Costarela Carner Barcelona for women and men

Truly one of the most accurate Mediterranean summer scents out there. This takes me to the beach back home every summer. I get a considerable smell of sunscreen, not straight from the bottle but after you’ve applied it, gone in the water after waiting for it to dry on your skin, and then coming back out and laying right on your beach towel. It’s fresh, nostalgic, memorable.

Such a pleasent and calming vibe this gives off. Daytime, bright and sunny. While the notes aren't anything "different" or "new". Who said we can't enjoy "pleasent" every once in a while?

Edit (4-21-24): man oh man letting this beauty Macerate for a bit will do this fragrance WONDERS, easily has slowly climbed itself up my unique freshie list, went from partially regretting a full bottle to wanting to get a backup. Unique enough to know I know no one else will be wearing this when I'm choosing to and nice enough to garner loads of compliments, let alone pretty solid sillage and projection throughout the day. Underrated Gem right here.

This was my first expensive full bottle purchase as a 40-year-old fragrance newbie at a overpriced shop in Rosemary Beach, Florida. DAMN. If you want to OWN the beach, this is it. It starts with 100% sunbathing, ocean breeze, sunscreen, salt water and that smell of the beach that lingers on your skin long after you've come inside to cool off and take a nap. Then you get the woody dry down. The whole experience is lovely and perfect for me. I will cry when this bottle is empty.

I went to Letouile to find a clean fragrance and worker recommended me fresh Costarela. Year ago I smell citrus but now find a little grass and sea salt. I feel it on skin very long but first time didn’t feel at all, people told me “Then it’s your fragrance”. Then I got it lasting for a day, I don’t know about spillage because it’s tiny scent.
Every fragrance i feel differently in different seasons. But I guess I should use perfumes only in winter…

Costarela is strange.
It starts with strong (unpleasantly sour) citrus. Which luckily evaporates after 30 minutes. But what happens then is a complete nonsense. Sweet Wood and just slight seabreeze now and then. Everything very faint and you think that it’s not relevant any more, but a slight wave of coastarella tackles your nose every now and then through the day. So it is there, somehow blended with your personal smell.
It’s different and i interesting. It’s almost the same Game as “emperors New clothes”, considering the price Tag.
I bought it on sale for 60€ per 100ml bottle and this is worth the price if you love perfume art. Considering original cca 160€ per 100ml retail price, i think it’s a pass, even for the most extravagant perfume lovers.
If you’re looking for a Real Salty Sea perfume, consider Salina. Costarella is not pure Sea and might let you down with wear performance (100 Spritz required if you wanna feel it the whole day)

Costarela is a reasonalbly pleasant citrus-marine scent, evocative of a sunny day at the beach. A coconut-led suntan lotion scent this is not; nor is it a straightforward citrus cologne or harsh, synthetic mineralic scent. Costarela is pleasant, aromatic and uplifting, with realistic, natural-smelling ingredients despite the ambroxan as fixative. However, it is let down by its uninspiring drydown and limited performance.

Costarela opens with fresh, zingy bergamot alongside a sea salt note, as bracing and fresh as the sea breeze. A pinch of saffron adds spice, complementing the salty opening to perfection. A prominent cedar note follows, grounding the fresh opening nicely with soft woodiness. Ambroxan hovers, adding a clean, grey musky undertone. Here it works, enhancing the other notes somewhat.

As it develops, it stays reasonably salty, with a slight mineralic quality emerging as it progresses. It becomes musky as it fades, with cedar and ambroxan the main components of the drydown. It is much less interesting here in contrast to its promising opening, and is pretty watery, but doesn't become harsh or unpleasant. Sillage is intimate and longevity is weak.

Initially great, Costarela is a pleasant summertime scent that runs out of steam as it progresses, but may work well for people who prefer subtle, short-lived perfume in hot weather. Unisex and wearable, Costarela has its good points, but ultimately is overpriced considering its performance. 3/5.

This is a simply amazing (albeit weak performing) fragrance. Immediately you are greeted with a very salty sea salt note amplified by the ambroxan and elevating a sharp cedar note in the background. Reminds me of driftwood on a salty air beach. You get a slight burst of bergamot, a fresh floral quality from the saffron and the characteristic sweetness you get from having amber in the base in order to smooth the composition out so it doesn't smell too harsh. A simple yet very well constructed fragrance!

I really like this offering from Carner which I'm becoming a huge fan of. In my perpetual search for a perfect fresh, salty, marine fragrance I acquired this one recently. This is not anything new in the category of summer scents but it's very good nonetheless. I can detect note of bergamot the most and then in the background I get a hints of sandy, salty notes. It gives of a feeling like if you were siting at some classy beach café, having a cold, refreshing lemunade and light breeze is carying around scent of sea mist and warm sand. Very lovely indeed.

After 2 minutes this one smells like sweating on the beach horrible.

I really liked the huge splash of bergamot in the opening - so fresh and summery. But the dry down has none of that freshness - it's a smell of burnt plastic. Other reviews mention poor longevity and that's true. Except that my skin still smells of that burnt plastic even after a few hours,

Smells like expensive hand soap. Nothing coastal or beachy as the name suggests. Nice and clean, nothing groundbraking. Poor longevity - max 2 hours. Definitely not worth the price.

I enjoyed the brief moment of smelling this…

So maybe I’ll sample this again and see what the lack of performance is all about. Because this was extremely fleeting on me.


Peculiar…

Opens with a big burst of bergamot and drys down fairly salty , i guess its the sand and sea notes

Bergamot and sea breeze with an ever so slight waxy saffron.

The opening is a pleasant natural smelling bergamot, somewhat juicy and fizzy. The watery salty notes join soon after accented by a slightly waxed saffron feel. It dries down watery and salty with only a hint of bergamot. It does have that sea breeze feel to it. It's like a day at the beach.

I was hoping for a sandy note in it, but I did not detect it. There is something a bit dry lurking underneath and maybe it's supposed to give the impression of sand, but it doesn't to me. It makes me think of warm sun rays instead. The deep dry down is a generic cedar.

It is okay. The opening was promising, but the dry down leaves much to be desired. It's just too ordinary for a house like Carner to release.I am sure some people will love it, but this is a pass for me. It's not bad at all, but it feels unpolished.

After a couple of weeks with a sample, I purchased a full bottle, and I love it.
Costarella develops into a fresh, airy, salty finish on my skin. Truly reminiscent of days spent at the beach. Not the touristy, crowded kind, but the beach just before summer -- when the sand is beginning to heat up, spring vegetation is blooming, and the winds start to shift.

Opening is nice, drydown becomes watery, slightly lemony and that's all you get from this scent. Really boring scent. It also fades really quickly. I dont see the use of this scent. Not worth the money.

in the opening hmm..strange a little unusual weird (medical) almost alcoholic vibe but in the same time cool nice and fresh. Weird..this only takes a few minutes,then it becomes something not to offend anyone..
something totally empty and boring ? (read between the lines: a synthetic mess)
(as a theme of smell in that second phase) which lasts unjustifiably short..this fragrance is.......
no need for my further sentences.
pass

I just can’t stand the drydown, such a beautiful opening but it dries into a.... dunnow? Powdery.... burned plastic thing?

Nice but gone completely in like an hour max. For the price requested, not ok.

Costarella is a water perfume with an interesting rock/mineral note.

Opens fresh with peppery nose feel.
The heart is fresh & aquatic. The mineral note here paints the picture of dried coral and sand.
Salty amber and clear woods scaffold the scent.

Performance is average.
Very much unisex.

Worth smelling if you're after an interesting aquatic perfume.

Fresh bug spray. Nothing in this smells even remotely real/realistic/photorealistic, especially not in relation to the ocean; it isn't even evocative of the ocean in the least. I expected something beachy, but not in the usual way, and all I got was this very disappointing generic blah scent. It doesn't smell bad, it is just so forgettable and uninspired that it makes me feel very annoyed. I do think that this is unisex, but it is as basic as can be. I can't see ever recommending this to anyone, because the scent itself bears zero relation to the pyramid or listed notes. It bears a very strong resemblance to something else I've smelled in the past couple of years and felt similarly about, but I haven't quite put my finger on what it is yet. If I figure it out, I will update.

Sampling Costarela today (21/08/20). Smells very fresh with a wonderful bergamot as a start. It does give you what it says, a true seaside picturesque place, imagine you sit on a bench placed under a pine trees on a cliff overlooking the sea in front of you. Somehow it also smells very herbal and aromatic imo. Yes, this is fantastic creation for people who like citrus, sea, and sand. Very enjoyable, indeed.

A photo-realistic sea breeze fragrance is one of my holy grail fragrances. After sampling Costarela, I'm sorry to say that it still eludes me.
The thing with fantasy notes is that they often smell synthetic ... because they are synthetic. Hopefully someday I will find the perfect blend, but for me, the sea notes in this come across as a chemical mess. The ambroxan is heavy, and not in a particularly pleasant way. It actually stings the nostrils if you smell it too close. The citrus opening is good, but the whole composition really falls apart in the dry down.
It works neither as a marine scent, nor as an ambroxan scent.
It's fresh in a chemically way, but probably inoffensive to others.

Indifferent, bordering on dislike for the dry-down.

(dislike/indifferent/like, but not BW/like a lot, potentially BW/love, definitely BW/masterpiece)

A very pleasant, citrus-marine scent with a huge dose of ambroxan and cedar. 100% unisex. 100% not salty (I almost haaate salt in fragrances, since it is usually too marine pungent into my nostrils).

The salty Accord gives me some kind of vegetable vibe, not sellery, but something green, definitely very comforting during a hot season.

If you don't like ambroxan, you will not like this one.

This is the ONLY marine I left in my Collection of 199 scents (ok, technically Heeley Yuzu is a citrus marine). It says something.

It's official. I don't like salt in my perfume.
The salty oceanic note for me ruins it.
But if you are looking for a marine perfume, this one is better than Sel Marin (Heeley) or Un Air de Bretagne (L'artisan parfumeur)
The salt here is like a thin veil on the rest but at least THERE ARE OTHER NOTES!
It is wearable and nice but, again, salty!

It's such a sheer scent I can't smell much of it. What I do smell is mostly wood. Even though it contains ambroxan and cedar, it DOES manage to miss that screamy wood-alcohol note that I get in so many wood heavy fragrances. Overall, it's okay but it’s very same-y to other stuff I've tried lately. I don’t get the citrus, musk, amber or sea notes, just wood with a salt tinge. I usually try things at least twice, so the second try on this gave me a better dry down with some nice sea notes and more citrus, but I had to soak my wrist to smell it at all. Still, if I bathe in it, I get a lovely sea water citrus on full dry down, but it's very overall a very sheer fragrance and so hard to detect. Not really worth the money to me. RETRYING LATER: I bought a 8ml decant and now I do get the screaming wood notes. All I can do is sigh. It's not wearable to me like this; loud, sharp wood, dusty alcohol, fragrance notes buried under the whine and shriek of whatever chemical molecule is giving me the noise. Wasted the money.

Amazing, everyday type of a scent with a twist, it is fresh, clean but with an ambery backbone, smells high quality and coimpletely unisex, thumbs up from me :)

Well, it certainly smells like the notes listed. It instantly transports you to a warm sandy beach with the sun beating down on you.
The fresh juicy bergamot is the first to make an impression. Then lots of salt, sand and ambroxan. The ambroxan swirls around you with it's usual big sillage. It adds a chemical aspect which is a shame.
The afore mentioned notes settle and then you can pick out the saffron. Now the scent reveals the warm amber as the base.
That is quite a leap from fresh juicy bergamot to warm salty amber.
It's a very pleasant scent and would be nice to wear on warm days.

Sweet bergamot whit amber for the first 40 minutes....the drydown is plastic synthetic amber

Very fresh, big citrus-y, a bit salty perfume, which turns into chemical musky base in a while. Staying power is very poor, on my dry cold skin majority perfumes last forever, that one is gone in 1-2 hours. Not worth of price tag, plenty of similar, and even better similar ones on mass market.

Costarela is an authentic marine scent: salty air, sandy beach with a citrus twist. It's a very warm, natural scent, and there's nothing synthetic smelling or off in the composition.

For an EDP, it's performance is timid as I get 2 hours tops. That would be my only complaint.... and what prevents me purchasing a bottle.

First of all I'd like to say that I'm not a fan of the new trend of ambroxan but I do like this scent. Costarela has the smoothest ambroxan accord I've ever experienced in perfumery. Ambroxan creates a sparkling-uplifting and beach-bright effect to this scent. It doesn't hurt my nose so I suppose ambroxan has grades and quality.

Dominant notes are bergamot, salty sea note, ambroxan, a beach vibe, wonderful scent for warm weather daytime. 

Performance is moderate overall.

This Is a lovely Mid spring & all of the summer scent.
You will like this if you love;
1.Dior Homme Cologne 2013 By Christian Dior
2.Bergamot By Malin+Goetz
3.Night By Perry Ellis(Only in the opening)

If you tried those two and like them, then you love this one.
It sweet, aquatic, citrus with sea notes.
Perfect for events on or around the; beach, parks, or just a hot summer day.
Wearing this to the movies, or just hanging out with loved ones...wearing shorts & short sleeve tee shirt. Listening to Will Smith's SummerTime song, drinking some lemonade. Perfect all around.

Now would I outright buy a bottle of this fragrance after saying, what I wrote above...HELL NO!
Here's why: you can get this same scent profile with...
Dior Homme Cologne 2013 By Christian Dior.
The DHC 2013 last longer, projection & sillage is better as well, plus you can get a 200ML of DHC 2013 for $80 - $100.
And Costarela Carner Barcelona cost $180 - $220 retail or $160 - $180 online for a 100ML. Nope, you lost me right there.

Thankfully I tried this via Scentbird, when it comes to niche fragrance and their high prices. Get a decant from someone, get a sample free of it from a Carner Barcelona boutique(if you have one near you), Sephora(free) & I think Macy's(for free). Buy a sample from eBay. A decant from ScentBird, Scent Box or Luxury Box for $15.
Please don't buy this outright.


I hope I helped someone.

I used six sprays...both wrist, back & front of my neck, chest, and front of my shirt.

Will I buy this again?...NO!

What's the strength of this? EDP.

Can you use it as a unisex scent? Yes.

Am I willing to trade this fragrance? Yes.

Should You Skip It, Sample It First or Blind Buy It?

1.I say Sample it first if you still wanna try it for yourself(It's super pricey).

2.Skip it and get Dior Homme Cologne 2013 By Christian Dior(Much better, you'll thank me later).

Is it the old, new formulation? New.

What's its availability; in production, limited edition or discontinued? In production.

SKU Number: 8437011481306
Batch Number: Unknown (Production Date: ?)

Age: 25+
From: Scentbird
Size: 8 ML
Scent: 3.25/5 (Okay).
Value: 5/5 ($12.00).
Sillage: 2/5 (Two feet).
Longevity: 1.5/5 (Three hours tops).
Creativity: 5/5 (Citrusy, fresh & a walk on the beach).
Projection: 1/5 (Less than an hour).
Versatility: 5/5 (Spring and summertime only & anywhere).
Compliments: 5/5 (Nice).

Until next time, I'll catch you on the flipside.

When I read on the sampler that this contained "hot sand accord" I scoffed. What could possibly smell like sand anyway, never mind hot sand in particular? But somehow it really does. Nice fresh blast of citrus and then, yes, the smell of warm (I still wouldn't say hot) sand. Definitely evocative of lazy beach days in all the best ways. Really doesn't last long on me though - under 3hrs and it's gone, vanished, swept away by the breeze. So, more than pleasant ... but I want something this good to last, not waft away.

Costarela is beach in a bottle! This one blown me away!

As soon as I smelled the scent on my skin, I quickly imagined myself near to Marinha beach, located in Algarve, Portugal, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean, the water is cristal clear, surrounded by this natural and beautiful rocks and caves.

The scent is very well balanced, where you can smell the bergamot, the saltiness of the ambegris/ambroxan, sand accord and I detect some musk too.

Because of that, the versatility on this one might be short. I just see myself wearing this fragrance in casual situations, at the beach, holidays, summer parties... well, Summer, in general.

Still need to try it more to have a clear opinion about the performance, but, scent wise, 10/10.

The only notes I can pick out individually are bergamot and ambroxan. I do get an impression of the beach on a hot sunny day though, and I like that a lot.

Really nice salty briny scent that to me, is better than Sel Marin by Heeley. It has a sharpness from the Ambroxan that gives this scent great longevity. As far as Summer scents are concerned, this one is probably on my top 5 list. I highly recommend this to anyone and I also believe that it's "safe" enough to be a blind-buy.

9/10

5/10

This is strangely came out very strong smelling to my nose. Probably because I live in a hot humid country and this could be very heavy in such weather. As such, I would like to test this in a dryer summer. I think it will be more fitting and deliciously refreshing.

Love this fragrance, it really makes me want to be by the sea

I'll say this though, the liquid is actually clear. Not sure why a lot of The advertising has it in that darker colour when that's not the actual colour of the fragrance..a bit strange

Triple XXXtreme...ly pleasant, such a lovely, laid-back scent, wearing it now, on a fresh, sunny autumn day, taking advantage of the last vestiges of sunshine for all their worth. Sure, drydown errs on the side of ambroxan, but personally I can live with that quite happilly. Golden haze. My perfume is gently hugging me, and I don't feel the need to call a special victims unit of the local constabulary. This scent won't blow your mind, it will ease it.

The ambroxan ruins it for me!

Costarella opens quite promising. Fruity, citrussy, beachy, salty and sandy. I actually thought I discovered a new winner.
However after a short while the ambroxan predominates. It's the tabacco-pipe type, very dominant, heavy and nagging. doesn't fit the "airy/beachy" image that Carner Barcelona is marketing this fragrance with.

Too bad!

5/10

Edit: tried iT again. Actually I like it a lot more now. Will report again. :)

7/10

LOL, Today I didn''t have a good experience. The ambroxan was overwhelming, everything was sharp en unpleasant. I''ll leave it here.

5/10

Costarela opens with a deliciously fresh citrus zing (Italian bergamot), softened by some leathery, aromatic sweetness (saffron) and the distinctive salty, smooth, creamy note of Ambroxan. Unusual but enthralling is the combination of the bright bergamot and the sunny, warm saffron which almost feels like the sun sparkling on the sea. The Ambroxan though is not as penetrating as in some other creations where it overpowers all other notes right from the beginning.

"Ambroxide, widely known by the brand name Ambroxan, is a naturally occurring terpenoid and one of the key constituents responsible for the odor of ambergris (natural grey amber). Ambroxide is synthesized from sclareol, a component of the essential oil of clary sage". (Wikipedia)

Here it masterly supports the unique "hot sand" smell of this wonderful perfume which delivers a velvety-warm and sensual experience combined with mineral saltiness... it's especially lovely, if you spray it on, wait a while and then head to the beach (or just go outdoors). This adds an even more authentic note from sun-warmed skin with sea salt (provided, your skin gets to see some sun ;)).

Sadly, all the other notes despite Ambroxan almost disappear on my skin after approximately 1-2 hours, so I started layering it with Creed's "Virgin Island Water" which is THE ultimate Masterpiece summer fragrance for me and which I completely adore due to its freshness, flanked by coconut, ylang-ylang and rum (and with enormous longevity).
Layering those two adds a salty-hot-sand side note to the citrus-coconut-rum blend... and the dry-down of both together is ultimate perfection, if you prefer an outdoorsy-fresh-air-beach-wind-sun-touch to your overall impression/look, rather than being a walking bouquet of flowers (and I'm a white-flower-lover!), especially at work.

Leave the "Virgin Island Water" out and use "just" Costarela and you get an even cleaner, very office-safe perfume which you can also use in autumn or spring or to add an interesting salty-mineral twist to other perfumes as it doesn't exactly smell like a perfume (a little similar to the Escentric Molecule perfumes...). It shows a perfect balance between salt, warmth and aquatic marine notes - while being more mineral and salty than the usual marine/aquatic theme and having no sticky suntan lotion touch at all.

Overall longevity is also good (but projection very moderate) and you always smell as fresh as if coming from a walk at the seashore.

It really evokes that unique feeling of freedom during summer holidays, where it’s only the sea, the sun and you which matters, while you are lying in the sand on the beach, dozing off, being lightly sunburned, carefree and tired from doing nothing, listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. A dreamy scent of the sea.

"When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused." (Rainer Maria Rilke)

This is extremely complex. It comes off very very pleasing with a nice citrus note. The Amber is not femme or powdery, it's a masculine scent. I think I'm going for a bottle, love it love love it. I have a feelin it will be the next big thing..

This is really good, I'd owned a few from this house that I liked but didn't love and found each a bit too feminine for my taste but this one is so refreshing, the notes just work so well, love at first spray

"Costarela Carner Barcelona"

Its kind of salty marine scent , opened with nice refreshing salty vibe then gets more little bit creamier like sun lotion of maybe ginger or blood mandarin touch with the musky saltiness , and the ambroxan "an synthetic trend note this year " with a woody cedar base .

I found "Costarela" one of the quality perfumes in this genre (salty based scents) , nice and well crafted , maybe lacks a little bit of the strength and projection , but in any way I found it solid and makes the job real good ! it likes a good day on the beach under the sun put the lotion on the body , and taking ginger& mandarin Ice cream , looking the beauty of the sea ,it has touch of life and enjoyment .

One of the best salty based scents i tried , even better than the over hyped "Sel Marin & Acqua Di Sale !

Costarela Dance
8/10 .

As a lover of Tardes and El Born from the same house and quite different from Costarela, I had high hopes for the new Carner !
From my first little sample, yes I was slightly dissapointed.
But it's only because it has a much lighter,, cologne like approuch.
The smell is excellent and is beautifully wrapping your skin in its sheer softness.
On me I get a lovely citrus start, musky and a tiny vibe of salt or "the beach vibe" but lacking the coconut or suntan oil feeling...wich I find great !
It is smooth, fresh , airy, breezy you name it.
Very wearable but needs to be resprayed several times during the day, but really - its lovely, so I don't mind.
From my point of view...CARNER Barcelona has done it again !
Congrats to another success to your perfume family !

If one could capture the smell of a day sitting on the beach in Hawaii, watching surfers tackle waves as the strong winds blow through the North Pacific Ocean – this Fragrance would be the top contender. Marine scents can be tricky, sometimes evoking a cheap linear synthetic smell of ingredients put together without proper sense. Costalera on the other hand, has, as with the other perfumes in the line – a quality that defines what people search for when looking for niche. Soft, inviting yet still imposing with the amber and musk (the ambroxan holds this Fragrance together in real, clean and pure manner). Carner Barcelona released the perfect summer fragrance just in time, and it differentiate itself from the others in the line while still keeping the rich DNA that runs throughout these perfumes.

So deliciously sandy! Warm and refreshing at the same time.
Yes, it is much lighter than other fragrances in this line, I am only hoping that future reviewers won't dismiss it too quickly. Don't be too harsh please, only because it doesn't contain any incense or leather ;)

If you like beachy vibes - that is a great niche offering. Crisp, skin-like and sunny + completely unisex.

A very pleasant citrus marine fragrance: translucent, calm, little salty, well balanced, good choice for summer, white shirt..