Take 5 So-cool Colognes
With the UK having wilted under a relentless heatwave and claggy humidity, we say: be prepared for the next burst of summer by reaching for something properly cooling from your fragrance wardrobe. We’ve picked out five Colognes – from the most ultra‑classic examples to those with a distinctly contemporary twist – that feel positively mouth‑watering to wear on skin right now. Think: ice bath, in a bottle
WORDS: SUZY NIGHTINGALE
An advertisement for the original Cologne by Jean-Marie Farina
How do we define a true Cologne? Traditionally, it’s a sparkling cocktail of ingredients such as bergamot, neroli, lavender and rosemary oils, diluted in grape spirit and typically composed at around 2–4% strength – in other words, that’s the proportion of pure perfume concentrate in its carrier (usually alcohol, in either splash or spray form).
Colognes are deliberately made to be this light and sheer because at least half the pleasure lies in the ritual of repeated application; all the more delectable, we find, when the bottle has been kept chilling in the fridge. What bliss on a boiling day!
This classic Cologne blueprint has remained astonishingly popular for centuries, the original formula proving so successful that it has barely changed and has been endlessly echoed ever since. Although many people automatically file Cologne under ‘for men’, it was, from the outset, resolutely unisex – and in later years many iterations have been directly marketed to women.
When first composed, in Italy, this style of scent was known as ‘Aqua Mirabilis’. Jean‑Marie Farina (who also went by the names of Giovanni/Johann Maria) was a perfumer familiar with the recipe, and when he moved from Italy to Germany, refined it – and, crucially, began promoting it as a wonder remedy not only for perfuming the body but for drinking, too, and for tackling an array of complaints, from skin irritations to digestive and gum troubles. We don’t advise any of these uses nowadays, of course, but – gloriously – we can still buy the original Farina recipe to spritz lavishly, today [read on for the review].
Farina said of his formula, ‘This perfume refreshes me,’ and wrote to his brother that it ‘stimulates both my senses and imagination.’ As travellers and soldiers carried this ‘Eau de Cologne’ home with them, its fame spread, and high‑profile admirers swiftly followed. As retailer Roullier White reminds us, the Cologne was variously worn by ‘Queen Victoria, Honoré de Balzac, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Marlene Dietrich, and Indira Gandhi to name but a few!’ We happily add our names to the ranks of fragrant fans.
The Cologne style of scented self-air-conditioning has had more than its share of celebrity fans through the centuries. Madame du Barry is said to have spent a small fortune on the fragrance. The composer Richard Wagner admitted in a letter that he expected to use a litre a month. And no less a figure than Napoleon was also besotted: after his ablutions (apparently scrubbing with English ‘Brown Windsor’ soap), he was known to lavishly douse himself in Cologne, reportedly emptying several bottles in a single day.
And really, who can blame him? This past week, there have been days when we’ve regularly wanted to upend an entire gallon of the stuff over our steaming heads.
And when the temperature rises again? Consider it the ideal moment to head for the shade and cool yourself, fragrantly, with one of the so‑revivifying Colognes we’ve chosen to showcase, here…
Still a masterclass in freshness, the sparkling citrus is soothed by aromatic herbs, petitgrain, lavender, rosemary, and thyme lifting luminous lemon oils into something both bracing and a hymn of quietly hummed elegance. A scent to reset the senses, it’s timeless, and (thanks to Louise Farina, 9th generation perfumer of the Farina family), never out of style.
£85 for 125ml Cologne roullierwhite.com
Geza Schoen says he wanted his house’s first Cologne to capture ‘the freshness of a gin and tonic in a single, sparkling gesture.’ That juniper/citrus fizz feels like tradition whizzed up in a Soda Stream and poured over crackling ice. Amidst the zing, a heart of iris, rose, and hedione provide a chorus to the sensorially reviving minimalism of the main players.
£130 for 100ml Cologne escentric.com
Evolving their beautiful Buongiorno fragrance to a collection that savours scented moments of the day (and night), this one invites you to imagine being awoken by a tender kiss on the forehead. Radiantly dewy bergamot segues to dawn’s herbaceous freshness, all grounded by a fluttery, cotton-sort musk. Magnifico!
£257 for 100ml Cologne selfridges.com
Elevating the classic codes of an eau de Cologne by infusing an extra dose of effervescent lemon with longer-lasting elemi (a pale yellow resin, though it smells like a mixture of lime, lemon peel and peppery pine). Then, head-clearing clary sage breathes a sigh of relief as subtle spices softly pop and simmer. Energising and serene? We’ll take that.
£21 for 30ml Cologne escentual.com
Expressing ‘every aspect of bitter orange: branches, leaves, blossom and fruit,’ this is an eau de toilette, not a Cologne; but oh! Those seeking their senses to be quenched in more resilient freshness and sagging spirit’s buoyed must try this perfumed plunge into the orange tree’s bounty. It dances on the skin, like a kiss of unfurled leaves, twigs and blossoms on a breeze.
£102 for 50ml eau de toilette libertylondon.com
[NB: For much more on the miraculous bitter orange tree, which provides perfumery with many of its most-beloved materials, we recommend deep diving into the first issue of our On The Scent magazine!]
P.S. We couldn’t resist pointing you towards this lovely-sounding scent-inspired board game of Aqua Mirabilis! Apparently, the aim is to ‘take the role of a perfumer whose goal is to produce novel and exquisite perfumes to please the King and his Court.
It all starts with flowers: orange, bergamot, jasmine, lavender, narcissus, and the rose. Through a variety of production methods, you transform flowers into the corresponding scents and use them to complete a perfume recipe. Furthermore, players have to nurture their social position among nobles and try to influence the King and his Court thanks to the intercession of powerful Ladies properly courted and seduced. It is easy to be carried away by the froth and folly of the nobility and perfumery at the Court of Versailles. When perfumes are presented to the King and the Court, they score prestige points based on how fashionable and original they are.’
One to play this summer in the cool shade of a garden, while liberally dousing yourself in Cologne, we suggest.
Aqua Mirabilis Board Game/£39
NB Always written by humans, never AI.