Perfume Reviews – Claus Porto – Agua de Colonia Collection – The Best Of Portugal In A Perfume Bottle

The story of Portuguese brand Claus Porto dates back over 130 years. Two Germans, Ferdinand Claus and Georges Schweder, founded the brand. Initially, they planned to open a soap factory, taking inspiration from the landscape of Portugal. They did and were very successful, albeit on a local scale. After some years, the brand’s accountant, Achilles de Brito, bought out the company and merged it into his own company (Ach Brito). It’s stayed in the family ever since.

Achilles de Brito, his children, and grandchildren’s vision saw the company broaden its marketing and operations to the US and the UK and eventually worldwide. The Claus Porto soap factory expanded to include a high-quality printing studio capable of producing luxury soap labels, and their product range currently includes candles, shampoos, and fragrances. The brand’s global reach now extends to over 50 countries worldwide. Here’s a link (https://clausporto.com/en/) to their homepage if you want to read more about their products. In my post today, I’ll review some of their perfumes. 

In 2018, the brand teamed up with perfumer Lyn Harris to produce the Agua de Colonia collection, capturing the results of her olfactory encounters following her travels around Portugal. Currently, there are six perfumes in the collection. Here are my thoughts on each. I’ve got a clear favourite.

1/ Agua Vetiver – Inky, mineral vetiver. 6/10.

As the name suggests, Agua vetiver is a watery, mineral-like vetiver. Before the marine element kicks in, there’s a distinct fresh woody hit of galbanum and cedar. It’s earthy, green, and slightly smoky, and the medicinal sharpness of eucalyptus and pine further accentuates these qualities. The potentially polarising gunky seaweed note arrives after about 20 minutes. I enjoy the seaweed mineral sensation here as I find it evocative of the scent of a river or even a beach with wildflowers growing around the bank or dunes. I find it quite palatable, and nothing like the salty brininess of Bvlgari Aqua, Acqua di Sale, or especially the unwearable Tom Ford, Oud Minerale.

Lyn Harris states the fragrance is based on a cloudy day walking the plains of Alentejo. For mine, the fragrance takes me to the coast with the wind blowing, dusk approaching, and the sun setting on the horizon.

The vetiver in Agua Vetiver has an almost dry, nutty quality. Indeed, there’s some inkiness evident, recalling the vetiver in Lalique’s Encre Noire. However, it’s not as pitch black as that one, as the bracing cooling aspects of galbanum, pine, bergamot, and the refreshing camphoraceous eucalyptus instill enough brightness into the composition to avoid any thoughts of doom and gloom that the Lalique often conjures. Do I like it as much as classic vetivers such as Guerlain Vetiver and Chanel Sycomore? No, I don’t. But its intriguing herbal, mineral, and mossy components make for a distinctive wear.

2/ Agua Geranium – This is the fougère and my favourite. 8/10.

The third fragrance in the collection is Agua Fougère, but the second fragrance in the series, Agua Geranium, is closer in spirit to the fougère family. Although, it’s a fougère with some engaging additional adornments. Agua Geranium immediately takes on a mossy, earthy guise. Here, Lyn Harris takes us to an exotic garden in Lisbon. It’s an aromatic garden filled with roses, geranium, and herbs. The combination of angelica, mosses, vetiver, and patchouli gives the impression of green forest floors, spongy soil, and the great outdoors. The angelica root, in particular, offers some intriguing depth, wrapping Agua Geranium in its musky, spicy, peppery warmth.

As the fragrance develops, hints of spicy bay rum emerge, and the fougère framework becomes more apparent. Lavender, tonka, geranium, and musk all inject their barbershop qualities. It made me think of Rive Gauche Pour Homme. However, Agua Geranium leans more on the earthy side than the YSL, which smells more of shaving cream. Even though I love Rive Gauche Pour Homme, at times, I feel it can be pretty suffocating, almost heavy-handed, whereas Agua Geranium is airy and eminently wearable. It’s the perfect scent for a modern dandy and my favourite from the line.

3/ Agua Fougère – Not really a fougère. 6/10.

There’s a specific signature DNA to these Claus Porto scents. Indeed, this fougère variant reminds me of a few others from the collection. Pine, moss, and woody ingredients crop up quite a bit. Agua Fougère mainly reminds me of Agua Vetiver. However, unlike the vetiver, it doesn’t smell like I’m by a river bank or a murky mangrove swamp. Instead, there’s an ozonic quality reminiscent of the crisp sweetness of a pine forest near the coast. And sure enough, Lyn Harris took inspiration from the Troia peninsula with its coastline of dunes surrounded by fragrant pine. It seems she nailed the brief, if not the name.

Agua Pine might have been the more appropriate name. There’s no lavender or coumarin here that I can detect, so its claims as a fougere are tenuous at best. Instead, I pick up a peppery floral mid-section infused with clean soapy jasmine. The olibanum in the base doesn’t smell too smoky but stays fresh and slightly resinous, enhancing the green pine aspects that form the main character of Agua Fougère. Ultimately, it’s not a fougère I would turn to if I wanted something modern from the genre. Rather, I’d turn to Tom Ford’s Beau de Jour, Masque Milano’s Sleight of Fern, or Agua Geranium.

4/ Agua Clementina – A simple, well-composed cologne with few surprises. 6/10.

None of the Claus Porto scents are overly complex, but Agua Clementina is the least intricate. Here, Lyn Harris takes inspiration from the citrus groves by the River Douro. Again, she’s true to the inspiration, but this time without any intriguing twists evident in the other scents in the collection. Orange blossom mixes with citrus notes of lemon, orange, and bergamot in a fresh cologne combination that smells soapy, clean, and classic.

The orange blossom initially has a slight metallic dimension but eventually leans more soapy than animalic and becomes soft and sweet under the influence of citrus fruits. In the base, musk and lavender impart a touch of pillowy comfort. The combined effects of the citruses, florals, and musk paint an optimistic picture of sun-drenched fruit trees glowing under an azure blue sky or rows and rows of orange and yellow flowers swaying gently in the breeze. Ultimately, it feels like a place I’ve been to many times before in perfumery, specifically in something like the much cheaper 4711 Cologne.

5/ Agua Porto – Sun-soaked petitgrain. 7/10.

Agua Porto is the perfumer’s tribute to the city of Porto, and the bitter, bracing aspects of petitgrain dominate the perfume. Refreshing and woody, the note feels almost silvery and lucent, like tree branches and leaves illuminated by the afternoon sun. Galbanum, cypress, and juniper give the sense of being in a green space. The citrus accord (mainly lemon) feels fresh but salty, seamlessly connecting it with Porto’s seaside locality and its environmental peculiarities.

Agua Porto becomes dry in the middle phases as cedar and cypress join forces. They impact the scent to its conclusion, linking with petitgrain, juniper, and oakmoss. It creates the perception of a saunter along a conifer-lined Porto street during the height of summer. The humidity is gone from the atmosphere, and the bitter, twiggy aroma of petitgrain and woods lingers in the air.

6/ Agua Flores – Jasmine with depth. 7/10.

The latest Claus Porto scent, Agua Flores, arrived in 2020. It commences on a high-pitched, sweet note set off by a piercing, bright trio of citruses led by bergamot. Thankfully, it calms down quickly, and the combination of fruits and jasmine becomes light, velvety, and approachable—very reflective and glassy. Jasmine takes the lead, and it eventually settles into a creamy floral with flecks of green around the edges.

However, like most from this collection, there’s a twist. It comes via an earthy woody injection of angelica, iris, and sandalwood. All three subdue the sweet opening, soften and round the fringes, and build on the creamy effect established by the jasmine. The perfume never becomes cloying, even with the benzoin/tonka in the base. The final kicker is the hint of suede in the dry-out, not too dissimilar to Parfum d’Empire’s Cuir Ottoman, giving Agua Flores a smooth finish.

Summary

Like Lyn Harris’s other works (see Miller Harris), the Agua de Colonia collection is solid without blowing my socks off. Despite having the word cologne in their name, they go above and beyond a regular cologne in both performance (3-4 hours) and scent profile (other than Agua Clementina). Don’t expect “beast mode” performance and projection, though. Thankfully, there are no amber woods here to extend longevity. They all smell natural and authentic. For those reasons, the 125 ml and 10 ml bottles are reasonably priced at 90 and 25 Euros, respectively. I paid 44 Australian Dollars for my discovery set.

If you’re lucky enough to be in Portugal, a visit to one of their stores in Lisbon and Porto might be worth your time. Their Porto store sprawls over three floors and features a barbershop in the basement, a street-level retail store, and a Claus Porto museum on the top floor. As I mentioned in my introduction, the brand began its operations specialising in soaps but now boasts many other grooming products. So, there should be something among their wares for most budgets and even the most fussy of fumeheads.

I have yet to try other perfumes from Portugal besides Christiano Ronaldo’s fragrances. How about you? Do you know Claus Porto, or can you recommend any other Portuguese fragrance brands?

Note: The first and last images are courtesy of Claus Porto and Taste of Portugal. All other photos are my own. I purchased the discovery set I used for these reviews.