Freshwater
Bath & Body Works (2018)

Freshwater by Bath and Body Works (2018) is a fairly clear riff on the ubiquitous yet endlessly-popular Acqua di Giò pour Homme by Giorgio Armani (1996), but twisted up with the faintest bit of neroli in the opening. Honestly, this neroli twist might have made the formula that became a Bath and Body Works fragrance a former contender for an Acqua di Giò pour Homme flanker a la Acqua di Giò Eau de Parfum (2022), penned by Alberto Morillas himself and then shelved. Who knows?

What is known, at least to me, is that Bath and Body Works with both this and Graphite by Bath and Body Works (2018) released the same year, is clearly telling the customer base that it's serious about eating the lunch of designers, who seem determined to continuously raise prices on things the average consumer took for granted, until they start seriously considering clones. Why buy clones from shady establishments when Bath and Body Works can dress them up as budget alternatives for the working fella like Avon once did? Performance is mild, but there's a whole grooming range to layer onto this.

At the end of the day, the familiar bergamot ozone and white floral hedione meets salty-dry fruit and wood of Acqua di Giò underpinning Freshwater by Bath and Body Works is fooling absolutely no one. One sniff, and you know what you're in for. That little drop of neroli up top might be added to take a weak jab at Tom Ford Neroli Portofino (2007), or maybe not. Either way, this is good value for money, and you'll smell nothing but clean and belonging among civilized men, even if you won't smell particularly interesting. Thumbs up

I want to like this more than I do. It's a basic aquatic fragrance done very well. It's quite unisex- according to a woman who works at Bath & Body Works, several of the women there like it so much they spray it on themselves. It smells very nice and appealing... When sprayed in the air or on a strip. When actually sprayed on my skin, it goes "off". Hard to explain, but it looses that bright aquatic quality.

Reminiscent of Polo Blue, with a warm and resounding base.

The faintest echo
Of perfume in the valley
Announced our return

With headspace rifles
We stalked the wild dryer sheet
Through forest and field

Following oakmoss
And synthetic bergamot
We tracked our prey to

The Chypreless Hills
Where the strange beast stood its ground
White, clean, and fluffy

With a tinge of green
Emitting those pleasant musks
Familiar to all

Cornered by Red's wife
It put up no resistance
And thus now resides

In fragrant friend zone
For going undercover
As Normal Fresh Guy.