I’ve never been an avid consumer of fragrances. I enjoy them on occasion but that’s it. This somewhat changed in the summer of 2013. At the time, I was vacationing in Paris when I purchased this incredible fragrance by Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Aqua Universalis.
Francis Kurkdjian is a French perfumer who has created scents for a lot of fashion houses (the most famous one, perhaps, is Le Mâle for Jean Paul Gaultier). He opened his own fragrance house – Maison Francis Kurkdjian- in 2009. At the same time, he continues creating scents for other houses such as the Burberry fragrances.
I don’t usually read fragrance reviews because I never quite understand how you can get an impression of the scent from, what seems like, endless explanations on olfactory families, base notes etc. (especially when you’re not a connoisseur of scents jargon, of which I’m not). So, please excuse my brief review. I can only tell you what this particular fragrance makes me think of and how it makes me feel which is a bit personal (and maybe not that helpful). However, for those of you who understand fragrance description, on the website the scent is described as follows: bergamot from Calabria, lemon from Sicily, white bouquet (lily of the valley and sweet mock orange), light and musky woods.
Back to my summer holidays of 2013, I remember that I wanted to buy something that would mark that special moment. And what better way than a fragrance? Although I still don’t wear perfume everyday, I appreciate scents immensely and often associate them with people, places or memories. I had heard about Francis Kurkdjian and thus decided to visit his store in Place Vendôme. After testing a few of his scents, I knew immediately upon trying Aqua Universalis that I had find the one. It has a clean and fresh smell. It reminds me of air-dried laundry hung out in the open on a sunny breezy day. Every time I wear it I feel more confident and I find its clean scent intoxicating.
It has now become my signature scent (even if I sometimes enjoy and wear others, I always come back to this). As a matter of fact, I need to repurchase a new one…
