Cologne Water is undoubtedly the most classic of masculine perfumes. Here is a selection of timeless and chic cologne waters.

SPECIAL Cologne 2022: Iconic Waters

Came out in Italy in the XVIIIth century, Cologne Waters stays in the head as the loved person’s olfactive habit.

Originally dedicated to men, this classical fragrance has become genderless to the advantage of a sensual approach. Cologne Waters by Hermès, Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Guerlain meet this approach. Let us delve into the most iconic ones.

L’eau de Basilic Pourpre by Hermès for Les Cologne collections opens the selection. Orchestrated by perfumer Christine Nagel, this fragrance turns on the fresh notes of a purple, deep and generous basilic. Paired up with green bergamot and geranium, this Cologne soar around a solar, lightweight, and plentiful scent. Bottled-in green lantern-shaped vial, L’eau de Basilic Pourpre by Hermès is an unforgettable Cologne.

Among the scents from the house of Dior, Cologne Royal finds its place in this selection, as it conveys the elegance and personality of these bygone years. However, the house perfumer purified the arrangement to let the citrus shine!

Here comes a Cologne governed by bergamot, mandarin, and lemon, completed by floral hints of neroli and fresh mint: a life-giving trio distilled in a graphic and elegant vial.

Cologne Royale by Dior is a joyful and plentiful arrangement filled with solar, fresh, and fantasy notes. Generous and elegant, it makes you wear the finesse of the Dior house – a finesse which, throughout the living days of Monsieur Dior, rekindled the motions and habits of the past to modernize them in a better way.

Within the Chanel house’s Les Exclusifs collection, we find the Eau de Cologne. This iconic and colorless water gives to taste freshness and lightness.

Just as Coco Chanel refined her creations to leave only the essentials of a garment to accompany the movement, Chanel Eau de Cologne is a radiant and exquisite interpretation of these iconic waters.

This fragrance is a bouquet of wildflowers that inspires an endless green field covered with a thousand colored dots to quote the apt and poetic words of the house.

Having reconnected with the fragrance universe under the impulsion of master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, Louis Vuitton uncovers its interpretation of the mythical concoction that is Eau de Cologne. City of Stars is an olfactive celebration of LA’s compelling atmosphere.

City of Stars is a delightful blend of lemon, blood orange, red mandarin, bergamot, and lime which, whirling, offers a dazzling feeling as soon as the cork is removed.City of Stars is a delightful blend of lemon, blood orange, red mandarin, bergamot, and lime that offers a dazzling feeling as soon as the cork is out. As a resolutely sensual and vibrant cologne, City of Stars marks minds around the nobility of sandalwood and a powdered musk base.

How could we not talk about Colognes Waters by Guerlain? In 1853, the house introduced Eau de Cologne Impériale, its foremost Cologne water, likely the most iconic of Cologne waters. Specially formulated under the request of Impress Eugénie, in the framework of her wedding to Napoleon III, Eau de Cologne Impériale brought the Guerlain house the title of “patented perfumer of her Majesty.”

In the Guerlain Cologne range, we find Eau de Cologne du Coq: a formula created in 1894 by Aimé Guerlain, this fragrance is an attractive, fresh, aromatic, nurturing, and solar juice. A citrusy blend that pays tribute to France with the rooster as a symbol.

In 2010, perfumer Thierry Wasser came up with a Cologne that paid tribute to the house’s know-how. Titled Cologne du Parfumeur, it is a modern fragrance with green, crunchy, mellow, and musky facets that carries on the tradition.

Confidential Cologne Waters

Amongst renowned perfumers, some privately interpreted the Cologne water. It is the case for Maison Dries Van Noten, Francis Kurdjian, and Les Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle.
With its Beauty collection, Maison Dries Van Noten injects its stylish signature with impossible associations in the fragrance industry. Two new Eaux de Toilett were added to the range: Orange Smoke and Sur Ma Peau, formulated with 99% organic ingredients.

The first one is all about orange blossom. Orange Smoke, described as “luminous, yet mysterious” by Dries Van Noten, draws its scent from the inspiration of nose Annick Menardo. “When heaven touches earth: the purity of orange blossom with the mineral facet of incense. I chose to play with the light and darkness, combining its fresh minerality with the luminous sweetness of orange blossom.” A bold meeting of luminosity and earthy swirls, Orange Smoke bursts with energizing citrus notes of mandarin and neroli. Fueled by the spiritual warmth of incense and rose.

The second, Sur Ma Peau, is an ode to the powdery notes of vanilla and tonka bean, promoting an aura of closeness and sensuality. However, it is also an awakened burst of citrus clarity with Italian bergamot and mandarin, followed by orange blossom with a woody character, that signs a trail of scarce elegance.

“I wanted a great contrast between two strong sensations: a bright freshness against a pure and sensual addiction. In Sur Ma Peau, the fresh facet of vanilla meets the sensual texture of tonka bean in an explosion of citrus. Bergamot, full of zest, with a tear of benzoin, a precious resin responsibly extracted from the mountains of Laos, plays off each other: When the benzoin melts on the skin, it is floodlit by the extreme backlighting of the citrus,” says nose Quentin Bischll.

Francis Kurkdjian, Perfumer, Artistic Director of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, and now the new nose of Dior delivers its interpretation of cologne water. La Cologne Forte is a fragrance inspired by original Cologne water and is a pure blend of Calabria bergamot, white musk, and steamy white flowers. Cologne Forte by Aqua Universalis is the projection of white happiness, brightness, and the purity of fresh air.

With Musks as its anchor note, Francis Kurkdjian’s Cologne Forte offers a softness and an olfactory amplitude that suits as many women as men. A sensual balance as Cologne Forte also combines bergamot and Rose of Damascena to be carried by a bouquet of fresh white flowers. You will find the spirit of an eau de Cologne coupled with the wake of an Eau de parfum.

Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle offers a soaring and inspired interpretation of Cologne – La Cologne Indélébile, a composition by Dominique Ropion that misleads the senses to delight them in a better way. “Musk is known to have two faces: the pure and the nasty. The heightening of its binary character produces an innocent and compelling scent, split between a clean cologne arrangement of lemon, bergamot, and orange blossom and a seductive array of white musk. The display of innocence isn’t the perfume’s only trick: its stunning concentration of musk overcomes the ephemeral nature of cologne water and makes the scent imperishable.” You’ve been warned!

Let us continue with Cologne Shield of protection by Maison Kilian Hennessy. In a recent interview by Icon-Icon, Kilian Hennessy offered a shield-like cologne as olfactive protection for hedonists. Kologne Shield of protection contains citrusy ingredients and protects the body with freshness.

With Neroli Amara, Van Cleef deploys its perfume know-how around this genderless floral scent. It was created by Quentin Bisch, who electrifies a regular fresh blend of Cologne water around mandarin, Italian lemon, pink pepper, and bergamot. This blend lives around warm and solar hints of orange blossom water, cypress, peer, and black pepper and contains neroli et white musk as base notes.

Ever since 1996, Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani has brought male perfumery towards the ardor of sea notes. Designed by Alberto Morillas and Annick Menardo, the fragrance plays with its headnotes, lime, bergamot, jasmine, orange, mandarin, and neroli. It is a stunning blend of peach, cyclamen, hyacinth, violet, rosemary, cilantro, nutmeg, rose, and mignonette.

Acqua di Gio Profumo is the newly-added piece of this fresh collection. It is born from volcanic rock and shallow waters of the ocean. As a perfume, it is more intense than Acqua di Gio, whose intensity lies around fresh arrangements of bergamot and seafaring hints. A fascinating fragrance!

Finally, this selection ends with a timeless Eau de Cologne, signed by Acqua di Parma. Citrusy and woody, Colonia by Acqua di Parma has already won the hearts of Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, and Ava Gardner. In 2022, Colonia it is part of the unmissable Cologne waters.

A masterful balance of citrus and wood, this is an enlivening juice, twisted around lavender and rosemary!