Finisterre
Maria Candida Gentile (2013)

When I wore Finisterre, my mind went immediately to Profumum's Victrix. This smelled almost identical to Victrix in my minds nose. Same wet greens smells, like the greens growing around the banks of a pond. I'm going to try a sample of Finisterre on one wrist and a sample of Victrix on the other and see how they compare in reality and not just in my "mind's nose". :) Nice fragrance...

I like it. Scrubby gorse/pine notes. The sage is herbal and a bit rubbery, but that is OK. Dry and aromatic. The helichyrsum adds a dusky and slightly honeyed note. The marine note is of the salty sea breeze variety: pleasant, not ozonic. Well done! Airy. The amber is the ambergris mode (sea-side) rather than the buttery sweet king. Low-key, subtle, sits close to the skin. The pine note is refreshing and the wood note is well done. Wears well, pleasant throughout.

I'm so confused.

I have always loved the scent of the ocean, the beach, the salt air. I dream of the waves crashing, and crave the warm crystals of sand between my toes.

So, why can I not find a scent that brings that to my nose? I am sad that this one did not do the trick, though it wasn't for lack of trying. I mean, it really tried. But, perhaps, it tried a bit too hard? I don't know. There is a lot going on here. It's daunting to try and figure out what I'm smelling, but I assure you, it is not the beach, the sea, the salt air, or the sand.

I keep trying to find a way to express my thoughts on this, but in all honesty, I simply want to run to the sink and scrub this off. Just remember, Finisterre rhymes with sinister. Maybe...I don't know.

I'm a huge fan of Maria Candida Gentile's work but, unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about Finisterre. The fragrance moves in similar territories of, say, I Profumi Del Forte Tirrenico (the sandalwood + marine combo), Profumum Acqua Di Sale (the aromatic quality) or, to a lesser extent, Salina by Laboratorio Olfattivo (the pine + aquatic notes combo). A sharp-ish and very powerful blend of watery aromachemicals and woods with piney facets and immortelle. The infamous *bilge* note which is typical of these kind of fragrances, is amped up to the maximum and the thickness of the immortelle and woods, doesn't help to smooth down the Finisterre's penetrating power.

Now, I'm not *particularly* averse to aquatic notes in perfumery (while I still can't say I'm particularly fond of them either) but this is really too much to my tastes. With that said, if you like the genre, give this a chance as it's rapidly becoming a favorite amongst fans of this type of comps.

Massive projection and exhausting lasting power.

Finisterre is an ozonic-spicy scent with a subtle warm layer of amber and resins on the base, something that smells like aniseed or licorice (or both), something balsamic-greenish (pine). And obviously the calone note, which sadly you can smell quite loud and clear. And even more sadly, in my opinion, completely separated from the rest of the scent, in a way that makes it appear almost unrelated. It's basically like if they took a normal spicy-balsamic scent and just threw in a bucket of calone. It just doesn't fit, and ends up in smelling like a central monolith surrounded by extraneous smells. This said, the overall quality is not bad: I get the attempt in doing something less artificial and less predictable than usual, and despite the result is unsatisfying to me, I appreciate the quality of the ingredients (except calone, obviously). Among the worse MCG scents (which is a quite decent brand), but given most calone scents I've tried were hideous, this may still be included among the nicest iodine scents around, together with Sel Marin or Tirrenico.

6,5/10

Each of us can or not appreciate the ozonic-aquatic genre but must anyway be able to distinguish a bad plastic/synthetic marine gym type of accord (unfortunately common nowadays) by a decent and more realistic marine combination. Finisterre is a dignified aquatic which opens with a fizzy and almost boozy anisic (pine-immortelle) soon definitely marine connection and develops towards a more conventional woody ambery aquatic dry down really fresh, light and minty/salty. The typically salty/breezy (almost dissonant/acid) marine vibe is dominant till the end while the cool/green anisic coniferous accord provides a general sense of balsamic freshness as well as you are breathing ("taking deep breaths") the fresh air you can catch in the middle between a stormy ocean and a pine forest (located on your back). An interesting and somewhat natural solution for the lovers of this infamous genre.