Comptoir Sud Pacifique Aqua Motu EDT is a clean, aquatic marine fragrance. It is described as a “light, clean, and breezy” fragrance. It is. I usually hate clean, aquatic fragrances. However, for this fume genre Aqua Motu is tolerable for an ocean-fresh-seabreeze genre, but I don’t go out of my way to wear it and I’d never buy it. It was launched in the early 90’s when all of the aquatic fragrances for men AND women were the rage. I already lived through that and I’m tired of it. But, I do respect the aquatics because they are so “dated” and the use of synthetics at the time was very interesting.
Aqua Motu opens up as aquatic as one would expect. But, there is more to it. There’s almost something smoldering in it. Imagine a beach campfire drowned in “ocean salt air” accord. Salt air and campfire still sounds like it could smell dirty…and good. But, Aqua Motu isn’t dirty at all and this is its problem in my opinion đŸ™‚ It has a very synthetic “ocean fresh” accord to it all. It almost burns my nose with its detergent like freshness, like Cool Water for Her does. With the “marine notes”, I do get watery cucumber. By the time I smell the cucumber, the smoky campfire has completely disappeared. Aqua Motu continues to wear as “fresh” and “aquatic”, of course the notes aren’t distinguishable except for that cucumber-melon. And maybe some mint. They just smell cool, wet, and fresh. Most of the wear reminds me of mineral water, synthetic “marine”, and cucumber. The dry-down is like warm sand with a the teeniest amount of salty kelp-saline accord. And it doesn’t smell fishy or like an actual beach. Aqua Motu is one super-clean smelling fragrance. It’s a fantasy beach. (Um, wasn’t that a reality TV show?)
Notes listed include helychrisum, marine notes, lily of the valley, warm sand, and kelp.
Give Aqua Motu a try if you like aquatics! I may not like it, but Aqua Motu is one of the better aquatics because of its sand accord. Also, give it a try if you like Bond No.9 Fire Island, Davidoff Cool Water for Men or Women, Bvlgari Aqua, Ralph Lauren Polo Blue and/or Profumum Acqua di Sale.
Overall, I can see how some people would be wild about Aqua Motu, but I’m not. It’s too clean for me. Synthetic “marine” notes bother me. If Aqua Motu kept up the campfire being blown around by violent salt air, then there would be love. My complaint with aquatics is that they are just too clean and sterile. Some people love that. This could be a nice choice for hot, sticky summer days when you do want to smell abnormally clean and fresh. And Aqua Motu is easily unisex. It’s universally “clean”.
I say to give Comptoir Sud Pacifique a try if you love clean aquatic fragrances or if you like scents like Davidoff Cool Water for Her, Pucci Acqua, Avon Windscape for Her, Calvin Klein Eternity Aqua for Him, and/or Il Profumo Aria di Mare.
This product is now in a glass bottle. The 1.6 oz spray retails for $85 on Amazon.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION: It’s a a clean aquatic with some salt and sand, but mostly melon-cucumber-mint. I don’t like aquatics and in my heart I wish this genre would die or at least be put in a time capsule. I don’t hate Aqua Motu like I do most aquatics but I don’t like it either. It’s floating between the spectrum of hate and like somewhere on the line of “never ever will I buy this”.
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Basenotes (member reviews)
helichrysum? in a ‘fresh’ scent? hmm.
that might explain the smoke though.
It could have been a really interesting fragrance, as in timeless interesting, if they would have turned the dial up to 11 on some of those notes.
I was very excited to try Aqua Motu a few months back. I paid to have a sample mailed to me. I heard so many good things. I was fairly let down. I agree that it is too synthetic. CSP is 0-2 so far on the ones I’ve tried.
So far, I haven’t found a CSD that I like and I’ve tried 5. All of them wear so strangely on me. Aqua Motu isn’t terrible but terribly dated.