Starting the week strong with this king. Since yesterday I was thinking about what to wear for today. After looking at my collection, thinking & smelling some of them I said “why not” I gifted me this one on my birthday to wear it, so I went for it. Have a productive week BOS!

A lot of the time, no, not the way influencers make it sound on video. I think what happens is a mix of experience, memory, suggestion, and sometimes just knowing the listed notes before they even start talking. Most people are not actually smelling every single note one by one like they are reading ingredients off a label. A lot of the time they are picking up the overall scent profile, recognizing certain familiar qualities, and then translating that into note language. To me, smelling fragrance is usually more about catching the main impressions. You might clearly get something fresh, fruity, woody, musky, floral, spicy, smoky, or creamy, but that does not mean you are truly isolating ten different notes with total accuracy. A lot of perfume is blended in a way where things overlap, so what you are really smelling is the composition as a whole more than each separate piece. I also think once someone reads the note breakdown, it becomes a lot easier for the brain to “find” those notes. So if the brand says fig, incense, suede, or vanilla, people start looking for those exact things. That does not always mean they would have pulled all of that out on their own without seeing the note pyramid first. In my opinion, people with a trained nose can absolutely get better at recognizing certain materials, styles, and accords, but even then, I do not believe most people are naturally smelling every note the way some videos make it seem. Sometimes it is real experience, and sometimes it is just review language. That is why I think it makes more sense to focus on what a fragrance actually smells like to you overall. Is it green, sweet, clean, dark, airy, creamy, smoky, resinous, or fresh? Does it change over time? Does it lean high quality, synthetic, natural, dense, or transparent? That tells me more than somebody listing twelve notes in thirty seconds. So no, I do not think most people can smell all the notes in a perfume the way influencers claim. I think most are picking up the main character of the scent and then filling in the rest with experience, comparison, and sometimes a little bit of performance, because even experienced master perfumers cannot tell all the notes in a fragrance.

Ok so I'm certainly late to the game here. This is my first full bottle of ADG. Yes I did have a few decants last year, but aquatics ain't my regular jam. That said I'm learning to appreciate different scents. My annoyance at finding a solid summer scent last year, has led me to dable here so it was a toss between the parfum and Profondo. The Parfum is the 2023 successor to the now discontinued Acqua di Giò Profumo. It was said to bridge the gap between the original DNA and a more modern, refined intensity. And who better to do it than the creator of the original, master perfumer Alberto Morillas. Released in 2023, it's an Aromatic Aquatic Woody scent with a clean, dark backbone. With Marine Notes & Bergamot, it opens with a sharp, salty blast that feels like cold sea spray. It is punchier & more blue than the original EDT. At its heart, you will find Rosemary, Clary Sage & Geranium. This is where the fragrance gains its green, herbal character. Then you get an amazing drydown, which contrasts the aquatics beautifully, notes of Olibanum & Patchouli. The incense provides a mysterious, smoky depth that lingers without being heavy or cloying. As a parfum it sits closer to the skin, but lasts a hell of a lot longer throughout the day. I'm getting a solid 7hrs, with a moderate projection for the first 2 hours before becoming a more intimate scent trail. This i think will be extremely versatile, expecting it too excel in Spring & Summer, but the incense & patchouli should give it enough weight to be worn in the cooler weather too. As a fresh aquatic, this is one of the better office safe fragrances around. It smells professional, clean & expensive. It could also work perfectly for formal evening events or casual outdoor dates. Whilst I'm still not a huge aquatic fan, this is growing on me, hope too make a major dent in this bottle during the summer. My Rating 8 Scent 3 Longevity 2 Sillage 2 Y/N 1