Like walking through an orange grove that is also an herb garden.
Spraying Guerlain’s new Aqua Allegoria Orange Soleia is like splitting apart an orange and breathing in that exploding arc of juice. The blood orange, bergamot and petitgrain (oil from leaves of the bitter orange tree) are an almost fizzy fortification against that wall of humidity you’ll encounter when you step outside this time of year.
Citrus fragrances have a notoriously brief life on your skin, but the addition of mint, floral-yet-biting pink peppercorn and a gently warm, woody note extend Orange Soleia’s presence well after that initial mood-altering orange burst has fled.
The scent is meant to evoke a Calabrian citrus grove in the hot sun, but imagine it’s your citrus grove with a pool at its edge. This is a fantasy after all. You walk through your citrus grove, eat an orange, jump in the pool to cool down and then dry off on your sun-warmed, wooden deck chair. There are worse ways to spend the summer.