Agua Lavanda by Antonio Puig

I removed my previous review because after a year of testing it, it deserves more respect. As MarcusRs mentioned, I found a dry lavender version in a chewed-up box, but I have the emerald glass bottle. It doesn’t smell like my father or grandfather, maybe my great-grandfather, but it smells so good in the right context. It lives up to its name: it’s lavender, lavender, and more lavender, the old-school kind, a proper fougère, very masculine. It lets you easily explore the lavender note if you don’t know what it smells like yet, paired with a rough, rugged, old-school oakmoss that makes you think of a natural product due to its age (the kind that would blow up IFRA) and that strange throat sensation suggesting some unhealthy component. They say it was another of Sinatra’s favorite fragrances, though they usually only mention Creed’s, and I find more sense in that: for the creation date of Lavanda Acqua, Sinatra would have been 25, while for Bois de Portugal he’d be around 72. So, what did Frank Sinatra smell like in his youth? Basically like an old book sprayed with old hairspray, hidden deep in a dense, humid, mossy forest. Usage context: fresh weather but not too cold, casual but with a touch of class, never in extreme summer heat, never for sports. And performance? On my skin it lasts about 2-3 hours; but on clothes with 5-6 sprays, I get bursts of the scent all day long.

Another one to remember a decade that was the best, for me, of course! A gift from my godmother for my first communion with which I drowned out the weekly arguments I had with an ignorant nun. So fresh (the cologne) that I used to shower with it and ended up emptying the bottle in two TV broadcasts before having to settle for smelling the cap because there was no more liquid. Too bad it didn’t last long; it’s like those mint gums that freeze to the roof of your mouth after two chews and in 30 seconds seem like you’re chewing a shoe sole because they taste like nothing.

Categorized for men? I wore it when I was under 10 years old as a girl. It’s a very linear natural lavender scent, but why does that flower have to be masculine?

Wonderful lavender fragrance, simple yet with spices… Sinatra wore it his whole life. In Spain, you can hardly find the glass version you used to have in all sizes in its green bottle anymore. This house has lost all the essence it once had with the people and traditional fragrance consumers. Sad.

This review is for the Puig Lavanda Acqua that comes in the plastic bottle, sold all over Spain. It’s a cheap cologne but of high quality and a real pleasure for the senses. Its longevity is typical of a cologne, maybe an hour, but for the price, you can apply it at any moment since it costs almost nothing. It smells like natural lavender and feels creamy at the start, as if it were a lavender body cream; then that creaminess gradually turns into a mix of lavender and rosemary, very natural and pleasant, finishing with a scent that blends those two first notes with a bit of lemon. In total, a simple and exquisite beauty. I like it a lot after a shower or for any moment I want to feel fresh, or to calm my mood when I feel overwhelmed after work or sports.

Puig Lavender Water is that freshness that spills out of its green bottle: a field scent with lavender and rosemary, sun and mountains, mixed with rougher notes of geranium, cedar, moss, and musk that give it strength. It’s a cologne that smells like childhood, morning showers and afternoon baths, that familiar fragrance we all love. It brings back memories of vacations in the village, the most beautiful time of my childhood, alongside scents like Joya de Myrurgia, Varón Dandy, Pravia Hay soap bars, and Sundays at church with Brummel, Maja, English Lavender, Oriental Woods, and Farala. They were the only colognes that made it to the village supermarket and the only scents the neighbors knew. It’s the group of kids we’d spend our summers with, going to remedial classes with Miss Pili, a young teacher with short hair, a round face, and a lively spirit, who instead of giving boring lessons took us on excursions with bread and chocolate: we’d gather reeds to make boats or rock tea with long sticks. In the valley, I learned to distinguish notes not found in the city: apple, plum, pear, grape, peach, cherry, quince, blackberry, raspberry, fig, melon, and watermelon. In the mountains, I discovered peppermint, chamomile, rosemary, mint, thyme, broom, and juniper. We also got used to the smell of sheep, chickens, pigs, mules, donkeys, carp, trout, sparrows, and goldfinches. But what excited us most was gathering lavender stalks. Jumping through the mountains, with our legs scratched by brambles, we’d cut the green stems of the lavandin to make aromatic bottles. Sitting in the shade of the courtyard, we’d make bouquets of ten stalks braided with colorful ribbons to protect the purple flowers. Our fingers would turn black and sticky with an incredible lavender scent. We’d finish the bottle with tin foil and a ribbon. They’d be kept in the closets and last for months smelling of village and countryside. I always made a bottle with a gold ribbon for Miss Pili, our very own Mary Poppins, who told us jokes, sang with her guitar, and whom we were all a little in love with.

Everyone knows it, and almost everyone has used it at least once. It’s a simple, popular, and unpretentious cologne, but it remains good and a worthy product. Other equally good fragrances were considered more popular simply because they were more expensive and had better marketing (stories like ‘created by so-and-so when he dropped a jar…’ or ‘tradition since the year of Maricastaña…’). The fact that it’s now sold mostly in large plastic bottles discredits it, but it doesn’t stop it from being the good cologne it always was. It was never missing in our house; my father and I used it on demand, often after shaving. It’s still sold in glass splash bottles (at least here in Coruña at ‘Arenal’ perfumeries), and back home, we used to refill them with the contents of the plastic bottle. I still have a 200 ml bottle left.

Everyone knows it, and almost everyone has used it at least once. It’s a simple, popular, and unpretentious cologne, but it remains good and a worthy product. Other equally good fragrances were considered more popular simply because they were more expensive and due to marketing (stories like “this fragrance was created by so-and-so when a jar of essence of such fell into another of such…”; “Tradition since the year of Maricastaña…” etc.). The fact that it’s now sold mainly in large plastic bottles discredits it, but it doesn’t stop being the good cologne it always was. It wasn’t missing from our house; my father and I used it on demand, many times after shaving. It’s still sold in glass splash bottles (at least here in Coruña, it’s sold in “Arenal” perfumeries), and at home we used to resort to refilling it with the contents of the plastic bottle. I still have a 200 ml bottle.

Eterna. A classic that evokes freshness and cleanliness. My mother couldn’t stand any other cologne or perfume except Puig Lavender Water. It always reminds me of her. My brother, whenever he came to visit her and brought a bottle, would remind her it was Frank Sinatra’s favorite cologne.

Eternal. A classic. It evokes freshness and cleanliness. My mother couldn’t stand colognes or perfumes except Puig Lavender Water. It always reminds me of her. My brother, every time he came to see her and brought her a bottle, reminded her that this was Frank Sinatra’s favorite cologne.

It smells like my childhood. My mother used to comb her hair with this cologne, and I remember it perfectly. I use it today when I go in tracksuit and for sports. It’s such a particular scent that varies on the skin and no one guesses what it is. They tell you it smells clean, but watch out, not everything that smells clean is good; sometimes it’s bleach. It’s a 1940 classic, but it doesn’t feel old; it’s very wearable. The best part is that they are natural essences, which is why it changes on every skin. It starts strong with citrus and quickly passes to an incredible fresh lavender. The trail lasts an hour intensely and then drops almost to the skin. Natural citrus never lasts long; they are volatile and only shine at the beginning. You can feel the soft but enduring lavender with cedar and tonka. I see it as unisex, although the cedar leans it more towards the masculine side. It’s suitable for all year and any place, except for a date. It’s not sensual. By the way, the hand soaps of this fragrance are a luxury and very cheap.

PUIG LAVENDER Water Good morning, they say lavender water is more suitable for men, but I consider it unisex. This perfume smells fundamentally of lavender. It’s true that it has an opening of a lavender and lemon mix, but the lemon disappears quickly, whereas the lavender aroma remains and becomes very noticeable. The rest of the components, I think, only give more longevity to the lavender, at least that’s how I feel, and this is perfect for me since I only want to smell this note. If you’ve ever held a lavender flower between your fingers and squeezed it a bit to get its oil out, you’d have been intoxicated by the scent of this wonderful flower. That’s what this cologne smells like, which I discovered several years ago and which has recently been re-edited in our country (not long ago it was hard to find). I love this cologne water; even though it is a cologne water, it has magnificent trail and longevity. The lavender aroma helps you relax when you’re going to sleep; for this reason, I always have a vaporizer (the bottle doesn’t come with one, but I transfer it) and spray it on the pillow and sheets on occasions when I need a good restful sleep. I love it sooooo much! It doesn’t remind me of Agua Brava (another Puig perfume I also love, and which, by the way, I consider excellent). The bottle is a treasure. Another Puig perfume that I won’t tire of saying is worth much more than it costs. By the way… the large plastic bottle isn’t worth much… better not to buy it…, unless you add several drops of essential lavender oil. Cheers.

Absolutely gorgeous and fleeting; just saying it sounds like it’s gone, but what beauty it has.