Acqua di Cuba Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella for women and men

When I first tried Acqua di Cuba, I was glad I had only purchased a small sample. It smelled like someone had sprayed me with some weird mixture of Red Hots and Fart Spray that people used to sell at my hometown festival. This was one fragrance that took me almost the whole sample to actually appreciate. I was not crazy about the spiciness of the fragrance - I had never smelled a fragrance like this before. And the spiciness is fairly strong in the topnotes, almost too strong for me. But I found the middle and dry-down notes to be milder and more pleasant. Some have said it smells like cigars, however, I don't get this. I mostly just get a cinnamon-like spice. It has good sillage and longevity. Lasts on me for a few hours.

I LOVE when my husband wears this. Sexy, smooth. I want to get closer. Reminds me of our trips to Firenze. If you buy this, only get a small amount at a time, because the scent does change in the bottle as it ages.

This is a fantastic fragrance which develops smoothly over several hours, and which manages to integrate elements of tobacco, leather, musk at the late stages, plus some sort of sweet, honey or floral undertone into this stunning tour de force, like a symphony that unfolds kaleidoscopically, seamlessly from one movement to the next. Absolutely among the most mesmerizing fragrances I have come across. That said, it comes out of the bottle rather aggressively, so it's easy to see why people might be alarmed. All I can say is, hang in there, because this one is a real odyssey. Unforgettable.

10/10

I hate this fragrance. I can appreciate its construction, but it makes me ill in the wearing. There is a brief moment that lasts about 10 minutes, just after the citrus high notes blow off, where the spice, tobacco, and honey blend just perfectly. Then the spices vanish on me, and it's just raw tobacco leaf with a touch of honey. And the tobacco accord hits me in the back of the throat just exactly the way that swallowing tobacco juice does - stinging, camphorous, slightly nauseating. The overall experience is like the moment you get when smoking a too-large cigar, where you're right on the edge between the nicotine rush and nausea, buzzing but not quite ready to boot; that borderline gag feeling in the back of the throat is what this does to me. And it lasts for hours, and hours, and hours...

Well, I have to say that I'm impressed with this and I certainly understand the hype. This must be some kinda gorgeous on guy. I could see this turning into an almost like a "personal" skin scent on a man, but not offensive.
This has a kind of gentle bitterness with the spices along with cosy and familiar notes of the vanilla-tobacco combo. The overall feeling is fresh though, because the zesty-spicy notes stay for a long time. And maybe I'm terribly wrong but I pick out a pepper pimento combo. The beauty of it all is the vanilla base, which is a true to life dried vanilla fruit you use for cooking, not the sickly sweet perfumey vanilla.
I can see this as a great alternative summer fragrance for a guy who is into perfumes like Tabacco Vanille by Tom Ford or Noir Epices by Frederic Malle.

Now, Tabacco di Toscano is a different story. It's a woody-leather-vanilla tobacco. Makes me think of a cigar rather than pipe tobacco. It's only slightly spicy, and definitely sweeter compared to Acqua di Cuba. It's a warm, dense, amber cologne. Makes me want to put some red lipstick, grab a cigar and bring some confusion…

A slightly spicy-honeyed tobacco. Rich, deep and masterfully crafted but at the same time very far from the typical heavyness of this kind of fragrances. The cigar note is pleasantly aromatic emphasizing the sweet/honeyed aspect, vanilla adds some extra sweetness without turning the scent into a cloying drydown. While I can't list Acqua di Cuba among my favourite from this house I can still recommend it to any sweet/tobacco lovers.

Rating: 7/10