Colonia Club by Acqua di Parma (2015)

I normally review anything I get my nose on on Basenotes, Fragrantica and Parfumo, reserving my blog for the most interesting stuff - either really good, really bad, or really new. This is really new and that's the only reason I'm posting the review here, as otherwise it wouldn't really deserve any particular attention.

The opening of Colonia Club strikes me as an overpriced, apparently fancier but still quite cheap fragrant version of the almighty Proraso shaving cream, with that classic minty-citrus-woody blast rounded by a musky soapy feel. I mentioned Proraso but you can name any other popular, proletarian-to-middle-class old school green shaving cream/aftershave, mostly the ones in fashion in Italy and Central Europe from the Sixties on. The balsamic mintiness is quite powerful at first in Colonia Club, and I admit its realistic, nose-tingling, pore-unclogging vibrancy is quite enjoyable. But once that phase ends in a matter of minutes, all you remain with is a decent, mannered, really classic (and that’s good) desperately mediocre (and that’s bad) clone of a clone of any of the countless clones of any “classic green fragrances” from post-war aftershaves to Ralph Lauren Polo, Vidal’s Pino Silvestre or dozens of obscure “Aguas” from the Eighties, stuffed with synthetic musk with a whiff of carnation and green-earthy notes. Don’t get me wrong, Colonia Club smells linearly and flatly decent, but countless of other fragrances and aftershaves do this same exact job at a fraction of its price. As for many other Acqua di Parma fragrances, I don’t really see the quality gaps or benefits justifying the cost.

5/10