Aqua Motu / Motu 
Comptoir Sud Pacifique (1992)

Smells like wet sand and musty cigarette smoke.

If your idea of a 'beach scent' is the invocation of a miserable cold day spent by the sea followed by a night in a grubby nicotine stained B&B, then this is the scent for you.


I had to wash it off after an hour.

An extremely synthetic and -- to me -- unrealistic beach scent, this fragrance uses an iodiney salt water accord similar to those I've smelled in many other marine fragrances which aim for realistic beach smells. For some reason, however, this one is far less effective on me than others in the same family have been. At first I can indeed smell what I suspect was the intended olfactory gestalt ("Oh, hey! It's briney salt water!"), but after a second or two, that marine accord then falls apart on me completely, fragmenting into a constellation of unrelated and not always pleasant scents: celery, hot vinyl car seats, modeling clay, the smoke from melting plastic.

The overall effect is rather sickening, and while I'm not usually bothered by synthetic aquatic accords -- the much-maligned Calone, for example, causes me no trouble at all -- this particular one leaves me feeling nauseated and headachey.

Fragrances that I've found far more successful at pulling off a realistic marine salt water effect include CB I Hate Perfume's Mr. Hulot's Holilday, and Profumum's Aqua di Sale. Of course, both of those fragrances do cost a whole lot more. I guess when it comes to convincing marine accords, sometimes you get what you pay for.