Cologne Forte smell a bit pedestrian.

All told, I can't give this a thumbs down, as it's clearly carefully orchestrated and I appreciate the science, but I can't go higher than a neutral given how much it's doing that I don't really like.