Vendetta pour Homme (1991)
by Valentino

An arid fruit cocktail. Neither here nor there.

The opening is lavender / citrus / green; it tends to feel a little perfumy to me – out of date. I blame it on the combination of lavender, geranium, and, especially, basil – the three of which form a long established classic masculine combination, and I think that a basil note is very difficult to employ in perfumery. This objection is nothing that can’t be handled because the perfumy nature doesn’t last long and the opening becomes quite attractive. The middle is a finely structured spice / floral accord which features an exquisitely utilized clove, bay rum, and jasmine. I am so pleased to find a classic fragrance that makes such fine use of bay rum – but I’m disappointed that the lavender still seems to hang around – the middle would be better without it. The base has too much leather for me, which is a shame because the base certainly didn’t need as much leather as it has because the amber, moss, labdanum, and (an excellent) oilbanum could easily form a full, rich accord without the leather. The fragrance doesn’t last as long as it should. I’m not as attracted to this as I was when I first tested it, but I enjoy it occasionally. The bottle is still one of my favorites. (Edit of 13 September 2006 review. Changed from a thumbs up.)

A superb & highly refined masculine frag .
It shares a little with Z-14 but is much more polished & better dressed .
Foetidus sums this one up perfectly .
4.5 stars from me for both longevity & sillage .

The clove is clearly stated here and is quite sickening. A puffy spicy fragrance that takes some getting used to. Way too over the top for me.

up their with kouros as one of the nastiest and offensive colognes of all time. how come this is little known and kouros well liked. the answer is this was made 10 years later. valentino v is good but this lacks a smell that many if any man wants to smell like.

Well, about all I can distinguish is the pepper. And it has a lot of it. Very little else, except possibly some plastic.
Can't use it.