Royal Water
Creed (1997)

It opens up with a citrus note providing a refreshing feel. Also present is some basil and mint adding a splash of green to the scent. Juniper berries follow in the heart adding slight medicinal and herbal feel. The scent finishes off with an ambergris base and the presence of musk. A very clean and uplifting scent. I suppose this could work casually during the warmer months, likely for the daytime. Not something that I'd reach for but it's better than some other Creeds that I've smelled.

Royal Water is absolute class. The citrus and mint top into the mid is so clean and elegant. Solid strength and performance as well. Full bottle worthy and a great choice for professional settings such as the office. Easily covers casual to formal, maybe a little 'fresh' for winter wear but that is nit-picky. That clean top into musk and ambergris is as simple as can be and beautifully done. Absolute thumbs up.

Uplifting, slightly astringent and refreshing. The naturals in this are so clearly evident and the heavy use of bergamot in the opening has been blended so perfectly with musk's and mint, the piney juniper berrys help create a colonial gin and tonic vibe with plenty of ice. I don't pick up on the ambergris as heavily in Royal Water as others but their white musk is beautiful and clean, and so is what feels like Mysore sandlewood in the mid and base. I get very good performance and projection which again is a reflection of the naturals used with synthetic fixatives, high quality indeed and maybe this should have been called Royal India.

Surprisingly good. Whoever said this is "Bois du Portugal Light" really gave it the perfect description. This is a fairly light citrus scent, but it's actually quite substantial. The "citrus infusion" as they describe it, has some heft. It comes across vibrant, tart, and almost spicy, in the same manner that Bois du Portugal is spicy. I don't find this feminine in the least, in fact it plays out like a masculine citrus cologne on my skin and has a familiar, traditional smell. Royal Water is aromatic, and there's something of a bitter/sweet contrast at play in it as well, as the Juniper berries provide a gin-like kick. Creed's coveted ambergris base is also in full force here, blended into a comfortable, musky foundation which may in fact be the best part of Royal Water. It's not what you notice at first, but it provides the perfect masculine base for the other notes to play-out on. Royal Water isn't a frivolous or carefree scent--there's a certain maturity associated with its traditional citrus cologne slant--but it's still easy to wear since everything works so well together, and it comes off feeling classic rather than dated. Either way, it's a solid choice for a guy, young or old, and can be worn leisurely as if just thrown on while heading out the door, or more formally, as if deliberately matching a tux

Creed Royal Water (1997) is a highly-misunderstood fragrance among the bulk of Creed fanatics and the "Broventus" types that gravitate towards their 2000's output like Himalaya (2002) and Aventus (2010), receiving fairly mixed opinions among the fragrance community. I feel like a lot of this division comes down to the way it is marketed and who tries it versus the style it really rests in and what demographic would truly appreciate it. Simply put, Royal Water exhibits 80% of the behavior that a standard by-the-books citrus chypre would have, the kind that really came to prominence from the 60's through to the 80's, borrowing the rest from early feminine-market fruity florals like Chanel Cristalle (1974). This combination in no way was fashionable in 1997, let alone in the 21st century which has been dominated by harsh woody aromachemicals smoothed out by the oft-copied synthetic ambergris base of Creed themselves. Parfums Grès seemingly made a similar mistake with Homme de Grès (1996) just a year prior, so there must have been something going around that told French perfumers they needed to revisit classic chypre structures for men, perhaps foreshadowing their destruction under IFRA regulations in a few more years. Royal Water not only fails to utilize its own ambergris base in a way that would be familiar to their modern fans, but unabashedly rides the sharp oakmoss chypre dry down all the way to the end, being a huge anachronism for something "dedicated to the youth of house Windsor".

The opening of Royal Water is a very sharp bergamot blended with a lactonic note similar in severity to Capucci Pour Homme (1967) and Revlon Charlie (1973), but omits a lot of the rounder lemony elements of either for a sharp white floral note undoubtedly part of the "citrus cocktail" listed in the note pyramid from Creed. I get some iris in this mix and a very dry peppermint with a touch of galbanum too, which remains part of the finish. Juniper and basil in the heart carry this piquant gin-like flair which allows the bergamot and peach to continue glowing into a chypre base of oakmoss, bitter musk mallow and a naturalistic take on the clasic House Creed ambergris. Creed would revisit this "gin accord" for another Windsor-themed scent called simply Creed Windsor (2009), a scent that eventually became another "Royal" addition when it saw wider release as Creed Royal Mayfair (2015). Royal Water is very much unisex as most of these older chypres tend to be, but I feel women might actually favor this over men due to tastes being what they are, particularly with older frosted bottle examples that have clear caps, since those earlier "batches" tend to have more floral component than later ones with labels. Any version of Royal Water will "smell like Royal Water" but the older stuff leans a touch more gender-neutral overall. Wear time is good at over eight hours and sillage booms for half of it, calming down into wee hours. Royal Water is very fresh but very old-school and traditional, good for outdoors and warmer weather but totally out-of-favor with sweet soapy aquatic or woody amber predilections of the demographic it targets.

Lovers of stuff like the aforementioned Capucci Pour Homme, Chanel Cristalle, Homme de Grès, or even older examples like Y by Yves Saint Laurent (1964) and Monsieur Givenchy (1959) should definitely give Royal Water a sniff. The steep asking price of Creed makes this a hard sell to anyone, especially in a genre with so many vintage options available for much less coin, but it is truly an exemplary citrus chypre that does have ingredients and blending above most designer examples even in vintage. Royal Water gets snubbed for what is and probably will remain the most controversial throwback member of the 90's "freshie" lineup, especially in light of the previous Erolfa (1992), Millésime Impérial (1995), and Silver Mountain Water (1995) being released to great acclaim, which went on to become standards that shaped the creation of future Creed scents. Whether it's an intentional nod to yesteryear in disguise of a youth-oriented scent or proof that Olivier and Erwin Creed really don't have their fingers on the pulse of trend like they think and just accidentally start them is up to you to figure out, but Royal Water is worthy of your attention for testing if you're a lover of citrus/floral chypres regardless of gender. What's better is due to the lack of popularity, deals do sometimes come up online, making it a great gateway scent for house Creed to those with vintage taste but unwilling/unable to pay their silly MSRP. Royal Water is a hidden treasure among the main line Creeds of the 1990's, that most "FragBro" fans of the house don't have the taste for history to figure out. Thumbs up.

The opening is citrusy, old school, mature, gentlemen cologne style fragrance. Later, the drydown becomes a dustier/muskier version of that, never really goes off in an unexpected path. Stays clean, kinda soapy throughout.

Projection is average. Longevity was 6-7 hours on me.