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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Valentina de Valentino: Fragrance Review & Bottle Giveaway

Valentina de Valentino is not a hard name to come up with when you're the famous Italian designer who's dressed everyone from Jackie O to Courtney Love; the feminine counterpart is a sexy name, meant for It Girls who like to pique people's fancy. But first things first: The new perfume by Valentino won't launch internationally until September 23rd 2011, but I have a full bottle to give away in the meantime to a lucky reader! [draw is now closed, thank you!]. It came through a promotion (an amazing-looking one that included a giga book with pics which inspired me to take the photographs of Valentina you see myself) and has been only sprayed a few times to test it. Please state your interest in the comments for a chance to win the fragrance. Now on to the dissecting stuff...

Perfumers Olivier Cresp and Alberto Morillas, masters in the game of producing scentful crowd-pleasers, joined forces in the new Valentino fragrance which is presented as a floriental, but is really a tart, quite fun "fruitchouli" (perfume community slang for the fruits & patchouli genre of fragrances). In Valentina the tanginess of the top notes (citrus and strawberries) cuts through the sweeter elements in the composition, before the soft, clean woody backdrop takes reign for the duration of the scent on the skin. It's essentially linear, projecting with a direct flirtatious message, in the mould of Flowerbomb, Coco Mademoiselle, Parisienne, Miss Dior Cherie or La Petite Robe Noire (it references the berries notes of the two latter, possibly through Frambinone). Valentino is known for his couture, but this is no "couture scent", it's rather mainstream, though well composed. It also includes 7% of the realtively new molecule Paradisone (also used in 2006 Perles de Lalique, Kapsule Woody by Lagerfeld from 2008 and Cheap & Chic I Love Love by Moschino from 2005).


Valentina flirts like an Italian at an opera opening night, kicking the heels underneath and pinching their cute boyfriend's bottom naughtily but -bottom line!- harmlessly. Valentina de Valentino is bright, with sunnier, citrusier elements, a small subfacet of spice (anise and clove-cinnamon?). You feel the floral bouquet (orange blossom, jasmine and tuberose) in the Valentino fragrance most when comparing wrist-to-wrist with another perfume in the genre: Compared to Coco Mademoiselle, for instance, the patchouli in the Chanel is positively camphoraceous side-to-side and the whole seems less floral. Even so, lovers of the latter would probably like the former, sweet tooth and its hint of castoreum & earth in the "white truffle" accord. This latter element is a hint that they might have been inspired by the seminal Une Rose in the F.Malle line, but of course the Valentino perfume is tamer; there's only a wink of "earthiness".


 
Valentino focuses on how the creative team has envisioned the new fragrance for the modern audacious woman. I suspect they sat down and saw the void of a fragrance for youngish women on the prowl in their portfolio; and who can blame them?


The photographic campaign by David Sims sees Freja Beha Erichsen shot in a deserted Rome at night-time, after escaping a boring soiree (it's a cute commercial!). 

The packaging revisits the ideas of Valentino couture, especially the pastel colours of the past three collections; femininity, audacity and sobriety. All these translate into a bottle that is delicate and surpemely pretty to look at on your vanity with its gorgeous flowers embossed on it, like a small corsage.

Notes for Valentina de Valentino: 
Calabrian bergamot, white truffles from Alba, jasmine, orange blossom from Amalfi, tuberose, strawberry, wood notes, cedar, and  amber.

 

All photographs (except for official ad) © by Elena Vosnaki. Click to enlarge.

61 comments:

  1. I'm interested in trying this even though it does seem to be a little on the fruity side. I don't know if it is the bottle that is attracting me or what.

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  2. The bottle really looks lovely. :)
    I would love a chance to win it.

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  3. June-bug15:42

    Lovely bottle! Very interested in trying this. Please enter me in the draw. Thank you!

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  4. Maureen16:05

    This bottle is absolutely girlie wonderful! I love Coco Mademoiselle and would love to try this. Please enter me in the draw.

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  5. Please enter me in the draw. The bottle is lovely and I always enjoy Olivier Cresp's scents.

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  6. please enter me in this drawing, this sounds interesting

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  7. As someone who appreciates Mademoiselle, I would love to try this. I would appreciate if I could be entered in the drawing, thank you!

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  8. I would love to try this as Alberto Morillas is one of my favorite noses. Thank you for the generous drawing and good luck to everyone!

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  9. Sounds like a fun scent! Thanks for the draw - please enter me!

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  10. dleep17:26

    I would love to try this. Thanks for the wonderful review.

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  11. Sounds really fun!
    Please enter me in the draw.

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  12. maureenC17:33

    I would love to try this out. Please enter me in the draw. Thank you.

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  13. hotlanta linda17:51

    The bottle has quietly won us all over!! :-) Yt is imagining a glass dusting powder dish to match....

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  14. I'd love to try it! (I'm the other Karin)

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  15. The bottle and Freja look adorable, but I would really want to try out the actual fragrance

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  16. I'm intrigued! The bottle is so beautiful and there's a good chance I might really enjoy the fragrance. Thank you for the draw!

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  17. Please enter me in the draw

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  18. I would love to try this one out, anyway, nice text!

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  19. Lovely review and photos. Please enter me in the drawing, this has my darling sister written all over it...

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  20. What the heck, I'm in.

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  21. AnneR01:04

    I must have that bottle! Please enter me in the draw! Thanks

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  22. Thanks for the draw!
    It's a gorgeous looking bottle. I don't like Coco Mlle, but I do like Miss Dior Cherie and strawberries. Have some hopes for this one.

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  23. Oh! This sounds so lovely! And the bottle is tdf! Please enter me. :)

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  24. bellemoon02:12

    Oh that bottle! Although I have to confess the truffle note brings to mind truffle hunting pigs...what a mental image. Please enter me in the draw.

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  25. Another vote for ridiculously lovely bottle, and the scent seems right up my alley too.

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  26. The bottle is so adorable. I hope Valentino does well with this!

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  27. I'm intrigued! Please count me in the draw!

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  28. Anonymous03:38

    The combination of the beautiful looking bottle and the fact that I don't have a fruitchouli is making this draw irresistible. And if it turns out that the juice doesn't work for me, I have a niece who would be happy to relieve me of it.
    Thanks for the draw opportunity.

    -- Lindaloo

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  29. Mimi G05:18

    Lovely bottle with the little Valentino roses on it. :) Please enter me for the draw Elena ! :)

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  30. That is a gorgeous bottle. I would love to get my flirt on...at least before the end of the summer. :)

    Thank you for the wonderful draw. A full bottle? I can share.

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  31. Anonymous07:37

    Is it just me, or do those Valentino roses look remarkably like Chanel camelia's, especially the big white one? cheers, Wendy

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  32. Wow, I'd love to be included in this draw!

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  33. This bottle is wonderful even without scent inside. :D
    Thanks for the draw.

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  34. Would love to win this one Helg.
    Did you ever see that movie about Valentino just before he retired? Fabulous!

    Any man that loved his pugs as much as he did is a FRIEND of MINE!!

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  35. Barbara Patty10:25

    Lovely review and lovely photographs, thanks for sharing with us.
    The bottle has won us all over! It's adorable! I would love to be entered for a chance to win it.

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  36. I'd love a chance to win this! It sounds wonderful :)

    kittenishcutie {at} gmail {dot} com

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  37. The bottle is lovely, and I generally like anything that Alberto Morillas creates. Please enter me into the drawing. Thanks!

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  38. Bevfred13:44

    I would love to try this perfume.
    It has tuberose in it and I'm curious about how that plays in the mix. The bottle is gorgeous.
    I hope I win!

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  39. I would love to be entered in the draw! Thank you so much! :-)

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  40. It is a lovely bottle... please enter me in the draw, thanks so much!

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  41. The flacon is soooo pretty, like a little gem. Please enter me in the drawing

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  42. The bottle is beautiful, and it would be nice if the juice could match it.

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  43. Fernando15:31

    I'm interested. My niece always thinks the perfumes I like are too "old" for her, and this one might be the one that fits her... I'm not sure what "fruitchouli" is supposed to smell like, actually, though when you say it's more camphoraceous than Coco Mademoiselle that sounds good to me.

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  44. Anonymous16:02

    That bottle is so pretty, and I have no prob with fruitchoulis! I'd love to be entered in the draw.

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  45. Oh, please, enter me in the draw! :) I used to like everything created by Alberto Morillas some time ago. However, his latest perfumes have disappointed me, especially the new Opium.
    Valentina de Valentino sounds nice, and I'd love to try it. Thank you very much!

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  46. Wow! What a gorgeous bottle. Please enter me in the drawing as well!

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  47. I'd love to give it a try! Please enter me in the drawing.

    Melissa

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  48. It sounds like perfect summer fragances. I would love a chance to win either, crossing my fingers.

    Thanks Again

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  49. I wanted this bottle (not the perfume itself) from the first time I saw its picture. Please, enter me into the draw.

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  50. Merlin09:46

    Me, Me, me, me!
    I'v got a total bergamot thing lately; not to mention an anice thing and a clove thing (and less proudly, I DO often like fruity smelling frags...)

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  51. hatice10:12

    So exciting. This will be the first time to comment and to enter a draw. Yes please enter me to the draw

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  52. Sofi10:32

    Amazing bottle, I desperately want it !Please enter me in the draw!

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  53. Very interested in trying this. Please enter me in the draw. Thank you!

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  54. Hm, nice review, I'd like to try the fragrance.
    And of course I'd like a chance to win.

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  55. ooh what a beautiful design

    lauren51990 AT aol DOT com

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  56. Eva H.22:05

    What a gorgeous bottle!
    Please enter me in the draw.

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  57. That bottle! Thanks for your review and please enter me in the draw.

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  58. Please enter me in the draw. :-)
    I love Valentino!

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  59. Never heard about Valentina, but I like fruit scents and the botle is so cute. Please enter me in thanks
    lubaska dot k at gmail dot com

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  60. sarah18:33

    I'll never forget that november day when my eyes met Valentina! I guess I found my one true love! :D

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  61. Valentino is one of the best deisgners.
    Oh, and the fragrance is being released on my birtday (hint, hint!)

    Stay well

    George

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