Wild Lavender / Inglese (1996)
by Lorenzo Villoresi

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.

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.

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.

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

Lavender is one of my favorite natural scents, and this fragrance presents a true lavender from the start. But while it is certainly a pretty composition, its dry down was perhaps a touch powdery for my taste. I also find that the scent's beauty becomes too busy for me; maybe it's the ginger, not one of my favorite notes. A lovely, if feminine, fragrance.

One of the finest and most original Lavenders out there. The overall balanced effect of lavender, lemon and ginger is wonderful and these three co-exist for quite a while together. The lemon and ginger perfectly compliment the lavender - who would have thought it? A terrific and original take on lavender, highly recommended for fans of this flower.

From the Villoresi site:

15 notes in all
Top: Lavender, Bergamot, Lemon, Iris, Coriander, Elemi, Laurel, Galbanum
Middle: Clove, Clary Sage, Juniper, Pepper
Base: Tonka, Musk, Rosemary