PRODUCT REVIEW: ACH. BRITO LAVANDA AND FAVA TONKA COLOGNE
Here is the first review in a five-part series on the best perfume companies I came across in Porto, Portugal. I have long been a low-fragrance person, with a sensitive nose, and can feel queasy around too much artificial scent. I understand that fragrance can affect people with scent disabilities. Big companies can hide toxic ingredients under labeling terms like “fragrance” and “perfume.”
I grew up in the bath and body generation of the 80s and 90s and have had my eras of overpowering body sprays. But, I started to learn and love essential oils and plant-based aroma, and have stayed away from synthetic fragranced products for some time. Yet, after being non-perfumed for so long, I began to want to explore some luxurious products and experiences that were not available fragrance-free. I started to consider luxury fragrance while I was in Bangkok. I came across a few perfumes I enjoyed. While I didn’t buy any mainstream lines, I did evolve to feel that I’m in my villain era and that life is short. I decided to take an interest in lab-made colognes and fragrant products again.
Then, I took my very first trip to Europe and landed in Portugal. Portugal has a long history in the perfume business. I visited Porto for two months during the last winter holiday season and the New Year. The festive night lights, pastel de nata, and rich aromas of Portuguese fragrances warmed me. Stay tuned for my Porto Beauty Travel Shop & Buy list.
I bought perfumes and perfumed products from some classic, long-standing Portuguese manufacturers. I have to start this review series with a wonderful scent called Lavanda from Porto made by Ach. Brito. Lavanda is my favorite Portuguese scent, and it’s been a favorite of Portuguese people for over ninety years.
The maker of this cologne is Ach. Brito, a soap and perfume company established in Porto in 1918 by Achilles de Brito and his brother Affonso. This Portuguese company is famous for its perfumed soap made using traditional methods. Known for high-quality products and beautiful packaging art, the company grew as it acquired a German perfume factory. Claus & Schweder founded their factory in Porto in 1887 (and left the country when Portugal declared war against Germany in WWII). Brito was a partner in Claus & Schweder in 1908 and went on to acquire the company in 1925. In 1953, Ach. Brito invested in developing its lithography shop and continues to work with talented Portugese artists and graphic designers.
Ach. Brito products are available in shops all over Porto (across Portugal, online, and internationally) and have their factory not far from the city. I first saw Lavanda in a shop just a few doors down from the bookstore known to have inspired the Harry Potter movies (of which the author denies), and whose long line I decided to skip. Instead, I spent my time in this historic gift store, Fernandes, Mattos & Ca.
I came across this adorable wood-drenched store during the busy holiday season. There were many people browsing and shopping. This was the first boutique with a large selection of beauty products that I stumbled upon in Porto. The first time I came just before closing, I was only able to browse the first floor, but I returned to discover there are three or four floors. One of which has an amazing view and all are full of arts, and gifts, and cute little things.
After picking up a rose hand cream (I’ll also review later in this series, as I stopped by that brand’s flagship store too), I walked by the bottle of Lavanda.
The scent is more masculine-leaning and considered part of a men’s shave collection. As someone who identifies as genderqueer, I can say it brought out my most they/them self! Though they do market this product as being enjoyed by “both men and women”. I thought to myself, “I can’t wear men’s cologne; that’s weird, right?” That day, I ended up buying a slightly more feminine and herbaceous orange blossom perfume inspired by the Algarve (also included in this series).
I couldn’t get the smell of Lavanda out of my mind. And it’s everywhere in Porto – had the medium-size bottle been around, I would have surely bought it early on, but I kept coming across locations that only had large bottles. The Lavanda cologne would haunt me for two months, and still haunts me. The first time I smelled it, I bought a tiny soap just so I could pick it up and smell it anytime, with no intention to ever open it or use it.
I am holding it and smelling it right now…
I held the Lavanda scent in the back of my mind and decided that if I could find a small bottle, I would get it before I left. The smell was almost familiar to me somehow. Then an olfactory memory slowly came to me…
My late parents were both sailors in the US Navy. My mom for a handful of years, and my father for twenty. We moved a lot, at least once every two to three years, and also moved locally during those stationed periods. This has influenced me in my comfort as a nomad, because it’s all I have ever known. To this day, I’ve never lived in any home more than two years, and I’m forty-four this month.
I feel most at ease in a port city, which drew me to Porto (though I did consider Lisbon). On my current travels, I often visit the second or third largest city in a place. Anyway, the smell of Lavanda sparked a memory of being at a condo in a port in California. I spent time in Seal Beach, California, somewhere around four to five years old. It’s where I went to kindergarten. I can’t remember any faces in this memory. It’s almost as if I am only table height and can only see under the table. I don’t have many memories available from early childhood. I think this may have been the home of a friend of my parents, and I wonder… did they wear Lavanda? It would make sense that a fellow sailor may have come across it. I don’t remember anything else. Just the beige carpet of the condo, the wood legs of the table, the sailboats in the harbor… and the sophisticated aroma of musk and flowers.
Lavanda profile:
- lavender
- eucalyptus
- rosemary
- orange
- patchouli
- musk
After going to a sister company of Ach. Brito (which I will review in the next post), I was told I could find a smaller bottle of Lavanda at the Time Out market, A Vida Portuguesa. And I did.
But I also came across another special addition perfume by Ach. Brito that I hadn’t noticed before, Fava Tonka. I love Tonka bean. It became a very difficult decision for me to make. I had been looking all around town for the small bottle of Lavanda and finally found it. But the Tonka perfume had so many of my favorite notes and smelled warm and sexy.
Fava Tonka Profile:
- lavender
- myrrh
- tonka bean
- vanilla
- almond
And while the clerk advised me to get both (after I explained my distress), I had to conserve funds from my overextended beauty budget and space in my overfilled beauty suitcase. In the end, I left Portugal with the Tonka blend. I figured that Lavanda wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, and something told me I’d be back in Portugal before too long. I can still pick up a bottle of Lavanda. Maybe the big bottle!
