La Colonia
Avant-Garden Lab (2011)

A mix of sandalwood & greenish cedar. Add some bright, freshly chopped dill. Vague green pepper which becomes stronger (add bacon, some squash, and you've got a nice little meal started). I then get a squeeze of bergamot sprinkled over lily of the valley. The jasmine smells brown, as thought it is beginning to rot. I smell ozone later. It remind me of window cleaner.

It is creative but, I cannot wear this one.

La Colonia - It's quite citric in the opening, but to me it's pretty far removed from a simple citrus splash/modern eau de cologne. There's a distinct orange-y sour/green presence, and a pretty noticeable fizzy ozonic background that lingers through the base. These two facets combine to create this radiant energy: electrified herbal citrus. This tone is displayed to an even greater degree with the addition of mineral/earth notes and grapefruit rather than orange in Fazzolari's Five.

Where La Colonia loses me a bit is with the dill. This is the first scent I've ever smelled (I think) with dill as a listed note, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Nobody else has talked about it being prominent, but it sticks out to me like a sore thumb (especially in the heart), and I can taste it when I smell my wrist up close. I like dill in some scenarios (pickles, salmon topping), but this evokes the taste of the fresh herb for me, which I oddly can't stand. It, along with fresh fennel, have ruined many a salad for me. I think the note is actually very light, and I'm sensitive to it. And I think it's responsible for part of the unique green/sour electricity accord - but it's just outside my "like it" threshold.

I do recommend sampling if you have no qualms with dill and want a unique and very modern take on citrus and greens. Objectively, it's an interesting composition.

Park by Andrei Nikolaevich Schilder 1887

In my book, this is an excellent take on a traditional cologne. Oliver & Co have done so many things right here, and I will try to set out some of them.

First, the opening salvo of any cologne is the citrus. Here, the citrus is not conventionally sweet or tart, but rather bitter/sour in an attractive way. Second, as the citrus gives way to other accords, this does not turn into an overly aromatic scent, as many colognes do. Of course aromatics have their place, but many colognes can lose it rather at this point. La Colonia rather turns up the volume on a decaying signal, so to speak, and supports the citrus notes with herbs and a touch of woods so that the refreshing opening is never quite lost. Finally, at EDT concentration and according to the web site with this overtly in mind, La Colonia does not fade early but rather returns good performance throughout the day. Ozonic notes? Well, maybe, but very subtle.

All in all, very enjoyable and a contender in my book. Blind testings would probably not suggest any of the futuristic stuff that the house is famed for.

I expected La Colonia to be a twist on a classic cologne, but this is quite different. It's fruity - more mandarin orange than lemony although the notes say bergamot (which I have recently learned is technically an orange so maybe), and has the Oliver futuristic synthetic note in just the right amount. This is a note that put me off some of the other Oliver and Co offerings, it's something like that attractive/repulsive smell of a dry-cleaning shop - a chemical 'taste' that you feel on your tongue. I know this probably sounds awful, but it works here by lifting the sweet orangey cologne out of the ordinary - maybe the odd note is highlighting the rest - which would otherwise go unnoticed? The notes list dill, jasmine, and lily of the valley as well as cedar and an ozonic note. The word 'ozonic' is often enough to strike dread into my heart, but here it's not at all annoying, and seems to just lift the fragrance. Maybe the dill combined with the florals is what makes the futuristic note - the whole thing is reminding me of these oranges we'd get as children - they were big and oddly weak in flavour and felt 'drier' than normal oranges. Again, not an image that would normally make my tastebuds (or nostrils) quiver, but today the offbeat seems to be what I need.

An acceptable summer cologne. IMHO, there are better in this category..