Roma by Laura Biagiotti, 1988

I agree with all of Darvant's descriptors [with the exception of "powdery" as follows; "A green-floral powdery light oriental, with the dominant floral notes of hiacynth and rose and a woody-myrrh talky dry down. The final sweetness is tamed by musk and oakmoss and some animal note with its almost tart-salty undertone. The beginning is a bit citrus, green-aromatic and sour with a sparkling grapefruit waving around before the floral heart starts expressing its sophistication. The final sweetness is a sort of powdery-nutty sweet smell of sandalwood not cloying or too dense and with a floral-talky wake. I don't detect vanilla while is clear the link among amber-patchouli and wood. The patchouli enhances the distinctiveness of the juice." ...and also with Teardrop "herbal". For me this perfume is like being thrown in cool and dewy pre-dawn dark from an alien spaceship, with a giant crash and crushing of sappy stemmage, into the steep, wet extreme bottom of the back garden. What happens after that; you struggle out into the growing warmth of a spring morning, straightening clothing and trying to project composure. But you are betrayed by an obtrusive contrary resiny?/ferny? green woodyness; the rank, out of bounds bottom of the garden asserts itself even as sweeter warmer floral notes emerge. One of my very favourites, perfect for a bracing, windy spring or autumn day, though one review I once read in a book relegated it strictly to evening.