Aquolina is a relatively unknown fragrance company whose only products are the brother and sister scents Blue Sugar and Pink Sugar. While Pink Sugar is an overwhelmingly sweet, candied perfume, Blue Sugar “man’s-it-up” and presents a heady, sexy cologne that still retains the flirtatious sugary notes that its sibling is known for.
Before I was 14, I never wore cologne (and honestly, rarely even more than a basic deodorant… Shhh!). Those awful Axe Body sprays that smell like a boy’s locker room when the janitor has gotten lazy never appealed to me, and so I just went around smelling faintly of soap and fresh water (ironically, now some of my favorite base notes in colognes). But Sephora changed that. Sephora changes everything, really.
I went in just looking for a hair product to tame a style that would now be called the eponymous Bieber (I shudder looking back on pictures of me then… What was I thinking?), and walked out with two sample vials of colognes: Juicy Dirty English and Aquolina Blue Sugar. I tried Juicy’s first, as I’d actually heard of them, even then, and was instantly reminded of why I hated Axe. It smelled like sweat, musk, and aggressive machismo. That one went immediately in the trash. So the next day, I dabbed a bit of Blue Sugar on my wrists, went out, and fell in love. I returned to the mall a few days later to purchase my first cologne ever.
Housed in an attractive, blue tinted cylindrical bottle, Blue Sugar holds its own visually next to the likes of Dior’s Fahrenheit and BANG by Marc Jacobs on my vanity. I rather enjoy the simplicity of its design; no gimmicks (looking at you, PLAY by Givenchy), nothing belying more than it is.
Even now, the scent’s progression from Top Notes to Base Notes is still a journey I take pleasure in, and it certainly hasn’t gotten old. Throughout the entire thing, notes of caramelized sugar wrap themselves sensually around the others, caressing and embracing rather than smothering. Have you ever been to an authentic candy shoppe (yes, spelled with an extra “p” and an “e”; that’s how you know it’s authentic) while the mother and son duo were mixing a giant vat of sugar to turn into those sweet, little caramel chews? This aspect smells near exactly like that: flirtatious, slightly insolent, and sexy in a boyish, rustle-your-hair kind of way.
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