Sultan
Acqua Flor

A wonderfully warm and cosy composition that's fresh and balmy at the start due to the presence of bergamot and a light touch of lemon with spikes of natural musk alongside vegetal Amber and possibly ambergris. As the great hesperedic notes subside one is left with a wonderfully and cosy mixture of slightly powdery animalic musk and telltale signature of smoky vanillin from the finest benzoin. After many hours one is left with a tamed but still raunchy musk and briny notes of ambergris and a slight touch Labdanum m. Overall it's a wonderful composition that will be perfect for the cooler months although I wore it today in the warmer balmy Italian weather and thoroughly enjoyed it. The other must tries are Azar, Bakarika, Corps Diplomatique, Duende....the list is actually quite endless as there are so many I liked

AquaFlor Firenze is a little artisanal "perfume maison" having its main seat in a sixteenth-century building situated in Firenze Borgo Santa Croce, not so distant from Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria, in the historic old town of this amazing city. I've seen (also contacting them) that nearby AquaFlor Firenze the main philosophy is "we just want to remain a place to be discovered" so, since not having yet had the chance to go personally there in their florentine creative workshop/old apothecary (located in a wondeful "Rinascimentale" building) and being actually not possible to purchase AquaFlor's samples (anywhere), Sultan is at moment the only one of the Aqua Flor'a creations I've had the chance to test on skin (and review) due the kindness of a friend which have sent me a little homemade sample from his personal bottle (purchased in Florence). Actually his previous hypes about this fragrance have at one point prompted me to explore the brand, to contact (vainly) AquaFlor and to finally ask him a little vial to be tested. Contacting the AquaFlor's people by telephone they have explained me that the "maison"'s aim should be the one of accompanying (there in their old place) new clients on an authentic sensory journey (for this reason they don't sell/send samples). Their online store is the only that sells the Aquaflor brand with a full line of products. Going to the juice itself Sultan strikes me for combining a classic hesperidic-cologney presence (it seems to catch bergamot, "aromatics" and neroli) with an high quality musky-peppery-aromatic (vaguely powdery) visceral (surely organic) boise intensity (a weird "cool boise warmth"). The juice is indeed surely musky, spicy, vegetal and pheromonic in its substance. This is an hard to be decoded fragrance unveiling the undeniable craftsmanship of master-perfumer Sileno Cheloni, a creator putting in to practice (combining in to an harmonious blend raw materials of the best quality) its spiritual personal conception of artistic perfumery (to be intended like a sort of fusion between aesthetics and spirituality). The main Sultan's quality striking me is its veritable spicy/pheromonical carnality masterfully civilized by setting (matching) its essence in to a classic spicy-hesperidic-vegetal "basic support" (bergamot, neroli, jasmine, woods ??). There is surely a more than vague piquancy on the air (from spice and pheromone) combined with musk (the main ingredient, namely Muschio dell'himalaya, a rare quality of carnal musk), bergamot, aromatic herbs and resins. Is it told that a remarkable pheromonic presence confers bold carnality to the aroma itself and surely I catch this really visceral opaque pungency since the classic (classically hesperidic) opening till the late mossy dry down. Sultan is an aromatic/musky/oriental, a supremely musky fragrance unfolding a multitude of hesperidic, herbal, vegetal, animalic, earthy/spicy, resinous and oriental (hints of balsams and resins) nuances. Finally musk (and may be hints of ambergris, oakmoss and olibanum) envelop body and senses in to a really sensual embrace. An erotic and commanding juice, not so complex in structure (and evolution) but surely remarkable in erotic hypnotism and misty elusiveness. A solid animalic concoction (pairing in sensual intensity musky heavyweights a la Mazzolari Lui or Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan), quite durable on my skin.