Wild Lavender / Inglese (1996)
by Lorenzo Villoresi

This is an excellent masculine lavender.
It is very dry and dark in tone -- no pretty florals or soft musks here. It starts off rather herbal and then picks up earthy notes from the clove and sage. The lavender recedes but does not disappear as the spice core develops. This spice core is expertly blended, and has an affinity with Piper Nigrum. The scent is somber and serious in style -- lightened and cheered a bit by some rosemary mint. The ultimate dry-down has spice, dry musk and little hints of lavender.

26th January, 2012.

This is the most harmonious lavender blend I've found thus far. It seems every note is working with the lavender to showcase it. Clove and ginger are the biggest supporting acts to my nose. I usually don't like clove, but here it works ingeniously with ginger and other notes to create a lavender hologram once the top notes are depleted. This is not powdery to me at all. It is spicy, herbal, dry, and a little resinous. It captures the spicy herbal-ness of lavender essential oil. A scent for lavender lovers like myself. It is indeed a gentleman's scent, but anyone who enjoys lavender could pull this off. I wanted to keep Wild Lavender a secret, but I don't think it gets the praise it deserves. Sure you could say it lacks longevity, but with a liberal application of 5 sprays or so, I have been complimented how nice I smell the day after wearing this. Truly genius work Mr. Villoresi!

16th December, 2009.

Lorenzo Villoresi takes a dry, herbaceous approach toward its featured note, as opposed to the sweet floral route explored in Caron Pour un Homme or Jicky. Whereas those two classics pair lavender with vanilla for a creamy olfactory texture, Villoresi leans on tart citrus, aromatic herbs (including rosemary and sage), and black pepper to emphasize lavender’s crisp, green qualities. The result is closer to Serge Lutens’s craggy, austere Gris Clair or Vero Kern’s idiosyncratic Kiki than to most conventional lavender scents.

Though it offers moderate sillage and projection while it lasts, Wild Lavender exhibits very little staying power on my skin. I’m lucky if I get three hours out of it before it shrinks away into a nondescript clean musky-woody drydown. I’d be more inclined to rate Wild Lavender highly if it lasted longer, but with it’s poor endurance I’d hold out for the admittedly harder-to-find and more costly Gris Clair or Kiki when seeking a hard-edged lavender scent.

12nd December, 2009.

I've done a 360 degree reversal on this one. I loved it from the samples I'd tried, so I bought a big bottle. However with the bottle in my cupboard, I almost detested it when I first tried it and tried to get rid of it but never succeeded. So I tried it again and began to appreciate it. It is very clean and fresh though quite short lived. I love lavender in its astringent incarnation so this partly gives me that. Villoresi frags are unlike other perfumes, it is true. You can tell Villoresi is not working in the French tradition but just experimenting and finding his own way. The results are striking smells that are very evocative and 'artistic'. So after that journey, I give it thumbs up and recommend it to lavender buffs.

21st June, 2009.

Wild Lavender is an excellent, naturalistic lavender. It has good lasting strength. It falls more into the bracing category than the comforting category (in which Annick Goutal's eau de Lavande is more appropriate). It is indeed a bit wild - you can almost smell the fresh wind whipped air when you put it on. But it is not harsh or difficult to wear. A must try for lavender lovers.

12nd May, 2009.

Powdery herbal lavender with a touch of citrus. A gentleman's cologne.

13rd October, 2008.