Created by Sophia Grojsman nearly twenty years ago, Bvlgari pour femme smells today surprisingly fresh and new. This feminine composition features sweet florals—rose, mimosa, and violet loom large—in a clean resinous base and does not seem dated in the least. Having recently received one of the small .8 ounce purse sprays of this creation, I am able to report that there is no obvious distinction between my “vintage” bottle and the latest iteration of this now classic perfume. Many of Grojsman's perfumes have been reformulated—to their detriment and to the disappointment of most of the people who fell in love with them at the time of their launch. Bvlgari pour femme is a rare exception to the rule. Is this because this jeweler's perfumery branch has not been sold off to one of the corporate conglomerates? Perhaps.
Bvlgari
pour Femme edp is one of only a few perfumes which I wore in the
twentieth century and still wear today. Not only has it not changed,
my attitude toward it also has not. Sometimes we experience a change
in tastes and decide that what we used to like or even love, we do
not anymore. That certainly happened to me with a number of perfumes,
including Oscar de la Renta Oscar. My attitude toward the
perfume already in my possession changed—it was the same, but I
became disenchanted with the scent.
Every bit as appropriate as it was back at the time of its launch, Bvlgari pour Femme edp is a sweet violet-rose composition similar in some ways to both L'Artisan Parfumeur Drôle de Rose and Miller Harris Coeur de Fleur. They are all united by their violet-tinged, water-washed rose. The big distinction made by the Bvlgari violet rose is that there is a substantial clean musky base which imparts a decidedly perfumey quality to the composition as a whole. It smells somewhat resinous to me, and in addition to making Bvlgari pour Femme seem more like an elixir than a watery sweet floral, it also adds a kind of golden shimmer. Mimosa contributes to this effect, as well.
More formal than both Drôle de Rose and Coeur de Fleur, Bvlgari pour Femme is also very distinct from Frédéric Malle Lipstick Rose, yet another fine violet-rose creation. The Bvlgari perfume, apparently the first in its olfactory neighborhood—and another iconic idea generated by the great Grojsman—strikes a balance between formality and informality. Wearing this perfume is like getting all dressed up in satin pajamas to spend the night at home.
Perfumer:
Sophia
Grojsman
Notes
(from
Parfumo.net):
bergamot, neroli, violet leaf, jasmine, jasmine sambac, mimosa,
rose, iris, musk, sandalwood
During
the 2012 holiday season, I was plied by retailers
with carded samples of Bvlgari
pour Homme.
I assumed for that reason that it must be a new fragrance. Imagine my
surprise on learning that this perfume was launched way back in 1995
and is nearly as old as Bvlgari
pour Femme!
Is the composition the same today as it was back then? I honestly
have no idea, but the fragrance does seem to have a fairly big
following, judging by the reviews I've seen. Here's my take:
What
a baffling composition. I am told that some twenty-odd notes are
present. Of course, we all know that notes are mere metaphors, but in
the extremely bizarre case of Bvlgari pour Homme, the
metaphors clash head-on with my experience.
Aldehydes?
Certainly not. Bergamot, well, okay, yes, I suppose, since it is
present in 33% of all perfumes. Maybe I can conceive of this as a tea
scent. But the rest? They may as well say that this perfume contains
unicorns and elves, since I smell them just about as well!
During
most of my wearings of this perfume, my experience remained
consistently the same. I simply do not detect the vast majority of
notes listed in the hierarchy. One reviewer maintains that this is a
big iso-E-super composition, so perhaps it is wiping out all of the
other notes. To me, this does not have the same effect as Encre
Noire, Terre
d'Hermès
and the other iso-E-super bombs I've encountered, which I identify
immediately by their sinus-clearing capacity. But maybe that is the
best explanation for my inability to detect much of anything beyond a
freshly pressed and starched cotton shirt in this composition. Certainly the longevity is excellent, which suggests significant aromachemical presence.
I
should add a small caveat: during one of my four wearings of this
fragrance, the muskiness came through much more strongly than on the
other occasions. It occurred to me that this composition would not
smell good on someone with an acrid skin—or while exercising.
Perfumer:
Jacques
Cavallier
Notes
(from
Parfumo.net):
aldehydes, bergamot, lavender, mandarin, mace, neroli, black currant
blossom, tea, cyclamen, carnation, geranium, coriander, pepper,
rosewood, amber, oakmoss, musk, tonka bean, vetiver, cedar
Concluding
Assessment: His or Hers?
Bvlgari
pour Femme ou pour Homme?
No
surprise, given my long-term relationship with Bvlgari pour Femme,
HERS gets my vote today. I would love to hear from the guys out there
about what I take to be the MIA notes in Bvlgari pour Homme. Also: has it been reformulated? Does anyone know? Eighteen years
seems like a long time, and if this fragrance for men were produced by nearly any other
house, I'd have guessed yes. But apparently Bvlgari pour Femme has
not been reformulated, so perhaps pour Homme, too, has remained the
same?
I'll
close by clarifying that I consider Bvlgari pour Femme to be a
feminine, not a unisex perfume. In contrast, Bvlgari pour Homme
strikes me as completely unisex, but I happen to like it less. In a lifeboat scenario where only one bottle was allowed for everyone on board, I'd be willing to forego the feminine version in order to avoid mutiny, but barring that sort of unlikely situation, I'd choose Bvlgari pour Femme for myself.
Running Tally: His or Hers?
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